The fortnightly Essential Research poll focuses, naturally enough, on coronavirus, with 45% rating the federal government’s response good or very good, and 29% poor or very poor. According to The Guardian’s report, it would seem the latter tend to be those most worried about the virus, as measured by a question on whether respondents felt the situation was being overblown, with which “one third” agreed while 28% thought the opposite.
Over the course of three fortnightly polls, the proportion rating themselves very concerned has escalated from 25% to 27% to 39%, while the results for quite concerned have gone from 43% to 36% and back again. The Guardian’s report does not relate the latest results for “not that concerned” and “not at all concerned”, which were actually up in the last poll, from 26% to 28% and 6% to 9% respectively. Further questions relate to trust in various sources of information, notably the government and the media, but we will have to wait for the publication of the full report later today to get a clear handle on them. Suffice to say that Essential still has nothing to tell us on voting intention.
In other findings, 49% said they wanted the opposition to fall in behind the government’s decisions while 33% preferred that it review and challenge them, and 42% now consider themselves likely to catch the virus, up from 31% on a fortnight ago. Seventy-two per cent reported washing their hands more often, 60% said they were avoiding social gatherings, and 33% reported stocking up on groceries.
We also have a Roy Morgan SMS survey of 723 respondents, which was both conducted and published yesterday, showing 79% support for the government’s decision to allow those in financial difficulty to access $20,000 of their superannuation. As noted in the previous post, an earlier such poll of 974 respondents from Wednesday and Thursday recorded levels of trust in various Australian politicians (plus Jacinda Ardern, who fared best of all); a further set of results from the same poll finds Dick Smith, Mike Cannon-Brookes, Andrew Forrest and Alan Joyce rating best out of designated list of business leaders, with Rupert Murdoch, Clive Palmer, Gina Rinehart and Gerry Harvey performed worst. We are yet to receive hard numbers from either set of questions, but they are apparently forthcoming.
UPDATE: Full report from Essential Research here.
Dandy Murray @ #190 Tuesday, March 24th, 2020 – 9:01 am
We hunt and eat wild animals also.
Your distinction isn’t where the problem lies.
Government ministers are simply trying to deal with the optics of long queues outside Centrelink offices. That is why they are pushing for the “ great unwashed” to use the phone and computer to lodge applications.
Huge queues on national TV news every night is not a great look and goes against the “ we have it all under control “ mantra being pumped out by Morrison and co.
There will be no visuals of tens of thousands of desperate Australians sitting in front of their computers or hanging on for hours on the phone at home simply trying to get some help.
The government is desperate to promote the facade of competency. It will not work.
The lived experience will get Morrison eventually.
Kronomex @ #159 Tuesday, March 24th, 2020 – 11:33 am
I liked that he had to turn the page to find out what he ‘was opening’ — “the country”!
GoldenSmaug
You are right. High populations are driving people to eat foods and destroy vegetation that used to protect us.
BK says: Tuesday, March 24, 2020 at 10:49 am
Just thought I’d check myGov.
I didn’t do it. Honest. It wasn’t me, it was some else being the 55,001 person to cause it to fall over this time. I was in the kitchen with the chainsaw.
Anyone who can’t afford to get their protein from cows, chickens, and pigs should just starve, right?
Zoidlord @ #189 Tuesday, March 24th, 2020 – 12:00 pm
There is a world of difference. Farmed Animals versus Wild Animals.
Astrobleme
It’s really not hard to understand and casual racism needs to be stopped.
_______________________________
It’s not casual anymore. it is quite deliberate and determined action by Trump and his alt-right nazi supporters to create division in the community.
Travellers from (or returning from) China of any racial or ethnic background were the risk a couple of months ago. But now it is no more dangerous – and people of an Asian appearance are no more dangerous – than, say, Tom Hanks. And less dangerous than Peter Dutton.
So NOW talk about China and the Chinese virus is only for political divide and conquer and opportunistic attempts at introducing Putin-style democracy.
