My assertion in the previous post that we faced a dry spell on the polling front hadn’t reckoned on Newspoll’s quarterly breakdowns, published today in The Australian. These combine the four Newspoll surveys conducted this year into a super-poll featuring various breakdowns from credible sample sizes (though I’d note that nothing seems to have come of talk that new industry standards would require that such breakdowns be provided in each poll individually, in a new spirit of transparency following the great pollster failure of 2019).
The latest numbers offer some particularly interesting insights into where the Coalition has been losing support over recent months. Whereas things have been reasonably stable in New South Wales (now 50-50 after the Coalition led 51-49 in the last quarter of 2020) and Victoria (where Labor’s lead narrows from 55-45 to 53-47), there have been six-point shifts in Labor’s favour in Western Australia (where the Coalition’s 53-47 lead last time has been reversed) and South Australia (51-49 to the Coalition last time, 55-45 to Labor this time). Labor has also closed the gap in Queensland from 57-43 to 53-47.
It should be noted here that the small state sample sizes are relatively modest, at 628 for WA and 517 for SA, implying error margins of around 4%, compared with around 2.5% for the larger states. I also observed, back in the days when there was enough state-level data for such things to be observable, that state election blowouts had a way of feeding into federal polling over the short term, which may be a factor in the poll crediting Labor with a better result than it has managed at a federal election in WA since 1983.
The gender breakdowns notably fail to play to the script: Labor is credited with 51-49 leads among both men and women, which represents a four-point movement to Labor among men and no change among women. There is also nothing remarkable to note in Scott Morrison’s personal ratings, with deteriorations of 7% in his net rating among men and 8% among women.
Further results suggest the government has lost support more among the young (Labor’s lead is out from 61-39 to 64-36 among those aged 18 to 34, while the Coalition holds a steady 62-38 lead among those 65 and over), middle income earners (a three-point movement to Labor in the $50,000 to $100,000 cohort and four-point movement in $100,000 to $150,000, compared with no change for $50,000 and below and a two-point increase for the Coalition among those on $150,000 and over), non-English speakers (a four-point decline compared with one point for English speakers) and those with trade qualifications (a four-point movement compared with none among the university educated and one point among those without qualifications).
You can find the full results, at least on voting intention, in the poll data feature on BludgerTrack, where you can navigate your way through tabs for each of the breakdowns Newspoll provides for a full display of the results throughout the current term. Restoring a permanent link to all this through my sidebar is part of the ever-lengthening list of things I need to get around to.
I had a conversation with a lady today who’s on the front line (a registered nurse, aged-care, Phase 1a). She has been unable to get the C.19 vaccine, along with most of her colleagues. She was very angry with Morrison & Hunt.
Just for fun
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMF43rm0rg0
I take 3 medications daily – two of which have potentially very serious side effects. Should I stop taking them because from what I’m reading here that is an unacceptable risk, apparently.
Mavis says:
Thursday, April 8, 2021 at 10:32 pm
“I had a conversation with a lady today who’s on the front line (a registered nurse, aged-care, Phase 1a). She has been unable to get the C.19 vaccine, along with most of her colleagues. She was very angry with Morrison & Hunt.”
She’s clearly either misinformed, not very smart or virulently anti-LNP like many here because the Federal Government isn’t running the State vaccination programs. It’s her State Government and hospital management that is responsible for her.
The choice is yours, Buce.
I’m comfortable with whatever decision you make.
Apparently.
Well I’m getting my A-Z next Tuesday so if this is the end it’s been fun knowing yuawl
Mavis
“I had a conversation with a lady today who’s on the front line (a registered nurse, aged-care, Phase 1a). She has been unable to get the C.19 vaccine, along with most of her colleagues. She was very angry with Morrison & Hunt.”
This is why I mentioned Xanthippe’s experience the other night. The hospital she works at (in an attached support unit; no front line patient contact) here in Adelaide was sent more than enough vaccine for all doctors and nurses. So with the spare vaccine doses they decided to vaccinate the entire staff to minimise risk of spread if there was an infection. So Xanthippe got vaccinated even though she is only in category 2. But why were they sent so much vaccine when others don’t have it?
The vaccine rollout is a dog’s breakfast. It isn’t just the inadequate supplies of vaccines they have on hand. The stocks they do have do not appear to be being allocated in a consistent manner across jurisdictions.
Davidwh
For a male over 55 you have a worse chance of death in a car crash on the way to the vaccination centre.
davidwh
I survived 🙂
True Socrates and well done CC.
