5 ms·

Our excess deaths were extremely low while the rest of the west were letting it rip in 2020~2021. Most people I know in Australia have only recently gotten covi

Our excess deaths were extremely low while the rest of the west were letting it rip in 2020~2021. Most people I know in Australia have only recently gotten covid for the first time.

543g43g43 4y ago
>the rest of the west were letting it rip in 2020~2021 That's funny. As restrictions started to lift during 2021 (UK/Wales), some complained that the government was now letting it rip. Just shows - anyone more cautious than you is needlessly scared, and anyone less cautious is an idiot.
sfusato 4y ago
Indeed. But isn't Australia one of the most vaccinated countries? Australia wanted to lockdown until they could vaccinate virtually everyone. With 97.3% [0] of people aged 16+ with at least 1 dose they can claim "Mission accomplished" on that front. [0] https://www.health.gov.au/our-work/covid-19-vaccines/vaccination-numbers-and-statistics https://www.health.gov.au/our-work/covid-19-vaccines/vaccina... How do you square these two things?
- viraptor 4y ago
  Some extra info: Aussies got vaccinated relatively easily on, but the protection gets weaker with time. This + barely about announcements about new vaccines / second booster (14M>5M drop) + new strains which are more resistant to the original vaccines are definitely messing up the numbers this year compared to the previous. We're taking now with the benefit of knowing the future. The lockdowns kept the numbers low for a long time and vaccination kept the original strains away as well by the time we did the "mission success".
  - sfusato 4y ago
    The "original strain" was already gone by the time Australia started vaccinating. Input Australia on https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations and have a look for yourself. Then again, we were always behind each and every variant, always following our tail when it came to it.
    - wellthatsawrap2 4y ago
      That's ok. Big pharma still gets paid for every jab, regardless if it actually works.
      - collyw 4y ago
        Record profits for Pfizer, while nurses got a clap.
    - viraptor 4y ago
      Unfortunate phrasing, i meant the pre-omicron strains rather than original, since that's when the effectiveness changed most drastically. Up to and including Delta we still got 95+% effectiveness against hospitalisation (https://www.health.gov.au/our-work/covid-19-vaccines/advice-for-providers/clinical-guidance/product-information#vaccine-effectiveness-before-the-delta-variant https://www.health.gov.au/our-work/covid-19-vaccines/advice-...) and the omicron did not hit until late Dec '21. (https://www.theguardian.com/world/datablog/2021/dec/23/how-much-of-the-omicron-variant-is-there-in-australia-and-is-it-the-dominant-strain https://www.theguardian.com/world/datablog/2021/dec/23/how-m...) By December we were already just doing the long tail of vaccinations getting to that 95% in Feb (https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/datablog/ng-interactive/2022/feb/21/covid-19-vaccine-rollout-australia-vaccination-rate-progress-how-many-people-vaccinated-percent-tracker-australian-states-number-total-daily-live-data-stats-updates-news-schedule-tracking-chart-percentage-new-cases-today https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/datablog/ng-inter...) So while I agree we had issues with the rollout, I don't agree "we were always behind each and every variant".

Our excess deaths were extremely low while the rest of the west were letting it rip in 2020~2021. Most people I know in Australia have only recently gotten covid for the first time.

543g43g43 4y ago

>the rest of the west were letting it rip in 2020~2021 That's funny. As restrictions started to lift during 2021 (UK/Wales), some complained that the government was now letting it rip. Just shows - anyone more cautious than you is needlessly scared, and anyone less cautious is an idiot.

sfusato 4y ago

Indeed. But isn't Australia one of the most vaccinated countries? Australia wanted to lockdown until they could vaccinate virtually everyone. With 97.3% [0] of people aged 16+ with at least 1 dose they can claim "Mission accomplished" on that front. [0] https://www.health.gov.au/our-work/covid-19-vaccines/vaccination-numbers-and-statistics https://www.health.gov.au/our-work/covid-19-vaccines/vaccina... How do you square these two things?

viraptor 4y ago
Some extra info: Aussies got vaccinated relatively easily on, but the protection gets weaker with time. This + barely about announcements about new vaccines / second booster (14M>5M drop) + new strains which are more resistant to the original vaccines are definitely messing up the numbers this year compared to the previous. We're taking now with the benefit of knowing the future. The lockdowns kept the numbers low for a long time and vaccination kept the original strains away as well by the time we did the "mission success".
- sfusato 4y ago
  The "original strain" was already gone by the time Australia started vaccinating. Input Australia on https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations and have a look for yourself. Then again, we were always behind each and every variant, always following our tail when it came to it.
  - wellthatsawrap2 4y ago
    That's ok. Big pharma still gets paid for every jab, regardless if it actually works.
    - collyw 4y ago
      Record profits for Pfizer, while nurses got a clap.
  - viraptor 4y ago
    Unfortunate phrasing, i meant the pre-omicron strains rather than original, since that's when the effectiveness changed most drastically. Up to and including Delta we still got 95+% effectiveness against hospitalisation (https://www.health.gov.au/our-work/covid-19-vaccines/advice-for-providers/clinical-guidance/product-information#vaccine-effectiveness-before-the-delta-variant https://www.health.gov.au/our-work/covid-19-vaccines/advice-...) and the omicron did not hit until late Dec '21. (https://www.theguardian.com/world/datablog/2021/dec/23/how-much-of-the-omicron-variant-is-there-in-australia-and-is-it-the-dominant-strain https://www.theguardian.com/world/datablog/2021/dec/23/how-m...) By December we were already just doing the long tail of vaccinations getting to that 95% in Feb (https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/datablog/ng-interactive/2022/feb/21/covid-19-vaccine-rollout-australia-vaccination-rate-progress-how-many-people-vaccinated-percent-tracker-australian-states-number-total-daily-live-data-stats-updates-news-schedule-tracking-chart-percentage-new-cases-today https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/datablog/ng-inter...) So while I agree we had issues with the rollout, I don't agree "we were always behind each and every variant".