On the other side fo the world and a Wednesday, Dominic Cummings the former Chief Advisor to the Prime Minister of Great Britain Boris Johnson gave testimony at a parliamentary inquiry about the handling of the COVID pandemic.
What was said in those seven hours if proven true was pretty damning.
What was claimed or confirmed Cummings mostly related to behind closed door meetings and briefings where debate can be debated and remarks can be flip.
But still…
Johnson compared COVID to swine flu and suggested he be injected live on television with it to prove it wasn’t dangerous.
Was distracted about developments in Italy with his divorce and announcement of his partner’s pregnancy.
A senior civil servant likened COVID-19 to chicken pox and floated mass infection parties to build herd immunity.
Johnson quipped COVID was only killing over 80s.
Expressed regret over the first lockdown and said he would rather see the bodies pile in their thousands than order a second lockdown.
When asked if Johnson was fit to hold office, the man who was a key part of the team that saw him win power replied “No.”
Cummings was even harder on Health Secretary Matt Hancock who he said had told cabinet members that people being transferred from hospitals to nursing home were being tested prior to being transported but it didn’t happen.
Cummings advised the Prime Minister to get rid of Hancock otherwise we are going to kill people but he didn’t. Perhaps for political reasons.
In his testimony Cummings relayed two central points about the government initial plan – that herd immunity through spread was a key strategy and that the British public wouldn’t stand for lockdowns.
Cummings left government last year during a power struggle and also created controversy around himself when he seemingly broke lockdown rules last year when travelling from London to northern England while he had COVID!
What I find remarkable in this day and age with the news is how we just don’t know the answer for things for certain.
From my limited perspective some of the actions taken by the UK government suggest a lack of awareness of the threat during this and later periods.
A priority on the economy over lives.
Herd immunity was even evoked by Johnson in some early press conferences. In comparison to other European countries the UK moved slower and less stridently on a consistent basis.
What Cummings has testified might be irrelevant, there is enough in confirmed actions to question.
The World Health Organisation reported on the 27th of May, 2021 in the United Kingdom there have been 4,470,301 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 2,987.
There had been 127,748 deaths with a daily increase of nine.
Thursday Australia announced a deal to procure 25 million doses of the American Moderna vaccine with 10 million jabs hopefully by the end of year and then 25 million booster jabs next year to deal with variants.
Adelaide plant BioCina who had bought a plant in Adelaide off Pfizer threw its hat into the ring as being able to produce MRNA vaccines like Moderna at its facility within 12 months.
The Univesity of South Australia was also developing a vaccine in partnership with Biotech Company Semetis had also received three million dollars from the Australian government. It was possible still a year from getting to the market.
In New South Wales 7,500 people got vaccinated in one day.
WIth 7 new cases of blood clots in Australia there were now 18 cases of blood clots from 1,800,000 vaccinations in Australia. That was 1 in a 100,000 chance of having it happening to you someone vaccinated. Remember 1 in 600 Americans had died from COVID last year.
An independent panel for the handling of the pandemic released its findings.
It didn’t get much news coverage despite holding many lessons for I learn from not just for future pandemics for the current ongoing one.
Some critical points were the sharing of information between nations, empowering the World Health Organisation and effectively in terms of the outbreak in the West a lack of action throughout the month of February, 2020.
ABC News reported some suggestions were a disease surveillance system that could publish information about developments in a country they were working in without the need to get permission to do so and rich countries doing more to vaccinate poorer nations.
Let’s hope some lessons are learned from the panel’s findings.
On the 12th of May, 2021 the World Health Organisation recorded in India there had been 4,205 deaths in one day.
A new record.
May 14
A new step in the vaccine roll-out a week on from the 2A cohort was due to start next Monday with 400,000 Pfizer doses to be dispensed to 14 different sites across Victoria for a small group of those under age 50.
You had to make a booking and priority would be given to critical and high risk workers, adults with underlying health conditions, disabiltiy and aged care carers and workers.
Uber Drivers and public transport workers could make a booking from May 24th the following Monday.
Victorian Acting Premier James Merlino advised the state was averaging 8,000 vaccinations a day. A testing clinic at the Melbourne Showgrounds would also open a mass vaccination hub on Monday as well.
Channel Nine News reported three hundred thousand vaccine doses had been given out so far in the state.
In Great Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned the staged steps to lower restrictions could be disrupted by the Indian strain which was spreading through Great Britain.
In one week Public Health England reproted cases of the variant had tripled in the country with 1,255 in England, 35 in Scotland, 12 in Northern Ireland and eleven in Wales.
On May 14th, 2021 the World Health Organisation reported in the United Kingdom there were 2,656 new daily cases.