Tell ’em you vote liberal, or that you object to the animal product component in AZ, and they’ll give you Pfizer.
Apparently, David.
Davidwh
It’s been a pleasure to know you. 🙂
I’m a bit torn at the moment. Like Buce I’m taking a lot of medics that can have bad effects to keep me moving but adding another is a worry.
Bucephalus:
You should continue to take them and (I presume) continue to get advice from the specialist (or GP?) who prescribed them, who is presumably expert in monitoring for side effects indicative of potential for serious adverse events.
Likewise, population segments who have particular vulnerability to COVID vaccine side effects and/or COVID (the other side of the risk equation) should be receiving the COVID vaccine most appropriate to them, under the supervision of the medical specialist most familiar with the course of their conditions (i.e. who knows what’s normal). Depending on what the condition is, this will be a cardiologist, endocrinologist, oncologist, haematologist, etc (someone medical i.e. FRACP not FRACS and thus more expert with drugs than with cutting). Currently we have a situation where the COVID risk (both of COVID and of COVID Vax side effects) has been outsourced to GPs (and not a given patient’s actual GP) to act as dispensers. Furthermore, without control over which vax is dispensed – instead a lucky dip.
I suspect that COVID dispensing GPs presented with complicated patients for whom they are not the actual GP has either :
– a lot of homework to do to understand complicated medical history (and not being paid for said homework), or
– a serious ethical problem in providing the vaccine dispensing
Both are exacerbated if the dispensing doctor has no control over which vax is dispensed.
Has the Commonwealth furnished vax dispensing GPs with a waiver?
The trouble is that I don’t find Scomo ttustworthy.
Danama Papers says Thursday, April 8, 2021 at 9:24 pm
Try the podcast 13 Minutes to the Moon. It’s excellent (and so is the second series which covers Apollo 13).
Lizzie says Thursday, April 8, 2021 at 11:05 pm
That’s ok, it’s been reported that most of his colleagues don’t either.
davidwh @ #1505 Thursday, April 8th, 2021 – 10:42 pm
♫ Chances are ♪ your chances ♫ are awfully ♪ good ♫♪♫♪
bc @ #1515 Thursday, April 8th, 2021 – 9:37 pm
Will do. Thanks for the tip off.
There’s going to be an epidemic of (normal) brain CAT scans on people who get a headache after having the AZ vaccine now.
lizzie:
Without being a medico (just an allied health wannabe), my own experience with one type of the clots mentioned (cerebral venous sinus thrombosis) is that it can leave you with lasting effects (‘residual deficits’) even if it is treated ‘early’ – as it was in my case. I got to the ER as it was happening, and had a venous infarct, i.e. a stroke.
While I recovered quickly (returned to work 6 weeks later), I wasn’t able to drive for 9 months afterwards, due to the clot causing a seizure (6 months of epilepsy meds + 3 months without a seizure after stopping them). Fifteen years later, I still have slightly reduced sensation in my left arm (i.e. it is permanent). I also feel like I am more forgetful (with immediate/short-term memory) than I was before this happened, though it’s not to the point that it has a significant impact on my life.
While such clots have obviously been rare with the AZ jab, they can still lead to permanent neurological deficits, even if treated early. Not something 99.9999% of people need to worry about, but when you have alternative vaccines to use, is it worth the minuscule risk?
Diogenes:
In one of “lump of asbestos found in the air con” incidents at the Uni (of Adelaide) in the 1990s, the Arts Faculty started a protest demanding everyone get a chest X-ray.
So they packed a large lecture theatre full of staff, wheeled in a radiologist who looked liked he was about 150, who basically said “I’ve lived to be 150 without having a chest X-ray, I’m not having one now, you’re not either, anyone who thinks otherwise is an idiot, so there!” And that was that…
Probably.
I don’t normally get headaches, but had an intense one right where the clot was 4 days before it caused a stroke (headache is not a normal stroke symptom, but is for CVST). But it came and went quickly. It was unlike any other headache I have had, though. My main ‘brain’ symptom was feeling dizzy, lightheaded and disorientated.
Captain Fuckup and his F Troop government stumble headfirst into another day.
Episode after episode!
Although Pell was acquitted on appeal, it wasn’t really a “legal technicality”, a nuance, or an esoteric point that got him acquitted. It was a 7-nil nuclear bomb let off under the prosecution’s case, the trial judge and the Victorian Supreme Court.
