moneypenny20

Only problem with that is that you've just moved through a busy (normally) airport, breathing and spreading germs before being tested, being found positive and then leaving again through even more people. Ideally you'd have the check a few hours before arriving at the airport. At the moment there's really no ideal or workable solution. Not one that works across the board anyway.

abner

More coal exports!!! Never let a good crisis go to waste...

Not at all my view on a personal level, but expect such arguments to surface.

E.g.
- emissions globally are way down anyway due to COVID-19
- those who still want to buy thermal coal for electricity generation are serving poorer consumers in less-developed countries
- the greens promised tourism would displace coal as the primary driver of jobs and income in FNQ, but that's not happening now, so why not greenlight Adani and Palmer and Rinehart and others...
- letting King Coal off the leash creates quite literally a "shovel-ready" fillup for QLD's depleted state coffers

And in terms of raw $$$, it would be far too easy to find an extra $6B/year in raw state GDP replacement from expanded business cases for coal projects.

Beoz

• Accept there will be infections, manage it, and crack on.
• The more we accept the above, the more likely the virus will just become a strain of all other and eventually disappear (Spanish Flu), get a vaccine, get drugs to manage it's effects

International travel needs to march on. Italy is about to open up for summer.

GarryP

Totally reprehensible attitude. What you are saying is that you want many more grannies to die. Millions of them in fact. Eradication is the only solution we know will work, but thanks to incompetence and that daft "flatten the curve" meme, it's not what most are aiming at. Opening up without solving the problem just means the virus will take off again.

Beoz

There is no such thing as eradication as New Zealand and Victoria have demonstrated. This thing is with us until:

1. It dies out like SARS
2. A vaccine can immune most of the population. (This may never come)

Sadly the grannies will just have to be locked down or hope:

1. It dies out like SARS
2. A vaccine can immune most of the population. This may never come)
3. Drugs can manage the immune response and ultimate death.

old.sparkles

There are 18 countries / territories that currently have no active cases - Cambodia being the largest population with zero but others include PNG who have been on zero active cases for two weeks now.

SA is on zero active now, and no new cases since 7th May (and that one was the first in two weeks so ). ACT is also on zero active and have been for a week.

To say there is no such thing as eradication is both true and false - true that in all likelihood the virus will be around for some time, but false in that it can be eradicated from a region / country.

carcajou

62 nations have now backed Australia's motion for an investigation into the origins of the virus, including the US, UK, Canada, New Zealand, Russia, India, and all member states of the European Union. A document with tougher language towards China from the European Union is forthcoming.

carcajou

It has flown completely under the radar and is being ignored by the media, but there is a humanitarian and medical catastrophe unfolding in Russia. They now have the third-largest number of cases and will likely overtake Spain for second-most shortly.

I have a lot of experience living and working in that region of the world and outside of certain quarters of Moscow and St Petersburg, and possibly Nizhny Novgorod, the Russian medical system does not have the capacity to cope.

Russia, like China, is also probably releasing fudged figures however Putin has telegraphed the unfolding disaster in recent days.

Beoz

SA and PNG had a die out. Again this will probably be what happens in NZ and Aus too given Aus was never really locked down and NZ went from super hard line to loose with both active and new cases coming .

FWIW, Garry's original idea of eradication was hard line lock down for an extended period until it was gone. He may have changed his stance on that.

PNG took some social distancing measures, it was very far from NZ style hard line.

PNG had a total of about 2000 tests over 9 mil people. Yep. Die out or people just don't know they have it.

GarryP

If you are in a mess, like the US, then it's really the only option to bring it under control. As far as Australia is concerned, the example of NSW and VIC has shown that we were on the ragged edge of going down the out of control path. We were luck to gain control with lighter touch restrictions, and the risk really was too high. The ignorance and lack of modelling was frightening.

DeadVim

Looks like I’ll get back onto a cricket pitch before the office, result!

GarryP

Already back in the office. Only difference is less people allowed in meeting rooms (so less effective meeting rooms) and no visitors, so more VTC.

Beoz

Yes but "under control" is not "eradication".

Yes we could have gone "out of control" but the right measures were put in place. Namely, entry to citizens and residents, 2 weeks forced quarrentine, and sensible social distancing practices. Most importantly we got the timing right unlike the US and UK, and the second most important part is Australia's measures were proportional.

Beoz

Has a shining the ball policy been released?

Kooky.

I hope you are right, Beoz, it's really over and I am just neurotic because of where I am living right now. But I watched my friends in Singapore think it was all over and then they had their first deaths. Now I'm seeing Australian friends already having different groups of people over for dinner every night and it frightens me. I wish Australia as a whole would take it more slowly.