On Monday England was due to open up pubs and restaurants and six people from two households could gather at one of their places.
After that was the fourth and final step due June 21 where there will be no limits on social gatherings indoors or outdoors, no limits on weddings and nightclubs will re-open.
Having down throught the ages with one jab currently anyone over 38 could get vaccinated. Now there was a run on to cut the 12 week gap between the first and second jab to just eight weeks for those over 50 or with underlying health conditions.
The UK’s Chief Medical Adviser Professor Chris Whitty warned that if the Indian variant was more transmissible the island nation would see a significant surge.
Remember how the UK strain was up to 70 per cent than the orginal COVID that across the West, well the Indian strain could be 50 per cent more transmissible than the UK strain according to the Scientific Adivsory Gorup for Emergencies (Sage).
The British Army were deployed to the towns Blackburn and Bolton to help with handing out test kits.
Mobile testing units had been set up Bolton and opening hours and delivery of doses had been increased at that town’s vaccination centres.
A rapid response team of 100 nurses, public health advisers and environmental health officers had also been sent.
In the United States of America the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) eased indoor mask wearing guidance for vaccinated people allowing them to not wear masks in most indoor places.
The CDC guidelines showed quite clearly by vaccinating you were less at risk and could engage in more activities.
As vaccinations slowed down there was a push to encourage more of the populace to drive those vaccinated numbers just a little higher.
Governors were doing their part like in Ohio where vaccinated adults could go in the draw to win one million U.S. dollars. I’ll do it for free but God Bless America.
But New York Mayor Bill De Blasio was a man more after my own heart tucking into fast food that New Yorkers could get from Shake Shack if they got vaccinated. Free fries and a burger?! Hmmmmmm.
God Bless America!
And God bless Bill de Blasio, don’t listen to the haters Mr Mayor, you looked good tucking into that burger. I would’ve made a meal of it.
I saw my GP on Monday the 22nd of March. As we discussing a few recent things to do with my health she mentioned my COVID vaccination.
I advised I was too young but she told me I would come under 1B for an underlying health condition. I asked if she was sure and she was.
I guess I had thought about it but often saw it as something to come down the line.
She told me to keep checking the website, no vaccines were availble at my medical centre yet but they would be soon as part of the 1B roll out.
March 23
I checked with my specialist who treated me for the underlying health condition which was well under control and he gave me the green light for to get the COVID vaccination.
Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned that the third wave currently going through Europe would come to the UK.
Recently case numbers were on the rise and restrictions were coming into place across the continent. Recently several nations had suspended use of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Now the President of the European Commission had floated the idea of blocking drugs being exported to the UK which had vaccinated much more of their population.
Throughout most of 2020 the UK had been per capita one of the highest case number and deaths nationally across the globe.
In Britain they paused on the anniversary of their first lockdown and remembered 126,000 of their fellow countrymen and women ahd had passed away in the past year.
Looking at the assembled nurses and ambos and doctors standing in reflection and remembrance of those who were lost.
How many of those deaths had they personally witnessed?
How many lives had they saved?
Had they seen any colleagues fall?
These were our heroes of a battle that still raged on and here they were still standing.
For us.
March 25
The first 800,000 of the locally made AstraZeneca jabs rolled out from CSL. The hope was to produce a million jabs and distribute them per week. This came in the wake of the short suspension of the AstraZeneca vaccine in Europe having ended a week earlier.
It has to be said it was a great sight to see, the CSL plant was ready to run red hot in getting as many vaccines as possible produced and out in the community or wherever it was needed given a recent break out of cases in Papua New Guinea.
A lot of hard work had already been done to reach this point.
In India cases were on the rise and discovery of new mutant strains. There was a pause of Indian produced AstraZeneca vaccine which could cause problems of getting vaccines to Great Britain and Brazil and countries that would be served through the COVAX scheme.
India itself was looking to ramp up its vaccination scheme with people over 45 to get the jab next month.
In New South Wales a hotel quarantine worker at the Sofitel Hotel tested positive to COVID.
What was noteworthy about the case is the man had already been vaccinated.
Although let’s unpack that a little.
The security guard received his first Pfizer jab on the 2nd of March.
When he tested after most recent shifts March 5th and 6th going into the early hours of the 7th he tested negative after those shifts.
When he returned to work on the Saturday he tested positive.
That’s one jab of Pfizer less than a week earlier when he most likely became infected and the Pfizer jabs works on a basis of two jabs three weeks apart with full effectiveness reached a week after the second jab.
Add to this is the simple fact that medicos are advising particularly with the new strains, vaccinations don’t stop you from getting COVID they stop you from hopefully coming down with a severe case with it.
One hundred and thirty hotel quarantine workers who worked the same shift with the guard on Friday March 12th going into Saturday morning were getting tested and isolating.