What freed Pell was the High Court finding unanimously that if the prosecution’s case as presented was all the prosecution had, no jury had a right to find Pell guilty, and that neither this case nor any other case based on the same alleged incidents should ever again be tried against him.
No mere retrial was ordered to let another jury have a listen to a prosecution case with the wrinkles ironed out of it. It was a unanimous acquittal, a legal thrashing of the prosecution’s strategy and their case by the High Court.
Strike “legal technicality” and make it “legal sledgehammer” and you’d be a lot closer to the mark.
Allen Cheng, co-chair of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation, chair of the Advisory Committee on Vaccines and deputy chief health officer in Victoria, has just tweeted an extended thread offering insight into ATAGI’s AZ statement a few hours ago. The entire thread is recommended reading.
On balance, the justifications offered in the thread – understandably, in the sense that major faux pas are almost always sought to be justified, in my experience – represent a continued reluctance to acknowledge Australia’s inexplicable and inappropriately narrow-from-the-outset vaccine selection, procurement and manufacture strategies. So far, not unexpected.
More substantively, and concerningly, apparently yet more precious time will need to pass before the sunk costs and lost opportunity costs of these strategies are accepted and appropriately transitioned away from.
Again, reading the whole of Professor Cheng’s thread is highly recommended. Especially its extended, illuminating and intrinsically disturbing discussion of ‘risk benefit analysis’ and ‘patient autonomy’ relative to younger Australians.
As might be expected, towards the thread’s end, amorphous reference is made to the Morrison Government amorphously ‘being in constant communications with vaccine manufacturers’, although ‘it’s no secret that there is global competition for available vaccines, and we have secured enough Pfizer for 40% of the population over the remainder of the year.’
Expected, too, the statement that ‘we have access to some more vaccine via COVAX, and Novavax hopefully coming later in the year subject to regulatory approvals and supply.’
Professor Cheng does acknowledge: ‘There’s no question that this decision [re AZ for over-50s] will slow things down’, adding ‘having onshore capacity to produce vaccine is very valuable.’
The thread concludes by noting ‘So over the next few days, Commonwealth and state governments will be working out how the program will look in the coming weeks and months. But because we’re thankfully not dealing with ongoing COVID outbreaks, we can make this choice to take a safer path.’
Again, mostly expected. Mostly mundanely justificatory.
Expected, if disappointingly, are the thread’s telling omissions.
The thread does not address why all Australians can’t have access to, say, Pfizer. Nor does it discuss Moderna. Or relative vaccine efficacies. It does not discuss why any discussion of ‘risk benefit analysis’ relative to AZ or of restricting AZ by age would be unnecessary if all Australians could exercise ‘patient autonomy’ with a selection of the most efficacious vaccines.
Nor, unfortunately, does it suggest that Australia will be pulling out all the stops and purchasing Pfizer and Moderna to cover all Australians as a matter of urgency. (Again, it seems worth noting that Moderna is the most expensive at around $40/course, so around $1 billion to cover 25 million Australians. Cheap at the cost. Cheap at twice the cost. Pfizer, of course, is less expensive again.)
There is no reference either to Australia now determining to back mRNA-based local production.
Overall, with what is now known publicly about the state of possible vaccines, the thread is both esoterically interesting and, pragmatically, very deeply concerning. Interesting for its publication and the PR points it seeks to convey. Concerning for its same old, same old erroneous strategic adherence.
Most of all, however, the thread’s abjectly unedifying and fundamentally disingenuous attempt to shift responsibility for inappropriate vaccine selection from the Morrison Government onto Australia’s younger, most mobile population cohorts under the guise of ‘patient autonomy’ needs to understood.
As Professor Cheng tweets in his thread:
How is that a choice? Much less the basis for an informed decision?
Above all, why has the thread omitted discussing the implications of the majority of Australians being funnelled towards ‘choosing’ a lesser-efficacy, less resilient to variants vaccine in anticipation of our borders opening?
300 million in the USA, 0.5 million are dead, that is 1 in 500 chance of being in the cemetery. 1 in 200000 of getting a blood clot seems like pretty good odds to me.
That aside in 6 weeks there will be excess vaccine supply because the USA will be finished.
Bucephalus says:
Thursday, April 8, 2021 at 10:38 pm
…..
She’s clearly either misinformed, not very smart or virulently anti-LNP like many here because the Federal Government isn’t running the State vaccination programs. It’s her State Government and hospital management that is responsible for her.
