Apartment blocks in Sydney, Melbourne placed in lockdown with police guard

So now we have gone from 2 weeks to "flatten the curve" to 2 years of ever-increasing police state. Disheartening.

The fact that people are allowed out for limited purposes means that this will not be effective. Not that any of the lockdowns around the world have been effective in limiting spread or "crushing the virus". But now many governments are in a rut and can't wean themselves off these sledgehammers being used to (try and) crack a nut.

Welcome to the new Australia! People will need to sacrifice all their liberties in the pursuit of their COVID free nation. It will be hard to win back these liberties from the government and police basking in their glory

The police are in seventh heaven giving their daily reports on how many infringement notice they had out every day. Meanwhile I will be downvoted and people will say Australians are so happy to sacrifice their freedoms for the greater good and stay home for as long as it takes ( with their increased social security benefits of course).

And Australia is the best place in the world to live and so on. Keep deluding yourself but one always needs justification to put up with such major loss of freedoms, that is how the governments succeed.

Meanwhile lets win lots of gold medal and send our team to the Olympics to COVID riddled Japan, For olympic glory let risk their lives to contract the virus in a country where everything is the exact opposite of how Australia deals with the virus. Makes sense doesn't it eventhough no one else can leave Australia and only a restricted few can return to their own country.

Reckless - I love the sarcasm.

total lockdowns are impossible, society would collapse. and these partial ones have already caused immense suffering.

During the last lockdown, I signed up for 7 onlyfans accounts. Once for each day of the week. Time went by super fast.

This country is sinking into abyssal absurdity. This is what happens when you have apathetic population and when mad people get to hold power.

leaving the population highly vulnerable to the quick-spreading Delta variant.

Yeah yeah continue to fuel those lunatics with fear mongering so that they can continue to justify their authoritarianism.

Hakman

What? You want to lock people up in their own homes until a virus with at least a 99.5% survival rate, including a near-100% survival rate for non-elderly healthy people, is gone?

Say that to th 4 million+ people who have died of Covid so far. Or the survivors with "long covid".

daito_hak

Yeah yeah continue to fuel those lunatics with fear mongering so that they can continue to justify their authoritarianism.

Yeah, except that most people agree with these sensible measures. They have benefitted from them with more freedom and a better economy than most places in the world.

Why do people tolerate this nonsense?

JGhetto

Why do people tolerate this nonsense?

Because it is worth it. It means that businesses don't go out of business and people enjoy more freedom.

Australia implementing China's social credit score system.

Reckless Today  02:33 pm JST

The people should stay home permanently until this virus is gone.

Spot on Recless . This is basically the rules for the people in Melbourne in the lockdowned apartment building. They are NOT allowed to leave for any reason EXCEPT to get a COVID test. Not allowed to even go to the supermarket shopping. Nowhere else.

Welcome to Melbourne! (Oh you can't go there anyhow even if you are an Australian citizen abroad or you are in Sydney and so on.)

During the last lockdown, I signed up for 7 onlyfans accounts. Once for each day of the week. Time went by super fast.

...as a performer...?

Northernlife

Glad to be here in Covid ridden Japan to live freely how I like..

With constant states of emergency and less freedom than Australia? Yeah right!

AU can't control it anymore it's way out of their hands

Civil unrest is coming to Australia. The people will not put up with this situation any longer.

Once a prison always a prison.

2020 - when we finally have the benefit of hindsight we will look back on the last 18 months as one of the greatest episodes of mass hysteria the world has ever seen.

Touting Australia as a great model for "dealing with Covid" is misguided at best and dishonest at worst.

One guy in Australia just got 7 months prison for having tradies work on his house while he was in home quarantine.

Wakarimasen

Touting Australia as a great model for "dealing with Covid" is misguided at best and dishonest at worst.

