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Press conference happening now
We won't be watching rugby in Perth this year
I work in schools. This sucks on a lot of levels, but I am really, really glad this decision has been made at this point in time. I wonder how long it will last.
https://thewest.com.au/sport/covid-1...side-c-5386502
COVID-19: Glory, Lynx, Wildcats, Eagles, Dockers, Scorchers all scrambling after border blindside
Braden Quartermaine, Nick Taylor, Craig O’Donoghue & Eliza Reilly
The West Australian
Thu, 20 January 2022 9:37PM
WA’s professional sports teams were left in shock and limbo on Thursday night after Premier Mark McGowan announced the February 5 border opening date would be delayed indefinitely.
As Perth Glory owner Tony Sage put it: “We’re f...ked.”
It lobbed a grenade at the 2022 AFL fixture, while the seasons of the summer teams have now descended into chaos -- with some fearing financial disaster should their home fixtures have to be scrapped.
Perth Wildcats, Perth Glory, Perth Lynx and the Fremantle and West Coast AFLW teams are on the east coast and had planned to return following the opening date for a glut of catch-up home games. Perth Scorchers are preparing for their 14th away game in a row on Saturday in a final against Sydney Sixers.
Players from all sports will be allowed back into the State, but the fact they will now need to serve 14 days quarantine on return to WA will cause havoc.
The Wildcats were due to celebrate their 40th anniversary with a match against New Zealand at RAC Arena on February 6. The Lynx were also going to return from Victoria just days after the border opened. They haven’t played a game in front of home fans since the pandemic struck.
Fremantle and West Coast look set to spend the remainder of the AFLW season based in Victoria. The regular season is set to conclude in early March with finals to follow, leaving both clubs stranded on the east coast until then.
Glory’s men are expecting to play at least another five matches before flying back to WA while the women are scheduled to play three more games before returning home early February.
McGowan offered no indication on how long the border could remain closed, but offered the AFL clubs a glimmer of hope when he hinted they may be able to negotiate further exemptions from the rules announced to allow travelling teams into Perth.
“Sport is not my number one priority,” the Premier said.
“Obviously we’ll do what we did over the course of the last two years – sit down and work with the codes about what can be done.
“And we don’t know how long this arrangement will be in place for. That’s the nature of COVID.
“We work it out as we go along. We’ll work out arrangements that are pretty strong and tough subject to police and health advice. The Ashes didn’t want to abide by it so they didn’t come.”
If the Eagles and Dockers men’s teams are forced to start the season on the road, the AFL will have to decide whether they lose scheduled home games or if the fixture can be re-written to allow them a block of games in Perth towards the end of the season should rules loosen.
Glory chief executive Tony Pignata told The West Australian he was shattered.
“It’s a shocker. I’m flabbergasted. We asked specifically before we left about a date to come home.
“Yes, we can come back, but we have to do 14 days quarantine. Some families are with players now but it’s a lot to take in.
“You’ve got children at school, they have their own lives.”
Former Glory captain Rostyn Griffiths, a West Australian who now plays for Melbourne City, labelled McGowan “an absolute f….n clown” on Twitter.
International cricket coach Mickey Arthur, whose family is based in Perth, said he had not been able to get back to see his daughters for two years.
Dockers legend Matthew Pavlich, who has family in South Australia, tweeted: “Seriously?!”
The West Coast and Fremantle men’s teams are facing the galling prospect of having to start their seasons on the road and remain away indefinitely.
The Western Force’s season is due to kick-off on Saturday February 19 against the Brumbies at HBF Park.
Rugby Australia and Super Rugby clubs have been in talks about moving the five Australian sides into a COVID-19 bubble to ensure the competition can go ahead.
Force chief executive Tony Lewis was “extremely disappointed” but said: “We all sit down and take a deep breath.
“There’s no point panicking. We will work our way through this.
“We have to sit down with the government and Rugby Australia and see what we’re going to do, what the government are going to allow sporting teams to do.