I assume this is just another LNP talking point and you know it is bullshit. Can’t vaccinate without vaccine. We have had years of Morrison promising stuff and not delivering. This time it effects everyone. Front of the queue bullshit was exactly that, bullshit.
Thanks for the Dr Cheng thread, Eunoe. 🙂
Good morning.
What we saw last night with the ATAGI advice was a strong return to sensible risk management in relation to COVID after more than a year of what has been, at times, a rather over the top response by health officials.
As I have posted a number of times previously, I consider that the global response to COVID by health officials got off to a very good start. It looked likely at the time, at a population level, that the rate of serious illness among infected people was in the order of 2-3%. Assuming a wide spread of the virus, this was beyond the capacity of ICUs in most western nations (let alone third world ones) to deal with. So a total lockdown of all but essential human activity seemed an appropriate and proportionate approach.
ICUs were overwhelemed, or came close to being so, in some places (parts of North Italy, Spain, the UK and the US among others). But, over time, it became clearer and clearer that most of the people at greatest risk of becoming seriously ill with coronavirus were the very old (80+) and/or those with significant underlying conditions. Case management improved, numbers of vulnerable people becoming ill fell, and the threat of the disease overwhelming health systems basically went away in places that had adequate health systems (ie, not India) and had adopted good disease management practices (ie, not Brazil).
But, in much of the western world, the change in circumstances didn’t lead to a significant lessening of the risk assessed by public health officials. Many places have not yet achieved a full return to school, even though the risk of contagion and serious illness among children is known to be pretty low. Face masks abound, even though the evidence that they make much of a difference is slight. Some jurisdictions – eg WA – slam down borders in response to one new case in a state with more than 5 million residents: try calculating the additional risk to the average WA citizen in that circumstance. It’s bugger all.
Now we have an objective assessment of the actual risks of COVID to most Australians from a somewhat different perspective. ATAGI has been tasked with assessing the proportionate risk of the known, but rare, side-effects of the AstraZeneca vaccine. And, taking account of the current spread of the virus and its likely impact on younger people, and weighing that against a side-effect that kills around 1 in a million, it’s decided that the COVID risk is less concerning. Two weeks ago Canada, where the virus is still spreading much more rapidly than in Australia, made the same decision for under 55s. On the other hand, Europe, where the spread is still much more concerning that in Australia and Canada, is umming and ahhing but eventually might well continue with rolling it out to anyone. And that’s because the risk of the virus in Europe is much higher than in Australia.
So good on ATAGI for firmly putting the risk of COVID into perspective. There is no great rush for most under-50s to receive any vaccine: be it AstraZeneca or Pfizer. So why put anyone at risk of unnecessarily dying from blood clots, even though it’s a relatively low risk?
I’m not certain whether or not it’s fair to criticise the Federal Government for not having foreseen that the Astra Zeneca vaccine would have these risks. I think it probably is fair to say that the Feds have done a pretty lousy job at providing simple and transparent process for rolling out any vaccine.
Very good point, Mr Newbie:
To which I might add to your neurological symptomatology, after I had a headache to go with everything else last week, I had double vision for days, which made driving impossible. Not that I had the energy.
meher baba,
You’re just plain wrong about wearing a mask.
meher baba
1 in 600 Americans died. Your analysis is wrong on so many levels. The ATAGI advise was for a country that has it under control.
Morrison’s failure was not in losing lives, the states prevented that. Morrison’s failure increases the time it will take to return to normal economic activity. For someone who wanted to kill us off for the economy it is a pretty significant failure.
c@tmomma: “meher baba,
You’re just plain wrong about wearing a mask.”
Face masks are important when people are regularly in spaces where there is a reasonable chance of COVID-infected people being present. There is no clear evidence that wearing face masks in casual public interactions – on the street, in shops, etc. – does a great deal to reduce the risk of the disease spreading. People I know who work in the health system say that pretty much all transmissions in Australia have been in the context of “close contact”.
This is why Fauci and the WHO doctors and other experts initially played down the idea of everyone wearing face masks. Then it became clear that face masks were quite popular and made many ordinary people feel safer in their daily life, in a context in which the risk to them personally of COVID had arguably been consistently overstated. So health officials then got on board with face masks.
There is no doubt that COVID is an extremely nasty illness for those who are vulnerable to it. But, we now have an authoritative, objective assessment of its potential risk in Australia on 9 April 2021 to people under 50, and that is, less than the risk of a 1 in a million chance of dying of blood clots.