And yet, so far only New Zealand have had a better outcome. Australia New Zealand have had far greater freedom than any other country during covid times and with the lowest death rates. With a record like that, you'd be hard pressed to say it wasn't the most successful strategy.

umbrellaToday  04:27 pm JST

Civil unrest is coming to Australia. The people will not put up with this situation any longer.

I hope you're right. But I have family and friends who, unfortunately, erroneously think it has to be done. One close relative is resigned to the idea that he'll have to get a jab for his work and to travel. When I ask him if he's heard of other drugs that have been demonstrated as safe treatments and prophylactics against this virus, he's not interested. He doesn't really trust his state or national government, but seems to think the authorities have the public's safety in mind. Classic doublethink.

Sad.

kyronstavic

One close relative is resigned to the idea that he'll have to get a jab for his work and to travel. When I ask him if he's heard of other drugs that have been demonstrated as safe treatments and prophylactics against this virus, he's not interested.

Why would you settle for treatments after you get sick if you can get the vaccine to stop you getting sick? Of course, wou would get the vaccine. That's just straight up common sense. Your relative is right and you don't even know it.

When I ask him if he's heard of other drugs that have been demonstrated as safe treatments and prophylactics against this virus, he's not interested. He doesn't really trust his state or national government, but seems to think the authorities have the public's safety in mind. Classic doublethink.

Sad indeed!

Unfortunately that form of insanity is also quite prevalent outside Australia.

The Aussies are kidding themselves if they think that lockdowns or even vaccines will eradicate this or any other virus. They'll be permanently locking down, permanently isolated from the rest of the world and permanently trying to vaccinate everyone with new updated vaccines for the new variants. It's a no win strategy.

It's time they get realistic. Put in strong protections for the elderly and other vulnerable and then open the country up as usual.

Concerned Citizen

It's time they get realistic. Put in strong protections for the elderly and other vulnerable and then open the country up as usual.

What about everyone get vaccinated and then reach herd immunity and people, vulnerable or not, don't need to die.

2020hindsightsToday  06:18 pm JST

*Why would you settle for treatments after you get sick if you can get the vaccine to stop you getting sick? Of course, wou would get the vaccine. That's just straight up common sense. Your relative is right and you don't even know it.*

Do you even know what a prophylactic is? I guess not. Australia has banned certain medications because its governments are interested in vaccination, not protection or cures that work.

What about everyone get vaccinated and then reach herd immunity and people, vulnerable or not, don't need to die.

Vaccines are unnecessarily risky for the young and will not be all that effective against new variants, unlike a natural infection, which immunizes you against multiple target proteins.

He doesn't really trust his state or national government, but seems to think the authorities have the public's safety in mind. Classic doublethink.

To be fair, authorities are irrelevant, the world experts vouch for the vaccines, and they (as in the medical and scientific community in general) are simply much more reliable than people that say they are all wrong (because of a really illogical conspiracy theory) without offering any proof.

The Aussies are kidding themselves if they think that lockdowns or even vaccines will eradicate this or any other virus.

Fortunately that is not the purpose of neither, lockdowns buy time to get the population immune, and vaccines reduce the risk until there is no need to treat COVID any differently from other infectious diseases that are already controlled, the problem is not with the measures but with people that like to imagine fake purposes and then complain how these imaginary goals are not reached.

Do you even know what a prophylactic is? I guess not. Australia has banned certain medications because its governments are interested in vaccination, not protection or cures that work.

Imaginary conspiracies that can be easily proved wrong with examples like Dexamethasone (that works and it is very cheap) are not valid arguments, specially when you provide exactly zero proof of them.

Vaccines are unnecessarily risky for the young and will not be all that effective against new variants, unlike a natural infection, which immunizes you against multiple target proteins.

Everything in the comment is wrong, vaccines do not represent a risk even comparable to the natural infection, but much less, they have been effective against new variants and having multiple target proteins is useless if those proteins are not exposed in the virion or do not mediate neutralization, at this point only antibodies directed against the spike have demonstrated to be neutralizing.

