Rachael Terry, South Golden Beach
For a long time we were told that masks were ineffective and unnecessary. Now we’re branded selfish if we don’t wear one.
For a long time we were told that transmission was via surfaces, and we had to disinfect our shopping items, use antibacterial products on our hands and everything we touched. Now, no one seems too bothered about all of that.
For a time, we were told that the (investigational) vaccine would severely limit the risk of serious illness, hospitalisation, death and transmission. Now we see many cases worldwide of fully vaccinated people being hospitalised and dying.
We’re told that we must comply to save lives. But apparently we’re not to care about the lives lost as a direct result of lockdowns, that is, owing to depression, loss of livelihoods, suicides and domestic violence.
We’re told that the measures being taken are necessary because of the pandemic. So far, in Australia, 948 people have died from COVID-19. Yet, in 2017 4,269 people died of influenza and pneumonia, and there was no mass hysteria or talk of vaccination passports. In fact, according to the ABS, the overall death rate in 2020 was comparable to the lowest rate of the preceding ten years!
Is anyone else confused?
There is no confusion – for anyone with psychological impairment or when a society is in psychosis such inconsistencies can readily be reconciled. What was flu is now delta * 2+2=5
All successful Psyops have inconsistency.
I’m not confused.
It seems like your confusion is due to missing parts in each of your assertions.
Masks
In the early days of COVID the health industry was trying to work out the efficacy of masks against the, then, new SARS Cov2 virus. Advice was to wear masks, partially due to previous experience and studies of mask protection. Now we have more experience and research with this virus and can confirm they have efficacy. No inconsistency there.
Transmission via surfaces
We are still asked to sanitise our hands, wipe down surfaces (eg coffee shop table) and coronavirus exposed places are still given a deep clean. Unfortunately, I do observe a lack of compliance in many places, but no inconsistency of advice there.
Vaccine effectiveness
COVID vaccinated people show high protection from getting COVID, and then hospitalisation and deaths, eg around 80% and 90% respectively (data from recent global meta analysis). No inconsistency there with initial expectations.
Impact of “told to comply”
A report from Aust Govt’s Institute of Health and Welfare show that deaths from suspected suicides so far in 2021 and 2020 in QLD, NSW and VIC are no higher than previous years. No inconsistency there. Sorry I haven’t hunted up data on deaths due to your other reasons, yet.
Deaths
We have been very fortunate in Australia to only have 948 unfortunate deaths from COVID, whereas if we followed the less restrictive path of other countries, COVID deaths would be many tens of thousands, way above influenza deaths. Influenza doesn’t generate mass hysteria since the viruses are (1) much less infectious than SARS Cov2 and (2) result in death rates an order of magnitude lower, eg around 0.15% give or take a bit. Proof of current influenza vaccination is required in some circumstances, eg, visit aged care facilities. No inconsistency there.
BTW, the benefits of better hand sanitisation, awareness of social distancing, etc is clear in last year’s radical drop in influenza deaths.
Thank you Dr Peter for taking the time to provide us with this advice. I can understand why many with Drs in their name don’t bother as many of those you attempt to answer will dismiss you as either totally deceived by your sources of information or in on the general plot to depopulate us or bring us all under a totalitarian regime. I think it’s vitally important though, with so much fiction in these comments that the Echo generally leaves uncensored, to have the most blatant called out.
Adding a laypersons’s perspective I’d offer the following reflections.
I find it reassuring that investigation and learning about this new pathogen is a continuous process and that health advice changes accordingly. A level of disagreement and revision is fine by me.
If the entire scientific community was in league with the entire medical fraternity as well as pharmaceutical companies, the major media outlets and every government, you’d think they’d get their story straight and not deviate from it. Instead you have situations like the one where 200 researchers worldwide signed an open letter to WHO saying current guidance ignores evidence that the coronavirus readily spreads on microscopic particles known as aerosols that can hang in the air for long periods and float dozens of feet.
Then you have the transparency about the rare adverse effects of the vaccines and what advice and procedures are happening in response rather than a cover up.
I find living in a major historical event well worth following but I have never, either in the past or present been aware of any absolute guarantees about what the vaccines would do. By contrast I remember being specifically warned well into 2020 that we may never see a successful vaccine against a carona virus. You say: “ Now we see many cases worldwide of fully vaccinated people being hospitalised and dying.” What do you mean by “many”? With 4.37 millions deaths a likely gross underestimate there are bound to be “some” certainly. Have you done comparisons between the vaccinated and unvaccinated. The differences between the states in the US Deep South and Democrat states are instructive.
The way to get effective vaccines is to avoid the rapid emergence of variants that elude them just as they start to do their job and that’s by avoiding the “let it rip” approach that provides the virus with fertile ground for mutation.
One of worst influenza years was 2017 in which the abs tells us there were 1,255 deaths. A more typical year was 2016 with 464. There were 909 deaths from Covid 19 in Australia last year despite starting with one positive case in late January, our second largest city, Melbourne, in lockdown for around half the year and international borders shut.
Lockdowns are not an end in themselves, Rachel, they are a tool to avoid uncontrolled spread which comes with its own mental health issues. The best way to make them work and minimise them is compliance so do be careful about what you are reading before you dismiss it so blithely.
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it doesn’t matter if the masks work or not conformity in this society is your safest option. i wear a mask not because of covid i wear it because i dont want to get spear tackled by an overzealous member of the public when iam trying to buy a pack of smokes from woollies, and just wait until most of Australia’s population has the jab things are going to get nasty fast for those that dont find a way to conform.
I don’t know who said masks were ineffective unless listening to the likes of Clive Palmer, Christiansen, Kelly or Jones. I hope you still wash your hands and siva has had to many hallucigens or needs an Alf oil cap.
I’m not confused about COVID but then I don’t listen to drivel from hysterical ignoramuses.
The delta variant is far more transmissible through the air than earlier strains making masks far more important. Smart people still use hand sanitisers and avoid touching things as much as possible.
Vaccines vastly reduce the chance of contracting the virus, the seriousness of the illness, the likelihood of transmission to others, the probability of requiring hospital admission and the chance of dying. Some vaccinated people still die but the proportion is miniscule compared to the unvaccinated.
People who lose family members also suffer depression and loss of livelihood particularly children who lose both parents. When someone in a household gets COVID their partner is also very likely to contract it.
The numbers of COVID deaths have been kept down by the measures taken to reduce its spread. A “business as usual” approach would have resulted in mass infection, quickly overwhelming hospitals and medical facilities and hundreds of thousands of deaths in Australia. Anyone who uses the argument that there have been relatively few deaths from COVID compared to other diseases is a fool who refuses to apply logic.
The reduced death rate in 2020 was mostly from a fall in cases of infectious respiratory diseases due to the measures implemented for COVID.
there is no confusion, you need to educate yourself, luckily, the aforementioned comments, will help enlighten you.