I didn’t say it was the fault of the Chinese, Astro. I said it was the fault of the food hygiene procedures in place in some parts of that country, and other countries.
BSE or vCJD is a fantastic counterexample. Once identified, huge restrictions have been placed on all aspects of beef and dairy production, human medical and surgical treatment, blood donors, etc, in order to control the disease. Over 4 milion head of cattle were killed. These actions could only be undertaken because of the high standard of monitoring and tracing undertaken in the food supply chain of the UK and across Europe. Yes, it started in England, but their systems and policies meant that they could identify it and arrest its spread relatively quickly.
Social services minister Anne Ruston said capacity on MyGov was increased overnight to 150,000 concurrent users and there was 123,000 this morning and “was still operating and
operating much more quickly than it was yesterday.”
Victoria says: Tuesday, March 24, 2020 at 12:09 pm
Dr. Dena Grayson @DrDenaGrayson
·
BREAKING: A man DIED & his wife is in ICU after they ingested #chloroquine, one of the anti-malarials that @realDonaldTrump touted.
*******************************************************************
“There is a world of difference. Farmed Animals versus Wild Animals.’
There’s a difference, certainly. But who cares. We eat both…
And farmed animals have their own problems…
Holdenhillbilly @ #210 Tuesday, March 24th, 2020 – 9:15 am
That explains why I had no problems logging on.
Holy crap. My sister returned from Japan last week from THE cruise so has an interest in the Diamond Princess. She just sent this through.
The virus “was identified on a variety of surfaces in cabins of both symptomatic and asymptomatic infected passengers up to 17 days after cabins were vacated…” the researchers wrote.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/23/cdc-coronavirus-survived-in-princess-cruise-cabins-up-to-17-days-after-passengers-left.html
Astrobleme,
I don’t really care if you feel all warm and fuzzy inside when you call me a racist. I know I’m not and that’s all that counts to me.
What I am is disgusted at the Chinese habit, also American, African and Russian, of killing wild animals and eating them. Yes, Australians do it too and I don’t like that either.
I guess you’re also one of these people who thinks it’s okay for the Chinese to perpetuate cultural mores like eating live baby mice, huh?
Sorry, I can’t go for that. No can do.
From a microbiological pov it’s wrong, and from a cruelty pov it’s wrong. That’s good enough for me.
If it is acknowledged and proven that the slaughter and consumption of wild animals at the wet markets is the source of this virus, wouldn’t it be prudent to ensure this practice is completely stopped.
We are in the middle of a health and financial crisis as a result. It is a no brainer and I don’t give a stuff whether the people in that area believe they have a good reason for continuing the practice.
It needs to stop for the sake of all.
It is not something that needs to be up for argument quite frankly,
PhoenixRed
Here is audio of wife doing interview
Heidi Przybyla
@HeidiNBC
·
1m
Some audio from
@VaughnHillyard
interview here:
https://twitter.com/vaughnhillyard/status/1242253997005664257?s=21…
Quote Tweet
Vaughn Hillyard
@VaughnHillyard
· 23m
Woman in ICU: “Trump kept saying it was basically pretty much a cure.”
NBC: “What would be your message to the A
Farmed animals being fed the flesh of other farmed animals was the source of Mad Cow Disease, wasn’t it?
BArney,
In a past life I was involved in setting procedures and policies regarding the harvest of wild kangaroo meat for human consumption in Qld. Suffice to say the restrictions on what can go into the food supply chain are tight, with good reason.
A casual observation of the Wuhan wet market tells me similar standards were not being applied there.
Heidi Przybyla
@HeidiNBC
·
1h
Right pointing backhand indexHer husband is dead & she’s in the ICU after ingesting chloroquine:
“We saw Trump on TV — every channel — & all of his buddies and that this was safe,” she said.
“Trump kept saying it was basically pretty much a cure.”
She implored
@VaughnHillyard
: “Educate the people”
Dandy Murray
“It’s the *wild* bit that is is the problem.”
