OK Tucker.
@Chucks_Nwoko was onto my friend who’s long term living in Oz. He’s scathing of the Government, blaming them for fueling anti vax sentiment in the early days and then making a fuck up of the procurement process. He said the lockdowns themselves are OK, but the internal border closures are an absolute killer to the business he’s in.
He reckons with the amount of anti vaxxers out there they’ll never reach the 80% vaccination target for reopening International travel.
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How did Chucks get your friend’s number?
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Anti vaxxer is a commonly misused term.
The bottom line is there is no upside for a huge majority of the population with regard to the vaccine. Some cultures are better at being servile and doing what they are told or being coerced into it than others.
Ultimately the selling point with the vaccine is that it will stop you from getting moderate to sever symptoms. It was never meant to stop you getting or transmitting the virus, a few ignorant posters who lack the ability to challenge the narrative still don’t grasp that issue. Sadly they seem to be the loudest voices.
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Which part of Australia is he in? If he’s in the effected part of Sydney, he has my sympathy.
Look, nobody likes lockdowns. If you’re a business owner especially, this disdain for the government is magnified. I don’t think they expressed anti vaccine sentiment though.
Australians can be very quick to whinge but they don’t appreciate how good they’ve had it compared to Ireland/UK over the past 18 months. Spoiled rotten. NRL/AFL still going. Even now, the climate is a big softener on any “lockdown”. There’s a lot more out running, families playing… Jesus, you won’t get a spot on a golf course these days. And don’t get me started on the beachside coffees! (CC @Tim_Riggins )
I don’t think “anti-vaxxers” are any more prevalent here than other countries? The government has had no urgency/motive to fast track a vaccine roll-out until a couple months ago. That could be considered a fuckup alright. In terms of hitting 80% I’d be sceptical. Some of these regional areas would make Magheracloone (FAO @Bandage ) look like Wall Street. They couldn’t give a fuck about covid but they won’t see anyone from outside their town for the next 5 years so take them out of the equation.
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Australia has a heap of AZ but people wouldn’t take it because of the negative comms. There was also negative comms in Ireland but we still had people queuing up for it when it became available. That’s on the Aussie public and the perception of safety that they had. That’s a function of the strategy.
You keep looking at the last 18 months (Melbourne have had it as bad as Europe though) when you have months of yo yo lockdowns to come. The rest of the world is coming out of this, you are stuck in an endless cycle. Soldiers on the streets, bans on leaving the country, snitch lines…that is the sign of a society losing the plot. If you are sceptical of not getting to 80%…best of luck on the borders and ever getting home.
It seems to me that the NSW government has done a very poor job over the last month/six weeks/whatever it is. It’s almost like they just decided to give up.
What’s your own view?
How affiliated to the Murdoch set is Gladys Berejiklian? Where would she be considered to be on the spectrum compared to Morrison?
I’ll attempt to dumb this down for you because it’s apparent you’re either delusional or a bit simple. There’s probably a 6 month lag between Ireland and Australia’s covid journey. That’s the simple version. The fact 5,000 people haven’t died is a bonus really and testament to the efforts of everyone to date.
International travel I’m not worried about right now. Most of the world is wary of travelling. I can’t say I’m eager to go anywhere right now. Maybe, Hunter Valley for a wine weekend. That’d be nice.
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What do you mean by “give up”? They’re pissing upstream alright. The other narrative is we don’t have 60 or 70 people dying every day.
And I’d hate to see the lockdown if Labor were calling the shots in NSW. Construction might be back but we’ll probably be wearing tags on our ankles.
Except you have contradicted yourself.
80% is required for borders to open, but you are sceptical of that. Yet you are just 6 months behind.
The world is back travelling. The US has had record flights this summer. The EU has flight levels recovering daily. Families are reuniting. Skilled migration is beginning again. Business travel is picking up again with Americans all over Europe investing. You are relying on hillbillies if you can ever get back to Ireland. Trying to downplay the economic and social costs to Australia is laughable. You can play golf though, brilliant!
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It’s not black or white. You do realise there isn’t a giant clock counting down to 80% 
You only have to read the relevant thread on this forum. Most are unwilling to travel abroad. It’s only a few selfish twats desperate to get away from their miserable life
This is the new narrative of Zero Coviders in Ireland and the U.K… That NSW doesn’t do things properly, except for the fact that they were regularly cited here as having “gold standard” public health that avoided the need for rolling lockdowns. It was claimed we could avoid this by pursuing Zero Covid, keeping cases below 10. Aussie cities are now locking down with a couple of cases.
Apparently a place like Melbourne is the real goal. Melbourne that has been in lockdown for a total of 6 months, where children have missed more school than Ireland and where they are on their third lockdown in 2 months.
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Yeah but people aren’t dying like the UK and Ireland. We’ve 5 times the population but less than 20% of your deaths. But you enjoy your week in lanzarote 
The impression I get is that in Australia as a whole there was a sort of complacency that what they had been doing up to then - ie. very short lockdowns followed by contact tracing doing the rest - would be enough and they got taken by surprise by the virulence of the Delta variant.
It seems to me that that complacency has been worse in NSW than in other states, and that the cat is probably out of the bag now.
US domestic travel back to normal
European aviation in recovery
This forum is not representative. Sure we have the likes of yourself claiming that he’s grand in lockdown and being imprisoned because you can play golf. I’d reappraise the definition of miserable. Golf ffs.
Don’t forget the coffees by the beach.
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Absolutely. Melbourne or Ireland or Florida? Fairly easy choice, that.
If you take avoiding death seriously, that is. And if you take freedom seriously.
Which obviously, as a sociopath, you don’t.
You will have a larger exit wave here but regardless, the majority of the lives you “saved” will be gone next winter. I believe excess mortality in Australia is already up…people are dying of something.
And we can assess the real costs at the end. Deciding to shut yourselves off to the world will have long term costs that you haven’t considered yet.
Is it complacency or giving up you’re questioning?
I’d say complacency was possibly more of an issue alright. But the state government are standing firm. IMO giving up would be just canning the restrictions and shrugging your shoulders?
Amazing though, 1/5 of the population and five times the deaths. Incredible. I truly hope you haven’t had someone close to you sick, Tim.