Core business

 

Image: clipground
Our core business ought to be public health so that businesses can continue to flourish and we can thrive. Suppressing the  spread of  illness ought to be  a priority. I have said before we do not help ourselves when we bang on about losing our freedom and things like the inconvenience of mask wearing . Health professionals have talked to us about good practice until they are blue in the face and our hospitals and staff have become stressed and distressed.  Some people, no matter their age, are very keen to get the fourth booster. Currently it is restricted to over 65s and those with health conditions which warrant it. Doesn't everyone need it? I know health care people are fed up talking to us and trying to help us when so many would rather abandon something as simple as a mask rather than keep themselves and everyone healthy. I know there have been some irrational and unreasonable protests about health measures to keep the public safe. Keep your distance! How hard is it? Wear a mask! What an imposition. Santitise! I have worked out we have been so unhygienic and grubby. We did need to lift our hygiene practices, especially when it came to cleaning public spaces. Right now the messages don't seem to be supporting the welfare and wellbeing of people. I am concerned how easily covid is spreading, how much gastric illness there is and then how worried people are because it seems we are doomed to live with constantly being sick. 

We need some sort of concerted effort and messaging to get ourselves past this bit. Remember the Life Be In It campaign? Something a bit cheerful and positive to get the core business of public health on a surer footing. When the public knows better than qualified health professionals then I am sure we need to suffer the consequences of ill informed decision making. Trouble is, there are innocents going to the wall as that approach is adopted, and that is wrong. When you have to rely on others for your own wellbeing because that is the nature of infectious diseases, we need some collaboration and co operation. Maybe a bit of lively,  cheerful messaging might work? As it stands we are dragging this public health mess around and it is weighing on us all. 

What are we thinking?

 

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Bit hard to know what we are thinking. Here we have been shopping non stop since Covid hit. It has been relentless for supermarkets and other shops. We seem to need all this food. There has not been a quiet period since 2020 and maybe it will never happen. What is the matter with us? We are also quite divided as to our approaches to Covid. Some are happy to be maskless, have  no problem being sick or allowing others to be sick. The level of illness is a health crisis no one is taking seriously. Just in my own sphere there are gastric illnesses, heart ailments, strokes, respiratory illnesses, vertigo and dizziness, anemia, fatigue, flu, Covid. I have never seen or heard of so many people sick. We really need to sort this out. We are no longer sure if a fourth booster will help because there is information saying BA5 is not helped by our vaccine and that is on the way. We are being pulled down and messed around. Workplace absenteeism is normal. I should like to know how much absenteeism is affecting schools. Certainly affecting kindergartens. Whole families are sick. Social clubs are affected by illness and workplaces are under strain. Not wearing a mask is silly. It helps. Sanitising helps, social distancing helps. Shopping seems to soothe?! We need a plan to get out of this because we are only a month into winter. We need to stop concerning ourselves with pretending it is all underlying conditions and start things about what it actually is we need to do to improve our health and welfare. For us, a change of state and federal government has been beneficial. It takes some getting used to , though We have been emotionally bashed and brow beaten for nearly 10 years and so people are worn out. They will rally. Maybe it will be slow and sure. We need a plan!

Keep calm and cope

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 Living with covid is probably one of the most worrying experiences we have all had together. Add it to family issues, climate issues, acts of aggression and we are living in a high stress world. We are not the first to do this and we'd like to be the last but it won't happen. As far as coronavirus is concerned , we have to pool our knowledge and experience, deal with it in a calm and measured way and stop it from spreading. I heard today of people who had had their first vaccine but won't have a second. Why is that? The vaccine isn't perfect but it has been greatly helping. That information is everywhere and clear.  We need to establish why people don't get three vaccines and may not get the fourth. In South Australia we have been informed there are people who can access that fourth vaccine first once they are four months out from the third. Do people think vaccines don't help? We need to correct that view. Are they too lazy to get the next vaccine? Why? Did they suffer bad side effects which put them off? I had two Astra Zenica and one Moderna. With the Astra Zenica I spent the first month wondering if I would get blood clots because I come from a family with a history of blood clots. With the first dose I was really out of sorts for a week and then, after a month , I was fine. With the second one it was the same but milder. One of the bonuses for me was the Astra Zenica helped my osteo arthritis. It has been far less of a problem. With the Moderna I was off colour for a week , my arm really hurt but tea tree and honey manuka cream really helped that after the first day. I decided I preferred the Astra Zenica side effects. Moderna made me like a snail. Sooo slow. We need to sort out what puts people off vaccines by having decent conversations. One person I know who had had one vaccine dose got covid and then , as soon as he was recovered, he was in the line to get the rest of his vaccines. He had to get really sick to take action. 

We have voices of reason. SA Health is one of ours and today's presser was clear and helpful. We need to know what is being done and what we can do. Letting disease spread is stupid. Really stupid . It is not normal . We have to let the voices of reason hold the spotllight. Another one of our sane and comforting voices is Professor Esterman from the University of South Australia. His calm, measured voice has been with us throughout the pandemic. He neither gives us too much information nor panics. He gives us things to look at and do. His recent article about statisitics in the pandemic made sense and clarified the picture . He encourages us to look for the patterns. 

