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Sierra Madre
Dec 24, 2011

But getting to it. That's not the hard part.

It's letting go.
The problem with the Scott Morrison Spotify story is that even his "surprising" picks are not that surprising. Oh no, he put a song from 1992 in a playlist for songs from the seventies, drat, call a spill right now. It would have been more entertaining if we found out he listens to Death in June.

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Sierra Madre
Dec 24, 2011

But getting to it. That's not the hard part.

It's letting go.
There's a possibility that Labor gently caress up between now and the federal election - that's still a year away, they've got time - but I think there's a few state elections that are guaranteed victories. I think the only way they lose Victoria is if we find out that Daniel Andrews really did break his back trying to sacrifice a baby at an adrenachrome party.

Enough resentment at NSW's Liberal state government for loving up the initial response to this newest outbreak and the federal government for loving up the vaccine rollout (not just quantity issues, but all the uncertainty over who should get what) isn't going away, especially if this pattern of rolling lockdowns continues into next year. I don't know what the reaction is like in other parts of the country but I've definitely heard people talk about this outbreak and lockdown like Berejiklian personally flew over here to cough all over our economy. I don't see how that doesn't impact how people will view the Coalition as we get closer to the election, barring some kind of Liberal miracle.

Sierra Madre
Dec 24, 2011

But getting to it. That's not the hard part.

It's letting go.

See, this makes me think that we probably will be in rolling lockdowns up to the election, because this comes across as desperately scrambling to cover for a lack of new doses that can meet our current demand. The PM is trying to get doctors to say that AstraZeneca is better than we think, and that tells me that we're not getting more Pfizer anytime soon.

Sierra Madre
Dec 24, 2011

But getting to it. That's not the hard part.

It's letting go.

SuddenCactus posted:

Nah it's because he said it was alright for younger people the other week and now he's trying to bully the ATAGI into agreeing with him.

Yes, but why would he say it's alright for younger people in the first place, in the face of changing opinions from medical experts?

Sierra Madre
Dec 24, 2011

But getting to it. That's not the hard part.

It's letting go.

hooman posted:

:killing:
/
:qq:

EDIT: gently caress this loving arsehole, the second he gets the vaccine he's crying about how unfair it is that he's not allowed to travel and spray covid over all the unvaccinated people who haven't even had the loving OPPORTUNITY to get vaccinated. Not all of this article is bullshit, but gently caress me the loving whining and entitlement.

The assumption here is that if everyone has done the right thing then we'd all have 110% vaccination rates and our nation's concerts, pool parties and orgies could resume. What this article fails to grapple with is that the slow vaccine adoption is mostly up to the lack of supply coupled with the confusing and contradictory messaging about who gets what supply. Even if everyone acted exactly how the writer wants, access to the vaccine has been limited to a significant section of the population; we would all end up in lockdown again anyway.

Of course, that would require fault aimed at the government, and we can't actually do anything about that. Do you think people are willing to protest about a vaccine when the virus is still in the streets? It's much easier to browbeat people who haven't yet got the jab, just don't think about why that might be the case.

Sierra Madre
Dec 24, 2011

But getting to it. That's not the hard part.

It's letting go.

freebooter posted:

Curfew back in Melbourne. People on Twitter loving hate it but I've never seen the big deal. Like yes it kinda sucks you can't go for a jog at 10pm or whatever but life is already at 95% suck so why not crank it up a tiny bit further if it might help us get out of lockdown sooner?

Because the escalation of restrictions presume we're not getting out of this sooner. This was only supposed to be one week, after all. The more weeks and the more restrictions that are added onto it make it worse, give the impression that we're nowhere near done, even if the restrictions affect something you wouldn't normally do.

Sierra Madre
Dec 24, 2011

But getting to it. That's not the hard part.

It's letting go.
I wasn't able to make a booking for the vaccine in time on Wednesday (stuck at work) and now there's seemingly no appointments available in Melbourne. Anyone had any success with walk-ins or is it best to keep refreshing the page in the hopes that something opens up?

Sierra Madre
Dec 24, 2011

But getting to it. That's not the hard part.