Contract tracing was underway for the locations the guard had hit in between his negative and postive test results.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported there had been 136,000 people go through the 14 day hotel quarantine since March 2020.
There had been 5,048 cases in New South Wales during the pandemic.
This case ended a 65 day streak of no new locally acquired cases.
March 16
Speaking of second shots of Pfizer.
Tuesday in Queensland nurse Zoe Park the first receipent of a Pfizer jab in Queensland received her second shot three weeks later along with several other health care workers.
Channel 9 News Australia reported 22,000 of 37,000 health care workers that came under the 1A grouping had received their first shot.
New South Wales had vaccinated 37,000 in the same time period.
Queensland Health Minister Yvette D’Ath advised the state government was on track to complete 1A vaccinations in a fortnight.
Good news given the PA case.
Four hundred close contacts had been identified from that case and were getting tested. About 58% had come back negative.
Tensions between state and federal government consultation were raised.
There were no answers yet on what caused the outbreak at the Hotel Grand Chancellor.
To our north there was growing concern of rising COVID numbers in Papua New Guinea.
Five hundred recent tests in the country had returned 250 positive results. Of 36 active cases of COVID in Queensland – 18 could be linked back to Papua New Guinea.
The Australian government moved to provide support to their neighbour with $500 million dollars worth of foreign aid.
On the 16th of March, 2021 the World Health Organisation reported there had been 2,351 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 82. There had been 26 deaths.
Having only days earlier seen the first AstraZeneca vaccinations take place in Australia, European nations were suspending the roll out of the vaccine.
Italy, Germany and France, Cyprus and Slovenia along suspended its use pending assessment from the European Medicines Agency which were meeting on Thursday.
Spain had suspended use for two weeks.
Earlier Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Austria, Latvia, Sweden, Romania and Bulgaria had stopped using it too.
The side effects cited included blood clots, there had been deaths following vaccinations.
The language of the national leaders struck a tone of precaution but indicated they expected the measure was temporary.
Hospitals in Paris were almost beyond capacity, Italy was in lockdown and there was already a supply issue of getting enough vaccines across Europe that suspending the use of AstraZeneca excaberated.
The European Medicines Agency reported as of March 10, 30 cases of blood clotting had been reported from 5 million Astra Zeneca vaccinations across 30 European countries.
AstraZeneca itself reported out of 17 million vaccinations, 15 events of deep vein thrombosis and 22 evetns of pulomonary embolism.
March 18
Professor Anthony Harnden who was deputy chair of the UK’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) had some strong words regarding the suspension of AstraZeneca.
You cannot stop and start vaccination programs without losing some public confidence,” he told the ABC.
While Pfizer/BioNTech was a Belgium-American collaboration. The Oxford-AstraZeneca jab was a British-Swiss collaboration.
March 19
The European Medicines Agency report came out and its four main findings were the benefits of getting a vaccine far outweighed the risk of side effects, there is no associated increased risk between the jab and blood clots, no problem with batches or manufacturing but the vaccine may be associated with very rare cases of blood clots.
Following this out of the 13 countries that suspended the use of AstraZeneca, Italy, France and Germany advised they would resume its use.
Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands said they would start using it again next week.
France and the UK’s Prime Ministers and Slovenia’s President rolled up their sleeves for the AstraZeneca jab to help in restoring confidence in the vaccine following the suspension of its use in Europe.
Places like Hungary and Bosnia were also going into lockdown as case numbers surged. The former had one of the highest vaccination rates in Europe.
On the 20th of March the World Health Organisation reported there had been 122,039,807 confirmed cases globally with a daily incrase of 552,244.
There had been 2,697,760 deaths worldwide with a daily increase of 10,509.
In Iceland there had been 6,097 confirmed cases with a daily increase of six. There had been 29 deaths.
In Australia there had been 29,183 with a daily increase of 17. There had been 909 deaths.
In Cyprus there had been 41,475 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 364. There had been 241 deaths.
In Ireland there had been 229,306 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 510. There had been 4,576 deaths with a daily increase of ten.
In Latvia there had been 96,524 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 622. There had been 1,811 deaths with a daily increase of ten.
In Denmark there had been 221,455 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 638. There had been 2,397 deaths.
In Slovenia there had been 204,534 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 941. There had been 4,276 deaths with a daily increase of ten.
In Norway there had been 84,553 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 1,034. There had been 648 deaths.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina there had been 151,337 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 1,446. There had been 5,773 deaths with a dialy increase of 44.
In Austria there had been 504,693 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 3,306. There had been 8,795 deaths with a daily increase of 25.
In Canada there had been 922,848 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 3,609. There had been 22,590 deaths with a daily increase of 36.