I’m inclined to agree. There’s simply no need for urban dwellers to to use wild animal species as food (apart from those species that are designated for hunting). Bats, pangolins, etc should be off the menu. The harvesting of exotic species for the market, and the entire bushmeat trade, has always been morally and environmentally reprehensible. Covid19 has now made us aware that it can have dire epidemiological consequences.
Victoria @ #217 Tuesday, March 24th, 2020 – 9:19 am
Did we stop farming pigs after swine flu?
Did we stop farming Chickens after bird flu?
lizzie @ #219 Tuesday, March 24th, 2020 – 12:22 pm
And it was stopped and I believe the practice began of giving farm animals the leftovers, cooked, of meals from restaurants. Then Second Bite came along and the Homeless didn’t mind the leftovers either. 🙂
I take Hydroxychloroquine for rheum arthritis daily. I’m assuming the couple swigged it in large amounts?
Barneyitb
What c@t said
Donald Trump: “I take no responsibility.”
But he now has blood on his hands that won’t wash off.
My daughter was stood down from her casual swim-teaching job with the WA Dept of Education last Thursday. Went straight to Centrelink, waited for hours, sent to a booth to do her application.
Was thwarted at the point that asked for a “Certificate of Separation” from her employer. Obviously there was no such document.
Couldn’t proceed with the application, couldn’t get any help without rejoining the three-hour queue. So she’s still trying, but this week she’s been joined by tens of thousands of others.
Her only previous dealing with Centrelink was when she set off to study interstate two years ago. In that instance her payments (Austudy?) were delayed, along with thousands of others, for reasons that still aren’t clear. The 6-month delay in her case meant that no payment arrived before she had returned to Perth with severe depression. Not suggesting that the Centrelink stuff-up caused her depression, but it certainly didn’t help.
I have no doubt that these systems are deliberately designed to discourage people from applying for benefits to which they are totally entitled. We are failing our young people very badly.
I see that vested interests are trying to ‘interpret’ things to further the outcomes they seek.
99% of pandemics happened:
1. Before global warming.
2. When there was much, much more rainforest and when the proportion of wild animal biomass was much greater than it is today.
3. When being any sort of animal in constant close contact with human society was based on far higher levels of stress and casual cruelty than it is now.
4. When most societies (proportionately) ate a great deal more wildlife belonging to a many more species than they do today.
5. When the facilities for slaughtering, storing and preparing (domestic and wild) food were all vastly more risky than they are today.
6. When the connections between commensals and disease and/or between living vectors and disease were either poorly known or not known at all.
The things that HAVE changed since previous pandemics: total human population, larger numbers of extremely dense concentrations of humans, the huge numbers of humans traveling, and the speed of human travel.
The single best way of avoiding/reducing the impact of future pandemics is to reduce the human population drastically, to spread the residual human population out better, to restrict human travel and to slow it down.
Getting rid of planes and megacities would be an excellent start.
C@t
I understand you don’t think this is racist, but it is:
“the Chinese to perpetuate cultural mores like eating live baby mice, huh?”
Some people in China eat live baby mice, some don’t. Why are you grouping those that don’t in with those that do based solely on their race…
This is racism.
You need to change your language. What you should say is simply ‘I don’t like it when people eat baby mice’, the statement is certainly less interesting and less inflammatory. The reason you add in the word Chinese is because you want it clear that you associated eating mice with ‘Chinese’… You want the racial association.
Don’t hide your racism behind ‘animal rights’
LR
44 500 was the projected number.
https://7news.com.au/lifestyle/health-wellbeing/doctors-stark-coronavirus-warning-were-going-to-run-out-of-icu-beds-c-758090
Of course, the 44 500 is a true (or true enough, based on other countries data) number, not the amount that we have confirmed at a given point in time. It is also a high estimate based on no-one with other conditions requiring ICU. And there is the lag time between infection and symptoms that means that any action taken will take a minimum of 5 days to be shown up in the data of confirmed cases.