It's letting go.

JBP posted:

I've given up any hope for 0 because of NSW. It's not possible imo. Also 200 days of lockdown doesn't feel true because we popped in and out, you never have any confidence and we are over a full year doing it at this point. I don't blame anyone in Vic for being so tired they throw their hands in the air.

The problem here is that 0 cases is the reality for states like QLD, WA - pretty much everywhere that isn't NSW or VIC. It's going to be an extremely hard sell for states where 0 cases is the norm to accept some COVID. It's equally a hard sell for states currently in lockdown to accept these lockdowns indefinitely - and right now, they are indefinite. NSW is hosed, and VIC just seems to be hanging around the 70-90 range. I don't think vaccinations are going to solve that. Your first shot provides a limited amount of protection, you need at least two to be considered properly vaccinated, and there's a two-month long waiting list at some distribution centres. If we are, as someone upthread suggested, in lockdown so we can limit the amount of cases while everyone gets vaxxed up, then we're in lockdown for the rest of the year.

I think what frustrates me most is how little recourse we have. This is absolutely a failure of state and federal governments, but there's nothing we can really do about it. It's been a source of frustration for me seeing anti-lockdown protests and thinking that they're basically the only people left with any political will. Sure, it's destructive and only serves to justify prolonged lockdowns, but they see where things are going and they are trying to act against it. What the gently caress is anyone who's pissed off at the Morrison or Berejiklian governments doing about it? What can we do about it?

Sierra Madre
Dec 24, 2011

But getting to it. That's not the hard part.

It's letting go.

Periphery posted:

I don't think the message that Dan was hoping to push yesterday (gotta keep going with lockdown to keep it under control) will work. I think people will have just given up and start doing whatever they think they need to to look after themselves. The lockdown fatigue is real and for a lot of people this probably feels like we've wasted all that time for nothing.

Well, we did waste all that time!

Don't forget that the stated purpose of the lockdowns was to drive cases to 0, or worst case to a manageable figure in the single digits. This worked on multiple occasions, so whatever fatigue was felt could be pushed through in the knowledge that it could work again. That was why this lockdown went ahead with the public's (annoyed) blessing. But cases have only increased since the beginning of this lockdown, and the Andrews government has now said that 0 cases is no longer possible. People are going to feel betrayed and frustrated, and some (impossible now to say how many) will say 'gently caress it then, let's open it all up.'

Now, the lockdown has prevented this from blowing up to NSW levels, but that is a consolation prize - one we're likely to throw away once things start to open up, vaccine or no.

Sierra Madre
Dec 24, 2011

But getting to it. That's not the hard part.

It's letting go.

alf_pogs posted:

i don't think you're particularly arguing this, but i think the idea that the lockdowns have been wasted time is a bit of an oversimplified one. given where we are now it feels that way for sure, and we're currently enduring some of the most brutal political spin about the benefit-to-cost of lockdowns, but lives have definitely been saved by effectively postponing this nightmare for as long as we can. that makes it worthwhile i think.

what absolutely was wasted by the fed libs was the benefit that lockdowns bought us, which was time - time to get on top of vaccination rates, establish decent quarantine facilities, basically do anything.

I won't deny that the lockdown has positive effects. Things would be much worse if we hadn't, or if we had gone with the half-hearted attempts of NSW (and, let's not forget, VIC's first big lockdown last year!). But the Victorian state government has instituted lockdowns where daily case figures were driven back down to 0. By sheer will and persistence, enough Victorians went hikikomori and were able to emerge from that months-long hibernation into a relatively safer environment. That is, I believe, the expectation that the Victorian public had when we entered this new lockdown.

We now know that was an impossible dream. Now, even if it meant that only 100 people a day get sick rather than ten times that figure, I think it does damage public trust in lockdowns if they do everything right and it still doesn't work. Call them victims of their own success. It's still early yet but if we do get past this with enough vaccinations, I think Victorians are going to be much more hostile to future lockdowns. Given how this epidemic has been going, I'm pretty sure we're guaranteed another one after this.