Having antibodies that do not neutralize helps nothing to control the infection, and on the other hand can originate autoimmunity, that is why vaccines are made with the least possible variation of antigens as possible for safety.

kyronstavic

Do you even know what a prophylactic is? I guess not.

Of course I do. We call them condoms. ;-)

Australia has banned certain medications because its governments are interested in vaccination, not protection or cures that work.

Not true. Medications have to go through the same scrutiny as anything else. The same is true for vaccines, which is why Australia is behind in vaccine rollout. They waited until they were sure the vaccines were effective and safe.

But why would you settle for a cure over a vaccine? Idiocy.

Did the Australian John Coates not say that the Tokyo Olympics must be held at all cost and even during a State of Emergency?

Kind of ironic in a sick and twisted way

Someone here said Australia has a lot of the AZ vaccine but they aren't using it.

Fortunately that is not the purpose of neither, lockdowns buy time to get the population immune, and vaccines reduce the risk until there is no need to treat COVID any differently from other infectious diseases that are already controlled, the problem is not with the measures but with people that like to imagine fake purposes and then complain how these imaginary goals are not reached.

But unfortunately lockdowns don't work. Why don't you take some time and examine the data?

And apparently, neither do the vaccines either.

Despite boasting higher adult vaccination rates than any other developed nation, Israel is scrambling to stanch a resurgence of new COVID infections after the country's top scientists revealed that they believed the Pfizer vaccine is only 64% effective at preventing infections involving the Delta variant currently stoking problems across the globe.

Just last week, Pfizer and its partner BioNTech announced plans to seek approval for a "booster" dose, provoking a rare, and surprisingly adversarial, response from the CDC and FDA. The two government agencies warned that there was presently no reason to believe that a "booster dose" will be necessary.

So much for "science"...

The way this article is written, one would think Australians are not in the habit of wearing masks and have not developed the habit of social distancing. Could it be their “success at beating this thing” that caught everyone sleeping?

"When you're in apartment buildings, we're not wanting you to congregate in any shared spaces," said New South Wales chief health official Kerry Chant. "We are really requiring under a public health order that you wear masks when you're transiting through common areas."

Is this actually how people speak in Australia? The grammar is definitely unique.

But unfortunately lockdowns don't work. Why don't you take some time and examine the data?

Published articles have concluded that they do, as long as they are put together coherently, which is why they are accepted as effective non pharmacological interventions by medical and scientific institutions, the same as masks or other hygienic measures.

Despite boasting higher adult vaccination rates than any other developed nation, Israel is scrambling to stanch a resurgence of new COVID infections after the country's top scientists revealed that they believed the Pfizer vaccine is only 64% effective at preventing infections involving the Delta variant currently stoking problems across the globe.

Which is irrelevant because the purpose of the vaccines is to prevent complications and deaths, which they still do very efficiently.

Just last week, Pfizer and its partner BioNTech announced plans to seek approval for a "booster" dose, provoking a rare, and surprisingly adversarial, response from the CDC and FDA.

Are you surprised companies want to sell more of their product? And precisely because scientific organizations reject this "need" for boosters is why everybody can see the scientific method is working.

Were you under the impression Pfizer was a scientific authority? that whatever they say should be considered as dogma even without data? that is the opposite of proper scientific justification.

2020hindsights

Why would you settle for treatments after you get sick if you can get the vaccine to stop you getting sick?

The choice is not as simple as that. There are also drugs that prevent people from getting sick, as well as drugs that keep disease at a managable level and prevent hospitalizations.

Both options have been completely blanked out by the government / bigmedia / bigtech / academic / bigpharma collaboration for this virus. There are many scientists who find this abhorrent.

Bradley

I think of my temporary loss of a handful of personal freedoms from time to time as a sacrifice for the benefit of the many.

