They helped out in our ring of steel
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Oh, I thought you had posted something previously about airlines denying boarding to some passengers on domestic flights.
They did early on but it was stopped and for the life of me I can’t remember how or why that decision was made
So now it’s safe?
Be interesting to see if states do start going it alone.
As I said a few weeks back, people over here can actually demand AZ through their GP’s
Sutton says Victoria would consider opening AstraZeneca jab for people under 60
Victoria’s CHO Professor Brett Sutton says Victoria would consider opening up AstraZeneca shots to people under the age of 60, despite the recent ATAGI advice.
Many young people have told the ABC they would be willing to take the very small risk of the rare blood clotting disorder associated with a tiny number of people who have received the jab.
“We want to get maximal capacity through all our vaccination settings, including primary care, as well as our state vaccination sites,” Professor Sutton said.
“So we’ll keep an eye on the demand and the supply. But you know, AstraZeneca supplies is clearly not so much of an issue at the moment.”
The CHO said while the focus was on priority groups at the moment, opening up eligibility would “always be under consideration”.
“It’ll absolutely be on the radar,” he said.
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Recorded in the Ruby Princess Royal Commission that Qantas had do not fly bans on Ruby Princess passengers ( to the best of their knowledge) , I understand Qantas interests in protecting their staff and other passengers and that it might also be concerned about escapees from Sydney hotspots.
Yes, the bloke has gone on a hunger strike.
McGowan was asked about it
“That sounds very distressing for him,” Mr McGowan said.
"It’s very sad and it’s happened to many people.
“This is one of the issues when you live overseas, that you may not be able to get back for these sorts of things.”
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That is an extract from a long interview with Epstein on ABC Melbourne - more context in the full interview…
Epstein’s father was a public health medical expert , knew Sutton, Sutton regularly appears in long interviews, gives him a chance to give the bigger picture - like vax is our way out of clusters and outbreaks - he takes advantage of the opportunity to talk to a journo without having to face the presser gotchas - today he was barely polite to them.
What did you think of Sutton’s thoughts about the Singapore bubble?
Seems he is aiming for elimination and his voice carries a lot of influence so I just can’t see much happening on the international borders for a long time
They need to make this happen. Anyone willing to take AZ should be able to take it. And for under 60’s, maybe a daily monitoring program (as simple as a phone call) for 2 weeks to get development of clot symptoms and nip it in the bud.
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Yep, 100% agree.
Open it up to everyone and put a prize on it if need be.
Every lockdown costs billions so they could offer 10x prizes of $1m every week for 6 months and still be in front.
You offer that and people will be lining up for 6 shots of the stuff 
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Morrison went via Singapore to Cornwall with the express purpose of talking about a bubble, Dan Tehan said he had also been in talks.
It’s a Federal quarantine matter to decide, I think Hunt has the power under the Biosecurity Act ( with GG sign off), as he did with NZ bubble.
Feds would have Murphy ( who heads up National Infection Control Group) and CMO Kelly in the inner circle, watching what others are doing and guided by all the expertise at their disposal.
Reportedly Cheng of ATAGI rounds up his daily work at night talking to counterparts around the world,
Kelly talks daily with CHOs, whose priority is protecting people within their State borders.
I don’t see Sutton as having any particular sway - or priority- in securing a Singapore bubble.
I don’t mean having a sway in the say of the bubble I’m more talking about how he is highly respected amongst the general public and his thoughts and words would influence a lot of people on the matter. The messaging seems to be that borders should remain shut for some time and a hell of a lot of people would agree with him even if I don’t think elimination is possible
There are so many uncertainties attached to a bubble - witness NZ suspending the bubble on its own authority connected to outbreaks in parts of Australia. We are closer to NZ on prevalence and management. Singapore is much more uncertain as an international hub and in its decisions as to restrictions on countries it will accept.
The UK and Continental Europe traffic light systems for tourism are subject to swift change depending on the dynamics of disease outbreaks, even in highly vaxed countries. They are not working perfectly.