In Bulgaria there had been 299,939 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 4,162. There had been 11,932 deaths with a daily increase of 115.
In the United Kingdom there had been 4,284,547 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 5,458. THere had been 126,026 deaths with a daily increase of 100.
In Romania there had been 886,752 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 5,593. THere had been 22,020 deaths with a daily increase of 143.
In Sweden there had been 744,171 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 5,740. There had been 13,387 deaths with a daily increase of 18.
In the Netherlands there had been 1,186,425 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 7,355. There had been 16,238 deaths with a daily increase of 45.
In Hungary there had been 560,971 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 11,132. There had been 18,068 deaths with a daily increase of 227.
In Germany there had been 2,645,783 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 16,033. There had been 74,565 deaths with a daily increase of 207.
In Italy there had been 3,332,418 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 25,707. There had been 104,241 deaths with a daily increase of 386.
In France there had been 4,146,171 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 35,066. There had been 91,429 deaths with a daily increase of 267.
In India there had been 11,555,284 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 40,953. There had been 159,558 deaths with a daily increase of 188.
In the United States of America there had been 29,376,388 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 58,826. There had been 534,484 deaths with a daily increase of 1,513.
Most of Europe was not only experiencing surging case numbers but as bad as any their country had ever seen this past winter.
The first Queenslander to receive a COVID vaccine in my home state was Gold Coast nurse Zoe Park. The nurse who worked in a COVID ward received a Pfizer jab on monday morning with an estimated 180 receipients following her the same day.
The nurse didn’t mince words about the impact of the disease or the relief the added safety of the vaccine could mean for frontline workers.
Wednesday would see vaccines dispersed in Brisbane and Friday the first ones in Cairns.
The aim was for 1,000 vaccinations to be administered this first week but more like 10,000 the following week which would also include vaccinations occuring at the Townsville University Hospital, the Sunshine Coast University Hospital and my old stomping ground the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital.
This was the start of the roll out of category 1A to cover 125,000 peopl which included health care workers, border and hotel quarantine staff.
There were two new cases reported in Queensland bringing the total to 7 active cases in the state.
In Victoria 100 frontline health care workers were vaccinated at Monash Health, the site and staff who had treated Australia’s very first COVID-19 patient.
Nurse Manager Rachel Hogben was one of those vaccinated, the woman who had been tasked with leading the care of 35 COVID patients at the height of the second wave in Victoria.
I have been heartened by the sights of initial vaccinations and which have shown so many of the nurses and doctors who put it on the line for their communities now being offered the first real protection we could provide them. They deserve that but they also deserve our thanks. They deserve monuments and medals and tickertape parades but most of all they deserve whatever they need because they have given us everything they have.
The World Health Organisation reported on the 22nd of February, 2021 there had been 28,9626 confirmed cases with a daily increase of six. There had been 909 deaths.
In the United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson set a roap map for coming out of lockdown.
It involved four steps spaced five weeks apart each, the intention was not go back on any of them but Boris allowed that they may to.
Step 1 which obviously caught my attention was on the 8th of March all schools will re-open with outdoor sports allowed. Two people could share a coffee, drink or picnic in a park too.
I obviously not happy about this, teachers I knew in England did not have a snow ball’s chance of receiving their first jab before May and the reactions by schools to COVID cases over the winter made me all too aware of the potential risk those that I cared about were facing.
The BBC reported pupils can access tests and be required to face coverings in classrooms and shared spaces like corridors.
It was also scheduled for the 29th of March, 2021 and would allow outdoor gatherings of six people and between two households. Tennis and baseketball courts would also re-open.
Step 2 on the 12th of April, it was intended non-essential retail, shops, hairdressers, gyms, swimming pools, public libraries, caravan parks and camp sites and outdoor hospitality like zoos, beer gardens, theme parks and bottleos could re-open.
Funerals could occur with 30 people and weddings with 15.
However there would be no visits between households in doors.
The hospitality curfews woudl end and a revew of international travel restrictions would be announced.
Step 3 on the 17th of May, two households could visit each other and gatherings of six friends in a pub could take place.
Outdoors gathering could be as large as 30 people.
Thirty was also the number allowed at weddings, funerals and wakes.
Cinemas, musuems, hotels, sporting and performance arts venues would re-open with social distance measures in place. Upt to 10,000 spectators could attend football stadiums.
As mentioned by Beetley Pete at the time there was talk of vaccine passports to help indoor venues to re-open safely.
Before Step 4 took place, scheduled for the 21st of June, there would be a review of long term measures like mask wearing and social distancing of one metre plus. Also to be looked at was the working from home guidelines, visitors for aged care residents, remaining restrictions for weddings and funerals and opening up of live music venues and nightclubs.