So when I say that this was a waste of time, I'm not denying that we're better off with the lockdown than without it - but I think that the general perspective of Victorians going forward is 'we've done the right thing and it still all went wrong.' People already feel powerless in the face of this virus, and this makes it so much worse.

And I won't argue with you regarding the lack of federal response. That was and is a complete failure to act, shirking their responsibilities and putting it all on the states, and that failure should not be forgotten or forgiven as long as they continue to insist on opening up without ever addressing their inadequate response.

Sierra Madre
Dec 24, 2011

But getting to it. That's not the hard part.

It's letting go.

dr_rat posted:

Just anecdotally people I've been talking to in QLD are far more pissed off at NSW government then the Federally government. With Scott most people just seem to have a, "yeah, he's a bit poo poo, but most politicians are" type deal. There seems to just be heaps of people really, really pissed off with Gladys though.

I mean Morrison never seemed to have much personal approval to begin with, so him doing a poo poo job I think in a lot of peoples minds is just what they expected when they voted for him the first place.

Last 10 years of federal politics fuckery has really worn a lot of people out.

In addition, I think the barely-present federal response to COVID meant a lot of attention was focused on the state level, with premiers leading their own individual response. Over time it has become a state issue, not a federal one. People are pissed at Berejiklian because her state government horrifically botched their response, affecting both her state and others around NSW. Far less people are pissed at Morrison because, on a subconscious level, they don't read COVID as being a federal matter outside of vaccines - even then, their job (or at least how they've defined it by example) is only to acquire it and hand it over to the states.

Sierra Madre
Dec 24, 2011

But getting to it. That's not the hard part.

It's letting go.

gay picnic defence posted:

drat right it’s on the nose, should’ve been going full cop nation on the cunts. Batons, tear gas, the works. Good opportunity to test out the hospital surge capacity.


Hundreds of people are going to die unnecessarily because people can’t follow the really simple loving rules and thousands more are going to have lifelong issues as a result of infection. We should be treating people who do poo poo like this like the murderers they are.

It's going to be cool in however many years when the first world has mostly suppressed COVID while it runs rampant in the third world and people still talk like this.

"Mate, Border Force had to firebomb those boats. Have you seen their Omega variant numbers? They should've just stayed in their country, got the jab and suppressed the virus there, don't ruin it for everyone who did the right thing."

Sierra Madre
Dec 24, 2011

But getting to it. That's not the hard part.

It's letting go.

There's some questioning how many people there are legit CFMEU members.

https://twitter.com/tom_tanuki/status/1439780040565084162?s=21

Sierra Madre
Dec 24, 2011

But getting to it. That's not the hard part.

It's letting go.

Solemn Sloth posted:

Call me crazy but I reckon using emergency public health powers to shut down an industry in retaliation for a protest is probably a bad thing.

It's an absurd overreach of state authority - the second in the past week, don't forget locking down public transport - particularly when the protest in question was probably deeply astroturfed. I have no idea what they are thinking.

Sierra Madre
Dec 24, 2011

But getting to it. That's not the hard part.

It's letting go.

Infinitum posted:

Holy gently caress how did Melbourne just spike to 1438 cases? I thought you were locked down like us :psyduck:

The jump is huge, but I'm sadly not that surprised. Compliance has been steadily decreasing once people realised that the lockdown wasn't bringing cases down like before (of course, non-compliance will only bring cases up; funny how that works), and I'm honestly not sure how much this is all being enforced. We're just slowly giving up.

Though the anti-lockdown protests are making things worse, I'm not sure if they're the primary driver behind this spike in cases. Looking at the recent exposure sites shows a lot of primary schools and early learning facilities. The former is odd because it's school holidays right now, but the latter suggests that it's spreading through the families of essential workers. And there's really not much that we can do about that, if shutting them down is out of the question.

Sierra Madre
Dec 24, 2011

But getting to it. That's not the hard part.

