Great Western Highway through the Blue Mountains
The funding of $2.03b by the Commonwealth towards the $10b road works on the Great Western Highway from Katoomba to Lithgow including an 11km tunnel might be wonderful news for Lithgow, Bathurst, Orange and the Central West of NSW, but far from good news for the 70,000 residents of the Blue Mountains. The Great Western Highway is the LOCAL road that links the sixteen townships and is the only link for this 80km City of The Blue Mountains. Already with the Bells Line of Road limited due to washaways, the increased traffic especially large trucks is making journeys for medical, shopping, education etc very unpleasant. Funds must be directed to increase rail freight through the Mountains. I fear for the future carnage on this 60kph, 70kph and max 80kph road.
Government Press Briefings
I always switch off from the briefing when the reporters begin their inane questions. They take it in turn to ask the same questions as previous reporters have asked when the same answers are given plus already included in the briefing. Don’t they listen?
They actually don’t take it in turn. It seems that the loudest voice actually gets to ask the question as they shout out over each other to get the speaker to recognise them.
I think perhaps the Queensland Premier Joh Bjelke-Peterson had the correct idea when he said press briefings were “feeding the chooks”!
7 reasons people don’t get COVID-19 vaccinations, and why you should — right now
https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/blog/7-reasons-people-dont-get-covid-19-vaccinations
More than 18 months into the pandemic, Australia is still experiencing lockdowns and tough restrictions. The Delta variant of COVID-19 spreads easily and may be more dangerous than the original strain. More young people are on ventilators in hospital and some have died.
Vaccination is the country’s best weapon against COVID-19. Yet some people are still hesitant to get vaccinated — or they’re waiting for an alternative vaccine.
Here are some common reasons people aren’t getting, or are delaying, their vaccination.
‘The AstraZeneca vaccine could give me a blood clot’
The AstraZeneca vaccine has been linked to an extremely rare blood-clotting condition called thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS). But the risk is tiny.
You are extremely unlikely to get a blood clot from the AstraZeneca vaccine.
By early August, there were 87 cases of TTS in Australia from 6.1 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Five of those people died.
This means that the average number of deaths from TTS caused by AstraZeneca is less than 1 in a million.
Since it was discovered, doctors have become very good at recognising and treating TTS. The chance of surviving it is even better now.
The AstraZeneca vaccine is safe and low risk. You’re more likely to get a blood clot from COVID-19 itself, and from many other things, such as:
- The combined oral contraceptive pill: for every 1 million women who take ‘the pill’, up to 1,200 will develop a blood clot.
- Long-haul travel: for every 4,500 flights over 4 hours, there will be 1 incidence of blood clotting.
- Non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs): regular use of this common type of pain-relief medicine (which includes ibuprofen), can almost double a person’s risk of blood clots.
You can still take these medicines or get on a plane. But it’s important to understand the risks and benefits of anything you do.
‘I’m aged 18-59 — we were told not to get AstraZeneca’
Yes, earlier in the year, the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) said that the Pfizer vaccine was the preferred vaccine for people aged 18 to 59. This was due a slightly increased risk of developing the very rare condition TTS (linked to AstraZeneca) for this age group.
But the situation has changed. So, ATAGI has changed its advice.
The Delta variant is more severe than the original SARS-CoV-2 strain of COVID-19. The proportion of younger people in hospital, on ventilators or dying due to COVID-19 is now higher than during outbreaks of the original strain.
If you live in an area of high community transmission, you are more at risk of dying from COVID-19 than from the AstraZeneca vaccine.
ATAGI strongly recommends that all Australian adults get vaccinated with any available COVID-19 vaccine — including the AstraZeneca vaccine. This is especially true for people in outbreak areas such as Greater Sydney.
The benefits of vaccination outweigh the rare risks of vaccination — for all age groups.
If you’re in an outbreak area, you can get your second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine 4 to 8 weeks after your first dose. This is sooner than the usual 12 weeks, and it will offer you the best protection earlier.