Rate of vaccinations, new cases and new variants would inform all decisions.
Certainly not at the rate he was going. Despite this the lockdown had been in effect for qutie some time and had not seen an immediate rush out of it following lower numbers. Some coverage here in Australia showed people living in England fatigured by it and over it. I had been very grateful for it. I believe it had saved lives.
Professor Neil Ferguson of the Imperial College London publicly stated the roadmap struck the right balance but warned re-opening schools increased the risk of further cases.
UK Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said the five week gap was important and that measures such face coverings, hand washing and self isolation may be needed during the following winter.
The BBC reported there had been over 17 million first jabs administered.
The World Health Organisation reported on the 22nd of February there had been in the UK 4,122,421 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 8,050. There had been 120,580 deaths with a daily increase of 215.
Great Britain’s leader also pushed for more funding of Covax, a multilateral vaccine supply scheme led by several international agencies including the World Health Organisation. The world leaders issued a joint statement afterwards agreeing to “intensify co-operation.” This included more sharing of information about new variants, accelerating vaccine development and dispersal and 7.5 billion US dollars spent in aid fo Covax.
They committed to accelerating global vaccine development and deployment, including improving the sharing of information about the discovery of new variants, and cited 7.5 billion US dollars (£5.3 billion) of support coming from the G7 for the body behind Covax.
I had to say I couldn’t agree more, in the race to vaccinate more lives would be saved if we could clamp this thing down across the world to avoid new variants. Whether this would be possible logisitically was a big questions. And politically with cases numbers still very high in Europe, North America and South America. If these same nations were first in the queue for delively of vacinnes there was going to be huge politcal and even moral obligations to see that they do everything in the power to avoid a second winter next year proving as deadly as this current one had been.
February 21
Sunday and the first COVID vaccines were given in my country.
They included the Austalian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Australia’s Chief Medical Officer and Australia’s Chief Nurse but first up was 84 year old Jane Malysiak.
Born in Poland, as a child she had grown up in war torn Europe. She later immigrated to Australia and ran a corner shop in Sydney with her husband.
In true Australian fashion when it came time to pose for the camera, Malysiak proved a little unorthodox. The Prime Minister by her side asked for her to shoot a V for vacinne sigh with her hands echoing Churchill’s V for Victory gesture during the dark days of World War II. Which she did but with the back of her hand facing camera which is a gesture that can mean something else.
There is a little part of me that likes to think the elderley nurisng home resident knew exactly what she was doing when she made the gesture and wanted to see how people would react. Either way it proved delightful and memorable on her part.
There were other nurisng home residents in the group to receive the first vaccines in Australia but also Corporal Boyd Chatillon, a team leader of Quarantine Compliance Monitoring program in Sydney hotels and Alysha Eyre and Jon Buttenshaw from Australia Border Force.
Starting Monday there would 16 vaccination hubs across Australia to dispense jabs to frontline health care workers, quarantine staff and border forces.
Three of those sixteen hubs would be in Queensland at the Cairns Hospital, Gold Coast University Hospital and the Princess Alexandra Hospital.
There would be 240 centres set up to deliver to aged care in Australia too.
The plan was for the roll-out to increase as local production of Aztra-Zeneca ramped up in late March.
200 million doses had been dispensed around the world already. Now Australia would be dispensing the vaccine to its populace too.
On the 21st of February, 2021 the World Health Organisation reported there had been 110,758,037 confirmed cases globally with a daily increase of 378,953.
There had been 2,461,184 deaths worldwide with a daily increase of 9,457.
In Australia there had been 28,920 confirmed cases with a daily increase of two. There had been 909 deaths.
In Canada there had been 840,586 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 3,089. There had been 21,576 deaths with a daily increase of 78.
In the United Kingdom there had been 4,114,371 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 10,376. There had been 120,365 deaths with a daily increase of 445.
In India there had been 10,991,651 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 14,264. There had been 156,302 deaths with a daily increase of 90.
In the United States of America there had been 27,702,074 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 73,240. There had been 491,894 deaths with a daily increase of 2,543.
I watched with interest what would happen in the UK. I did not hold out hope that the schools would remain closed until all teachers been vaccinated but how close the two timeframes might land I had some interest in.
I read an article from The Evening Standard that Boris Johnson was to hold a 5pm press conference.
Two million Britons had received vaccinations in the past week alone.
That was one jab – not both.
Also the highest daily death count of 1,820 had occurred.
As these events unfolded apparently there was pressure to end the lockdown.
In the same week of the highest daily death count.
I had no confidence that restrictions would stay as long or as severe as I saw necessary. Maybe it was just not possible to get to the UK to where Australia was now. If people catch and pass on COVID without becoming symptomantic then stopping the spread certainly presented many challenges.
