Current Events > aussie gov lifts all COVID restrictions on Dec 15, reinstates them all on Dec 24

(+) Yeah! (+)

Until December 15 we had to show a digital certificate of vaccination to get into non-essential businesses like clothes shops and bars and QR codes we had to scan to track COVID outbreaks. The government set the date a month or two before it was meant to go into effect.

A week or two before December 15, Omicron started fucking shit up. A thousand cases a day at one point. And the government lifted all restrictions anyway - no QR codes, no masks, no vax certificates. Freedom Day was the marketing term they hammered in through the news.

Today is Christmas Eve, and we're seeing over 6,000 new cases every day. So under incredible pressure, the government has decided to bring all of the COVID restrictions back in.

We're talking grounding airplanes, which cancels a shit ton of flights on Christmas Eve and strands families from seeing their relatives, limiting the amount of people who can be in stores, reintroducing the QR check-in system - everything they lifted nine days ago has gone right back into place.

I feel sorry for people whose Christmas plans relied on travel, but I think it's fucking hilarious to see the government with this much egg on their face. At every turn, they've been chest-thumping about "no more lockdowns", lifting lockdowns as soon as possible and getting everything "back to normal". And all that has done is cause COVID to become an even bigger threat than it would have otherwise been if they had been flexible and transparent about the COVID situation as it developed.

Like as sympathetic as I might be towards people who are negatively affected by this, it's all worth it to see this dogshit government go down in flames like the incompetent turds they are. Nine days of total, unrestricted freedom. That's all we got because they ignored rising COVID infection rates for their "Freedom Day" press coverage, and now that's been ripped out of the grasp of every NSW resident after we barely had enough time to enjoy it.

Isn't it just mask restrictions and QR check-ins?

how many resets is it gonna take for these idiots to just stay hard until the end.

Knowing what I know and have seen of government's handling of covid, I make no long-term plans to go anywhere or do anything. That way I don't have to scramble if I have to cancel. Sucks for those families that have to cancel Christmas plans.

I can understand not letting the unvaccinated into planes and such and not letting them travel, but why the same standards for the vaccinated? At the very least they fulfilled their obligation to get vaccinated and should be allowed to choose whether to the take to risk of travelling at this time, and besides the vaccinated are less likely to spread covid as well as less likely of getting hospitalized, so it doesnt make much sense to me.

Remember when the news of viable vaccines caused celebration as the end was in sight?

David1988 posted...

I can understand not letting the unvaccinated into planes and such and not letting them travel, but why the same standards for the vaccinated? At the very least they fulfilled their obligation to get vaccinated and should be allowed to choose whether to the take to risk of travelling at this time, and besides the vaccinated are less likely to spread covid as well as less likely of getting hospitalized, so it doesnt make much sense to me.

I've only had to worry about Queensland but from what I know if you're vaccinated and have had a COVID test that clears you within 72 hours prior to arrival you can still fly to that state.

The tricky part is in Sydney testing has gone through the roof and a bunch of testing clinics are closed for the holidays. So a lot of people are going to get screwed over.

Other states have different rules though.

Punished_Blinx posted...

Isn't it just mask restrictions and QR check-ins?

idk how interstate travel is faring, but I saw on the news that JetStar and Virgin both grounded a ton of flights this morning.

ModLogic posted...

how many resets is it gonna take for these idiots to just stay hard until the end.

It's like I said, if they were more flexible and transparent about the pandemic maybe they wouldn't keep fucking up the re-opening. The absolute hubris of setting a date 2 months in the future, witnessing another COVID event unfold, opening on the planned day despite the worsening COVID situation and then going back into lockdown nine days later is fucking stupid.

Like maybe there wouldn't be as many resets if the government did their job and governed in the best interests of their constituents, instead of trying to play the role of Cool Uncle Dave who lets you have a VB with him on Boxing Day when you're 15.

Alucard188 posted...