‘I’ll wait for a different vaccine’
If you wait for your preferred vaccine, it may be too late. It’s best to get vaccinated before an outbreak starts so you’re well protected from COVID-19.
Also, it takes 7 to 14 days after your second dose of either vaccine before you’re fully protected from COVID-19. So don’t delay.
To book your vaccination, contact your doctor (GP) or use the Vaccines Eligibility Checker. If you don’t have a GP, find one near you using the Service Finder.
FIND A HEALTH SERVICE — The Service Finder can help you find doctors, pharmacies, hospitals and other health services.
‘COVID-19 is a mild disease and not dangerous’
By early August, COVID-19 had caused more than 4.2 million deaths worldwide. Almost 200 million cases have been reported.
Yes, the elderly and people with underlying medical conditions are at the highest risk. However, anyone — including healthy young people — can get severe disease and die from COVID-19.
COVID-19 can also cause lasting health problems. One Sydney study found that 1 in 3 people with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 were left with symptoms lasting at least 2 months — known as ‘long COVID’. These symptoms include fatigue and shortness of breath. More than 1 in 10 had poor lung function.
The virus is easily spread by people with few, or no, symptoms. Even if you don’t become unwell with COVID-19, you may pass the virus on to others without knowing it. People you love may become very ill.
Vaccinating most of the population will decrease the spread of COVID-19 in your community. Vaccination protects you, and those around you, from severe COVID-19 and death.
‘I don’t trust the vaccines because they were developed quickly’
It does seem like the vaccines were invented ‘overnight’. But scientists and manufacturers started working together on vaccines as soon as the pandemic started.
The AstraZeneca vaccine, for example, is based on years of research by Oxford University in the UK.
The technology behind the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has been developed over the past 10 years. It was tested on other diseases, such as the flu, and other coronaviruses, such as MERS.
All COVID-19 vaccines approved for use in Australia have been through the same rigorous clinical trials that any vaccine normally would go through. The trials were just fast-tracked thanks to unprecedented funding.
And as other countries progress with their vaccine rollouts, more and more ‘real-world’ data is showing that these vaccines are highly effective at protecting people from severe illness, hospitalisation and death.
‘My risk of getting COVID-19 is low’
You might be in an area of low (or no) community transmission. You might think, ‘Why bother getting vaccinated right now?’
But restrictions and lockdowns are likely to end once most Australians are vaccinated.
Even if restrictions are in force, once 8 in every 10 Australians are fully vaccinated, vaccinated people may be exempt from those restrictions. This is according to the Australian Government’s new National Plan to respond to COVID-19.
You may be able to flash your proof of vaccination to enter concerts, cinemas or sporting events — while unvaccinated (but eligible) people stay at home.
The ban on outbound international travel may be lifted. More people will be able to visit, or return home, to Australia. They may be able to quarantine at home instead of in a government-assigned hotel.
Lockdowns could be ‘highly targeted’ only. And when everyone who wants to be vaccinated is vaccinated, lockdowns should end.
Don’t like lockdowns? Want to travel, or for the kids to go back to school? Do your bit and get vaccinated.
‘My friend (or relative) told me not to get vaccinated’
It’s not their decision — it’s yours.
You should follow the advice of doctors and public-health experts with decades of experience — not that of unqualified people, even if they mean well.
Getting vaccinated against COVID-19 will not only protect you, but also your family and your community. It will protect others who can’t get vaccinated, such as young children.
If you’re not sure about COVID-19 vaccination, speak to your doctor. Make an informed choice.Use the Vaccine Eligibility Checker to see if you can get vaccinated against COVID-19, and to book your vaccination.Use the Side Effect Checker if you are worried about any symptoms after your COVID-19 vaccination.
For more information and support
- Speak to your doctor (GP).
- Read more about COVID-19 and vaccines on the healthdirect COVID-19 hub.
- For information on COVID-19 — including restrictions — call the National Coronavirus Helpline on 1800 020 080.