If the most vulnerable people receive both jabs, if our health care workers could receive both jabs before re-opening then that undeniably would save lives but this was not was being discussed.
They were talking about one jab by the 15th of February, 2021.
Under consideration was a new plan to have everyone who tests positive for COVID given 500 pounds. The proposal would possibly cost 450 million pounds a week but encourage people to get tested and isolate. The payment would be made regardless of age, employment status or ability to work.
23 January
The press conference came and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom advised, “In addition to spreading more quickly, it also now appears that there is some evidence that the new variant – the variant that was first identified in London and the south east – may be associated with a higher degree of mortality. It’s largely the impact of this new variant that means the NHS is under such intense pressure.”
The UK R number was cited as between 0.8 to 1.
Academics and researchers advised that Johnson’s suggestion of an higher mortality rate may not be be certain. Which fitted with the language the Prime Minister had employed.
It was reported that the UK variant spreads 30 to 70% faster and hints it could be 30 per deadlier.
An example cited where once 1,000 60 year olds infected with the old variant ten might be expected to die, now with the new variant is 13.
Another factor to consider is death rates in hospitals have per capita have gone down with improved treatment.
The UK variant had been first detected in Kent in September, it was now the most common form of the virus in the country and had spread to more than 50 other countries.
Sir Patrick believed the Pfizer and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines would work against the UK variant but was concerned about variants from Africa and South America.
Well we all know the story now. Everybody posted on social media that 2020 could go to hell and that 2021 couldn’t happen soon enough.
That somehow dates on a calendar would change everything like magic.
I’ll admit, I thought what a bunch of idiots but honestly who could not begrudge people this hope.
It is human nature to take stock of passing time and to look to the future with hopefulness but I found it annoying because life gets better by making individual efforts to make it better.
In Australia we really did seem like the lucky country. Sure the Avalon cluster had spoiled some of our Christmas fun but looking abroad made us recognise how much we had to be grateful for. My sister was in the UK where there were daily increase of cases that were the sum total of all recorded Australian cases.
People were suffering worldwide and I’d sat in a hotel lobby on New Years Eve and had cocktails and seen friends.
After years of being on contracts, I had a job as many people’s financial situation fell out from underneath them, after years of watching others go overseas I finally took a holiday locally and drove out to nearby country towns.
I felt uneasy…when was the other shoe going to drop?
Having experienced hardship in my own past and been saved by others, I now looked for ways to help not just worry.
But its true that I mostly felt grateful for what I was lucky enough to have in my life, my work, my friends and family and time to be with them.
I think most people felt a sense of hopefulness in the New Year. By the end of the first week we would have painful reminders that a lot can happen in a day dramatically.
January 04
Last year around about the time COVID-19 took off across the world there was a resurgence of interest in Steven Soderberg’s 2011 film Contagion. I even had friends talk about it and I watched an excellent video from the Youtube group The Take.
But alas in our age of disparate audience groups, I have Stan and Netflix but neither had Contagion so that was that. In the new year of 2021 with a year of the pandemic having played out in real life Contagion hit even harder.
In March 2020, the opening of the 2011 film spoke to the fear and anxiety as the virus hit the West and quickly spread. Watching people touch surfaces and their fellow human beings while sick and not knowing gets the blood pumping now like a horror film.
Watching it in January 2021 it hits even harder.
If you have not seen it, then I suggest you do but I would not judge you if watching it is just too hard at this time.
SPOILERS AHEAD!
In 2011 I suspect if I had seen the film, I would have thought it was pretty solid and low key. That is Soderberg for you. I recently started watching Logan Lucky and just never went back to it. But I am a fan of Traffic and Erin Brockovich. The guy runs the gamut.
He pulled together an all star cast, Gwyneth Paltrow, Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Laurence Fishburne, Jennifer Ehle and Elliot Gould.
Matt Damon in particular shows a knack for playing an everyman in stark contrast to the capable Jason Bourne he made famous or the wise cracking Will from his break-out film Good Will Hunting. Kate Winslet plays the heroic capable figure we need in such a story but even that gets subverted.
Commentary around the film picks up on two running themes in the film, yes there is the pandemic of the virus but also a parrallel pandemic of misinformation. Government of the most part is capable and partisan but there are local figures early on that question if it is a just scare that will pass like SARS, the backlash from the public if they’re seen to overreact and budgetary haggling.
In our own world the misinformation from Fox News from March that this kills just as many as the flu, the anti-vaxxers, the protesters, the riots, the anti-malarial drug that Trump championed, all have eerie parrallels.