“If we can guarantee that incoming teams are all double vaxed, will stay in a bubble and are safe there might be some avenue. Let’s see how it unfolds.”
So disappointed that we might not see our team. I can understand why they don’t want to open up but was so looking forward to this year. 🙁
I'm not going to criticise McGowan or his health advisors for a continuing cautious approach. He has said people can return here and quarantine at home from 5 Feb. I will criticise him if the government does not consider the "bubble approach" in these circumstances, provided protocols can be agreed by the AFL, Rugby Australia etc.
I don't think anyone believes Omicron can be controlled here now. But you don't have to look far to see what happens when a f@ckwit is in charge and follows the "let it rip" strategy. I think this is simply an attempt to hold back the flood until enough people have been boosted, children have a chance to get shots and there are sufficient stocks of RATs. I'm in the 70% who agree with this.
It is total lack of planning on a mega scale. 18 months ago he laid into the Feds for lack of Vaccine orders and incompetent roll out. During this time he should have mobilized his task force to get remote communities vaxed and to allay fears of religious groups to animal products in the vaccines. He then had the daily fight with NSW and the feds over preferential vaccine distribution, he keeps pointing out to failures every where else, scare mongering is a very tried and true way to keep population subjugated - look at history. Yes there are deaths over East but he fails to put it into perspective. Use Simpson's paradox - if you have 500 hospital admissions each day - how many are unvaxed, how many are single dose, how many are medically compromised? It's scary to say "look at their deaths" . How great to say we will have 550 more beds at the end of this year - Why did he not plan for that last year. Before we knew the extent of this pandemic - Twiggy threw the kitchen sink at it and got plane loads of PPE and ventilators. Total incompetence in my humble opinion. I voted for this guy, as I really thought he and his team were united, committed and good for our state.
Agreed.
Why did he sit on his hands regarding pandemic infrastructure for 18 months and then, at the last minute, plan to spend $millions on a quarantine centre in Jandakot Bullsbrook when he was planning to remove quarantine and re-open borders, but not invest in the health system that was obviously going to be hit hardest when the pandemic arrives?
And now 2 weeks from his hard & locked-in re-opening date, he flips 180 and pulls the rug from under everyone's feet?
A week ago he said the 5th Feb date was not moving. What changed in the last week!? Eastern States are actually talking about being near their peak with Omicron, so case numbers there should start to decline. Yet suddenly McGowan has initiated his "unforseen catastrophe" get-out clause, whish should have been triggered a month ago, when the genuinely unforseen catastrophe of Omicron started to blow out the numbers.
What incentive is there now for the wavering to get the jab?
- They know they can't trust McGowan's dates anymore.
- There is no new end date or percentage to aim for.
- Vaccine efficacy reduces over time so those who are having their boosters now will be less protected when the new date is finally announced
So why not hold off getting your first, second or third jab until nearer the new target date is "confirmed" (for what little that seems to matter anymore!)
Also, if the borders are staying shut, what is the point of the new restrictions coming in on 31 January?
They were in preparation for a 5/2 re-opening.
If there is already (admittedly low) community spread, why not force the changes in now, rather than waiting another week and a half, or scrap them until nearer the next moving target that McGowan introduces?
So; you people tearing into him saw Omicron, a real game changer, in your crystal balls? Why didn't you let the rest of us in on it? And did you forsee that double Vax is virtually no protection?
Gotta love a Monday Morning Fly-Half.
Quarantine is a Federal Government responsibility, they couldn't get the land at Jandakot "On their terms" so they instead decide to build it out on Commonwealth Land in Bullsbrook. The Feds have shirked their responsibilities since the pandemic began, remember the line "it's not a race" from Scotty last year when he didn't order enough vaccines? That worked out well, it's almost as if everything the Federal Government touches turns to mud.
The Doherty report modelling that ScoMo and Fraudenberg hold so dearly was based on Delta not Omicron, the sensible thing would have been to re-instate hotel quarantine in December (NSW and Victoria scrapped it all together in November) and to see what the new variant could do.