It's letting go.
The counter-argument to 'people just wanna live' is remaining in lockdown to keep our beleaguered state healthcare from collapsing is better than just throwing our hands up and letting this run rampant while the survivors get vaccinated. I agree, but I do think that it ignores that the unspoken agreement between the state and the citizen was an entirely selfish one. 'Stay indoors so you can go outside later' is easier to sell than 'stay indoors so people who are just a number on the news to you don't cough out their lungs in overcrowded hospitals.'

Right now, the current unspoken agreement is 'get vaccinated so you can go outside later,' which is why people are so eager to get a vaccine and more willing to break the rules once they have one. If you wanted to keep people obeying the rules, 'stay indoors so you can get vaccinated so you can go outside later' should be the way to sell it. Anecdotally, I know of a few people who had to rebook their vaccination appointments because they were at one of an ever-increasing number of exposure sites, and they were not happy about it. Emphasising that increasing case numbers decreases your chance of getting vaccinated would encourage more people to stick with restrictions.

(You would then have to deal with people who break the rules once they get double-dosed, or with those who cannot get vaccinated, and if I'm honest I don't really know what the response is there.)

Sierra Madre
Dec 24, 2011

But getting to it. That's not the hard part.

It's letting go.

Lolie posted:

Victoria is about a week away from hitting 70%double dosed and just recorded almost 2300 new cases in 24 hours, I hope there's a plan B.

I'm not quite sure if a Plan B would even work. I don't think Melbourne will put up with any more restrictions without significant backlash. They've already had to move goalposts with the lockdown failing to bring down cases, and hitting the necessary vaccination rates only to be told 'actually cases got too high so we're pushing back the reopening to December' will further damage people's faith in these restrictions.

It's also been disheartening to see only Tier 1 sites getting into the public record. Really does suggest that half of this city is an exposure site, and I don't know why they're not bothering to report it.

Sierra Madre
Dec 24, 2011

But getting to it. That's not the hard part.

It's letting go.

ModernMajorGeneral posted:

Unless you think reporting huge lists of tier 2 sites would scare people into supporting more restrictions (reasonable in theory, but I doubt it), surely your first paragraph answers the second? There's too many sites to check for this info to be useful for individuals to make decisions about isolating themselves and there's no point reporting them if it's not going to inform decisions on changing restrictions.

Good point, it would just be an excessive overload of information. But I think the current reporting is downplaying just how widespread this is becoming. Right now the daily case numbers are just that - numbers. (Obviously if you work in somewhere like a hospital it's more than that, but I'm speaking of the population in averages.) They cover the whole city, but the city is a big place. Reporting on exposure sites help contextualise them. You see exactly how wide it's spreading, how close it is to your doorstep. Without them there's nothing to ground that number, and you're stuck inside thinking that it's the other side of city that's the plague pit keeping you from enjoying life. Anything that gives this virus a geographic location and not just some ethereal thing that's on the news and keeps you indoors will help in diminishing the inevitable backlash if plans change.

Sierra Madre
Dec 24, 2011

But getting to it. That's not the hard part.

It's letting go.

SuddenCactus posted:

Are you telling me that Covid 19 came from the lost continent of Mu?

No, this variant comes from /mu/. Long COVID from this means you get really into Neutral Milk Hotel.

Sierra Madre
Dec 24, 2011

But getting to it. That's not the hard part.

It's letting go.

JBP posted:

I'm an ultra liberal actually.

JBP out here hustlegrinding for that reál.

Sierra Madre
Dec 24, 2011

But getting to it. That's not the hard part.

It's letting go.

ColtMcAsskick posted:

Putting aside rationing based on vaccinations being dumb, in what way is this fascism? I'm curious and I'm sure you have a great explanation

I'll be sympathetic here and say that it's not surprising to see scepticism of governments declaring emergency powers. Plenty of awful laws were proposed and passed without question in the name of public security - remember the metadata retention laws? (They were used during this pandemic!) So I get people's concerns when they hear that the state is extending its reach. I certainly felt, and still kind of feel, uncomfortable with how Victoria just shut down public transportation in response to protests, no matter how moronic I thought those protests were.

Of course, the pandemic is a very real thing, and exactly the thing that require emergency powers. You need to have some executive authority in place to manage a crisis like this. If only our governments hadn't poisoned that well and compromised trust in these matters for quite a few people.

