I was in hospital but it was okay as they are a Covid19 free hospital and they had really good procedures with social distancing, temperature checks and (mostly) no one was worried that I was wearing a mask, had gloves on, and brought my own stationery. For me the thing is to not use my phone at all. I would fall down on that that's were a lot of cross contamination could potentially take place, along with touching my own face. so I didn't know they were a Covid19 free hospital until I rang on the morning because I was dissociating and couldn't remember which hospital I was going to. They had a security guard checking us all with social distancing spacing, temperature checks etc. If I had known they were that good I wouldn't have put it off as long as I did.
It's like Australia is collectively holding it's breath.
1 in 4 people in quarantine were not at home when they were door knocked in Victoria, so that was 130 people not following the rules. Some of the SARS-CoV-2 positive folks were still going to work. They have put in place a $300 payment so people can stay home after being tested. There's a $1500 payment to pay for having the two weeks off, after testing positive, so some good initiatives there (finally). If you can't buy food and pay rent you don't have many choices. The premier did a solid, clear press conference yesterday. Victoria has now been called a state of disaster. But last night I was talking to some people in a hot spot in Melbourne and they were angry that there were still so many cars on the streets in their suburb.
However, in Queensland is no better than Victoria, there were 210 people not at home when they were meant to be in quarantine. You really do get to see why countries make mandatory quarantine in a big building away from people's homes. In Taiwan they have apartments so family members can quarantine away from the rest of their family. They give out 2 masks per week to adults and 3 masks per week for children. Taiwan had flights coming from Wuhan so with 7 deaths and 475 infections they have done very well indeed. They had prepared their pandemic office National Health Command Center (NHCC) for 16 years though. They had the testing in place on planes in early January. I like reading about countries that did a good job using the Science and rational actions.
The thing is the fecal-oral transmission is also why it's difficult to quarantine at home. You probably need two bathrooms. We had a lot of people come up to Queensland from Melbourne in the weeks before the lock down went back in place. I was angry with one couple that we know, but I spoke to other people and everyone seemed to know someone who had come from a hot stop area in Melbourne. They were people who owned properties in both states, so they were able to get through the borders. I am so hoping that we don't have wide spread community transmission here. So far it seems like we don't which is lucky. But with over 700 unknown community transmissions in Victoria meant they had to take action with restriction 4 lock down and a state of disaster. I am relieved that they did. In NSW there is lots of transmissions in different geographical places but they aren't having those high levels of untraceable community transmission, hopefully NSW is not 5-6 weeks behind Victoria. I watched the premier's press conference yesterday, which was broken up with other irrelevant announcements, their Health Officer seems really good though, so hopefully they are on top of it. She's really pushed everyone to come forward for testing symptomatic and asymptomatic in hot spot areas before the others seemed to. Watching the Press Briefings helps me to feel calmer because it's often rational thinking and clear advice. Not with the PM though, he just goes around in nonsensical sentences and walks off when a journalist asks him a question which he doesn't like or insults the journalist, which is not professional, it is also not modeling best practice for our young people. They need to have some leaders that they can aspire to. Leaders that continually and calmly answer the questions and explain as best that they can.
Australia is way behind other countries in terms of public information, which has been undermined by unscrupulous point scorers who demanded lock downs and borders open up and are now saying there was failure because lock downs didn't happen and borders shouldn't be opened. That's really annoying.
Australia has been discussing aerosols the last couple of weeks and seriously? Now? It's why Taiwan, South Korea, etc had cleaners in hazmat suits wherever that they were needed. Their cleaning PPEs are better than some Western countries medical PPEs. And people apply for the jobs in Taiwan because the training and support is so thorough. Norman Swan is talking about how he is trying to educate journalists about this. How is he coming to this so late in the party? Anyway I watch news in other countries and listen to those 50 minute lectures by different scientists. I am at a point where I think I can manage quarantine of anything coming into the house really well. B and I have worked out SOPS. We mostly don't go out but the few times we had to one does the dealing with the issue we are attending to and the other watches the other for cross contamination. I am not as stressed about it as I was but we both still make mistakes, so we sanitise our hands, change our masks, put things that are potentially contaminated into a box so we keep everything in one place. We take our clothes off and leave them in a pile and have showers as soon as we get back. We leave our shoes in the car and be careful to not walk anything in the house. Italian doctors talked a lot about the aerosols because so many medical workers died from the virus after doing the donning and doffing, they discussed that it might be just a few molecules. I think we know as much as we need to know now, most things that come up in the Australian media we have seen else where weeks and a couple of times months prior, so I want to be vigilant but not really focus on it as much.
It's a particular form of seeing Taiwanese and others as "others" with the mask wearing. I watched a South Korean documentary where their top medical specialist and media spokes person spoke about how masks protect you and prevent spreading but in Australia they are still having the discussions that masks protect you from giving it. It was weird in the hospital when they saw I was wearing a mask a few nurses got a bit spooked and I was challenged why would I come if I was sick and I said I wasn't sick that in Asian countries the Science was in that it stopped you from getting the virus if you were wearing masks and my thoughts were that if everyone who was seeing a medical practitioner was wearing a mask then no medical staff would actually get sick. I said I was wearing the mask to take responsibility. Also the sooner everyone starts wearing mask properly, without using their phones and understanding the risks of cross contamination then the sooner we can get back to our lives. It's not going to happen for a long time in Australia, at least not until teachers and kids start dying. It's bizarre how so many Australians are not reading and watching what is happening with our Asian neighbours.
I am struggling a bit in myself. Scared for teachers and kids. 228 kids have died in the US by mid July I am so hoping that we don't get the virus spread that sees 62 staff members dying from the virus like in NYC in one of the middle schools there. But mostly I am doing better from not having to interact with other people. I didn't realise how much that destabilised me.
I have been trying to fight off this sickness I have had for a while now. I keep feeling dizzy and faint so I have had to lie down a lot. I fell into a wall and got quite a big lump in my head. So about a month ago that came and I have been cutting down my medication as I am over sedated. Trying to work it out.
