Now we have to watch out for a second wave of infections!
I have friends that believe this pandemic was just a hoax, after all we did not see people dropping in the street did we?

Trying to explain in a rational way how lucky we are in Australia and how close we came with only half a dozen hot spots is just a waste of time with these people. That this is a mathematical progression where mary gives it to bob and bob gives it to his family then has family gives it to several families and then the whole village has it with any immuno compromised people dieing (any one over 60) is just BS according to them.

In our local hotspot, that nursing home, you see the classic progression, thankfully contained inside the perimeter. The horrible thing there is nearly all the inmates were immune suppressed. So you see the deaths. That progression could have been Sydney and the country. Just check out Britain or Italy for example!

I see this attitude in red neck America and red neck Australians.
Anybody with family or friends in Britain, Asia or Europe with death surrounding them know a different story and getting updated by phone about how bad it is.

So the Americans waving guns and Australians waving cigarettes will now run around, mary gives it to bob, bob gives it to the family and so on and on..................................

Me? knowing from my medical friends how close we were to disaster, I will keep masking and gloving up when I have to go about and I dont care a crap what other people think.

Fred.

I agree Fred. A second wave is a real possibility and with the cold and flu season upon us, how do we know if someone coughing and sneezing has the cold/flu virus or COVD-19?

And save us from professors like this one, himself aged 72:

"The standout losers are countries like Austria, Australia, Israel that've actually had very strict lockdown but didn't have many cases," Professor Levitt told British website UnHerd this week.

"This is a virus designed to get rid of the baby boomers. Quite frankly, I've had a great life … I'd much rather have young people than live for a very long time."

Maybe he can take a one way trip to The Gap and save us all.

That Professor Levitt is a right F-----T!
What he needs is a couple of days with a tube shoved down his throat from a machine that feeds in a bit of oxygen and pumps out the mess. Been there, done that, (open heart surgery).

He sounds like a good old anti-vaxxer, never had a days sickness, I have had a wonderful life, take me now, altruistic idiot.
They usually die suddenly from a "surprise" disease or if they survive squeal like pig and blame every body and thing apart from themselves.

Stuff the young people, I intend to live for at least 120 years so don't get in my way!
And put a bloody mask on!

Fred.

I intend to live for at least 120 years so don't get in my way!



Reminds me of the bumper sticker: "I intend to live forever. So far, so good."

I've had my flu shot recently. I never used to bother but I was younger then and could handle the knocks better than I can now. Each year I am first in line for a freebie at work.

As long as people stay away from Newmarch Nursing Home and that butchery in Melbourne I think we should be over the roughest patch. We have to treat carefully though, as the virus can live on inside the victim after they have recovered, just for long enough to pass it on to others.

I see that the Feds have published a 3 Step Plan to get things back to roughly normal by July. Looks good to me, but of course the states will go their own ways as usual.

The good news is that, assuming NSW follows the agenda, I will be going camping on the 19th June.

The Supermarket at Toongabbie is pretty much back to normal now.
Shelves full of spaghetti , flour, toilet rolls and so on.
Crowd dividers are gone, security guy no longer needed.

Only one gripe, the checkout chick is still not allowed to put goods in a bag, apparently that is too dangerous.
So puts each piece onto the carousel where the bags normally hang, because in their stupid new design from last year there is nowhere else to put anything! Note, still handles each piece, picks it up, swipes it, then puts it down, not into a safe bag, but onto a teetering pile on the hurdy gurdy!

One of the older hands saw this, said some appropriate words, (bleep bleep bleepety bleep) motioned for us to retreat to a safe 1.5698 meters away and packed the goods into our bags and put them in the trolley to take away!
Thank you Helen.

The only scary thing is almost no one now wears a spit mask or gloves!
It only takes ONE family member after having kissed every body in the village (no more lock down...whoopee) to have it undiagnosed and give it to YOU after a good cough...…...or,...……..
Or worse still as I went down the tinned can isle, I saw a ...........creature ...........snuffle, wipe his runny nose with his hand and then WIPE the snot all over his both hands like that would magically wash it and make it clean!! ( Is that some cultural thing?) Then he picked up a can, looked at it, and then put it back on the shelf!!!! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeek! THAT is how it spreads!!
I backed out of the aisle and went onto the next.