Professor Pagel in the UK looks at the myths we persist with during the pandemic so we do not help ourselves and get the case numbers down. If we keep letting people get sick it is not going to help at all. If we keep being sick and another variant comes along , we are in no position to defend and protect ourselves. She looks at it calmly. There are things we can do. Today's presser for South Australia was another example of giving us information but letting us know there are things being done and things we can do. 

Coping with Covid

 Image: SA Health /Facebook

When the going gets tough, Adelaide goes to the supermarket. It has not let up since Christmas. There is normally the Christmas rush, a lull then it builds up for Easter again. My local supermarkets are always busy and staff tell me there is rarely a quiet time. What are we doing with all this supermarket haul? I am shopping as I have always shopped. I haven't changed. Are people stockpiling? Comfort eating? Staying at home more and so needing more at home more often? Are they cooking more for themselves? Shopping for others who have Covid?

I do not get the impression we are overweight. In fact, I'd say we are pretty fitness conscious at the moment. In the local area people walk their dogs, their children, walk with their friend or are walking in a group. Some are walking alone. This year there has been lots of walking. Not strolling. A good, solid walk at a good pace. So  why all this supermarket  shopping?

People are sharing ideas as to how to cope too. Some have just been going along quietly and following safe practices. Others are out and about and going off on local trips. Some are attending events. On a regular basis we hear of more getting Covid. Whole families. They approach it logically and sensibly but it is not fun . They get good help from SA Health and they get good help from friends, family and neighbours. Haven't yet heard of anyone just being left to get on with it. Maybe because they can't tell anyone? A lot of people mask up their children and we have kept our masks on because they work. 

It then seems weird to live in a country , and world, where a virus is just left to spread. I grew up in an age where there was polio, diphtheria, rheumatic heart fever, measles, scarlet fever. I was there when the vaccines and good medical practices were being developed. I missed the bit where children had to be hospitalised because of scarlet fever and I had it twice. Once with measles. I was three. My parents cared for me at home and a doctor home visited. They followed what he said. At school I was with children in leg irons and who were sickly from rheumatic heart fever. That experience taught me that not everyone is well all the time. At no point did we let disease spread. As soon as vaccines arrived we had them. We were given bottles of milk and medicine, not disease. 

It was good, then, to hear the press conference this morning which included information about schools. It was done in a very reassuring way for parents, especially, but was very clear about the guidelines for teachers and teaching staff so that everyone had a Covid safe plan. I grew up at a time when everyone did the right thing because it was the right thing to do. Military precision. People have become the options and choices people now. They want to make their own choices. The pandemic has taught us we have to operate as a cohesive group to get success. We cope with those who don't want vaccines by making good health choices for everyone. If they get Covid , and survive,  they will have antibodies. If they spread Covid more easily, as has been said, then we have to look at what they are doing so the social distancing and clean air  is there. The old are dying from covid, not so much the young, so we have to protect older people and we have to protect the under 5s. Clear press conferences help to explain decisions and the conference was firm but fair. 

We had just about five and a half thousand cases today. We have to change this and our behaviour. It is not logical or sane to let disease spread unchecked. It is a lunatic way to go about living. It does not make sense to let Covid spread and offer a legacy of long Covid, constant illness and reinfection, sick households. It will be debilitating and will create so many more problems besides Covid. Common sense and mitigation have to prevail . Talking people  clearly through this has to continue. 

Stop the spread

 Image : Harvard Health 
It is not encouraging news to hear modelling suggests we shall have 8000 cases a day in South Australia by April. That is a lot for our state. We are not built up and big. We have space. We can distance. What is the matter with us? Do we think pretending there is no virus we can be "normal"? Do we think it is so mild it is no big deal? Have we got corona fatigue and have decided it is over? Life may not be as we wish but we have to deal with it in a common sense way. We have known forever how to mitigate coronavirus and stop the spread. Why wouldn't we? Not everyone can be vaccinated . Putting little children and the vulnerable at risk is a horrible thing to do so we can be "normal". Ignoring we can be reinfected and suffer long covid is not a good option for a healthy, functioning society. Sick and dead people can't keep us going and making all this profit some are keen on. We need happy, healthy people and we need to work together. Masking up, washing hands, keeping air fresh, sanitising and social distancing are all easy and help. Getting triple vaccinated really helps. We need people to be vaccinated. We are the country that virtually stamped out smoking by using social control. Why don' t we do it with coronavirus? 

Harvard Health Edu has some good, solid information as to how we can stop the spread. We now have a Premier who is prepared to sort the garbled messaging out and get us on a better footing with clarity surrounding our health measures.  We have a responsibility too to take this seriously , whether we want to or not, to ensure we can all stay healthy. I don't want coronavirus cases to escalate. I don't want it and I don't want others to get it. I am doing what works and have stocked up on RATs so I don't unknowingly pass it on. We are going to have to adult this because we don't know who will suffer badly from coronavirus. It is a rotten virus like that. 

I don't blame them for trying out how far vaccines could free us up , so to speak. I don't blame them for trying things and trying to get information as to what works and what can be improved. We have to be included in those conversations and decisions. We have to have clear and direct information. Baffling us, confusing us and leaving us to our own devices is increasing case numbers. We are not epidemiologists or public health personnel. We need direction. Those who ignore it will be fewer if the bulk of people are clear.