Its Over

Originally posted by 1ronnie ↑

First let me say that this whole shambolic pandemic mess is rather depressing and unfortunately that is reverberating through the markets this week so far despite better US market.

On herd immunity, obviously the chances of getting there would be better if we get larger percentage vaccinated...but even then it is not a surety , as you mentioned we have to deal with mutations along the way and as we know people who have had COVID before can still recontract it. And vaccines does not guarantee non transmission. What we do know is that vaccination protects the vaccinated from a more serious or deadly outcome.

Lockdown as a feature of life is a necessity because we are not vaccinated enough and we still haven't got our act together to quarantine return travellers properly and safely. And it is heartbreaking to hear that state premiers are now inclined to reduce returning residents until we have those two aspects covered more satisfactorily.

So should we start abandoning lockdown and start living with the virus like many other parts of the world? NO, because with low levels of vaccination and the highly contagious delta variant, that would be a disaster...unless we want to live life like what the Yanks did during tenure of Mr Trump...And prepared to lose thousands of lives. I don't think so and the cost to business would be equally devastating. I would even think that in the absence of a lockdown, if we get thousands of cases daily in a single city, I could imagine people leading a lockdown life voluntarily so service businesses would be impacted too. I don't know why the media keep pursuing this line , I guess because they see how UK and US did it, so why can't we.

Instead of lockdowns, I would prefer a solution that mandates mask wearing when leaving home as a new way of life for as long as the pandemic is with us. Then we should have mobile vaccine vans doing rounds around each local authority , we could mobilise the defence force and have them going round to the homes, offices ...bring the vaccine to people. And starting with the most vulnerable aged care sector. Then we teach every citizen to test themselves the moment they have the slightest symptoms with a rapid testing kit that we can send to each free, and if anyone is positive they go for the PCR test and start isolating immediately. We have to have a Universal standard protocol of conduct for individuals and businesses so everyone does the same thing and know how to behave and act appropriately at all times, just like how Hawaiians prepare for a possible war the moment they hear a missile launch or how Japanese react to an earthquake....people are taught how to respond and every state follow the same response...in addition there can be a more scientific approach towards the lockdowns that states institute, although it is understandable that states like WA have their golden goose resource sector to be on top of it rather than leave to chance....And of course Quarantine facility in each state that is dedicated and fit for purpose with right ventilation system would reduce incidences of spread during quarantine.

We have lockdowns because we live a business as usual normal life during a pandemic. What happens is that with this business as usual approach, the 99pc does the right thing but the 1pc does not and we get a lockdown. So if we do not want to have harsh lockdowns periodically, we need to make the entire populace to comply with the new normal at all times during the pandemic and start covering all the gaps where risks exist with all urgency....And instead of hiring McKinsey or BCG consulting, we should seek a health risk management expert to identify all the prevailing gaps and mitigation measures for the entire logistics and systems expeditiously. The media should start stop lamenting about loss of freedom and encourage avoidance of risky behaviour and good conduct during a pandemic.

You see , the trouble is that we do not see this as a crisis big enough to accept a new normal . If we respect the virus for what it is, the sooner we would get out of this predicament. But we will.

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Sooner or later they will start to listen to the likes of Prof. Mary-Louise McLaws @1ronnie because people are suddenly
waking up to the fact that this has not been handled well and even younger people, who are our future, are now so easily
catching the new easily spread strain.