The virus in the film spreads faster and kills more than COVID-19. Martial law is declared at one point and there is a run on in food and isolated towns rife with looting. Garbage remains uncollected on the streets.
I guess we can be grateful COVID-19 was not as deadly as what is depicted here.
But panic buying in the shops, border closures and one shot that took my breath away of mass graves are all here.
The virus itself starts in Hong Kong with a bat.
A vaccinne takes a year and a while to roll out to everyone, creating anxiety. The film does not show a concern to get everybody vaccinated before too many mutant strains make it no longer effective. Maybe we’ll be that lucky too.
How did in 2011 did they release a film that got this all so eerily right?
Well for starters this had already happened with SARS and MERS and secondly the filmmakers went to the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organisation and asked them what is likely to happen.
What I observed in the early days of COVID-19 is how we all react differently in telling ways.
There are those of us who watched the news religiously, those who did not, those of us who took our kids out of school, those of who still went into work when we believed we should be in lockdown.
Those of who looked to our institutions for leadership, those of us who questioned every decision and every piece of information that was parceled out.
Those of us who grew fatalistic and decided we had to live our lives, those of us who constantly thought of our health care workers and elderly, those of us who lamented our freedoms, those of us who wondered how we could benefit from the stocks changing and those of us who looked for ways to donate more to charities and get involved in volunteer work.
Contagion may not go into such specifics but constantly throughout there is a theme of people making moral choices with good or selfish intentions and good or bad results that come from that. The film I believe is simply observing the human factor of why people make the decisions they make. With no
judgement just the randomness of that and how small decisions can have major consequences.
I believe ultimately the film is optimistic about the human race.
I like to think I am too.
January 05
An 18 year old Sydneysider had contracted COVID from the Berala cluster and then travelled through regional New South Wales while infectious. This prompted contract tracing to occur in Orange (250kms away from Sydney), Nyngan (550kms away from Sydney) and Broken Hill (1,140kms away from Sydney) with people who had been in certain locations at certain times to get tested and self isolate for 14 days even if their result comes back negative.
On the fifth of January, World Health Organisation reported in Australia there had been 28,504 confirmed cases of COVID with a daily increase of 21. There had been 909 deaths.
In the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland schools were being shut down…thank fuck!
I understand this was not great news for many families, that it would present a range of challenges for educators and their students, but if it saved one life I was all for it and there was no doubt in my mind that it would save thousands.
Similar to moves to remote learning here in Australia, schools remained open to take students of key workers and vulnerable youths.
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland were already ahead of BJ with those countries have been doing remote learning for students already and extending them in light of the predicament they found themselves in.
On the 5th of January, the World Health Organisation reported in the United Kingdom there had been 2,713,567 confirmed cases of COVID with a daily increase of 58,784. There had been 75,431 deaths with a daily increase of 407.
In the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson put London and the south-east of England into Tier-4 lockdown. The new UK strain of COVID was skyrocketing case numbers had forced his hand. For some it was too little, too late. For others it was a maddening last minute cancellation of Christmas. I think where my stance was.
Tier 4 was stay at home except for work or education.
You could meet up with one friend in public unless you live with them.
England’s Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty speaking at Downing Street advised that yes the mutation made the virus a lot more contagious but in terms of symptoms and treatment the preliminary findings were promising including whether it was resistant to the vaccine.
France did so too setting it for 48 hours causing lorries loaded with freight to be backed up in the port of Dover.
From Boxing Day Scotland was headed for Tier 4 restrictions too.
No going to another household. Six adults and children under 12 from two households could meet in public. Providing care was an exception. Singles from a household of their own could be considered part of another household. The government didn’t want people lonely at Christmas.
Restaurants, cafes, and pubs were closed. Take-away venues needed to operate with face coverings and social distancing. Accommodation venues were only for essential workers. Room service in hotels was allowed.
Supermarkets were open, non essential retail was not. That included hairdressers, barbers, massage therapists, tattoo and piercing places and indoor photography.
Cinemas and gyms were closed but outdoor non-contact sports were permitted.
Churches a maximum of 20 people, weddings the same but no reception. Funerals 20 guests too.
Schools, universities and childcare were still open.
Public libraries were not but you could order and collect books.
The day before the island nation had breached two million COVID cases with 2,004,223.
On the 21st of December the World Health Organisation reported in the United Kingdom there had been 2,040,151 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 35,928.
There had been 67,401 deaths with a daily increase of 326.
From my limited Australian perspective lockdowns are a tool and one that has not been brought to bear soon enough in the UK.
I hoped the hardship for the the British people during this Christmas period would save lives.
Monday and a new week and while I was off sick Monday and Tuesday hotel quarantine started up again in Melbourne, Victoria.
