Carlton Supporters Club

The strategy of being more rather than less cautious, the strategy of trying to protect everyone, with an emphasis on those most vulnerable, even if it meant that the relatively healthy among us had to be inconvenienced (perhaps even highly inconvenienced) is completely bang on IMO. Covid wasn't a known quantity. It's hard to plan for a shifting and initially unknown target and keep everyone happy.

Of course, like most, I never enjoyed lockdowns, working from home, travel restrictions, schooling from home etc., but it was the right approach IMO.

I was fine with it, until I saw how the mandates were applied to people.

It was very much get vaccinated or else.

They lost me and many others in some circumstances that you just had to witness to believe.  Imagine staring at a 20 year nurse 6 months pregnant offering to start maternity leave early and only return to work fully vaccinated and instead tear up her employment contract.

Needless to say, she won't be back.  Nurse educator in cardiology and ICU lost to the system for a vaccine that provides very limited personal protection vs a high risk pregnancy given her age.  I know which I'd choose, because sometimes you have to play the percentages.

No doubt one man's circumspect, cautious approach is another man's hysterical overreaction. I get that. You will always have fallout, exceptions to the norm and hard luck stories in situations like this. It's unavoidable. If you want to roll the dice, you take whatever fate has in store for you. You can look at Sweden for example, and their more relaxed approach was certainly not without some measure of success - but as always, both God and the Devil reside in the detail :

https://theconversation.com/did-swedens-controversial-covid-strategy-pay-off-in-many-ways-it-did-but-it-let-the-elderly-down-188338

You can look at another country that took a similar approach, the US, and it's a very different story.

I recall that when we all (warning: another tired Navy story!) lined up for a barrage of inoculations at recruit school (HMAS Cerberus) there was an expectation that a small number of blokes would react badly, some even hospitalised, and would subsequently not be able to join. We received yellow fever, TB, smallpox and another I forget all in one go. Apparently a few young blokes per year would end up in a critical condition or worse.

The point of this missive is that there was one inoculation (vaccination) where every one had a test for tolerance... a tiny injection under the skin of the forearm (underside) to test reaction (think it was smallpox, maybe TB). If a small watery blister came up in a few days you would good to go for the major injection. If not, you were discharged as the major injection would be very problematic. I wonder if a tiny, test dose could be used for Covid variants and other future nasty viruses to ascertain some level of suitability?

Complaining about the vaccine mandate and how it was applied to the public vs lockdowns are two different scenarios.

The point of this missive is that there was one inoculation (vaccination) where every one had a test for tolerance... a tiny injection under the skin of the forearm (underside) to test reaction (think it was smallpox, maybe TB). If a small watery blister came up in a few days you would good to go for the major injection. If not, you were discharged as the major injection would be very problematic. I wonder if a tiny, test dose could be used for Covid variants and other future nasty viruses to ascertain some level of suitability?

The Black Plague obviously didn’t kill my ancestors so it was media hype too I guess… 🙄

TB...we had them at primary school, the blister/lump meant you got the big needle and a round scar down the track.
A couple of kids in our class didn't get the blister...we had our school milk in the morning as usual and a few kids managed to puke that up after getting the needle.
And as usual the school milk had been left outside in the sun and was in no condition to drink but we all had to finish our little bottles...

Holy mackerel, I remember (advanced apologies to younger folk) that crate milk, EB1. Compulsory. I hated it. The cream would coagulate at the top. I'd give mine away, always made me crook. Never drank milk after that and until this day. Get my calcium from other foods.

Yep, I also remember the compulsory milk we had to drink at school. Small glass bottles, orangey foil top. All of us lined up in the playground, the teacher trying to herd cats................ I think the foil was already removed for us, and I'd see flies sitting on the top of the bottles. The mandatory milk thing didn't seem to last long though - maybe a year or two. Ah, fun times...........

No doubt there were some terrible outcomes for individuals during the worst of pandemic and lockdowns
Loss of income, isolation, mental health, not being able to be with loved ones when they passed.

I guess the problem with looking at statistics in regard to a set of actions in hindsight is this...
We know the illness and mortality rates with the action taken.
We'll never know the illness and mortality rates if those actions weren't taken.

Re closing schools...while the younger populations weren't prone to serious illness and death they still got infected and could possibly have passed the virus on to others-parents, grandparents etc. so it was another strategy to curb the spread.

The best we can hope for is that there will be some really thorough evaluation of the strategies used and we'll be much better prepared next time.

This was an unprecedented event in just about everyone's life-time.
That mistakes were made, or there was a level of unpreparedness is a no-brainer.
My daughter is a nurse in aged care...
My wife's best friend's mother died in one of the homes in the early days of the pandemic
While I can undertand some class actions on behalf of the families of residents who died (they're looking to find someone accountable for the unexplainable) the aged care sector was overwhelmed by something no-one in positions of responsibility could possibly have anticipated.

Just a bit less serious to finish...
Has anyone else noticed that eggs taste a bit weird after having had covid?
I can't eat them anymore.

My daughter did some part time nursing in the aged care system for the extra dough and was horrified at the treatment of residents and the lack of care provided.
Staff knocking off the pain meds and food, patients left with bed sores that were infected. No wonder CoVid went through aged care homes, the residents wouldn't have a chance unless they were taken to hospital. With visitors banned and no checks being done on the lack of care it was the perfect storm for many deaths and to have the easy out of blaming it on CoVid. The aged care system in Australia is a national disgrace that no politician from either side wants to tackle as they need the private operators to make it work but can't over regulate them so the care is poor.Its not about what care they provide it's about what they can get away with in terms of saving money...

I suspect it would be a bit like schools.
Good ones and bad ones.
And sadly sometimes you get what you can afford to pay.
My wife has also done some work in a couple of homes and has had some good experiences, but also mentioned a bit of a gap between the professionalism of some of the workers.

There seems to be a fair bit of scrutiny in terms of standards and accreditations but like other similar situations you can dress the place up for a couple of days if you know the 'inspector' is coming. If there are standards you don't meet there is usually a follow up where you get to correct it.

One of the big issues is availability of trained staff.
And that's not always because the big providers have their eye on the balance sheet.
It's not a go-to profession just at the moment especially in the wake of the pandemic.
It's something that needs to be addressed, especially in the area of registered nurses.
I think that's one of the priorities for Government that is being rectified.
But it's a case of people actually wanting to do the job.

It takes a special kind of person who gets career satisfacton out of feeding, washing and toileting old folks, especially those with dementia who are often resistant or physically aggressive.