- Find COVID-19 vaccines information in your language at health.gov.au.
- For a glossary of vaccination terms in other languages, go to the NSW Multicultural Health Communication Service.
- Get COVID-19 and vaccines information in Aboriginal languages at coronavirus.nt.gov.au.
Long-term immune problems detected in recovered COVID-19 patients
New Australian research is offering a thorough look at the lasting impact of COVID-19 on immune system activity. Tracking a wide variety of biomarkers the research found immune abnormalities persisting at least six months after patients recover from acute disease.
Eighteen months into this global pandemic researchers are increasingly investigating the long-lasting effects of a SARS-CoV-2 infection. Dubbed “long COVID“, growing numbers of patients are reporting persistent symptoms lingering for months following the acute disease.
The Australian research is following 69 recovered COVID-19 patients, the majority of whom (47) only suffered from mild disease. Because of Australia’s unique position in the world, having temporarily eliminated the virus from certain regions, the ongoing project can track long-term immune responses to an infection without worrying about re-infection or vaccination status.
This new study, not yet peer-reviewed or published in a journal, outlines the effects of an infection on the peripheral immune system in the six months after initial recovery. Blood samples were taken from each subject at three points in the six-month study.
This article reported by Rich Haridy in NEW ATLAS from The University of Adelaide is worthwhile reading especially by those who think at COVID is just a bad case of influenza. Hopefully, this scientific study will help to change their mind.
The new research is yet to be peer-reviewed or published but it has been posted on medRxiv.
The above links will take you to the full article. Well worth reading!
I am ANGRY
Why am I angry?
I’m angry because we are in lockdown and have been for seven weeks because some people REFUSE to take this PANDEMIC seriously. They seem to believe that wearing a mask, staying at home, refusing to vaccinate and not meeting in groups is an affront to their freedom.
Their behaviour can and does lead to being infected by this virulent virus, especially this DELTA strain. COVID-19 is NOT just a bad influenza. It is a serious disease that has killed MILLIONS of people, put hundreds of millions in hospital many in ICU and gasping for breath, tens of thousands on ventilators just so they can stay alive. Victims of this disease are spending weeks in hospital, and not just the old and infirm but people in their teens, their twenties and their thirties and even young fit healthy children.
And then there are those who months later are still too unwell to work, who still fight for every breath, those whose mental faculties are diminished in a continuous brain fog. This is not the flu, this is what is being known as “long-COVID”.
Our society runs because we as humans are prepared to do so many things for the good of others, friends, family, and community and for everyone’s health and safety. We prove competence of driving by getting a licence, we wear a seat-belt for our safety and that of others, we register our vehicles and have them safety checked and we drive on the correct side of the road. Billions of people drive to the speed limit, observe the traffic lights, don’t drink and drive and follow the rules of the road. Why? For the safety and well-being of ourselves and others. Those who choose to speed, drink-drive, ignore traffic lights or the road rules risk death not only to themselves but to others on the road and their families grieve for them after their death or permanent incapacitation.
But this disease is like no other. By simply meeting with friends, by passing by one another in the street it is transmitted so very easily, not once but over and over and over. In one day in Sydney alone 466 people AT LEAST became infected. People in their twenties and thirties are dying OF COVID-19 who have no underlying health problems.
Scientists using the latest scientific discoveries, fully funded by government and companies, working overtime have developed VACCINES that mitigate the serious consequences of this disease and reduce its ability to infect others. These vaccines have now been tested in thousands of millions of people over the past twelve months to be safe and effective.
So why do we have people listening and believing the crazy, deluded idiots in our community who are anti-vaccination?
Vaccines have almost totally ridden our community of POLIO, MEASLES, MUMPS, CHICKEN POX, PERTUSSIS that in the past have killed or maimed many for life. When was the last time you heard of a person with polio?
