Listening to this to distract myself:
I am immersing myself in meditation and TEAM-CBT to learn as much as I can. I have joined a few online meditation groups, study groups and I am doing different courses. I am really good at researching.
And I am watching this and reading his book. SARS-CoV-2 disproportionately kills and infects people of colour. Brown, Black, First Nations people are being infected and there's the disproportionate amount of disabilities that this will bring in to those communities, and dying from much more than Anglo White people from Covid19 and now, perhaps, Covid20
And these podcasts are 10 minutes each so we listened to these this morning.
Pretty much since coronavirus emerged, people have been worried about it mutating, but in the past month or so reports of strains that are particularly contagious have caught the public’s attention and begun to guide public policy. What makes these strains different to earlier mutations? Is the...
www.abc.net.au
They interview Mr Edward Holmes from the
Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity at the University of Sydney. It's always good to hear from the experts. The virus has been mutating since day one, and that's absolutely to be expected. It was discussed that it's more human behaviours that are spreading the virus rather than the virus itself. I can't wait to see the research on this over time.
If all goes well Australians will start receiving coronavirus vaccinations from next month. But the types of vaccines on offer are not created equal. High-risk groups will get a vaccine that’s been shown to have 95 per cent efficacy -- but the vast majority of Australians will get a locally...
www.abc.net.au
Sadly an Australian politician owns shares in CSL/Astrazeneca and if we want herd immunity we don't want the one with 62% efficacy. But it's the one that we are most likely to get. It is better than nothing. However we want the ones with roughly 95% efficacy. If one can prevent infection then that's the one we want to get out to everyone. There's a whole stack more in development too, 124 or 127, I can't remember, as well. So the best ones might be yet to come. If you have out of control spread you really want to be getting the vaccines out there. We are not certain of the situation in NSW. I have medical friends that live on the North Shore. They are in lock down except when going to work. It would make sense to do ring vaccinations around the areas of outbreak. All medical people, the elderly, all folks who deal with quarantine, anyone with a serious pre-existing conditions, but Australia is not doing that.
Coronavirus vaccines have started rolling out around the world -- so when will we see case numbers start to drop? Preliminary data out of Israel offers some hope, but the death of a Florida physician who had received the Pfizer vaccine has sparked an investigation into its safety. (There have...
www.abc.net.au
And
I am so hanging out for the numbers of deaths and infections to go down. Watching this is so sad and stressful. I disconnect at times but I still know so many folks effected. And the humanity of folks that don't have ventilators in their areas/countries is most sobering. It's really effecting medical folks who have to make those decisions triaging and rationing care.
The
preliminary data out of Israel offers some hope and
I am so clinging to that hope. It would seem - and there's no testing or research to bear this out yet so it's me clinging to the whiff of hope. That the vaccine is preventing spread, which would be a total game changer. So
it's not published but apparently after the first dose, of Pfizer, there's about 200,000 people aged over 65,
that in those people, compared to members of the health funds who have not yet had the vaccine, they've seen a significant reduction, perhaps a 50% reduction in COVID-19 infection, not just disease but infection… If this is true then it will be a game changer in this pandemic. It will mean getting access to the vaccine/s becomes an urgent social justice issues for those peoples that are being infected and dying disproportionately from the virus.
Getting vaccine supplies to the countries with poor or no existing health systems is going to be crucial for containment of the pandemic. Some folks are making an effort which is to be applauded.
www.who.int
If first world countries just vaccinate themselves, and leave third world countries to their fate then a variant will just come back and bite them on the butt. You would hope that social justice and decency would play a significant part in decision making, but sadly that doesn't seem to be the case, in some circumstances, so blatant self interest needs to be thoroughly exploited, if you vaccinated your country and not others then you are at a high risk of getting wiped out by a variant that you might not know for 6-8 weeks is in your country and you could have out of control spread before you know it. We have seen it happen.
Any country could easily become Ireland.
Going into Christmas week, Ireland was reporting 10 new coronavirus cases each day per 100,000 residents — compared with about 66 cases per 100,000 residents in the United States. But three weeks later, Ireland is reporting more than 132 new cases per 100,000, according to the latest seven-day rolling average compiled by Johns Hopkins University, while the United States has risen less dramatically, to about 75 cases per 100,000.
Link Removed
The social justice issues involved in preserving habitats and mitigating climate change now has a massive self interest component. It is possible that the pandemic came out of bats that lost their habitats, which is happening in Australia, and the Lyssa virus has evolved. When I looked after bats I had to get vaccinated from it. My titre levels have to be checked regularly when I am caring for the bats.