One of the staff I know involved in organizing increased capacity in preparation told me, several weeks ago I might add, wtte that it’s an enormous effort to increase ICU capacity, but even if you double the capacity it only buys less than a week of time to get on top of the outbreak.
I think we need to implement the same measures as Germany tonight, and hope that our testing has picked up as many cases as reasonably expected.
lizzie @ #224 Tuesday, March 24th, 2020 – 12:24 pm
Maybe they did the really stupid thing, which I came across a bit in the Poisons Information Centre when I worked there, of 1 tablet good, 10 must be better’. 🙄
Victoria says: Tuesday, March 24, 2020 at 12:21 pm
PhoenixRed
Here is audio of wife doing interview
****************************************************
Woman: “Oh my God. Don’t take anything. Don’t believe anything. Don’t believe anything that the President says & his people…call your doctor.”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-china-toll/mainland-chinas-new-coronavirus-infections-up-by-two-fold-to-78-cases-idUSKBN21B01X
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-who-ryan/lockdowns-not-enough-to-defeat-coronavirus-whos-ryan-idUSKBN2190FM
The nation’s largest superannuation fund, AutralianSuper, has revalued its unlisted assets such as infrastructure downwards by 7.5 per cent, wiping 2 per cent off the value of its flagship balanced fund.
Unlisted assets such as toll roads, ports and airports are typically revalued quarterly but this is the first out-of-cycle adjustment AustralianSuper has ever made.
Other super funds are understood to be in the middle of making similar changes.
“In the current unique circumstances, AustralianSuper has moved to revalue its unlisted assets so that members can have an up-to-date picture of their super balances,” AustralianSuper chief executive Ian Silk said in a statement.
https://www.afr.com/companies/financial-services/australiansuper-slashes-value-of-unlisted-assets-in-unique-times-20200324-p54dba
Spray
She can upload the document once mygov is back online.
It should be noted that even if an application is not complete and not processed for a few weeks.
Any back payments will start from the first point of contact made with Centrelink. Therefore sooner or later people will be paid all they are entitled to from when the initially applied.
Astrobleme @ #229 Tuesday, March 24th, 2020 – 12:26 pm
Sorry but my concern for animal rights is genuine and so you can take a hike with your sneer about it.
So, tell me, Astrobleme, who else eats live baby mice?
Greg Hunt, the minister for something, has just wasted everybody’s time telling anyone listening, what a great job, he and his whatshisname PM are doing, now that the common belief is the genie is well and truly out of the bottle, after years of imposing an unequitable and a corrupt health services regime upon all and sundry.
A “dog’s breakfast”, long ignored by a pampered, misled and selfish public, finally recognized.
The government condescendingly praising the health sectors after years of ignoring advice from the very same sector.
“poor fellow my country” (XH).
Australia, a parliamentary democracy, no longer sitting as a government, with a main purpose, self-aggrandizing and bluster.
PhoenixRed
I could have given the woman that advice for free years ago. Sigh………
How anyone still believes anything Trump says, boggles my mind.
As I said, some very hard lessons will be learnt by many people. Tragic even.
dave,
How have the markets reacted to the news?
Farmed animals being fed the flesh of other farmed animals was the source of Mad Cow Disease, wasn’t it?
Yep. And this was identified and systematically suppressed.
It’s proved very hard to eradicate because prions are robust little critters.
Victoria @ #238 Tuesday, March 24th, 2020 – 12:31 pm
But! But! Trump finds all that medical stuff so easy!
The Fed has gone well past the point of ‘QE infinity’
The purchase of corporate debt by the Fed is designed to prevent a deeper and prolonged bust facing an economy that has been placed in suspended animation.
Michael Mackenzie
The vast and currently dysfunctional markets for US Treasuries, mortgages and corporate credit now have the ultimate buyer of last resort — the Federal Reserve.