I find that interesting in the context of the immense disruption that governments have made to the lives of millions of Australians under the age of 50.
Tropical Cyclone Seroja continues to strengthen
https://edition.cnn.com/videos/weather/2021/04/08/tropical-cyclone-seroja-flooding-landfall-western-australia-indonesia-rain-wind.cnn
A heavyweight Victorian industry round-table has cast some light on the tough – and sometimes delicate – job state government officials have to try to help big and small businesses stay on top of their QR code check-in requirements.
A phone hookup organised by the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions on Thursday last week was brought to a temporary standstill when some smaller businesses on the line aired concerns about the requirement for all customers to sign in using a mobile phone.
One business owner who owns a rather successful Melbourne brothel told department officials of his problems navigating the QR code check-in requirements considering his business’ clients “didn’t usually carry mobile phones”. Another business owner who runs a well-frequented men’s sauna piped up in support, telling the phone hookup that many of his clients didn’t actually own a mobile phone – interpreted by the others on the call as a code for a clientele who like to do things discreetly. Lucky it wasn’t on Zoom given several executives on the line representing larger corporates including BHP, NAB and several consulting firms remained silent, presumably unsure where to look after learning about some of the more intimate operating details of smaller businesses.
But if the convenor of the call – the department’s executive director of its industry recovery program Joseph Lawrence – was fazed by the curly questions, he didn’t let on. He responded that he would confer with his officials and returned to the call seconds afterwards to let the business owners know that, in some circumstances, paper sign-in would suffice – so long as the customers were prepared to fill in their details accurately.
Odds are Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck will be making appearances at both establishments this week.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/cbd-brothel-sauna-protest-forcing-customers-to-use-qr-check-in-codes-20210408-p57hko.html
😉
This is good:
https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/an-international-embarrassment-biden-announces-gun-violence-plan-20210409-p57hoq.html
Full marks to Biden for having a go at this much needed area of reform. But it’s unfortunate that the strength of his argument for gun control has been somewhat undermined by the unhelpful politicisation of law and order issues by many of his fellow party members: defund the police, etc. The most recent and most silly example being the outcry by a number of radical Dems against the Boulder mass shooter as being “another instance of toxic white male behaviour”, until it became clear that the guy was actually an Islamist Syrian migrant from Syria.
A really good policy response to the current US situation would be a comprehensive strategy for addressing gun violence, armed gangs, psychoapthic mass shooters, etc, in which politicians worked closely with the criminal justice system, academic experts and others: including police forces, who are generally strong supporters of greater gun control. In this context, Biden would have some hope of getting enough moderate Republicans and moderate Democrats onside.
But, with the Dems now associated in the minds of many US voters with the idea of no active policing of crime and anarchy on the streets, gun control is going to be a hard sell. It has been claimed that, during 2020, large numbers of university-educated Dem-voting types in cities such as Portland and Minneapolis have gone to gun shops for the first time in their lives and armed themselves to protect their families against what they saw as out of control street violence.
Sadly, I think the US is probably further away from effective gun control in 2021 than it was under Obama or Clinton.
Because we are going to die anyway the interesting figure is the excess death rate.
https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/excess-mortality-across-countries-in-2020/
Easy to pick the countries that struggled. Sweden is interesting, they did quite well.
meher baba,
I would prefer the people and the authorities in Australia function using the Precautionary Principle:
The precautionary principle enables decision-makers to adopt precautionary measures when scientific evidence about an environmental or human health hazard is uncertain and the stakes are high. … To others, it is an approach that protects human health and the environment.
while there is still the possibility that another wave of COVID-19 could be around the corner and the South African and Brazilian Variants exist and the minor, unpredictable outbreaks which are still occurring in Australia, keep occurring.
Only about 1 in 100 people in my neck of the woods is wearing a mask anymore but I’m not prepared to throw mine in the bin just yet. Having just been deathly ill and knowing COVID-19 is exponentially worse, I’m not yet prepared to throw caution to the wind.
frednk: “Because we are going to die anyway the interesting figure is the excess death rate.
https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/excess-mortality-across-countries-in-2020/
Easy to pick the countries that struggled. Sweden is interesting, they did quite well.”