I was reading scientific paper that tracked the destruction of habitat and surges of the plague throughout several hundred years. So we had the knowledge to prevent this but we didn't do it, and some countries don't really have many resources. When WHO said that this might not be the worst pandemic to come our way it really made me not do my usual happy dance.
They need food in Yemen but they also desperately need the vaccines as well. That war does bug me, and combined with the spread of the virus. I feel frustrated.
Egads!
My work also doesn’t qualify for unemployment... my sister -and tens of thousands in my state- who DID qualify for unemployment still haven’t gotten it AND haven’t gotten any stimulus money. So it feels like their $0 weighs more. As tens of thousands qualified for tens of thousands -each, at this point- but no unemployment & no stimulus? Big fat whopping zero.
That is most concerning.
Similarly? People without addresses, people whose ID expired whilst the DOL was shut down, and a whole host of others also got zero.
Homeless folks in Australia have hard times and no access. There were folks in my local area asking for food and money donations and then going out during the lock down to make sure that those who can't get access to services that were in lock down had something. Women on the run from domestic violence who are not in women's refuge and we had severe funding cuts. Abbott cut back 300 million dollars. So many women live in their cars with their kids. The greatest growing populations of homeless people in Australia is women 65 years and older and one time I was besieged by them, all with their disconnected phones with the pictures of their grandchildren. I was so emotional at the end of the day, seeing what that homelessness looked like.
We don’t live in a country that gives a f*ck about its people. We live in a country that gives a f*ck about commerce. If you want any actual assistance? Create a business. Your business will have more protection, aid, & legal rights than you do as a person.
Australia is pretty similar. The arguments were "We have to learn to live with the virus". Folks can go to hospital we have extra capacity.
Taiwan never needed to lock down because they put health first. Taiwan has the same population as Australia. They had direct flights from Wuhan. Taiwan has had (so far) 7 deaths & 819 infections. In comparison Australia has had 28,658 infections, and 909 deaths, the majority which were in private aged care homes, which are a federal responsibility. In Taiwan is no virus anxiety there. Children never had to stay home from school. Kids wore masks immediately. None of my friends are worried about friends or family in Taiwan. Kids wear masks all day at school, except during lunch when splatter screens are put up whilst they eat. The government gave each adult & child 2/3 masks each week. They tested arriving visitors on planes. Testing is free and very efficient. Everyone goes into paid quarantine with no exemptions from quarantine. (Quarantine exemptions have been an issue in Australia). Specialised quarantine taxis are paid each day whether they take customers or not, so they are not tempted to do extra jobs on the said to help them pay rent and buy foold. It is illegal to spread and misinformation about the virus in Taiwan. Unsurprisiningly there has been no community spread. Let's remembe they had direct flights from China and they didn't trust the CCP and send their own doctors to inspect Wuhan. First lock down was before the holidays in early January. Taiwan's economy grew 1.6%. And our economy has been hit. Our quarantine is very poor and some of those advising our government are not up to do on aerolisation which I can't believe that's still a thing that we are discussing.
The notion of a trade-off between health measures and the economy is not supported by data from 45 countries.
health.anu.edu.au
As far as waterfront homes go? It’s been moving truck central along the lake here... because $1200 doesn’t cover the 10,000 every 6 months in property taxes. The govt stopped all renter evictions, but not tax leins & evictions. So the city is “auctioning” off the upper middle class waterfront homes (mostly being bought by either the city itself, or the banks) & turfing multiple generation homes, as all the kids and grandkids have moved in to save money.
:( They need to be exposed for what they are doing. It's so predatory.
The GRIFT going on with this pandemic? Is going to fuel investigative journalists and courtrooms for yeeeeeeeears.
It's similar in Australia. Some companies have grifted big time.
We are compiling a list of companies and businesses that have exploited workers, not provided PPEs, or sick pay, like Jeff Benzo, etc and misused government bail out funds, which we will boycott as much as possible, for the rest of our lives. If they change their names or their CEOs, or board members, change companies. We will boycott those CEO's and board member's new companies and from time to time we will write to let them know that is why. It's a small stand but it feels important for my ethical and moral stances in life. It's taking the action that I can take.
Qantus got a payout and then sacked it's workers.
Qantas will no longer have to backpay hundreds of workers after the Full Federal Court overturned a landmark decision that companies have to pass on the full JobKeeper wage subsidy.
www.abc.net.au
Unions representing Qantas workers will go to the High Court seeking to overturn a ruling that employees are not entitled to sick leave or compassionate leave while they were stood down during the COVID-19 pandemic.
www.abc.net.au
Half a billion dollars just for signing up people without jobs. Money for jam for the private job service agencies.
www.michaelwest.com.au
Companies generally ripping off the Australian taxpayer's.
Australia's Top 40 Tax Dodgers 2020: fossil fuels dominate once more - Michael West