Ever since the big stock market crash of 1987, investors have grown to depend on the US central bank coming to the aid of financial markets when they hit the skids. Now the central bank is well and truly “all in”, announcing a slew of new initiatives on Monday (Tuesday AEDT) designed to buy time for an enfeebled financial system.
Until now, the Fed implied, the system has been in no shape to withstand an escalating pandemic that has the US economy facing the biggest hit to growth since the 1930s.
Having failed to ease nerves over the past week with an expansion of its quantitative easing programme, the Fed has upped the ante to Buzz Lightyear territory. “QE infinity,” in the form of unlimited buying of Treasury debt and mortgage-backed securities, is just one aspect of the new approach.
Another notable measure is the Fed’s entry into the universe of investment-grade credit, with the central bank launching a facility that will enable the purchase of corporate debt that has already been sold with a maturity of less than five years, and also of exchange traded funds that track the sector.
https://www.afr.com/markets/debt-markets/the-fed-has-gone-well-past-the-point-of-qe-infinity-20200324-p54d9q
Victoria @ #235 Tuesday, March 24th, 2020 – 12:29 pm
Cheers Victoria. Yeah I have no doubt she’ll eventually get what she’s entitled to. If she perseveres.
I believe the deliberate thwarting is partly an attempt to make people think they’re asking for something they don’t deserve. Very discouraging, which I’m sure is just fine by the government.
Holdenhillbilly @ #210 Tuesday, March 24th, 2020 – 11:15 am
I thought it wasn’t operating at all yesterday. But again, since the capacity was apparently tripled overnight, why didn’t this happen earlier?
Victoria
“If it is acknowledged and proven that the slaughter and consumption of wild animals at the wet markets is the source of this virus, wouldn’t it be prudent to ensure this practice is completely stopped.”
Yes, it would. I’ve been informed by a Chinese friend of mine that the Chinese government has now banned the practice – though he doubts that everyone will stop doing it.
Ebola outbreaks seem to have started because of the hunting and eating of bats that carried the virus. HIV/AIDS started because of the hunting and eating of chimpanzees infected with simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), the progenitor of HIV.
In both cases, cooking would likely kill the virus, so it would have been the butchering of chimps and bats and handling of raw meat that’s likely to have led to the virus jumping to humans.
Us humans really have to stop fucking around with wild animals.
Victoria @ #226 Tuesday, March 24th, 2020 – 9:25 am
You’re just projecting your cultural norms.
Why are wet markets still prevalent in many parts of the world?
It’s a way of ensuring the meat is fresh.
Fridges are a relatively new commodity in many parts of the world.
“So, tell me, Astrobleme, who else eats live baby mice?”
No idea. It’s not the point though is it? You clearly want to associated Chinese people with this, and you clearly want them labelled as ‘bad’.
It’s clearly racism.
I am astonished that people here really don’t get racism – it’s really not hard to understand.
So, make the case: eating live baby mice is bad.
Fine, but why add the race part?
Think what does this do to my case? Is the focus on the baby mice? Or is it on the race? If the focus of your argument switches to the race, then clearly you are being racist.
There’s no one here who would argue that eating live baby mice is bad. Any more than eating live squid. Or live monkey… Or perhaps boiling lobster alive?
If your argument is about animal rights, make it about animal rights. Don’t clutter it with racism.
lizzie @ #204 Tuesday, March 24th, 2020 – 12:13 pm
Remember the outcry here by some people when it was suggested we have genuine Population and Immigration Policies, and not simply the Ponzi scheme we currently have?
We haven’t really learnt … yet. But we will 🙁
C@tmomma @ #239 Tuesday, March 24th, 2020 – 12:32 pm
ASX is having an up day atm – probably on the FED reports of QE infinity.
Sounds pretty desperate ? I’ll keep my powder dry.
Barney in Tanjung Bunga @ #246 Tuesday, March 24th, 2020 – 12:36 pm
So, give a free fridge to every family in China!