Since the eruption of Covid, Australia has gone from being envied in the beginning to being derided and mocked globally now. The latest serve comes from the U.S. magazine, The Atlantic, with an article titled "Australia Traded Away Too Much Freedom".

Author Conor Friedersdorf describes as "draconian" the Covid restrictions imposed on a country that was once one of the freest on Earth. Australia has been turned into "hermit continent".

How can Australia "still call itself a liberal democracy", the author asks. Current restrictions are compared with the sort experienced in "Communist regimes", even though they are widely accepted.

The full article is available on line and, there doesn't appear to be anything in it that is not accurate. I did find out something very nasty about apps and tracking of home quarantees in my own state that I didn't know before.

AC. One of a very few who understands! As does Steele.

Hasbeen, there are two effective and safe vaccines for us oldies, they are Pfizer and Moderna. I'd suggest you start with Pfizer, then finish with Moderna, for maximum protection. And be sure to get your booster shot in around six months. And then repeat for the term of your natural life.

Vaccination passports. Laminated cards like your driver's licence replete with photo, need not have a name, when a thumbprint would suffice to prove IDs. And enterprises could have validating readers installed as an app on their smartphones, so as to protect your right to privacy, if that be your wish.

Me? Not bothered who knows where I went and with who! But I do take issue with those who see this as some violation of their rights! Like drug dealers and pushers etc? The less privacy these serial killers have, the better I like it! Given the number of deaths and harm caused by overdoses and drug maddened psychos!

A two-week lockdown may enable many addicts to get clean going cold turkey! Yes, not pleasant! Bu almost the most effective way to get clean and out from under!

That said, the people in both WA and Q'ld have spoken and voted for their Premiers and their principled stand on putting lives/people before profit!

If Scot Morrison wants the borders open sooner then he and his jabbering cohort need to embrace island quarantine as a gold standard response to "living with covid" And far better than the apparent "I'm alright Jack approach that has been his and Glady's since they got their jabs as first in the queue!

The next election should show him and his INCOMPETENT jabbering cohort just that! lEAST WE FORGET!
Alan B

Go get vaccinated shouts the PM. WTF with Scott? Saline solution? Given the rollout in the overlooked bush!

And where (I wouldn't vote Labor if you paid me) rusted-on voters can twiddle their thumbs waiting for their end of the interminable rollout?

And not a worry cause the coalition owns their votes! Ditto the dribbling demented in our nursing homes and retirement villages etc!
Alan B.

Dear mhaze,

You write:

"Western Australia was able to control the WuFlu by effectively cutting themselves off from the rest of humanity. They were in the unique position to do so, given their isolation, small population density and the fact that their sources of wealth and income were physically separated from their population centres. It was the quarantine rather than the lockdowns that allowed them to control the virus."

Oh come on. Australia as an island was in an even better situation the WA. Four times we as a nation were Covid free and each one was ended by poor quarantining so why was a state with land boarders able to do something Morrison's lot couldn't.

WA had three separate lockdowns to control their outbreaks when quarantining failed. They work together.

shadowminister,

I am sorry to hear about your son. It really does hit home when it is someone near to you.

Friendly Jordies made the point that despite living in Sydney the first person he personally knew with Covid was an indigenous chap he had earlier interviewed on water theft at Wilcannia. It made it far more immediate for him.

Hey mhaze,
Our contract tracers in QLD are sitting around twiddling their thumbs.
The states that failed to prevent the spread of the virus, well they've completely lost the ability to trace origins of the virus and have moved to 'living with covid', the hospital system soon to become overrun.
NSW had 1400 odd cases yesterday and 12 people died.
I'm not sure we had any cases in Queensland yesterday, maybe there was a 4yo girl in Logan (due to a interstate truck driver) but our contract tracers will likely be on top of it;
- And furthermore, no-one died -

I bet there will be more in NSW and Victoria today;
- And tomorrow, and the day after that as well, for some time to come.

Thanks Alan B.
And yes SteeleRedux is right, it's fairly straightforward logic.
"Now it is a race for vaccinations to take care of a failure in quarantine, a race which will cost many lives unfortunately."

From SR: ""Now it is a race for vaccinations to take care of a failure in quarantine, a race which will cost many lives unfortunately."

So it was the quarantine that was 'saving' the lives, not the lockdown. Good. Glad you finally caught on.



From AC: "My position, I don't want Covid or the vaccines, I don't trust either."

And yet you demand that the rest of society be upended to accommodate your contradictory desires. Well, I'm opposed to vaccine passports...but I'll make an exception in your case.




Re Queenland. From the ABC (so it must be true)..."But the Premier and her Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young know it's only a temporary win and they will lose this war: that the virus will breach their border whether it is closed or open. "We are not going to be able to hold back the virus from our border. It is going to come across," Dr Young said"

Lockdowns merely delay the inevitable.