KAROL MARKOWICZ: Read my lips: We’re not going back to masks and lockdowns again
One failure too many
That’s the title of my latest piece in Inside Story , also printed in the Canberra Times under the headline Sydney’s coronavirus outbreak highlights hard choices“”
Key para
Poor understanding of uncertainty was evident in the rush to label New South Wales as the gold standard and assume that a handful of successes was evidence that there was nothing to worry about. This conclusion didn’t take account of the fact that the policy could not afford even one failure. All high-risk strategies share two key features: they work until they fail, and they are likely to be hailed as the product of genius until they are not.
Soon, a few of the more shameless newspaper commentators will urge the rest of us to “learn to live” with climate breakdown. Soon, a couple of especially sharp-elbowed cabinet ministers will sigh to the Spectator that, yes, carbon emissions should ideally be slashed – but we must make a trade-off between “lives and livelihoods”. Soon, a little platoon of Tory backbenchers will respond to TV pictures of another devastating flash flood or deadly heatwave by complaining about “fearmongering”. “Why is the BBC so doomy?” they’ll ask, as the death toll rises.
Scientists and politicians the world over have noted the strong similarities between coronavirus and climate breakdown. In papers and speeches, they have drawn lessons about some of the best ways to handle both: go early, go big, and don’t pretend you can strike some special deal with a lethal force. The UK’s week-long delay in locking down in March 2020 led to about 20,000 deaths, estimates Neil Ferguson. Every year wasted in reducing carbon emissions pushes us further into extreme weather, environmental destruction and the loss of human and animal lives. These lessons appeared to have been fully imbibed by Boris Johnson and his chancellor, Rishi Sunak, when they vowed last March to do “whatever it takes” to tackle the pandemic.After Covid, the climate crisis will be the next thing the right says we ‘just have to live with’
The Icepick Surgeon: Tales of Scientists Gone Rogue (or Worse)
Author Sam Kean follows the long trail of amoral scientists, and their justifications.
Get Ready for a Spike in Global Unrest Foreign Policy
Protests against COVID measures escalate in France, Italy, Britain, Greece - Patrick Hermansen
Lisa Wilkinson has taken a fresh swipe at New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian after the state recorded 124 new cases of Covid-19, the highest in the current outbreak despite Sydney having been in lockdown for a month.
Talking on The Project from Sydney where she is also in lockdown, Wilkinson told her co-hosts that Ms Berejiklian likely now “regrets being disparaging about (Victorian Premier) Dan Andrews and how he handled things”.
SOMETIMES THE TRUTH LEAKS OUT: Aussie Health Minister Goes Off Script with Ivermectin Treatment for Covid-19.
“Last year the New South Wales Government was sneering at Dan Andrews, now they are saying, ‘Hey, Dan, rescue us’. I honestly believe two wrongs don't make a right,” Mr Shorten said: ‘Hey Dan, come rescue us’: Shorten’s swipe at ‘sneering’ NSW government
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews called for a "ring of steel" to be set up around the city - which is already under strict lockdown
Mr Hazzard … hit out at state leaders across the country for declining to send their Pfizer stocks to Sydney as the outbreak grows.
Gladys Berejiklian was nowhere to be seen at the daily press conference as NSW recorded its worst day in the current Covid outbreak yet.
The Premier’s unusual absence sparked scepticism on social media, with some people asking why she had missed today in particular.
Ms Berejiklian’s office told NCA NewsWire she was working on Saturday, with no reason in particular she didn’t front the cameras.
Gladys Berejiklian working, just not at press conference, her office says
Sky News host Alan Jones says Premier Gladys Berejiklian and her Cabinet have completely “lost control of reality” after “boasting” about the number of financial support applications Service NSW has processed.
Mr Jones noted Ms Berejiklian had “proudly boasted that “when she last checked, Service NSW had processed 16,000 applications – and the Premier described that as positive.”
“What on earth is positive about that?
“16,000 businesses on their knees, financially deserted, not sure they will ever recover.
“And the Premier describes those seeking financial assistance as positive.
“Sometimes it borders on the farce.”
Quelle Surprise: Covid Cases Surge in Europe’s Tourism Hot Spots, Just One Month After Grand Reopening
It turns out that a massive increase in cross-border travel — particularly by air — is a great way of spreading an airborne virus.
How the Delta variant achieves its ultrafast spread Nature. “[T]he researchers report that virus was first detectable in people with the Delta variant four days after exposure,compared with an average of six days among people with the original strain, suggesting that Delta replicates much faster. Individuals infected with Delta also had viral loads up to 1,260 times higher than those in people infected with the original strain.” The short incubation period makes contact tracing harder, in countries that do that, and the high viral load increases the likelihood of superspreading events.
Vaccinated People Are Getting Sick. CDC, White House Say “Vaccinated People Don’t Get Sick”
I’m not saying anything here about how effective the vaccines are. What I’m saying is that this administration, and the many media outlets that are catering to it, and not being truthful.
CDC Director Says Delta Variant Of COVID-19 Among ‘Most Transmissible’ Viruses KnownHuffPo. Walensky: “It is one of the most infectious respiratory viruses we know of and that I have seen in my 20-year career.” Meanwhile, this is CDC’s messaging: