Australian Response

There are two camps on this question on this thread TBH, those bigging up the Australian approach and knocking ours and vice versa. Clearly neither agrees with the opposite strategy. Both have made mistakes but we have learnt to live with it and are now at over 70% fully vaccinated. Australia still has to figure out how to extricate itself from Zero COVID, drive towards mass vaccination and return to full normality. Headline number comparisons are pointless especially with the potential pool here shrinking very fast, as against a massive chunk of the population at risk.

Who cares. Maybe it happens when aussies start thinking about going out but at this moment it is lunatics' running the asylum there.

Sadly, Sydney is where we were back in March/April last year but with just a little bit of vaccination as an advantage yet a more transmissible disease as a disadvantage.

I don't see a way out of it for them other than "live with it", ie: almost ripping through the population, or stay locked down for months and months until slow vaccine supply catches up. It's not going to be easy for them.

Vaccines don't stop transmission though. People get infected and pass it on after vaccination. You will still have cases, hospitalisations and deaths even with a high percentage of vaccination in the population. Immunity after infection however is much better at stopping reinfection.

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/309762

Australia has deployed hundreds of soldiers to Sydney to help enforce a Covid lockdown.

Sydney looks like big open air concentration camp.

Death rate yes.

But at what expense to the economy in the long term? Australia won't open up for a number of years it seems. They are so far away from the ideology of the EU, US for eg that I cannot see them accepting any case of covid in their county for a long time even with a certain rate of vaccination. And so the threat of lockdown will continue to hang over them for the forseeable. Whereas over here that threat is vanishing quite quickly and the number of cases means nothing anymore.

And that's all fine if your an inward looking country with no links to the global economy but thats not Australia. I just fear for them in the medium to long term and I think the costs will start to catch up as time goes on.

At least they say they'll be living with the virus. Zero Covid strategy shattered

I hope I’m wrong but I don’t think they will end the Sydney lockdown until they get to zero

Australia's third-largest city of Brisbane and other parts of Queensland state will enter a snap Covid-19 lockdown from today as authorities race to contain an emerging outbreak of the Delta strain.

More troops to be deployed so no one is in, no one is out? The envy of the world.

It is a shame but they did not have to push for Zero Covid. Now, they are in the mud hole because of that with no lights at the end of the tunnel.

Funny video on the Australian Covid situation ...

https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1421358868446294019

Video is awful. Either die from Covid or suffer from long Covid. Nothing else.

Cases that do not lead to hospitalisations and put pressure on health systems are just a cold. We're now finally looking past the headlines to our quite low hospital numbers but there is continued alarm about headline daily case figures.

What do you mean, "what the hell does this even mean" lol? Can't you read?

I guess you aren't keeping up with recent developments in the outside world...Vaccines don't stop transmission. It's not that hard to understand. Prior infection confers pretty good actual immunity to reinfection. Vaccine efficacy is especially weak in older and immune compromised people, the very people who are vulnerable to severe infections and death due to covid.

Good luck 👍