Sierra Madre
Dec 24, 2011

But getting to it. That's not the hard part.

It's letting go.

snoremac posted:

I have my second shot tomorrow this is bullshit.

Same here, friend. Ah well, I hope everyone enjoys their hard-won night out!

Sierra Madre
Dec 24, 2011

But getting to it. That's not the hard part.

It's letting go.

Lolie posted:

And Sydney has a new cluster.

So this and a couple of IRL examples from friends has got me thinking: what is this new freedom in Victoria going to look like over the next six months? Let's say you're out, double-vaxxed and checking in, and you've been told that you've done everything right, which is why you now have the freedom to live life like it's 2019 again. But then something brings you back to the pandemic. Maybe you get told you've been at an exposure site and you have to quarantine again, maybe your child's school has a Tier 1 case and now you have to look after them for two weeks. Maybe you get a breakthrough case and you're stuck in an overburdened hospital. There's just too many ways that this freedom that's just returned can be taken away from you, and I don't see how this isn't going to create problems of non-compliance, further spread of COVID and maybe even another (albeit much smaller) lockdown down the road.

Sierra Madre
Dec 24, 2011

But getting to it. That's not the hard part.

It's letting go.

Yeast posted:

This is changed now (at least in Victoria) your kiddo needs to be tested, but then they're good to go with a negative result. They no longer close whole schools for a single infection

Oh, that's good to know, thank you! I'll have to look that up since I know multiple people who have been hit by that rule.

Sierra Madre
Dec 24, 2011

But getting to it. That's not the hard part.

It's letting go.

freebooter posted:

There's no chance this voter ID poo poo will pass the Senate right?

For anyone not aware:

quote:

Proposed laws that would require eligible voters to show identification before casting a ballot could disenfranchise Indigenous Australians and people experiencing homelessness, advocates have warned.

On Tuesday Guardian Australia revealed the Morrison government will shortly introduce voter identification legislation to crack down on alleged voter fraud.

Labor and the Greens launched stinging rebukes, accusing the government in Senate estimates of pandering to racist constituents and importing US-style voter suppression into Australia.

Under the proposed voter integrity bill, yet to be introduced to parliament, a voter unable to produce ID can still vote if their identity can be verified by another voter, or by casting a declaration vote, which requires further details such as date of birth and a signature.

But opponents warn eligible voters in vulnerable groups may be discouraged or excluded from voting.

quote:

Given One Nation’s support for voter ID laws, the Coalition will need just one vote of the remaining crossbench senators – Stirling Griff, Rex Patrick and Jacqui Lambie – to pass the bill.

Patrick told Guardian Australia he had “no great interest in engaging with the government” on the voter ID bill unless it legislated the Helen Haines model of a national integrity commission.

What a baffling proposal. I mean, we know why this is coming up, but I can't recall any election in the last ten years where voter fraud was even discussed.

Sierra Madre
Dec 24, 2011

But getting to it. That's not the hard part.

It's letting go.

Wizard Master posted:

Coles and Woolies shelves are getting progressively emptier week by week. The supply chain issues are too severe for anyone to ignore at this point and shits about to go south real fast

While I can't speak to supermarkets since I only go to about two and they seem fine, tech was absolutely getting hit with this hard. Months-long delays to get some parts and products. It seems to be getting a little better now, and only affected a limited spread of stuff, but I'm curious if anyone else has had similar experiences.

Sierra Madre
Dec 24, 2011

But getting to it. That's not the hard part.

It's letting go.

KennyTheFish posted:

Can’t see a reason to drop indoor masking in supermarkets and things. But for everyone, not just unvaxed.

My hope is a mask becomes like pants.

This isn't going to happen in the short term. Masks are, right now, a symbol of the pandemic itself, and people eventually want to be free of masks. That is the implicit promise of these campaigns to get people vaccinated: the jab will turn back time, give you your life back. I could see masks being normalised but it would take another severe spike in cases that occurs regardless of vaccination rates to shock people into adopting this as a permanent fixture in their lives.