HYGEINE!

Fred.

Nothing like living in a sterile environment for weakening the immune system. Its great to get out & scruff the dog, pat the pet Possum, rub noses with a cow & have the usual free loading breakfast crew, flying around there is also a Bat not sure where its living, but there is a bat box. Then of course working with dirt

All full of wonderful things to keep the immune system amused & in fettle.

Had not seen a Currawong for years, until about a month ago, they have adapted quickly along with a couple of crows & any food the others abandon is theirs. Crow is amusing, smarter than the usual bundle of feathers. Given the chance it will, instead of doing a hit run, will wait. If there is bread and collect as much as it can & then fly off with the prize.



Marc

I remember when Woolworths at Nth Strathfield had staff on hand to pack the old paper bags. The checkout operator would ring up the price for each item then slide it back to the bag packer. As you paid the bill the bag packer would place all bags in a trolley and have it waiting for the customer after they collected the docket from the operator.

In ten years, it'll all be self-serve. When the self-serve counters were installed many years ago, each supermarket had six. Now there's usually a dozen and some of the smaller supermarkets in Sydney's CBD, such as Woolworths in the Met Centre, have dozens - note the plural, with only a few humans offering traditional service.

Personally, I don't mind the self-serve. I'd rather pack my own groceries because it invariably means that the bread and eggs go on top instead of being crushed by cans of beetroot, etc.

This is very promising news:

QUOTE: The [Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness (CDP) at the CSIRO in Melbourne], is a world leader in the use of animal testing in vaccine development. Its scientists were first in the world to confirm, for instance, that ferrets were susceptible to COVID-19, thanks to the fact that they have a similar lung cell receptor, ACE 2, to that of humans. It’s this receptor that the now-famous "spike protein" of COVID-19 plugs into to infect cells. So ferrets, like us, can catch coronavirus (though, unlike us, their worst symptom is a mild cough).

The CSIRO is now running animal trials using ferrets for two vaccines – one from American biotech company Inovio Pharmaceuticals, and one from Oxford University. Both were sent there because they looked particularly promising. "Our job is to assess the data and send it back to CEPI and WHO," explains Drew. "Then they’ll decide if they’re worth taking to the next stage."

Things so far look promising: the ferrets have had no adverse effects to either vaccine, and they’ll have been exposed to the virus before this article goes to press. And so, by the time you read this story, as many as 6000 people in the UK may have been given the vaccine in a safety trial. Should it happen, this human trial will be able to proceed, in part, thanks to the animal testing carried out by the CSIRO.

Standby for another outbreak. Apparently a high number of incoming loony tunes are refusing to be tested. How that is legally possible beats me.

QUOTE: About 800 people are expected to arrive in the coming days on repatriation flights from virus hotspots India, South America and Indonesia.

It's compulsory G, if your overseas and enter Australia you are tested before and after 14 days quantine, I know this to be correct because my wife is heading back here and the bill of compulsory quantine at a hotel in Sydney or Melbourne falls on us . Plus air line tickets skyrocket in the past few weeks..
This is what they have told us so far and we may delay it until September.

Pete

QUOTE: Almost a third of returned travellers in hotel quarantine in Victoria are refusing to be tested for coronavirus, as infections in the state continue to soar.

Deputy Chief Health Officer Annaliese van Diemen said about 30 per cent of international travellers are refusing to be tested, despite multiple offers during their 14-day stay.

“I believe that not everybody who has been offered testing has taken it up,” Dr van Diemen said on Friday.

“We’re getting about 70 per cent of people uptake tests.”

Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy said people in hotel quarantine need to be tested for the virus at the start and end of their stay.

Well ,I don't know?
I can only go off what we are going through.
But why would you not want to be tested anyway? Does not make sense.
To have a chance of controlling it people must be tested, I've been tested,no it's not fun but it had to be done like many things in life.


Pete