Runner,

"Population control freaks' ?! According to your scenario, they want to find a way to prevent death (and thus indirectly maintain or boost population) and that's 'population control' ?

Forgive me for disagreeing with your prescription, but I suspect that the only way for any country, including the US, to control the spread of this virus, is strict lockdown, sooner or later, region by region, state by state, country by country. And of course the later it is attempted, the more difficult it all becomes.

Perhaps there will be a vaccine, but that seems unlikely. Perhaps like Altrav, you'll be okay, you will get herd immunity. Or perhaps there's no such thing as herd immunity ?

Clearly Sweden is doing far worse than Australia, the EU countries and the US too and they all may - as I've set out - have to impose strict lockdowns, sooner or later. And then they can painfully begin the long process - the longer the delay, the longer the process - of coming out of this crisis.

Perhaps Fauci is right, he's no idiot. But perhaps Trumpf is right, that all you have to do is shine a strong light up your arse and drink disinfectant. Give it a try, Runner :)

Joe

Altrav,

Yes, you may be right - there may not be a vaccine for this virus. We don't even have one for the common cold yet.

So yes, it may be that we have to get used to living with social distancing and masks for the rest of our lives. Yes, we can take our masks off, hug somebody, get the virus and die more quickly, but I'm in no hurry. This is our one and only life, there's no after-life, so we have to make the most of it.

Except for a handful of people, maybe 144,000, god's chosen ones, like Runner, of course. Lucky bastards :)

Joe

Joe,

I'm with you on this one.

When the virus spread to our country - our leaders
made a momentous decision. It was to save as many
human lives as possible. It was the right thing to do.

It showed that we as a nation care about human life
above everything else.

And they are now beginning to take small steps to
ease some of the restrictions. Which is also a good
thing. Small steps instead of opening the flood
gates.

In Victoria they are finding and isolating every new case.
They are employing rigorous contact tracing, social
is still being maintained and of course - ongoing travel
bans are to be kept in place. Face masks are also being
encouraged. This as you point out could well be the norm
for the future until - when and if a vaccine is found.
But it will be worth it to be careful instead of not.

Also in Victoria - the Premier is contacting the community
leaders of the diverse and various communities who
are most at risk with this virus to make sure that they
understand the steps they need to take in order to
prevent catching and spreading the virus. A sensible
step and precaution for us all.

Everything that could be done is being done.

And as I keep repeating. I am so glad that I live in
Australia. Our state and federal governments are to be
congratulated!

cont'd ...

I forgot to add that Victoria's Premier has engaged
people to go door-to-door in the hot spot areas
(as mentioned in the news) to test and instruct
residents in those hot spots in order not only to
test but to inform those people about what they need
to do to not catch and stop the spread of the virus.

Well-thought out plan of action.

Victoria is now a leper state. New China virus outbreaks are occurring in suburbs where more than a third of residents were born in places like India, Sri Lanka, Iraq, China and Vietnam. Hooray for multiculturalism and tribalism and 'me-no-understandism'.

Ttbn,

If Victoria is a leper state, with one death over the past few weeks and case-numbers currently in double figures, how would you describe the situation in Sweden, the EU, the UK, Brasil or the US with, between them, case-numbers in the hundreds of thousands and deaths in the tens of thousands ? Flesh-wounds ?

Get a grip. Or maybe not ......

Joe