Sierra Madre
Dec 24, 2011

But getting to it. That's not the hard part.

It's letting go.

abigserve posted:

People unironically holding Trump flags in Australia have a mental illness and I don't mean that in a facetious way. There's literally something wrong with them and they need help

I wouldn't classify it as a mental illness issue, at least not on the individual level. I think that for all the talk of 'fair go' and 'larrikinism', settler Australians don't have any foundation in our national culture. It's a patchwork of symbols and phrases poorly fastened together by an accent. There's barely anything on the surface and nothing beneath it. What values are unique to us, what themes and aesthetics are exclusively and identifiably (again, settler) Australian? Bereft of any unique culture through which we can filter cultural influence from the outside world, we just absorb that influence. Being a predominately anglophone country, our geographic proximity towards America relative to the other anglophone cultural power in the UK, and the overwhelming dominance of American culture on the internet means that we're primarily influenced by one source.

So of course anyone inclined towards reaction and right wing politics in Australia will start using right-wing cultural touchstones from America. We're not producing anything new over here, and honestly we're not even trying!

(In fairness, this goes both ways: there's a reason why protests over the treatment of indigenous citizens in incarceration emerge after the protests over George Floyd's murder kick off in America. You and I are not immune to this.)

Sierra Madre
Dec 24, 2011

But getting to it. That's not the hard part.

It's letting go.
What will happen with Queensland's border and new vaccination rules in December?

quote:

Changes to Queensland's border restrictions and vaccination mandates are expected in December.

There are two key changes to look out for: The border reopening and the vaccination mandate for businesses and venues.

People will be able to enter Queensland when 80 per cent of the Queensland population aged over 16 have had two doses of vaccine — this is expected between December 6 and 12.

The new rules for businesses will come into effect on December 17, regardless of how early we hit the 80 per cent target.

Here's how some of the changes will look.

What happens when 80 per cent of eligible Queenslanders are fully vaccinated?

When Queensland hits the 80 per cent target, domestic travellers will be allowed to enter Queensland from hotpots, but there are restrictions in place.

To enter from a hotspot, a person must be fully vaccinated and have a negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours prior to arrival.

People entering from areas that are not hotspots have no restrictions.

Where has Queensland declared COVID-19 hotspots?

Hotspots include the Australian Capital Territory, all of New South Wales, Katherine and Robinson River in the Northern Territory and all of Victoria.

What will change in Queensland on December 17?

A vaccination mandate will be in place for all staff and guests at a range of businesses and venues from December 17.

This also means there will be no capacity restrictions where only fully vaccinated people attend.

Restricted venues for unvaccinated people include aged care, hospitals, prisons, disability services — however, unvaccinated people can visit for medical treatment, end of life, childbirth or emergency situations.

People must also be vaccinated for hospitality venues, indoor entertainment venues, outdoor entertainment activities (including stadiums and theme parks), museums or galleries.

If a venue is privately hired and unvaccinated people are in attendance, a maximum of 20 people are allowed per one-per-four-square-metres.

Unvaccinated people can still access essential services and activities — including grocery stores, pharmacies, post offices, newsagents and clothing stores.

Will there be a border bubble?

Queensland Health is still working through the specific requirements for people in the border zone for the 80 per cent vaccination milestone.

There will be a border zone in place to ensure all border zone residents, regardless of vaccination status, can continue to enter Queensland for essential purposes once the border opens in December.

A spokesperson says there may also be less testing requirements for fully vaccinated people entering Queensland from the border zone for non-essential reasons.

Essential purposes include purchasing food or essential goods that cannot be obtained in NSW, access to medical care, attending court or to comply with a court order, donating blood, work or volunteering that can't be done at home, schooling, providing assistance to a family member or vulnerable person, shared parenting arrangements, to get help in an emergency.

What happens when Queensland hits the 90 per cent target?

There will be no restrictions to enter Queensland when 90 per cent of the eligible Queensland population is fully vaccinated.

Given how Queensland has avoided the worst of COVID, I'm not convinced that opening up once a vaccination threshold has been met will do anything but depress vaccination efforts. "Get vaccinated to open you and your loved ones up to infection, quarantine and harm."

