Week 8 - Wednesday 11 May 2022 - Reasonably Covid Normal

Some of you might recall that I am executor of a deceased estate and I have been trying to recover $600 approx held by Qantas as credits from an unused flight by the deceased.  This has being going on since November last year with many emails and phone calls on my part with little response and no success from Qantas.

This morning I sent a stern email to a number of addresses at Qantas; customer service, Allan Joyce's office and Qantas media threatening if I didn't receive a meaningful response in 48 hours and a refund of the money within 7 days I would be off to the media and the ACCC.  I also mentioned that their tardiness was preventing me winding up the estate and distributing the funds to the deceased's children (I didn't mention that said children are 39 and 41 years old).

This email got an almost immediate response in the form of a phone call and a email advising me that on receipt of the copy of the death certificate the refund will be forwarded.  Well done that man!

I just hope that I haven't gone the early crow.

As I am going to be working for the AEC on Saturday 21st May (polling day) I have already cast my vote in the forthcoming Federal Election.  The early polling booth was quite busy with about a 1,000 keen supporters of the various candidates and parties lurking at the appropriate distance from the door to the polling booth trying to thrust their party certified "how to vote" matierial at the people trying to enter.  

One bloke came up to me and said "are you here to vote today"?  I looked at him with the appropriate amount of contempt and said "what else would I be here for"? It didn't help his cause much that he was acting on behalf of the United Australia Party.

On the Senate paper, I gave my 2nd vote to the Hunters & Fishers party and my 3rd vote to the Protect the Animals party (or sumsuch), that amused me for a few minutes.  

So, that is my democratic duty done, Federally anyway.  Once this one is over and done with we have a state election to look forward to.

The state election might be more interesting than we think what with the premier being questioned by IBAC over a couple of matters in the last few weeks. The state opposition is calling for the premier to step down whilst he is the subject of these investigation, like that is going to happen.

Remember not long ago that civilisation as we know it was going to collapse when the Victorian covid hospital numbers got to 300 and the famously named code brown was called.  Well, Victoria has reached 533 covid related hospital patients and not a dicky bird about a code brown or even reintroduction of wearing of masks or venue limits.

Call me cynical but would this be anything to do with a state election looming.  The premier has been very quite about the covid numbers but he is popping up in hi viz vests and white hard hats spruiking billion dollar projects that will end up going nowhere and costing us three or four times the budgeted amount and running years behind schedule. For an example of a typical Victorian project please refer to the Westgate tunnel project - billions of dollars overbudget and with no known completion date.

Now, for an update on the covid figures.  The Victorian daily new infections are continuing to increase with nearly 14,000 reported in the last 24 hours and 12,500 the 24 hours before that.  A week ago Victoria was reporting daily figures in the 10,000 range.  NSW daily figures are declining slightly with 12,000 reported in the last 24 hours; Qld reported 7,500 new infections in the last 24 hours compared to 7,700 last week.  WA is the big blowout with 17,000 new infections reported in the last 24 hours, up from 9,800 last week.

Australia wide 53,000 new infections were reported in the last 24 hours, up from 42,700 last week.

Very little movement in the vaccination numbers with 97.2% (97.1%) of the eligible population having received their 1st vaccination, 95.5% (95.5%) their 2nd and 65.5% (65.2%) their 3rd.  Last week's figures are in brackets.

Hospital and ICU numbers continue to increase in Victoria with 533 Victorians in hospital with covid compared to 473 last week.  Currently there are 33 Victorian patients in ICU up from 25 last week and 5 Victorians on ventilators, down from 6 last week.

In the last 24 hours Victoria reported 17 covid related deaths with 18 the day before. Victoria reported 71 deaths in the last week and NSW 84.  Nationally there were 249 covid deaths in the last week.

I don't know about you but I am starting to think that these figures are starting to get to be a bit of a worry.  We are supposed to be in suppression mode there doesn't seem to be much suppressing going on.  I understand that no political party wants to be seen to be making unpopular decisions prior to an election but surely public health considerations are more important.  Back to masks maybe?

People keep on saying that we should be viewing covid as a flu like exposure in the community.  I wonder in a normal environment how many people die of the flu in Victoria in a month.

    Corona Virus Weekly Stats – From 22 March 2022 – Week 8 Reasonably Covid Normal

D	Aus Infected	Aus Increase Daily	Aus 1st Dose Vacc	Vic Infected	Vic Increase Daily	NSW Increase Daily	*Aus Active Infection	NSW Active Infection	Vic Active Infection	Aus 2nd Dose Vacc
22/03	3,975,559	32,379	96.7%	1,195,239	9,594	9,594	387,622	211,527	52,983	94.9%
30/03	4,436,572	50,082	96.8%	1,271,494	11,749	25,235	479,116	258,112	58,488	95.1%
04/04	4,715,763	35,015	96.8%	1,320,678	10,011	15,572	500,914	266,110	63,545	95.2%
13/04	5,207,650	54,185	96.9%	1,410,828	10,907	18,265	443,901	234,081	60,756	95.3%
20/04	5,494,804	36,856	97.0%	1,471,567	10,628	15,414	311,570	188,676	53,518	95.4%
27/04	5,780,569	24,135	97.0%	1,532,685	10,734	12,188	340,481	157,589	51,835	95.4%
04/05	6,072394	42,725	97.1%	1,597,464	10,779	11,939	317,353	139,572	57,154	95.5%
11/05	6,387,747	53,338	97.2%	1,673533	13,973	12,265	350,262	137,336	67,608	95.5%
18/05

Corona Virus Daily Stats Hospitalisation Etc – From 22 March 2022 – Week 8 Reasonably Covid Normal
Date	Aus New Infection Daily	Aus Hospital	Aus ICU	Aus Ventilate	Vic New Infection Daily	Vic Hospital	Vic ICU	Vic Ventilate	AUS Daily Deaths	Vic Daily Deaths
22/03	32,379	2,090	93	21	9,594	256	24	5	26	7
30/03	50,082	2,446	100	21	11,749	280	18	5	28	7
04/04	35,015	2,645	108	21	10,011	305	17	3	7	1
13/04	54,185	3,147	126	29	10,907	391	19	2	39	14
20/04	36,856	3,325	155	39	10,628	437	34	12	35	14
27/04	24,135	3,385	144	N/A	10,734	456	32	8	33	13
04/05	42,725	3,111	148	N/A	10,779	473	25	6	44	11
11/05	53,338	3,102	114	N/A	12,265	533	33	5	40	17
18/05