The Irony and The Obvious

 There is a growing irony when you live under a government that wants the public to embrace Covid.

Busibess venues are open but customers are more reluctant to use them.

Business venues are open but there are not enough stocks and staff available to viably keep them open.

We are free to travel but subject to a whole host of procedures that restrict our other freedoms.

We have minimal restrictions compared to days of lockdowns, travel permits and border closures- but we find ourselves more willing to stay home and observe what the heck is actually happening with the C and its implications.

We are told to test, when we have symptoms, but it is getting more challenging to be tested.

If the Omicron has less severity, then why are we still pushed to continue to test and get more vaccine jabs?

Governments can tell us to ride the wave over significant spikes in new mutations of C.  If we get infected, we are however told mostly to treat ourselves with painkillers - and not to bother with a medical and hospital system that increasingly cannot cope with increased demand.

If governments want us to comply with some new or changing rule, they have to ensure  the related infrastructure, supplies and personnel are sufficient to allow us to implement the requitements.

If various vaccinations for C are to be fully working, governments must not relentlessly use this option as the only option.

Governments cannot resort to redefinitions of C related parameters, without properly balancing the requirements of science, public health, the economy and mental health of society.

Withholding information or data suggests that governments have something serious to hide.

After 2 years of C, we are not as interested in daily figures of infections as in what key steps the government is taking to further reduce those figures.

The public needs more encouragement, wisdom snd truth from authorities rather than fear, blame shifting and excuses.

Prevention and proactivity is still so much better than reaction and panic.

State of a Covid Territory

 

What are the likely near future public health scenarios across Greater Sydney in the next few weeks leading to the arrival of The Lunar New Year of the Water Tiger, on Feb 1?

Already 20 pc of PCR testing are resulting in positive infections.  The NSW capacity for PCR testing is cracking up, so lower testing numbers will give skewed and underreported figures of infection.  PCR test results are taking more than 48 hours by pathology providers to inform those tested - increasing risks of those already infected to spread an already more infectious Omicron, before the test results are communicated to them.

The push by Sco Mo and Perrotett for the public to utilise RAT testing, which can be inaccurate and incorrectly applied by untrained individuals, has already run into a wall of lack of stocks to buy, rising test kit prices and inaffordability of many to buy them.

The current focus by government here on testing, significantly misses what should be done more to reduce the spread of Omicron.  The reluctance to impose a focused and broader base of measures for the public since October 2021,  can sound the death knell for any hope of an early end to the pandemic.

The only strategy practised by governments here in Australia is to push for more and earlier booster shots of the same officially unquestioned vaccinations.  The absence of more innovative approaches underlies increasing pessimism in containing significant spikes in cases of Omicron.  The Re factor of spread is hurling more than 2 across Greater Sydney.
If around 95 percent of the NSW population has been jabbed, there is obviously less room to blame the unvaccinated to account for rising infections and hospitalisations.

When more individuals across greater Sydney get infected in five figures each new day, they increasingly cannot go to work more due to physical inability, rather than complying with government policies in isolation number of days.  So much for helping the economy at the expense of everything else.

When businesses and hospitals lack staff, there is an accumulative negative effect on the capacity of medical and economic activity and expertise to perform.

In addition to resourcing and infrastructure issues, there can be a looming supply logistics inability developing that casts a shadow on the access to many things we take for granted.

Australia is not the only nation battling the complexities of Omicron, directly or on secondary impact.  There is a real competition in securing many same things in demand across the world.

Hence there is most likely a perfect storm developing in medically treating the huge increase of infectees.

Pyschologically and collectively,  there has already been a lowering of the guard and mindfulness in simple personal responsibility measures of social distancing, face masking and avoiding crowded indoor venues with poor ventilation - the first line of defence and prevention has been whittled away.

The authorities will continue their knee jerk reactive measures, with policies that show how unprepared they are, even when they have allowed whatever new mutated strains to come in freely.

At the personal level across Greater Sydney, contact tracing, QR code scanning and exposure venue identification have all been minimised.  People are asked to maintain their confidence on the unquestioned reliance solely on vaccination protection.  Even the supplies for booster vaccination appointments are getting harder to obtain across Greater Sydney, together with the availability of test kits of whatever kind.

More and more of us this past week know of personal friends who have contracted the Coronavirus, compared to Christmas 2020 and even as recently as three months ago.

So in the next few weeks, we can expect to self manage more in our own medical treatment if we get infected - all good if we only have mild symptoms.  Treatment for other ailments will continue to be sidelined as in as much for the past two years.

For those unfortunate enough to suffer more adverse symptoms with Omicron infections, we must be prepared to lower our expectations of the private hospital and public health resources to timely support us.

So I suggest each of us have an emergency response kit and plan according to the needs of your circumstances.

Here I have taken a low risk tolerance to prepare for the worst near future scenario.    Another person may prefer a higher risk tolerance and prepare for a better scenario. The choice is ours - I pray for the best outcome and prepare for the worst.

3 January 2022, 8pm AEDT.

#yongkevthoughts

Green is the Colour to Immerse Your Eyes With

 

Stages of Bloom

 

A Series of Operatic Acts

 The parade of comical obsessions continues.

First it was with hotel quarantines.

Then they moved on to no singing and no dancing.

Next was a fixation with toilet paper purchases.

Ah, they then were addicted to QR code scanning.

Contact tracing became a competitive sport, with boasts of even a gold standard 

Lockdown fever was not imagined......

Not satisfied, they penalised those who were detected 5km lingering away from home.

Soon disclosure of exposure spots was deemphasised and then disappeared.

Soon, it was to have proof of being "fully vaccinated" and the drive for individuals to have booster shots as soon as possible.

Then the fad came to let go and be totally free.

They emphasised case numbers are not important as dehumanisation continued. 

Hospitals, medical staff, small businesses and frontliners were left to deal with the reality and the mess. 

With opening up, it is the opera with testing proofs, validity of test results and how timely we receive them.

Now if we do not have symptoms, we are asked to not add to the testing queues.

We shudder when they change definitions of close contacts and lower standards and periods of self-isolation for infectees, frontliners and travellers.

The Sydney NYE gala and fireworks are back again in grander fashion.

Are we missing something here?