So far so good

[rogespeed]

relatively speaking , so far so good in Australia , and with flu season still a few months away , lets hoping for a mild winter 

[davewil1964]

Imagine how much better off we would be if the Government had taken up all of your suggestions. UVC filters, total lockdown with consequent destruction of the economy, the lash for those who flaunt GUIDELINES.

[gutterpunkz05]

Bring it on covid-19,  I have got you covered.  Seeing scomo advised jigsaw puzzles are essential items, I got in early to beat the rush.  According to the box I have not got a care in the world for the next 3-5 yrs.

[eol-products]

Try one blindfolded.

[chameleon54]

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@rogespeed wrote:

relatively speaking , so far so good in Australia , and with flu season still a few months away , lets hoping for a mild winter 

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BOM has released its long range forecast for the next three months. Higher than average temperatures for the whole continent and drier than normal weather for the Eastern sea board. Great for slowing Corona virus, not so good for areas that are still in drought.

It doesn't bear thinking about if the drought conditions return in NSW, Victoria and Queensland. My own properties are on a drought knife edge, only being saved at the moment by the cyclonic rains over summer. Unfortunately the effect of these have passed and dams are running dry again. 

The Summer rains gave us a breather and allowed us to fatten stock for sale, but there are some worrying signs on the horizon for farmers. Its still early days, but worth just keeping an eye on as it has major implications for food security and supermarket prices in the current uncertain times. Fresh food and meat is already too expensive, heaven help us all if the drought returns. 

[icyfroth]

At last someone's talking about the drought and bushfires again.Ongoing problems, providing our economy survives the virus.

[springyzone]

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@davewil1964 wrote:

Imagine how much better off we would be if the Government had taken up all of your suggestions. UVC filters, total lockdown with consequent destruction of the economy, the lash for those who flaunt GUIDELINES.

---

I was just thinking, if our government had responded very quickly to this, when they knew it was a pandemic ie in early Feb, and had shut the borders completely then, would we actually be worse off?

If the gov't had said- this country is closed to visitors of any kind, no one into this country except Australian citizens and when they arrive, they go into forced quarantine for 2 weeks, would we even have the virus here?

If we had had a case pop up in that scenario and jumped on it quickly, with enforced isolation for all contacts, we could have wiped it out.

If we didn't have any virus here and no new people arriving to give it to us, nothing would be closed down. 

So what would affect our economy more-closing the country early but having life continue as normal, or closing the country late and having months of shut downs and job losses?

It's just a musing as we missed our chance. I recall even when those Diamond Princess passengers were returned to Australia and placed on Christmas Island for an enforced quarantine, so many people thought that was too harsh & unnatural. It wasn't.

[rogespeed]

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@springyzone wrote:

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@davewil1964 wrote:

Imagine how much better off we would be if the Government had taken up all of your suggestions. UVC filters, total lockdown with consequent destruction of the economy, the lash for those who flaunt GUIDELINES.

---

I was just thinking, if our government had responded very quickly to this, when they knew it was a pandemic ie in early Feb, and had shut the borders completely then, would we actually be worse off?

If the gov't had said- this country is closed to visitors of any kind, no one into this country except Australian citizens and when they arrive, they go into forced quarantine for 2 weeks, would we even have the virus here?

If we had had a case pop up in that scenario and jumped on it quickly, with enforced isolation for all contacts, we could have wiped it out.

If we didn't have any virus here and no new people arriving to give it to us, nothing would be closed down. 

So what would affect our economy more-closing the country early but having life continue as normal, or closing the country late and having months of shut downs and job losses?

It's just a musing as we missed our chance. I recall even when those Diamond Princess passengers were returned to Australia and placed on Christmas Island for an enforced quarantine, so many people thought that was too harsh & unnatural. It wasn't.

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Sadly could be argued as true , but those in power have to consider dangerous blowback due to reluctance of people and vested interests to suffer privations and loss when still distant and is not considered a personal threat  - a characteristic of human behaviour recorded back to the days of Noah 

So powers tend to only act when mass personal threat is understood and accepted - which often is to late to minimise damage

Fortunately in Australia other factors have enabled limited damage from this delay ie been late summer time here