For the first time since late June international flights with returning Australians were landing to complete 14 days of hotel quarantine in Melbourne.
The Australian city that had experienced the most loss of life and the longest lockdown period and government imposed restrictions following an outbreak when security protocols failed at a hotel quarantine site.
In the new hotel quarantine system 300 police officers will be deployed to do the work every day. One hundred and seventy-two Australian Defence Force Personnel are deploying to do front desk tasks and no private security guards will be involved.
The use of private security companies had been a fixture of the COVID-19 Hotel inquiry.
There were a range of rules for those quarantining to follow.
They couldn’t leave their rooms for fresh air or exercise unless there are relevant reasons. They won’t be able to receive care packages from their families.
Everyone working in the quarantine hotels, with the exception of the cleaning staff, will be employed or directly contracted by the newly established Covid Quaratine Victoria.
Cleaners will be employed through fixed term contacts to avoid the need to work across different locations as casuals.
They will be tested for COVID-19 every day, while the members of their households will also be tested on a regular basis.
They will work together on the same rosters with colleagues to limit the spread if one of them becomes sick.
Hotel quarantine will cost the returnee $3,000 dollars, $1,000 per additional adult and $500 per child over three years of age.
On the 7th of December, the World Health Organisation reported in Australia there had been 27,965 confirmed cases with a daily increase of nine. There had been 908 deaths.
December 08
In the United States of America, Ballbag continued to try and steal the election whilst proclaiming it stolen.
It’s funny to say this but no matter the lack of legal grounds, what the pundits said, Ballbag just created anxiety with his actions.
Here was an elected official undermining an election result.
For his followers this was real, although you can’t protest a count in one state and insist it go ahead in another because its going your way.
That clearly shows its not about the principal of the matter.
Having worked in an election warehouse counting votes albeit in a different country with different systems it seemed crazy to me how you could pull off such a miscarriage of the count.
I guess nothing is impossible but its not like every election official is affiliated one way or the other. The fact that security was needed at such sites is shocking to me having it never be a concern here in Australia.
Right now, democracy is fragile in America in a way I never thought I would see in my lifetime.
You would hope when a bunch of people die and the President talks about using bleach in the human body, yells at reporters for asking simple questions, leaves states to bid for medical supplies and hands out pens to health officials rather than hear their cries for help that Americans would strap on the biggest boot they could find and send it right on up his wide load tennis shorts size ass!
The fact that they did that and then the only work he did for the next two months was bleat about it and then go off and play golf rather than deal with the real crisis in America which were COVID cases and deaths skyrocketing is just really sad.
How did it get to this and why is any of this tribally political? Regardless of age, political disposition, race, colour, or creed why would anyone not think this President has been horrible in dealing with COVID-19?
On the 8th of December the World Health Organisation reported in the United States of America there had been 14,570,523 confirmed COVID cases with a daily increase of 173,388. There had been 279,913 deaths with a daily increase of 1,107.
In the United Kingdom a young lady named Maggie originally from Enniskillen in Fermanagh made history.
Ninety-year old Margaret Keenan become the first person to receive the COViD-19 Pfizer BioNTech vaccinne following trials and approvals.
She was one of thousands getting the first of two scheduled jabs across the UK. The hope was to have 4 million Britons vaccinated by the end of 2020 primarily health care workers and people over 80 years of age.
The BBC weren’t specific about who was the first person in Scotland but consultant anaesthetist Dr Katie Stewart at NHS Borders and senior charge nurse Andrew Mencnarowski who will vaccinate colleagues at Edinburgh’s Western General Hospital were among the first.
Britain has ordered 40 million doses of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine which is less than enough for a third of the population to get vaccinated. There are reports to achieve herd immunity 70 per cent take up a national population is required.
After receiving the first jab, 21 days later a second jab is administered with full immunity believed to take effect at the 28 day mark from the first jab.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock advised it would take several weeks for just health care workers and people over 80 to get vaccinated. The need for it to be kept in ultra-cold storage rather than just refrigerated like the vaccine developed by the Oxford University was going to create challenges for distribution.
But we had a vaccine.
We had a vaccine.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson believed it was a turning point in the country’s fortunes against the virus but one step in a battle that was far from over.
On the 8th of December, the World Health Organisation reported in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland there had been 1,737,964 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 14,718. There had been 61,434 deaths with a daily increase of 189.
Victoria had recovered enough to ramp up hotel quarantine again, most state borders were open as Western Australian opened up to the rest of the country, Ballbag was getting shown the door whether he liked it or not and against all odds and thanks to so many unsung scientists and health care workers vaccines were rolling out across the world.
Gee….
Anybody would have thought it was Christmas after all!
But the virus of course didn’t care what the calendar said.