Instead Scotty has an election coming up in 2022 so charged full steam ahead with the line "it's not as bad as Delta" and now essential services are being trashed.
The economy in Sydney and Melbourne is now worse off than under lockdown conditions.
1. Double vax is still protection against seriousness illness, apparently it is not good against infection - 2 different aspects.
2. WHO advised the world that South Africa had discovered a new variant in early November. Initial indications showed this variant to be highly contagious. This was confirmed in case numbers in Gauteng rising drastically. Initially the world announced this variant as the South African variant which was discounted when the same variant was found in Germany, the U.K. and Singapore. The severity of this variant at that time in November was unknown. December 8th the first Omicron cases were found in Sydney. By that time the world suspected the Omicron was not as severe as Delta in causing Hospitalization, but did confirm infection rate to be much higher than Delta. On December 15th Emperor McGowan announced opening date of 5th February????
Last night he conceded there was still uncertainty but used scare mongering to justify the closure of our borders.
Even Monday's Fly half would keep up with the news and in December recognise the uncertainty was far greater, so why did he announce Feb 5th????
The man is covering up his incompetence. Putin, Chavez, Honecker, Castro, etc all used exactly the same script, deflect, blame others, raise the alarm levels, scare the bejesus out of the masses because you are lazy, incompetent, narcissi tic and arrogant.
Maybe I'm just a glass-half-full type of bloke.
A different perspective on yesterday's Covid numbers for Australia.
Although there were an additional 75,700 cases, very pleased to see that there were 101,200 recoveries/adjustments.
Current active cases: 669,800
99.21% of active cases were NOT hospitalised (5,274 were).
99.94% of active cases were NOT in ICU (418 were)
99.98% of cases did NOT need a ventilator (141 did).
Of the 1,155,200 Covid cases in Australia from 1st-20th January, thankfully 99.94% have NOT died (sadly 660 Aussies have).
Tragically about 3,000 Aussies have died from Covid over the past 2 years.
An analysis of Aussies who have died from Influenza/Pneumonia over the last 20 years shows:
+ Average deaths of ~2,900 per year
+Max (2017): 4,270 (There was a maximum of 8,000 Aussies in hospital in NSW that year).
+Min (2008): 1,760
With our 1,338 cases over the past 2 years WAustralians have developed little natural protection/community immunity which is what enabled South Africa to recover quickly from the recent Omicron outbreak.
I understand our State Government's dilema.
There is an old saying that is something like:
"Once you've decided to ride the tiger, the hardest decision is working out how to get off safely."
No, but why wait until 2 weeks before the re-opening date to do a 180 turn, when only last week (when NSW, QLD & VIC were already balls-deep in Omicron) he said that the 5 Feb date was locked in? What changed in the last week? If anything, the Eastern States have shown that it appears to be reaching a peak already, so why delay the WA re-opening until closer to the winter...which seems medically questionable at best! Or is he now planning on staying closed until AFTER the winter flu season has abated, locking the state out from the rest of the country and the world for closer to 3 YEARS?
Omicron isn't a "game changer"; It's a variant. It wasn't the first, and it won't be the last.
If we are going to crap ourselves every time a new variant comes along, we may as well hunker down for the long-haul, as we won't be fully re-entering the world this side of the Brisbane Olympics on that basis!
I do understand what a variant is. When a new one is resistant to double vax, upon which all planning was done, I'd call that a game changer. If not I don't know what would be. But everyone is entitled to an opinion even if they are dead wrong. :)
If you put aside trying to rationalise the situation by infection rates to hospitalisation/death rates and just look at the raw numbers in hospitals, things don't look so rosy. The economic situation looks pretty crook too. Fact is the majority of people (70% - 30%) agree with the Emperor. So it is what it is.
Perhaps the next variants will be milder again. I hope so.