Interestingly, some countries that might have had more capacity than others to restrict movements across borders – eg, Denmark, Finland, Latvia, Iceland and South Korea – have done better than average in 2020: presumably because the reduced amount of human movement prevented the spread of a range of other illnesses, and probably also reduced the risk of death from injury in automobile accidents, etc. This means that the worst-performing countries on the list are probably performing even worse than the figures show.
It would be wonderful to see the figures from Australia and NZ.
Cameron Smith – 4 over after 9 at the Masters. Needs to get a wriggle on. Couple of Par 5’s coming up and needs to take advantage.
c@tmomma: “meher baba,
I would prefer the people and the authorities in Australia function using the Precautionary Principle:”
I’m a strong supporter of the precautionary principle in relation to things like climate change and biodiversity.
But in terms of public health, we seem to be rather inconsistent in our use of the principle: eg, in relation to speed limits, boxing and other body contact sports, etc. It’s a complex issue.
BTW, I’m certainly not criticising you for continuing to wear a face mask. I have Asian friends who wear them in public all winter every winter, and I don’t criticise them either. That’s a case of exercising personal freedom, of which I’m always in favour.
Do any bludgers live in any of the seats that matter federally?
The vibe I have picked up through my interactions with people across the country is that in swing seats and the regions the coalition are about as strong as they normally are but in places where the Libs weren’t really looking like getting up anyway they’re more on the nose than ever. I am starting to suspect this could be a 1998 style win for the coalition.
meher
Your criteria for success seems to be ICUs coping, rather than number of deaths.
‘This is why Fauci and the WHO doctors and other experts initially played down the idea of everyone wearing face masks.’
Not my understanding. There simply weren’t enough face masks available at the time, so the focus was on having enough for high risk situations.
For example, the response of a major regional hospital was to go to Bunnings and buy up anything resembling a mask (including welding goggles). They knew they didn’t have access to the number of masks they would need.
Even mildly recommending masks in a situation where masks weren’t available would have caused panic.
Remember, even when masks were first mandated in some situations, there was a spate of ‘how to make your own’ seminars.
If masks had been adopted because there was social pressure, there would have been no need to mandate their wearing.
meher baba
You have the right to die but you don’t have the right to kill others.
Refer to chart c@tmomma posted.
meher baba,
All good. 🙂
Good morning Dawn Patrollers
Rachel Clun describes the vaccine rollout as in disarray following the restriction on the A-Z product.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/astrazeneca-vaccine-blood-clot-incidents-spark-pfizer-recommendation-for-under-50s-20210408-p57hnd.html
If you weren’t yet willing to concede Australia’s vaccine rollout was a disaster at lunchtime on Thursday, then by dinner time there was little room for debate, says Rob Harris.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/astrazeneca-vaccine-decision-will-have-dramatic-consequences-on-our-daily-lives-20210408-p57ho7.html
Waleed Aly says, “Let’s not panic about Australia’s vaccine rollout … yet”.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/let-s-not-panic-about-australia-s-vaccine-rollout-yet-20210408-p57hf0.html
In the body of this SMH editorial is, “Mr Morrison must take some of the blame for the unrest because he has over-promised but under-delivered and he has not been transparent with the public. While he always qualified his promises about the timetable for vaccination, it was a stretch to claim that Australia was ‘at the front of the queue’”.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/pm-must-give-clearer-guidance-on-vaccine-supplies-20210408-p57hl9.html
Mass vaccination sites will be essential if Australia is to reach herd immunity against COVID-19 by March next year, according to UNSW epidemiologist Mary-Louise McLaws.
https://www.afr.com/policy/health-and-education/vaccination-hubs-essential-for-australia-to-reach-herd-immunity-20210408-p57hjc
Australia could have prepared a more ambitious vaccine strategy than most. Catherine Bennett outlines what went wrong. (This was written just before last night’s A-Z announcement).
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/08/australia-could-have-prepared-a-more-ambitious-vaccine-strategy-than-most-so-what-went-wrong
Scott Morrison and the Coalition keep changing their story on why the Covid vaccine rollout is a debacle. Are they betting the public will be unable to keep up with the rewriting of history? Elizabeth Minter reports on the Government’s world-leading program of false premises. This, too, would have been written before the latest A-Z announcement.
https://www.michaelwest.com.au/public-jabs-multiple-doses-of-lies-spin-and-obfuscation-in-covid-vaccine-roll-out/
The only beneficiary of the unfortunate and avoidable war of words that has erupted between the Prime Minister and the European Union is the Coalition government, says The Canberra Times’ editorial that describes how for Morrison expediency is trumping diplomacy..