So how do you define "temporary"? 2 weeks have turned to almost 2 years with no end in sight. How many more months/years, before you feel "temporary" is not the right term any more?

The vicious cycle will just continue in OZ with the present strategy of attempted total eleminiation. Lockdowns and vaccines to tackle the virus, the virus mutates and so more lockdowns and new vaccines, another mutation and more lockdowns and new vaccines, and on and on.

Much of the public down there know this and are just ignoring the government directives.

We should thank Australians. People around the world are getting vaccinated more quickly so they don't end up like them.

Bizarrely, if the comments on here are anything to go by, they seem to enjoy being locked up, er, down.

The Aussie government can keep everyone locked up for as long as they like with a 'zero risk' policy.

The UK is awash with the Delta variant, but has vaccinated the vulnerable and tens of millions of others and is now looking forward to opening up. Cases will spike, but the hospitals shouldn't fill up. Vaccinate the vulnerable and covid is reduced to the status of flu.

The vaccines work, but you have to actually use them. Not lock them up until they are nearly out of date and then donate them to foreign countries for economic and political favours.

When you have vaccinated the vulnerable, you can move on.

WilliB

So how do you define "temporary"? 2 weeks have turned to almost 2 years with no end in sight. How many more months/years, before you feel "temporary" is not the right term any more?

Do you even follow the news? Australia has spent most of the last year and a half out of lockdown and freely able to gather in crowds without masks. And all this while having a very low number of deaths.

The vicious cycle will just continue in OZ with the present strategy of attempted total eleminiation. Lockdowns and vaccines to tackle the virus, the virus mutates and so more lockdowns and new vaccines, another mutation and more lockdowns and new vaccines, and on and on.

Except for the part where current vaccines are considered to protect without much problem against the new variants, which spoils your whole point.

There are actually are several useful drugs out there; alas information about them is suppressed by big tech and big organizations.

That is realistically impossible, the real situation is that drugs are being investigated, and many times they end up being useless but since people that love conspiracy theories will never accept scientific evidence (because science is the enemy to defeat) they cling to those drugs as if a conspiracy where doctors choose to hide them from their own friends and family was in any way credible, it is not.

By the way, you do you realize that Dr. Fauci himself praised HCQ as a useful drug for Coronavirus infection during the SARS crisis? One of the many interesting facts that CNN will not tell you

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/fauci-quote-hydroxychloroquine/

Well, media usually tries to avoid reporting information that can easily be proved false, there is nothing wrong with that. Writing that a very different drug, used against a very different disease was effective on a petri dish (not even on animals) do not mean what you think it means. You can do the same with UV light or Chlorine but nobody (sane) would even think it could be adapted for use in patients.

Police, National Guards, Armies, what ever it takes to "Catch and Kill" this Invisible monster, LOL

There are also drugs that prevent people from getting sick, as well as drugs that keep disease at a managable level and prevent hospitalizations.

Both options have been completely blanked out by the government / bigmedia / bigtech / academic / bigpharma collaboration for this virus. There are many scientists who find this abhorrent.

Yes, excellent point!

I just want to add that these drugs have been widely used for several decades and are considered extremely safe and they are extremely cheap.

I just want to add that these drugs have been widely used for several decades and are considered extremely safe and they are extremely cheap.

Which does absolutely nothing to prove they are of any use against COVID, which is the reason why they are not used. In direct opposition to other drugs like Dexamethasone, that is terribly cheap, extremely safe and has been used for decades as well, with the huge difference that it has a very positive effect in the treatment of COVID, something that was very easy to prove scientifically, even when using it makes companies lose billions because it replaces much newer steroids with treatments that can cost thousands of dollars

Locking down just promotes economic hardship.

kurisupisu

Locking down just promotes economic hardship.

Actually, the opposite. In Australia's case, locking down eliminates the virus and then you can fully open up. Japan has experienced more economic hardship in the last year and a half than Australia precisely because it didn't lock down.