When the PCR testing systems became (quickly) overloaded in Australia, huge queues and very frustrated people were the result. It was almost impossible to get RATs - they weren't available. Now the case numbers have passed their peak(s) and half way down ...
My (limited) experience here in Queensland is that there has been a very high degree of compliance with mask mandates since the Omicron outbreak started. Also, a lot of older people have deliberately kept out of crowded places. Only 7 people died in the ...
Not sure about the hypothesis that viruses always evolve in the direction of less virulence, Belladonna. They may or may not. To take the SARS-Cov-2 example, for instance, the Alpha variant wasn't less severe than the original (Wuhan) variant, Delta wasn't...
Any doubts about the virulence of the Omicron variant(s) should perhaps now be put to bed as a real life, tragic experiment is taking place in one of NZ's Pacific neighbours - the Solomon Islands. Because Omicron arrived almost everywhere where vaccination...
Stan is right, Dennis. Unfortunately, none of the NZ stats offered up in graphic detail by the various media tell you how unvaccinated vs vaccinated fare when it comes to infection and hospitalisation without doing the maths. I just checked RNZ's stats and...
399 deaths in Queensland so far, up from 7 reported in mid December last year. Most of the deaths do appear to be in aged care homes and accompany other illnesses. Queensland dealt with the southern states' Delta outbreaks very well, but at the cost of ...
I think any NZer in the Ukraine has far fewer worries about where to flee to than the 41 million Ukrainians who are stuck with whatever madness happens there (or not... many Ukranians seem to be not as concerned as the rest of the western world, or are ...
NZ citizens and permanent residents don't need to go into MIQ from mid March and if they fly via Australia they don't need to go into MIQ from the end of this month. More complicated is that most of those 30 people in the Ukraine probably (I don't know) ...
That sounds quite scary and not where Science in NZ ought to be heading. I taught the new NCEA Level 2 Science Geology of New Zealand course when it first came out back in 2003. It was absolutely fascinating (because NZ does have riveting geology) and I ...
I notice that Gezza's pukeko and tuna updates have been missing recently, so to continue Anne's avian theme, hear is a quirky article from the Guardian about the kea with a bid to photograph a part of the Kepler track. https://www.theguardian.com/world/...
The NZ government can't really influence the immigration rules of other countries. Bellis could have applied for a residence permit in Belgium which would have got her more than the normal 3 Schengen months. She could have also gone to Britain, which has a...
Stuff has an article about what's happening with Omicron numbers. Hipkins was probably right when he compared disease spread modelling with weather forecasting. It's all about what could happen, not what will happen.
In Oz, it's hard to tell about case numbers because of inaccuracies in people reporting RAT test results, but the stats do seem to show that all states are experiencing a steady drop in numbers. Hospitalisations have plateaued and not increasing, but not ...
A NTD TV report. Do the Falun Gong, who are the author of that report, know anything about epidemiology? I thought that that article was a total spoof until I found out who wrote it.
You can't teach what you want in a classroom, even if it is factually correct! All dependent on the curriculum, especially in high school. I once taught Biology in a high school in Darwin. I had a colleague who was a fundamentalist Christian who didn't ...
More on the benefits of the free market, according to the would-be PM with 7 homes "Australia had approved 60 suppliers and had enough tests to offer them up to schools, Luxon told Morning Report. "If Australia has approved 60 providers that have met their...
I honestly don't think that there are enough New Cal. crows, a unique species, in the whole of that territory (NZ's nearest neighbour) to be imported into Sweden to pick up a billion ciggie butts!
I don't have a vote as I have a NZ passport, but we are hoping that Tweedledee (Albo) gets in rather than Tweedledumb (Scomo). Newscorp's media army is already in full attack mode against Aus Labor. You would think that Labor was actually going to do ...
Ugandans should know all about bananas. I lived in Kampala in the early 70s and discovered that there were at least 30 different varieties of banana grown there, although mostly they were not sweet and were eaten after cooking.
Think I only managed to save an "illion" but will do my best to support the economy by spending it. I guess I could buy a dud RAT test for next time I have to use public transport in Brisbane, and get infected by a non-mask wearer, but I can't find any to ...
First Dog on the Moon (link below) provides some (cartoonish) non-elightenment on treasurers who know nothing about economics (nor do economists!), what to do with millions of dud RAT tests (maybe tsmithfield would be interested in this snippet), why ...
She could have hopped over the Channel to England, which isn't in Schengen. After 3 months you can go back into any Schengen country. She sounds a pretty ballsy woman and rightly pissed off about misjudging her return to NZ, but hardly anything she ...
I an in Queensland. Until 13th December 2021, there were 7 deaths related to, from or with Covid since the pandemic began at the end of March 2020. In the last month, 88 more people have died from, or with, Covid. I assume it isn't because there has been a...
Agreed. As University of South Australia professor of biostatistics and epidemiology, Adrian Esterman, was quoted as saying in the Guardian article (linked to in reply to Adrian Thornton's comment above): "It is well known that many conditions can increase...
McGowan is predictably copping a lot of flak. WA is a huge state with a lot of remote indigenous communities with very low vaccination rates. This is what McGowan said yesterday: “I know I’m getting a lot of criticism. What we’re trying to do is save lives...
Surprsingly poor analysis of all the possible causes, it seems, and also which variant (Delta or Omicron) is involved. This article explores just how poor the underlying causes are known about. This article provides statistics and graphs of what has been ...
The point that ts is making is that when Omicron is raging, people with symptoms or close contacts of people who have been tested as positive will be so many that the normal PCR process will be overwhelmed. RAT tests are not as effective as PCR tests but ...
Think "successful management framework for Omicron" is a bit of an oxymoron anywhere in the world. NZ is taking more of a WA approach, but Omicron might just beat both places to it before either would want it. Think politicians in many countries have been ...
The evidence from Australia seems to be that business hasn't done well as the Omicron outbreak has meant staff shortages, hesitancy on the part of ordinary people to go out and risk being infected. The same businesses that were hard hit during lockdowns ...
WA has gone its own way by keeping its hard border with the rest of Australia shut to all except a few who apply for exemptions. McGowan reckons its better to wait for the booster rate to be up at about the 80-90% level (currently at about 25%) and ...
Interesting, quirky clip.
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