The risk of serious blood clots from using the CONTRACEPTIVE PILL is tens of times more risky than the rare side effects of one vaccine. The risk of dying on the road is far greater again; every year for a hundred years over 1,000 people die on the roads and thousands more are seriously injured are maimed for life. Do you refuse to use the roads? There are serious dangers in BOTOX injections, in BREAST IMPLANTS, in LIP FILLERS, or HORMONE REPLACEMENT. How many people in our community happily undertake these procedures.
Don’t get me started on those who poison themselves daily with alcohol or tobacco. Let alone those who use marijuana, cocaine, or ice! And those QAnon and conspiracy sheep should be locked away.
FOR THE SAKE OF OUR COMMUNITY GET VACCINATED AND STAY AT HOME!
Explore over one million historical newspaper pages for FREE
In partnership with the British Library, FindmyPast have made over a million newspaper pages completely free to search and view. And there’s much more to come…
Following their renewal of a long-term partnership with the British Library, together they have pledged to make millions of historical newspaper pages free to view online. Search FREE newspaper archives
Over one million pages are now free to search and explore on both Findmypast and their sister site, the British Newspaper Archive. This will be expanded by more than 2.7 million additional free pages over the next four years.
Originally launched in 2011, Findmypast and the British Library’s partnership has delivered the most significant mass digitisation of newspapers the UK has ever seen. The British Newspaper Archive and Findmypast are currently home to more than 44 million fully-searchable pages from over a thousand regional, national and specialty titles dating from 2009 all the way back to 1699. Their ever-growing digital catalogue covers every corner of the British Isles as well as a number of former British territories including Canada, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, Barbados and Jamaica.
Previously, this vast cultural treasure was held entirely in hard copy and microfilm, meaning travel and hours of painstaking manual research for anyone wishing to explore its contents. Now anyone, anywhere in the world, can uncover millions of articles across hundreds of titles, in just a few simple clicks.
What newspaper archives are free?
There are currently 158 free newspapers on offer, dating from 1720 to 1880 and covering a diverse array of histories, locations and topics. The newspapers selected were digitised as part of four special British Library projects:
- 19th Century Newspapers: a project funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee and the British Library’s first major newspaper digitisation programme
- Heritage Made Digital: an ongoing project to transform digital access to rare and early newspapers, focusing on newspapers in a poor or unfit condition
- Living with Machines: another ongoing project, jointly led by the Library and the Alan Turing Institute, which has been digitising selected UK regional newspapers as part of a major study of the British industrial age and using artificial intelligence tools to undertake new kinds of historical enquiry
- The Endangered Archives Programme: a project that facilitates the digitisation of archives around the world that are in danger of destruction, neglect or physical deterioration
Illuminating diverse stories
Many of the papers included have been specifically chosen to help you shed new light on diverse and previously underrepresented communities and their histories. Highlights from the collection include:
- Barbadian (1822-1861) – a fascinating Caribbean publication that covers the transition of Barbados from the colonial, pre-modern to the modern era, including the Emancipation (1834), and the end of the apprenticeship system (1838)
- British Emancipator (1837-1840) – an anti-slavery newspaper that fought for the abolition of the system of apprenticeship, which was put into place after slavery was abolished in the British Colonies
- British Miner and General Newsman (1862-1867) – a journal devoted to working miners, which went through a number of titles including The Miner, The Workman’s Advocate and The Commonwealth
- Cobbett’s Weekly Political Register (1803-1836) – a famous and hugely information-rich vehicle for the ideas and opinions of the great nineteenth-century radical William Cobbett
- The Examiner (1808-1880) – a leading radical weekly, edited by Leigh Hunt, with contributors including William Hazlitt, John Keats and Percy Shelley
- Illustrated Sporting News and Theatrical and Musical Review (1862-1870) – a lively, visually rich newspaper covering a wide range of sports and theatrical events, with many fine illustrations
- Royal Gazette of Jamaica (1779-1840) – a West Indies newspaper notorious for its slavery advertisements
- Lady’s Newspaper and Pictorial Times (1847-1863) – one of the earliest newspapers produced for an exclusively female audience
- Morning Herald (1800-1869) – founded in 1780, a national daily that for a number of years rivalled The Times in importance
- Poor Man’s Guardian (1831-1835) – the most successful and influential of the radical unstamped (and thus illegal) newspapers of the early 1830s
- Sun (1801-1871) – a daily evening national newspaper, founded in 1792, originally with pro-government and anti-French revolutionary stance, before changing to advocate liberal and free trade principles
By providing free access to key areas of this unparalleled resource, Findmypast and the British Library are offering the public unique opportunities to uncover the stories behind historical events both great and small, as they happened; transforming their understanding of both the past and the present. This detail-rich archive sees the lives of ordinary people played out in print. Readers can discover contemporary reports on the struggles of the poor and working class, the daily lives of England’s mining communities, the evils of slavery, the campaign to end them and much more.