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7199826/expediency-trumps-diplomacy-for-pm/?cs=14258
Annika Smethurst writes that Dan Andrews’ injury is prompting colleagues to question his future as premier.
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/andrews-injury-prompts-colleagues-to-question-his-future-as-premier-20210408-p57hlu.html
Katina Curtis tells us that Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins has criticised the federal government for missing an opportunity to overhaul key laws in its response to her landmark Respect@Work report, after it said it wouldn’t fully adopt all the legislative changes.
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/federal-government-announces-overhaul-to-sex-discrimination-act-backs-all-55-recommendations-20210408-p57hf2.html
Michelle Grattan tells us how Scott Morrison is finding strong women can be tough players.
https://theconversation.com/grattan-on-friday-scott-morrison-finds-strong-women-can-be-tough-players-158648
The government’s ‘roadmap’ for dealing with sexual harassment falls short. What we need is radical change, say this group of contributors to The Conversation.
https://theconversation.com/the-governments-roadmap-for-dealing-with-sexual-harassment-falls-short-what-we-need-is-radical-change-158431
Our government is being far too reactive when it comes to violence against women and children and needs to be more proactive, writes Dr Jennifer Wilson.
https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/jennifer-wilson-the-government-needs-to-do-more-to-end-domestic-violence,14967
The tawdry sex scandals plaguing the Morrison Government are drawing attention to its deeper and far more serious problems, writes Michelle Pini.
https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/sex-lies-and-iphone-pics-scott-morrisons-imperfect-storm,14964
Twin tropical cyclones are predicted to clash off the north-west coast of Australia in the coming days in a relatively rare interaction that is exciting weather nerds far and wide.
https://www.smh.com.au/environment/weather/rare-clash-of-tropical-tempests-expected-off-wa-coast-20210408-p57hk7.html
The majority of NSW’s new school builds over the last three years have been determined by government promises and election commitments, rather than priority projects identified by the education department’s infrastructure arm, an audit has found, reports the SMH’s Natassia Chrysanthos.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/new-school-projects-driven-by-election-promises-over-priorities-auditor-general-20210408-p57hi7.html
Michael Pascoe says it’s a curious thing when the nation’s main newspapers go to the effort of a major four-part series that gives most readers the impression that Australia’s domestic economic problems are all the Reserve Bank’s fault. He says that, with the government pledging radical fiscal consolidation over the next three years and the sometimes difficult relationship between the governor and the Treasurer, the government can be relied on to deflect blame for problems.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/finance-news/2021/04/09/rba-great-deflection-pascoe/
Ben Packham reports that Peter Dutton says his top priority as Defence Minister is repairing an ADF-wide morale slump that has followed the Brereton report, reassuring the nation’s serving men and women that “the government has their back”.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/defence/peter-dutton-tells-troops-weve-got-your-back/news-story/5165aa86d80184d2dc4c4a44fd212d09
Since the 1980s, the supply of money has been increasing but its velocity has decreased, resulting in less productive investment and a dramatic increase in financial speculation, explains Stephen Bartholomeusz.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/the-cash-conundrum-there-s-more-money-around-but-it-changes-hands-less-often-20210408-p57hhr.html
Elizabeth Knight reckons Rio Tinto is bracing for the shareholder mob armed with their voting pitchforks.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/rio-braces-for-the-shareholder-mob-armed-with-their-voting-pitchforks-20210408-p57hkx.html
Mattew Knott tells us that Joe Biden has announced a series of policies aimed at curbing gun violence in the US, a phenomenon the President described as an “epidemic” and “international embarrassment”. Of course, the NRA has come out with all guns blazing!
https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/an-international-embarrassment-biden-announces-gun-violence-plan-20210409-p57hoq.html
Shane Wright explains how the world’s richest nations including Australia are on track to agree by the middle of the year on a new way to tax multinational businesses to halt “unfettered tax competition” that could leave countries struggling to pay for vital infrastructure and services.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/global-company-tax-overhaul-on-track-as-us-presses-for-minimum-rate-20210408-p57hgf.html
The Australian says that the Morrison government has confirmed it is working on a back-up plan to keep Sanjeev Gupta’s Whyalla steelworks afloat, after a move by creditors to seize control of his local industrial operations.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/mining-energy/canberra-mulls-whyalla-steelworks-rescue-plan-if-sanjeev-gupta-falls/news-story/c998b94c7e55ca0677a11ff0e5279c74
Paul Karp provides another chapter in the Andrew Laming saga, this time revealing that he wrote to schools in his electorate using his Liberal MP letterhead to request early Naplan data for private research for his doctoral thesis, prompting a complaint from the teachers’ union.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/apr/09/schools-in-andrew-lamings-electorate-told-his-request-for-naplan-data-was-inappropriate
And Madonna King has written a resignation letter for Laming.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/opinion/2021/04/09/andrew-laming-resignation-letter/
John Lord provides us with an idealist’s view of a democratic society.
