Covid mania - covid confusion!!

Especially for us oldies - there are bloody variants swanning all over the place and I for one without writing a bloody thesis have given up on keeping up with the latest news that is blown out everyday ad finitum! - There is no doubt that this is a clever little virus - which like many a good criminal is able to 'change' clothes and shapes and colors and disguises every bloody day almost. All I know is that I ain't got it atm - fingers crossed - but the eastern states of oz keeps getting hit from time to time/ 

Melbourne our second largest city is now in lockdown again! but the outer country areas not - but shops there are checking 'covid passports' in some cases just a driving license and saying sorry cannot do business with you ; you are from outa town! 

So as well as taking an interest in world news which I once did but cannot cope with the emotional strain of feeling sorry for all my fellows humans on the globe I am finding it increasingly difficult to even follow our own regional news which I once was interested in. 

We do get an hour of international news or maybe two early am on tv here and often 30 mins of english news but sadly as each day goes by I feel less able to care about the rest of the world!! 

how are you all coping??

Depends how you look at it.... daily cases are rising but deaths are dramatically low in recent days.
If cases are rising that means that testing is working well and more cases being detected which has to be a good thing as long as hospital admissions are falling.... there is certainly a high level of optimism in the country that lockdown measures will be removed on June 21st.

really ?? well I must say Boris has always been optimistic if nothing else!! - fingers crossed and THEN meyham?  and I am  not necessarily critizing human behavior ; this little virus is very very devious and can often fool us all. 

I was reading a thread on another UK website where one individual in particular was NOT having any vaccines thank you very much not because he didn't believe in their veracity but because he thought the rest of us had it all wrong and natural immunity was fine?? - and this person claims to be a highly qualified elder of the british popn? no names no packdrill!!

Natural immunity my arse !!!
Try telling that to the relatives of the 148000 who have died from the virus in the UK

exactly - AND we have had Indian australians weeping and gnashing of teeth in India wanting to come back and bring their elderly with them who aren't even aussie citizens and guess what YES we have the bloody Indian variant now - directly exported/imported - and that is despite 14 quarantines on re-entry. We are now about to build new quarantine centre in the middle of Melbourne ??? - I don't think the virus respects concrete buildings and jump through fences?? I really feel sorry for all the professionals working long hrs either in hospitals or over microscopes or facing the public at press meetings - they are doing it hard too!

I think our leaders come in for quite a lot of stick for changing their minds about what can and can't be done and the measures they take. The hospitality trades and airlines blame the governments when they suddenly change tack and reverse position.

I can't condemn people for needing to blame someone because livelihoods really are at stake. They have all had enough. However, it isn't our leaders who are to blame, it's the damned virus that is calling the shots and all governments can do is react to whatever it does ..and it most often does it without much advanced notice.

We might have been told when lockdowns will ease but nothing has been agreed by the virus and the infection rate in any country can change in a very short space of time. No notice given by the little blighters. Even the fortunes of the countries that have had a good track record of prevention can change very quickly. 

Everyone is thoroughly fed up with not being able to have the freedoms we once had but I suppose we have to be willing to act quickly when infection rates start to rise. No blame placed on anything but the virus itself.

Oh really Mart - so you won't blame the Indians for being unable to run their own country well - the health care over there has only been good for those with money but now not even that - India has a track record of incompetence but you just blame the virus. That's a sweet cop out - human behavior is not responsible for any wrong actions in the world just the bloody virus - jeewhiz - well I guess you are right in one way over 50% well over are selfish and greedy and have no common sense.  And we don't need to blame those idiots who won't wear masks or like to hang around in bars and restaurants despite being warned it is dangerous to do so because that little ol' virus just ignores common human error and goes on it's merry way? Now let's see S.Korea great track record to begin with but slipped back - why night club attendances increased ?? - Taiwan - same - even good old singapore the bastion of discipline and self control went backwards - why well lets not blame human behavior NO lets put all the blame on the little old virus - psychologists call that "projection" - blaming others in this case the virus for things that keep going wrong????

Governments give advice and make rules to stick to. They also change their minds according to the advice they get regarding the statistics of the infection rates.  It's this changing of minds and direction that governments get blamed for and what my post was about. The hospitality and holiday industries complain there is little or no notice for any changes of restrictions. They don't know whether they are coming or going. It's this the governments get blamed for when, as far as I can see, it's the spread of the virus that is ruling what happens. All governments can do at that time is clamp down/change direction accordingly, even if at short notice.

Now to why they have to do that. As you rightly point out, it's people doing all those silly things mentioned. Sensible people avoid doing them. However, there certainly are these big gatherings and protests of one kind or another that governments aren't able to control. Too many of them and too late by the time they try to break them up anyway. The people have already gathered and done the damage. Not the government's fault. I still say it is basically the virus that's the root cause but people seem to find it impossible to come to terms with how to behave in its presence.

this world is inundated with viruses of all sorts and kinds - there is still a line of enquiry that the virus was being experimented on in the Wuhan lab aided and abated by USA! - that will be an interesting conclusion - so we have two possible creations 1. from a bat to humans in the wet market or 2. modified in the Wuhan lab - anymore anyone - so who is to blame for the outbreak from these two possible sources?  the virus - oh silly me yes lets blame the virus - it is an evil little thing with a brain of its own and out to destroy the planet because basically it hates humans OR lets blame one of two possible sources 1.  the people selling bats in the wet market? [even seen a wet market in asia - I did - walked passed one for three years] - very very unhygienic I was amazed that more infections didn't occur - were the chinese vendors scrupulously clean and hygienic - i'll let you work that one out and 2. altered in a Wuhan lab =- remember the doctor who blew the lid on that and then died of covid? - let's assume both cases are plausible and possible - who is to blame in these instances the virus - naughty naughty little virus [I'm beginning to feel like John Cleese in a faulty towers episode here!]  or 2 humans either in the markets or in the lab ?

I'd say the markets or the lab. I'm undecided which one but whatever it was, Covid is here. All we can do now is try to prevent its effects. I believe responsible governments are trying to do that but holes in their efforts appear. Mainly because people won't stop travelling. They always seem to find away around any laws and some are willing to openly break them. Some just don't care at all because they think it's all being overblown.

how many responsible govts have you met so far? Ha? so NOW you blame 'the people' because they travel? who allows them to travel ; which responsible body give them the permission to travel - there are UK citizens rushing back from Portugal i believe atm - why because 'some responsible govt' suddenly changed the rules? - is that responsibility or stupidity?  so have the holiday makers in Portugal been breaking the laws in some way? Perhaps some of the political representatives you have don't care either and think everything has been overblown - I think Boris uttered some views in this vein once - has the utterance "let the bodies pile high" been put to rest yet?

Anyway glad to see that you are now 'blaming' the people and not the virus - progress indeed!

I think some people are destined to get angry about anything and everything that governments do. I'm just not one of them.

Mart wrote:

I think some people are destined to get angry about anything and everything that governments do. I'm just not one of them.

Nor am I Mart !

I know the debate can get people heated and can also go on for post after post but I find I can't do that. I can state opinions and debate the issue for a post or 3 but after that, it's clear what we think and no changing of minds will take place.

In the past, I've mentioned a kind of balancing act that many governments, including our own, are trying to do. A balance between complete collapse of industries, even whole economies and keeping people safe. There will never be a course that everyone agrees with.

USA  scientist retracts suspicions of wuhan lab story re virus - where the fffff does that leave us? - apologizes due to china?