5 million begin lockdown in Melbourne as Australian states tighten border controls

This is interesting in Melbourne.

That's pretty hardcore. Tokyo, like the poster above noted, is turning into a cluster bomb itself. I think this may be a good route for Tokyo to take esp. if Koike keeps sitting on her butt on this.

Socialist premier Chairman Daniel Andrews and his mob have made an absolute mess of this affair, leading to the 6-week lockdown that will threaten mental health, employment and decimate businesses all over Melbourne. First he tacitly condoned the BLM protests a few weeks back, and then got his union mates to place ineffective security guards at the quarantine hotels.

These guards let quarantined people out of their rooms against orders, and some of them caught the virus and transferred it back to their families and subsequently their communities.

When questioned repeatedly by the usually friendly ABC Radio about this, he refused to give a straight answer and instead proceeded to blame everyone but himself. Straight from the playbook of his beloved CCP, right down to barricading people inside their public housing apartment towers.

A hundred deaths in a country of 25 million? Talk about an over-reaction by the government. It is all about control at this point, about the government asserting itself and trampling the rights of the people. My image of Aussies was of self reliant and independent people, not the type to be cowed so easily.

When deaths approach even a quarter of one percent of the population, give me a call. Not one person in a quarter million.

You cannot completely stop a virus except by killing the host body. In this case, the host body is the country and its economy. There is no vaccine- look at how effective flu vaccines are for an indication of how well vaccines work against viruses. The only thing to do is wait for it to pass through the population. It will NEVER be "under control". The only thing to do is try to slow it down a bit and spread the pain over a longer period of time.

Given the fact that the vast majority of those killed were already effectively living on "borrowed time" due to very advanced medical/hospital care, the population at large should just take a deep breath and get on with their lives.

Five million people in Australia's second-biggest city began a new lockdown

Residents have been told to stay at home for six weeks

An absolute stupid overreaction!

After six weeks, the Virus will appear again.

And then?

Australia were winning against the virus up until recently wasnt it , what happened?

So long as they let people in to the country carrying the virus NZ Adern and her band of muppets for example then the country will be at risk.

I thought the idea was to stop travel from infected areas .

Tokyo seems to be rebounding too but then they changed how they report or record or something so who knows also have they even been reporting the true data to begin with.

All I know is that hygiene & precaution are about the only defense for now.

Hope everyone enjoyed their BLM protests. It got them 6 more weeks in lockdown.

Australia were winning against the virus up until recently wasnt it , what happened?

People stopped taking it seriously. They still don't. My neighbors go out daily visiting friends with the whole family in tow. They take zero precautions. When you don't do anything like follow rules and dont wear face masks and act like everything is normal, all your doing is helping the spread of the virus.

Melbourne started lock down today and again my neighbors have gone out visiting. They pile in their car and are gone a few hours and they come back. Cant be getting supplies every day. They have friends visit with their children too.

It is the same attitude I see on these forums from way too many people who dismiss the virus and its dangers.

It is like they just have zero empathy for anyone and are so self centered they cant get past it.

Peter: I dismiss the virus because it simply isn't that dangerous.

Life is full of risk. The goal isn't just to survive, it is to LIVE. We take calculated risks every day when we get in our cars, walk down the road, eat raw fish. If you don't want to do so, that is your business. But don't tell other people how to live their lives.

Attilathehungry, the medical specialists who spend a lifetime studying such diseases have advised this is highly dangerous and deadly and the figures so far back it up. Not believing those who know is foolhardy at best and beyond forgiveness. If people ignored your advice at whatever is is you do for a living and have many years experience at, you would also consider them fools.

Three million Americans have been found with the disease, many more are roaming around, many refusing to get tested either through ignorance or arrogance. The true numbers may never be known.

Peter: Thank you for your kind words.

The medical specialists have been wrong so far. The original forecast of millions of deaths has not happened. The current data suggests a lot lower total.

Again, in Australia there have been just over 100 Covid deaths. In a usual year, about 170,000 people die in Australia. Covid isn't even a marginal blip on the radar. Even if that number shoots up to 1000 Covid fatalities, it still wouldn't even make the top 20 causes of death.