So I suppose Sutton and some other CHOs see some sort of herd immunity as the way out before the national border is significantly relaxed (and we can relax on domestic measures), but the time frame depends on vax supply and to some extent improved vaccines.
It is still a long haul.
Morrison was singing Gladys ‘s praises in QT today, noting that NSW has not had to do lockdowns like other States- that may come back to haunt him if the NSW figures start climbing high in the next few days - to a level at which Victoria was sanguine before the second wave hit us so hard… all the other States had learnings from that.
I doubt the Singapore bubble will happen when they still have 10 or 20 community cases per day, while Australia still has small local outbreaks - I also wonder whether Australia would accept the Sinovac vaccine which seems to be preferred in Singapore - I’ll also add that Singapore doesn’t want a NZ style bubble with no PCR tests or vaccinations - The proposed Singapore/HK travel bubble which has been delayed twice because of local outbreaks mandated the following
- Must be vaccinated
- PCR test 3 days before departure, then on arrival at destination and then another PCR when you return to your original destination - So in effect three tests.
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That’s the problem though.
The strategy and framework within Australia of what shuts down borders and movement.
Vic Gov/Health got smashed for having another lockdown. But letting it run at very small levels like NSW did in December and January would have meant that the borders would have been closed anyway based on the number of exposure sites on its own. NSW would have remained open, but as soon as they had a local case, there would have been an absolute ■■■■ fight about it.
That strategy by other states to shut the borders informs what our Vic Health do. It puts pressure on AFL because they also can’t freely move from state to state and for them, they don’t want to be out of Melbourne for too long, because that’s where all the crowds and majority of teams are from.
Our ‘elimination’ strategy is why we go into lockdown. There is simply no choice in the matter.
If the borders were to remain open to all the states whilst we run at small figures, I think we wouldn’t go into lockdown. We’d just need to manage the risk of it getting out of control (which is highly debatable whether it’s possible to do by any state outside of NSW).
I think that’s the bigger discussion that needs to be had at National Cabinet level. At what percentage of fully vaccinated population can we trust our contact tracing efforts enough to not have to shut borders? Is it 40%, 50% or 60%. We are nowhere near any of those figures, so there is time, but the discussion and decision needs to be had once we get close to them.
And given HQ has differed and border rules have differed from state to state, I now expect the same to happen with vaccination rates. It’s effectively how USA states are dealing with large gatherings. It’s not all through USA that’s open. Each state would have a different take up percentage of the vaccine, which will give people more liberties than the unvaccinated.
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Travel bubbles are dangerous 
Both times that Singapore has arranged it with HK and was close to going ahead, there was a rise in cases. First time was in HK, second time was in Singapore.
I think we need to forget about travel bubbles until majority of population are vaccinated.
FYI @yaco55 Pfizer and Moderna are the approved and preferred vaccines in Singapore. Sinovac was just recently allowed to be given by some private clinics, but it is not officially approved and so is not covered by Govt subsidies.
The high demand for Sinovac could be because China only accepts Sinopharm or Sinovac vaccine as allowed for exemption from quarantine, and Singapore has a lot of residents/ex-citizens of China.
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When the primary source of local cases is from HQ and CHOs and their staff, frontline workers are run ragged dealing with outbreaks ( impacting on wider public health) , the last thing they would want is a significant relaxation of the national border.
They seem to be leaving it to the politicians in their States to sort out a fit for purpose HQ with the Feds, perhaps amenable to a self iso system with countries that meet their standards in vax and testing security. There is probably little daylight between State CHOs on priorities - get the vax rate as high as possible.
I’ll get back to you in 2029…
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Understand that, despite the high vax rate in England and more open borders some infections have risen regionally (Cornwall got a mention);and there are a fair few restrictions at local level, NHS under pressure
Maybe there are issues with variants of variants.
And in USA vax rates and infections vary regionally.
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Yep, I recognize conditioning when see it too!