As well as providing free access, their use of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and machine learning also means exploring these unique resources is easier than ever. You can search billions of lines of printed text by name, date, keyword or phrase, all from the comfort of your own home.
Findmypast Newsletter Friday 13 August 2021
Misinformation from SkyNews
SkyNews, after having some of its videos blocked by YouTube and blocked from using YouTube for seven days, has of its own volition removed some 30 videos from its servers and removed articles from its stable of newspapers as reported in the Sydney Morning Herald of 11 August 2021.
Here is a link to the article:
Sky News deleted more than 30 videos
The articles were by regular News opinion columnists Andrew Bolt and Alan Jones. Jones has also had his regular column in the Daily Telegraph discontinued, a decision I totally agree with.
QANON, Reignite Democracy & Vaccination Refusers
People who follow these pervaders of fruitcake misinformation, conspiracy theories, blatant lies and non-scientific nonsense have certainly come out in force since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
There have always been those who shrilly express their non-scientific views regarding the efficacy of vaccines when the evidence is quite clear: people do not generally die from vaccines; and, vaccines have long saved the population from the devastating effects of polio, whooping cough, measles, chicken-pox, mumps, diphtheria, shingles and influenza.
Yes, there are some very rare side effects of some vaccines that lead to nasty outcomes, but these are very rare and the odds of getting them is far, far less than the odds of getting the disease and suffering severe outcomes. And in a pandemic, this is even more necessary to be vaccinated.
Parliamentarian, Craig Kelly and celebrity cook, Pete Evans are but two of these pervaders of misinformation and fortunately, FaceBook has chosen to remove their misinformation and lies.
Here are some of the latest reports regarding these pervaders of doom:
News Corp named the top 10 misinformation superspreaders about Covid vaccines on Facebook in Australia;
Disinformation is everywhere online, some of it is hard to even detect, here’s the expert guide to recognising the gateways to QAnon and conspiracy land.
Byron Bay’s ‘patient zero’ charges
The guy who travelled from Sydney with his two teenage children will be charged by NSW Police breaching public health orders after he allegedly travelled from Sydney to the Byron Bay area without a reasonable excuse in contravention of public health orders.
He is allegedly responsible for putting Byron Bay areas into a snap lockdown and is a Sydney businessman with convictions for drugs, burglary and forgery. As well, he has come before the courts on charges of domestic violence and breaching AVO orders against his wife. He has also appeared before the Appeals Court to appeal against his extradition out of Australia when his visa was reviewed.
You can read all about him and his criminal past here.
These people who knowingly leave restricted areas contravening public health orders have put the lives of those living in Orange, Armidale, Newcastle, Tamworth, the Northern Rivers, Lismore and Byron and now also Dubbo in danger. They should be dealt with to the maximum extent of the law.
I am doing the correct things; staying in my LGA, not travelling further than 10km for exercise, shopping on my own, always wearing a mask outside of my home and social distancing. I would love to be able to visit my family and friends but I know I can’t. Why can’t these people put up with a few restrictions to ensure their safety and the safety of others in the community.
I also have had my two injections of AstraZeneca and am now fully immunised. It would be great if being fully immunised I could have some release.