Sierra Madre
Dec 24, 2011

But getting to it. That's not the hard part.

It's letting go.

SMILLENNIALSMILLEN posted:

right to be a bigot without a membership in the liberal party or a registered religious organization: suspended

parasitic political class final form. liberals are gonna use public money to sue members of the public for cash payouts straight into their own pockets. labors going to complain about not having enough time to analyze the legislation before voting for it anyway

Realistically, wouldn't these companies just prefer to restrict access so no Australians can post? It seems way easier than being on the hook for anything we post there - and none of these companies want to be liable for the stuff on their site, especially now.

Sierra Madre
Dec 24, 2011

But getting to it. That's not the hard part.

It's letting go.

freebooter posted:

The bill is actually just about making it easier for the elite themselves to sue for defo, right? The idea that people won't post heinously offensive poo poo under their real names can be disproved by spending 5 seconds on Facebook

The kind of people who post heinous poo poo under their real names on Facebook aren't likely the kind of people to be sued for defo by a Liberal MP, but point taken, that was phrased incorrectly. I think the part about how companies who own those platforms have to reveal the identity of accounts the court wants them to reveal does suggest that tech companies will now need to take on greater responsibility if they operate here - so while not exactly responsible for what people post, they would now be responsible for knowing who they really are. That has some serious implications for online safety.

I think it's part of a wider project to completely connect who you are in real life and on the internet - no escaping the real world and the "real you" under aliases or new identities or fursonas. Similar to how all those Metaverse presentations show people being turned into Xbox Live avatars of their boring real selves, you'll have to present yourself as who it says you are on official documentation.

Sierra Madre
Dec 24, 2011

But getting to it. That's not the hard part.

It's letting go.
Fair Work Commission just knocked back BHP's vaccination mandate for the Hunter Valley mine:

quote:

Mining giant BHP’s attempt to require all staff at a massive coal mine in the NSW Hunter Valley to be vaccinated against COVID-19 has been rejected by the national industrial tribunal in a blow to all private sector jab mandates.

The Fair Work Commission found BHP had failed to properly comply with its consultation obligations and therefore could not show that its mandate was reasonable.

Except in cases where workers need to get a jab because of public health orders, employers are generally only allowed to mandate vaccines against the coronavirus where they can show it is reasonable, taking into account the risk and benefits of such a move.

BHP is the first company to mandate vaccines and have that decision overturned. All challenges to public sector jab mandates so far have failed.

The commission’s decision does not mean other private sector vaccine mandates, such as at Qantas or Telstra are invalid, but shows they are open to challenge on a case-by-case basis.

BHP’s mandate was challenged by the mining and energy division of the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union, which represents workers at the Mt Arthur mine.

I'm curious what "consultation obligations" mean. How much notice would they need to give their staff? Mines probably wouldn't be subject to the same restrictions as hospitals and schools, but wouldn't they just make their vax-by dates the same dates that are state-mandated for other areas?

Sierra Madre
Dec 24, 2011

But getting to it. That's not the hard part.

It's letting go.

EoinCannon posted:

At this point I don't know if another lockdown would work in Melbourne anyway.
There was pretty bad compliance by the end of the last one

After the last lockdown failed to bring down the daily number of cases (where vaccines only stabilised that number), I would be very surprised if we went into lockdown again. There's no longer any public or political will to do so, and I can only see it happening if Omicron has a much deadlier or debilitating effect than we presently know.

Sierra Madre
Dec 24, 2011

But getting to it. That's not the hard part.

It's letting go.

JBP posted:

Caring about covid is so lame now just move on who cares.

People are doing this! It's bizarre to see people who, not three months ago, were agonising over case numbers in the hundreds, who are now looking at case numbers almost consistently over a thousand and shrug their shoulders. It's certainly something I've caught myself doing.

Sierra Madre
Dec 24, 2011

But getting to it. That's not the hard part.