I've been watching rugby (training) twice/week down at Uni Park.
Will be certainly heading out to the Fan Day and inter-club at Wanneroo on Saturday.
Club rugby still has a strong attraction each week.
I'm hopeful that there may be a game-changer re SR Pacific.
Generally pleased with the STAN offering (but would always like more).
Just wanted to put some perspectives out there from a different part of the world.
There are ways to minimize the risk and safely partially open the borders, Mark just has to look around the world and use science.
The part I do not understand and can’t see how it is backed up by science is the 14 days quarantine when entering. Omicron, which is now the dominant variant , has an average incubation period of 3 days and low hospitalization rates for vaccinated.
For example the state government here in Labrador when entering now ask for 5 days self-isolation with RAT testing everyday if your fully vaccinated, unvaccinated is 14 days flat. If you test positive you isolate for an additional 7 days and must have two negative tests 24 hours apart after symptoms have gone. This is a pretty workable solution that allows movement while minimizing spread, you can’t stop it and it isn’t going to just disappear.
Btw we had a hard border like WA until September last year , have been wearing masks and six feet for two years, had very low case counts and our health system is more f**cked then WA. The chief health officer here, who has been very strict, cautious and science based (the politicians were kept out of it) over the last two years, has admitted with Omicron that a balance has to be found and it can’t be stopped so the goal is no longer to stop it but manage the spread. In her words “with Omicron it will become endemic and everyone will get it at some time, we just need to make sure it’s not at the same time and protect the vulnerable”. FYI we had very few cases up until they started opening up and now we are getting about 300 cases a day, 2800 active cases in total with 20 in hospital. These aren’t out of control numbers and the restricted (not hard) border is helping control it, while letting us move about. Other provinces in Canada have no border controls and are seeing 5000+ a day, still low hospitalization rates but at those numbers a small % makes a large count, similar to the east coast of Oz.
I think Mark missed a good opportunity yesterday to stick to his schedule and get brownie points but also tighten the originally planned testing and isolation rules a bit to minimize and not just try and eliminate the risk. 5 days isolation and testing would be manageable for most people and sport teams especially with bubbles.
Lastly when Omicron started to appear last year in November the Canadian government started purchasing RAT tests in bulk and handing them out like lollies. I believe Mark only just purchased some last week, it really doesn’t seem like they have any backup plans except for shut the border when COVID doesn’t follow the plan.
Go build a snowman will ya!! :)
But seriously, McGowan has followed the medical advice right the way through. They have released that advice tonight unlike the f@ckwit in NSW who ignored & sidelined the CHO.
Benefits of COVID-19 booster shots in WA would start to wane after March: Chief Health Officer
https://www.watoday.com.au/national/....html#comments
P.S. I hope they can work something out before the first home game or the old man might miss out his $6 schooners. ;)
Lots of snowman here but they disappear very quickly under the snowblower. ;)
Don't get me wrong we've got a few Premiers like the NSW fella and their states are paying the price as well. The WA government has handled the first part of the pandemic very well but they don't seem to have a way out of a very dynamic situation that will never present them the exact conditions they want.
This article is interesting and I read the actual recommendations from the CHO.
To summarise my thoughts, something doesn't add up, and no I don't mean that in a conspiracy theory way I mean it in the sense that there doesn't seem like there could ever be an endgame. I'm surprised they haven't done more modelling before they made the announcement. What if they've missed the optimal window?
Here is another view from the point of view of an epidemiologist on waiting for booster coverage. The data can be viewed in many ways.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-...ward/100773218
My fear and frustration for WA (and my family and the Force) is there won't be the optimal conditions for the border opening that the government want and it become another 6 months to a year (waiting for flu season to be over) while the rest of the world has moved on. Tony Lewis has already said another year like 2021 could be a disaster for the Force.
Or the virus makes its way in (as it already has) and is uncontrolled because the COVID measures (masks, social distancing etc) the border opening would bring in are not in place and it spreads rapidly.