On May 28th, a one week lock-down of the whole of Victoria was imposed, following the appearance of ONE positive-testing CASE of SARS-2 infection. Over the next five days another 45 cases were detected in nearby areas of Melbourne, nearly all close family or work contacts of the man. But using the expanded contact tracing system Victoria had developed since the last scare, 370 “exposure sites” were identified, and all people who had been in these spots required to get tested and isolate. In so-called “Tier One” sites, isolation for 14 days was obligatory even if testing negative. Despite testing 40,000 or so people every day, only a few cases were found to have caught the infection by casual and brief contact. So few in fact that when two of these alleged contacts turned out to have been false positives there was nearly a crisis of confidence! No other country in the world has been able to test hundreds of thousands of people and find ZERO positive cases – and have no-one observe that this is statistically impossible. Despite this aberration, there are frequent claims of the discovery of virus traces in waste water, despite no cases in the catchments involved. Below is a useful chart illustrating the extent of the problem:
But all the positive-testing cases – of the Indian “Kappa” variant which came from returned travellers in hotel quarantine – were in Melbourne, so after 7 days and at least $1 Billion loss to the local economy, the restrictions were relaxed for regional Victoria, allowing unrestricted shopping and all businesses to open, albeit with some density limits and maintaining the mask mandate for all indoor settings. With one little difference.
QR code registration – at ALL shops and businesses, including supermarkets and take-away coffee shops, newsagents and banks.
Such a thing would have seemed unthinkable before the COVID year, as it constitutes a virtual ID card, not just for getting on an aircraft or getting a bank loan, but for buying a pint of milk or a pound of cheese, or a bottle of beer. Australians had traditionally been down to earth people who would soon sniff out someone trying to pull a fast one on them, and possessed of an ordinary common sense. They were also an open and friendly people, used to shaking hands and heavy socialising over the barbie and the pool. No more.
So incredibly, when confronted with a sign reading “No Mask, No Entry”, and a QR code barrier at their local supermarket, there were no angry riots over civil rights or even expression of reluctance at being monitored; only questions over whether their phones would work with the requisite and mandatory tracking App. Anyone who does express such hesitation or resistance would be barred by the shopkeeper on pain of a $1600 fine to them, or set upon by fellow citizens for their antisocial behaviour. I expect to suffer such a fate in the near future.
Heralded as a terrific success in controlling the Virus thanks to the QR code tracing system – that actually only traced half a dozen people but tested 300,000 at a cost unmentioned – the QR code ID card registration is now accepted as necessary, even though there is nothing to trace, and little danger from it even if there was. One of our few credible and scientific experts, Catherine Bennett, noted that “most cases of infection do not get passed on” – which is why these minor outbreaks tend to die out naturally, but she is ignored on this point. Instead the whole episode has been used, and seemingly created, to make people hysterical about getting vaccinated and full of “community spirit”, like the Koala.
And those who fall out of line are demonised, denigrated or simply ignored. It is a fate which has befallen one of our most perceptive social commentators, cartoonist Michael Leunig, as the paper he has been published in for decades, the Melbourne Age, now rejects his cartoons when they stray over the line. This happened back in October, when the Age refused to publish Leunig’s ascerbic comment on mask wearing. Ironically I published it leading an article on “the Masquerade” on American Herald Tribune, just before the FBI shut it down, for the first time. But here is Leunig’s latest and beautiful take on inducements to get vaxxed, or jabbed (and referencing the gifts given to Aborigines at the time of the original invasion:
Ironically perhaps, all Indigenous people over 16 are now being offered the Pfizer jab, while the occupiers of their lands wait impatiently for more supplies to arrive. It’s worth noting that the death rate amongst Aborigines from lower respiratory tract diseases is very high, and likely killed more than died in all of Australia with COVID19 in 2020. (as noted in my previous post).
But such subtleties are beyond the Australian imagination now, as are any fears of side effects or death from mRNA vaccines, of which they know nowt.