So! I drinked! I played the games! I hanged with the friends!
And Josh said: I look forward to the post!
But I have nothing to post. What can I say? Josh said, “just write about Gladys!” But why? What’s the point? The situation is, as they say, what the situation is. They don’t say that. That’d be a weird thing to say. Even though it’s true. It is what it is. And I yam what I tuber.
So shall I write about Gladys? There’s not much to write. She’s held back on lockdowns for the simple reason that it worked for her – until now, the NSW health system was distributed enough and robust enough to cope with outbreaks. Unfortunately, the Delta Goodrem strain has exposed a weakness in the Gold Standard contact tracing – that when the infectiousness gets high enough, and the number of exposed people in the community gets high enough, it’s extremely hard to trace and isolate people. So yes, her hesitancy has not been ideal, and as a result NSW could be in lockdown for many months according to the Burnett Institute modelling. I fear, however, that Gladys will say “we’re prepared to live with a certain number of cases” and ease restrictions too early. Then there’s a very good chance the virus will run rampant and throw Sydney into lockdown again.
And yes, all of this could have been prevented – or at least made easier – if Scotty had gotten more doses of Pfizer, or Moderna, or Johnson & Johnson. And it’s easy with hindsight to say that. But I can understand why he would have thought that the four options they originally went with would have been enough. Unfortunately the University of Queensland vaccine fell through because of HIV false positives. And Novavax won’t be ready until the end of the year. So that left us with two options: Pfizer and AstraZeneca. Pfizer he clearly didn’t buy enough of. But AZ could at least be manufactured in large quantitise here on Australian soil. Excellent, right? Until a serious blood clot emerges that affects about three in 100,000 people. And ATAGI recommends against it for <50 year olds etc. And the media sppoks everyone and people see it as the ‘dud’ vaccine and it all goes to poop and hesitancy skyrockets. Anyway, point is I can understand why we’re here, but we still shouldn’t be. Scotty should’ve ordered more Pfizer at the start. Should’ve ordered more J&J and Moderna. But he didn’t, because he doesn’t hold a needle.
So yeah. I could talk about all that. And look, I just did! Big whoop. Doesn’t help the fact that 12 million Aussie’s are currently locked down. Not much can help that, really. Just people gotta follow the rules. Don’t leave home unless you need to. Order online. Keep in touch by Zoom. Binge watch TV. That’s all you can do – follow the rules. Minimize movement.
But you can also look out for people. Leave a note in your neighbour’s letterbox checking in on them. Send a text to a friend you haven’t seen in a while. Orgnanise a walk with a budy in your 5km/10km permitted distance. Look after yourself – get some exercise, eat well, sleep well. Do what you need to take care of yourself, because this is a temporary embuggerance. It will pass.
We all jsut gotta hang in there.
And when things get tough, reach out. There’s no shame in admitting that you’re struggling. And remember: you can always eat cheese (unless you’re lactose intolerant, in which case holy fuck I’m so sorry). You can always eat chocolate. You can always look at boobs online, if not in person.
And you can always reach out to me. Best of luck, you beautiful people.