If we look at the Americans, the situation is similar. Not to mention that proving a person's death was actually caused by Covid is hard. In many/most cases, there were significant underlying issues as well. Actual healthy people simply don't have to fear Covid any more than they do other seasonal illnesses. People with other conditions need to protect themselves, as they would in any case.

If you are young and fit and healthy you have nothing to fear, however if you are elderly, with underlying health conditions then the concern is real so please consider that while going about the business of LIVING YOUR LIFE, others who maybe compromised may not have the same enthusiasm that you seem to at the moment.

Imagine if you were infected and gave it to your granpa or granma and they died because of your zest to live YOUR life.

Selfish is hard on others

The medical specialists have been wrong so far.

Incorrect, they have been spot on. This is highly contagious, a fact that cant be disputed.

With no action there would be, and with action before this finishes the could well be, millions of deaths world wide.

But the naysayers will continue to dismiss the deaths and shrug their shoulders until someone close to them succumbs to covid or its effects.

Melbourne has taken preventative measures for the good of the people, it will reduce the number of deaths.

Taking no action and just living life as some suggest will see a huge difference (increased deaths). But perhaps to some, no lives matter..except their own.

Melbourne has a long road ahead but then so does the world. In a few years time, more information will have been gleaned from this to hopefully help future generations handle the next serious pandemic better.

"Selfish" is asking the world to stop and millions of people to put their lives on hold for the sake of possibly saving a few lives that would soon be over anyway. Isolate the vulnerable and let everyone else alone. That is the key point.

"Selfish" is destroying the global economy and offloading untold billions of dollars in debt onto the next generation due to media paranoia and political cowardice.

"Selfish" is asking the world to stop and millions of people to put their lives on hold for the sake of possibly saving a few lives that would soon be over anyway. Isolate the vulnerable and let everyone else alone. That is the key point.

World deaths so far are over 548,000. I consider that more than "a few lives". Before this is over it will be well over a million lives. many of those lives are people under 40 who's lives would NOT have "been soon over anyway". And these are numbers because most of the world IS taking precautions of one type or another, not because the virus is not deadly.

"Selfish" is destroying the global economy and offloading untold billions of dollars in debt onto the next generation due to media paranoia and political cowardice.

The only paranoia is that of denial. Doing what you must to protect the lives of your people is political strength.

The money is a man made concept, and if we cant bend it to the good of everyone then maybe its time for an update.

why were all the precautions in place for months dropped worldwide once some people felt it necessary to protest on behalf of Black Lives Matter? Even more so when that organization only cares about monetary donations and political influence. How could people have been so reckless and all the "woke" politicians afraid to criticize or condemn it?

Melbourne has taken preventative measures for the good of the people, it will reduce the number of deaths.

Selfish is Australia stopping its economy over 100 deaths. Again, the world death count is statistically insignificant. 150,000 or more people die EVERY DAY.

I don't deny the existence of Covid. I just weigh the alternatives and choose life. Real life, not life cowering in a corner in perpetual fear.

Selfish is Australia stopping its economy over 100 deaths. Again, the world death count is statistically insignificant. 150,000 or more people die EVERY DAY.

Closing down Australia to restrict the number deaths to just over 100 from a deadly pandemic was a very intelligent move. Congrats to Australia.

Life will return when the pandemic is gone. Like the pandemics of the past that killed tens of millions and are now gone. Spanish flu took 2-3 years to disappear from the world. But modern people expect everything immediately, even an end to a pandemic.

Privileged people have little sense of civic duty I guess. And some just are not able to understand the concept at all.

Unfortunately the BLM protests did it in Melbourne (google it before you down vote me). As much as BLM think about the virus effects as well.

Should have stopped it at the chinese border the day they found it. The govts were selfish by not doing so the rest are selfish by not trying to limit the spread.

Now go tell granpa dont be selfish. His generation wouldnt gave let this governmental disaster happen in first place