Knowing what I know and have seen of government's handling of covid, I make no long-term plans to go anywhere or do anything. That way I don't have to scramble if I have to cancel. Sucks for those families that have to cancel Christmas plans.

fr. I'm set because my Christmas plans are 64 kilometers away and I don't think they're restricting travel by that much, but a ton of people got fucked in the ass when the previously mentioned airlines dropped all their flights. Gotta keep your goals achievable in the face of a force that can take everything away from you if you get too ambitious.

1337toothbrush posted...

Remember when the news of viable vaccines caused celebration as the end was in sight?

For real. It's like, sure you can still get COVID, but you're less likely to drown in your own mucus and die in agony. Except nevermind, here's a strain that's resistant to vaccines. Slightly less dangerous, but the fact that it bypasses the vaccine makes it more dangerous than if it had just gotten kicked in the nuts by the vax like it's supposed to.

With that being said, the closest point of comparison to COVID as far as global pandemics go is Spanish Flu. I don't know the specifics, but it took something like four years to squash that flu for good - it exists in pockets of the world, but we spent almost 100 years without having to loom in the shadow of Spanish Flu outside of some isolated cases. Just because COVID isn't gone yet, doesn't mean it's never going away - vaccines will get better, people will adopt preventative behaviors and one day COVID will be one of those diseases that we occasionally have brief scares about that doesn't destroy our entire way of life. I would say that the age range of CEmen skews between 22-38 or something - we're still pretty young in the grand scheme of things. We're going to live to see the end of this pandemic.

MrMallard posted...

With that being said, the closest point of comparison to COVID as far as global pandemics go is Spanish Flu.

Russian "flu" might be an even better one to compare to. ;)

MrMallard posted...

Except nevermind, here's a strain that's resistant to vaccines. Slightly less dangerous, but the fact that it bypasses the vaccine makes it more dangerous than if it had just gotten kicked in the nuts by the vax like it's supposed to.

Where are you getting this information from? Pfizer has said their boosters are effective against the omicron variant, at least according to this article:

https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/coronavirus/booster-shots-and-omicron-is-moderna-or-pfizer-performing-better-heres-the-data-so-far/2711734/

Does Pfizer's booster shot protect against omicron?
Pfizer said last week that a booster dose of its COVID-19 vaccine may offer important protection against the new omicron variant even though the initial two doses appear significantly less effective.
Pfizer and its partner BioNTech said that while two doses may not be protective enough to prevent infection, lab tests showed a booster increased by 25-fold people's levels of virus-fighting antibodies.
Blood samples taken a month after a booster showed people harbored levels of omicron-neutralizing antibodies that were similar to amounts proven protective against earlier variants after two doses.

Prison Island Part 3, Omigod

remember when we worshipped austrailia for severe lockdowns

Kind of sad to see. Australia corcle back around to penal colony again. Wish you guys the best over there.

David1988 posted...

Where are you getting this information from?

MrMallard is known to downplay the effectiveness of vaccination.

PatrickMahomes posted...

remember when we worshipped austrailia for severe lockdowns

Throughout this entire pandemic, we've lost just over 2,000 people. America is losing almost 2,000 people a day.

Don't get me wrong, the government here are a bunch of incompetent fatcats and all-around boobs. But the issue is that they're dragging their feet on lockdown, trying to play to your average anti-masker joe schmoe who throws beer bottles at police during an anti-covid protest.

The lockdowns themselves, when we go into them, have prevented a significant amount of death in this country. Hence why I've commented twice before on how I think the government should have been more flexible and transparent about the worsening covid situation instead of stripping away all of the COVID protections before having to put them back in place on Christmas Eve, 9 days after they lifted them.

We're not as good as NZ in terms of locking down, especially when it feels like the Liberal-National Party are almost trying to sabotage lockdown at every turn, but again - our 2,000 total COVID deaths to America's 2,000+ a day.

Trumble posted...

MrMallard is known to downplay the effectiveness of vaccination.

Omicron has been billed as a vaccine-resistant strain, so excuse me for not being 100% up to date on this shit. If it is true that Pfizer boosters are Omicron-resistant, that's fantastic news because Pfizer is the vaccine I got - I just haven't seen this in the news.

I get that you're trying to get a rise out of me by lying about my stance on COVID, but all the same - shut the fuck up and stop lying about me.