https://theaimn.com/an-idealists-view-of-a-democratic-society/
To fix Australia’s housing affordability crisis, negative gearing must go, argues Richard Holden.
https://theconversation.com/vital-signs-to-fix-australias-housing-affordability-crisis-negative-gearing-must-go-158518
AustralianSuper chief Ian Silk has accused the Morrison government of introducing “sovereign risk” to the $3 trillion superannuation system as the trade union-linked industry super movement puts up its strongest defence yet to the slated reforms of the sector.
https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/ideological-fervour-gone-mad-ian-silk-on-super-reforms-20210408-p57hio
According to the AFR, employers are saying moves by the Morrison government to make sexual harassment a sackable offence do not go far enough, and they want a rewriting of unfair dismissal laws to enshrine a zero-tolerance approach that would rule out compensation or reinstatement of offenders.
https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/overhaul-to-make-it-easier-to-fire-workplace-sex-pests-20210408-p57hel
Jasper Lindell writes that a new study has found High Court justices are more likely to find in favour of the federal government while the prime minister who appointed them remains in office.
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7199116/study-shows-high-court-justices-favour-their-appointing-pm/?cs=14329
Mike Foley writes that Australia’s foremost coral reef scientist Professor Terry Hughes says government plans to restore the Great Barrier Reef are doomed to failure because they’re too small and expensive, while the rate of catastrophic bleaching events are already recurring faster than corals can recover.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/reef-on-path-to-destruction-and-clever-science-can-t-fix-it-20210407-p57h5i.html
Nick Toscano reports that the head of Origin Energy says state governments must explore ways to spur private investment in new projects to plug gaps in the market as their plans to increase renewable power force an early exit of coal.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/origin-boss-warns-investment-needed-to-plug-power-gaps-as-coal-exits-20210408-p57hiz.html
What in the hell is going on in Belfast? We have just seen the fourth night of rioting there.
https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/leaders-call-for-calm-after-fourth-night-of-rioting-in-belfast-20210408-p57hms.html
After the fall of the Trump Administration, the GOP is making new efforts to regain power by gaming the system, explains George Grundy.
https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/the-republican-effort-to-reclaim-power-and-threaten-american-democracy,14962
Fergus Hunter writes about a charming couple whose actions have earned them nomination for “Arseholes of the Week”.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/cherrybrook-husband-and-wife-arrested-for-allegedly-running-guns-and-drugs-20210408-p57hjk.html
Caroon Corner
David Pope
Alan Moir
David Rowe
Andrew Dyson
John Shakespeare
Matt Golding
Cathy Wilcox
Glen Le Lievre
Mark David
Mark Knight
Johannes Leak
Reg Lynch
From the US
Getting the vaccine in Australia is now not so much a health issue (due to the low chance of contracting it locally) but an economic one.
When international travel becomes a Thing again, countries where everyone is vaccinated will be more attractive than those where vaccination rates are low.
If Australia is behind the ‘rest of the world’ when it comes to rolling out the vaccine, this will have real and ongoing economic impacts.
For example, if I were an Asian student looking at studying in a Western university, and all of the UK and US have had their jabs whilst Australia is still getting on with it, the likelihood is that I’ll go to one of the other countries for my education, rather than waiting until Australia sorts itself out.
mb
You are over-generalising. It’s not AZ vs COVID in isolation. The risks are considered in an environment where other options are also available (and being used) to control the spread of the virus, from behavioural/physical (distancing, lockdown, masks, etc) to availability of other vaccines.
Yes, zoomster, you are right about it now having become an economic issue.
boerwar @ #1389 Thursday, April 8th, 2021 – 8:05 pm
BW – apart from an entry in your medicare vaccination records did you get a paper record verifying your vaccination ?
I opted out of My Health Record or whatever its called and cannot access my medicare vaccination records.
fREDNK
To the non Nordic nations , yep but not when compared to the Nordic mob.