It's letting go.

freebooter posted:

The classic "vaccines are less effective against symptomatic infection rather than hospitalisation or death from Omicron" trick, never gets old

As long as symptomatic infection carries with it a mandatory period of quarantine, it should absolutely be avoided and the risk alleviated where possible. This was the reason we all got two doses, which we are now being told by medical experts and fancy charts is not particularly effective against this new variant.

Sierra Madre
Dec 24, 2011

But getting to it. That's not the hard part.

It's letting go.

Recoome posted:

what the heck is this

Sorry, I sounded too glib about it. My point is that as long as getting infected requires you to isolate, and as long as there's a variant out there that does a good job at evading the two doses we have, we are going to need those boosters way earlier than six months from your last dose. The current deal between the state and its citizens is that you get to go back to a relatively normal life if you get two doses, and now we have Omicron, which threatens that deal.

I think most people would be receptive to the idea. 'Better one more shot than a lockdown,' they might say, even if we probably need a lockdown in addition to a third dose to actually put a dent in cases.

Sierra Madre
Dec 24, 2011

But getting to it. That's not the hard part.

It's letting go.

Jezza of OZPOS posted:

one thing that kind of irks me is that mcdonalds are supposed to require a proof of vacc (i'm surprised fast food counts as non-essential but whatever) but from what I can tell they have absolutely expended no effort whatsoever to ensure this might even be nominally applied.

For entry or employment? I know that to sit down and eat there you need proof, but I'm surprised that they're not enforcing jab mandates for employees. I just assume that corporate fast food places would have that because they're the only restaurants I've seen in the last month where everyone behind the counter still wears a mask.

Sierra Madre
Dec 24, 2011

But getting to it. That's not the hard part.

It's letting go.

Halo14 posted:

Masks mandated indoors for Victoria at the moment? Does that explain the numbers?

It's mandated for most places indoors, but good luck getting that enforced. Anecdotally, I think compliance for that is around 50%. It might be higher in high-risk places like hospitals, but in shops and workplaces I don't see a lot of them.

Sierra Madre
Dec 24, 2011

But getting to it. That's not the hard part.

It's letting go.

Senor Tron posted:

But yeah, shits hosed, Morrison has likely just definitely lost the election on this based on the many thousands of Christmasses cancelled.

I'm currently waiting outside for a COVID test, having been notified late last night that I attended an exposure site five days before. The line has spilled out of the hospital, wrapping around the block. I've been here for about fifteen minutes. Behind me, there's another fifty people. In front of me, another fourty in this straight line, who knows how many more around the corner into the hospital itself. We're all close together; there's no room to space ourselves out. We've been making progress, but it seems like we're not getting tested anytime soon. Even when we do get tested, we're all compelled to isolate until we get our result, and how long will that take?

There's no way that Morrison survives this. Hundreds of people here, all of whom have been promised that it would be OK if they got vaccinated, now have their Christmas plans broken by COVID. Boosters have been brought forward, but it's still months away for quite a few people. The election is coming up, and there's no blaming Labour for this one - this is all down to the feds emphasising vaccines as the end to the pandemic and demanding states open back up. We will see how people think once we actually go to the polls, but I don't see how the Morrison government survives this.

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Sierra Madre
Dec 24, 2011

But getting to it. That's not the hard part.

It's letting go.

Comstar posted:

You can see on the graph we had flattened the curve. Granted, we couldn't get it to 0 anymore, but we can contain it.



We are ONCE AGAIN 2-3 weeks behind Europe and they are going into lockdown now. We can stay out of lockdown all you want, until the Health System Is Overwhelmed and then you go into it anyway. We need another 2-3 months before enough people get their booster (and may we all remind the Prime Minster, there are STILL people waiting for their FIRST jab).

There is absolutely no way you are convincing Melbourne into another months-long lockdown of its own volition. I'm not saying this as a judgement of lockdowns, at this point I'd much rather we have one now no matter how painful it will be. But the will to proactively declare and observe one is completely gone after, as you pointed out, we couldn't get the numbers back down to 0.

Now, the way things are going, we will absolutely end up in another lockdown. It's not going to be soon, and it's likely going to be a response to the healthcare system collapsing, not to prevent it.

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