Peter Vogel
@psvbluemts
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Australian inventor turned lawyer. Mainly social justice cases, but my civil litigation practice pays the bills and funds my pro-bono work.
Australia
Joined June 2009
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Cardiologist Rae Duncan's compelling 12 minute summary of why we must not give up on reducing COVID transmission (extracted from a long discussion, see my next tweet). Her conclusion: "I hope to God I'm wrong"
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Just one of many who died a preventable death this week, but it hits home when it's in your neighbourhood: "One of my customers passed away from covid this week she caught it in hospital after she had a fall at home. The fall was easily treated..the covid was not".
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Australia’s National Cabinet decided today that the isolation period after testing +ve for COVID will be reduced to 5 days. The PM said "on the weight of evidence this was a proportionate response". Tomorrow Covid Safe Schools Inc will file an FOI request for that evidence. /2
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My grandma only had two things to say about any illness. "Prevention is better than cure" and "Let's get some fresh air in here". Could we start from there please?
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To the health workers who say they don't mask because those with poor hearing need to lip read. Here's an idea which is much better than lip reading, especially as we now have the technology for realtime translation into other languages as well.
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@JessicaLexicus
I spent the 1980s fighting against smoking in public places. It was a political fight, smokers claiming their right to do whatever they wanted, if it bothered me I could hide at home in fear. The tobacco industry spent billions advertising and paying lobbyists to repeat their
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A NSW high school today: 22 staff absent
28 periods covered by teacher filling in the extras
6 senior classes in the library with no teacher and minimal supervision. Any press interested in details DM me.
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I have obtained information about hospital-acquired COVID-19 from Queensland Health. From Jan-22 to June-23 an average of 14 people caught C19 in hospital each day, and one of these died each day. The data only lists deaths in the hospital, we don't know how many died soon after
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Today a NSW mum says goodbye to her child's public school.
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Irrespective of how long isolation is mandated, employers are breaching WHS duties if they allow people back to work while infectious and put other workers or the public at risk.
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A Chinese supplier to one of my businesses sent me this rather heartbreaking notice yesterday. This is an under-reported humanitarian disaster as well as a massive disruption to commerce and industry world-wide.
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I have been unconvinced about the benefit of personal air purifiers (little portable ones that blow air at you) but without any evidence one way or the other. This presentation by an aerosol engineer Professor Giorgio Buonanno is very enlightening and suggests that very
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This is a graph showing infectious period from early days of Omicron. Is there any updated information? If this is still true, reducing isolation to 5 days will be unleashing people at the height of their infectiousness.
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@glbabbington
@joeyfox85
Joey's overview is excellent. My favourite quote:
"Between 1957 and 1958, upper-room UV was installed in one wing of Livermore VA Hospital. The published study shows that there was a 90% reduction in influenza transmission in the hospital wing with upper-room UV compared to the
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The biggest failing of this change is that it should have been proceeded by a public health campaign hammering home the importance of isolating when sick even if it's not mandatory. Instead we've had relentless messaging that the pandemic's over, it's just a cold, ignore it. /2
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Cheap CO2 meter teardown
There are plenty of CO2 monitors available for under $100. Here's a thread explaining why you should be wary of these. I am about to void some warranties. /2
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This is great news. France has joined Belgium as world leaders in the pursuit of mandatory infection resilience through clean air. USA is fast-tracking similar. UK seriously investigating. Australia is doubling down on hand washing.
We offer a translation into English of our synoptic on the new French environmental code relating to the measurement of CO2 in schools. A PDF version is available at
This is intended for foreigners who have expressed an interest in this new code.
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In Australia this is what we have on our Christmas trees instead of snow.
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Great to see free N95s in Victoria. Needs a Public Health campaign teaching how to wear them and not to do stupid stuff like take them off indoors to talk or eat.
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The back of my envelope tells me that Western Australia has about 10% of Australia's population but only 2% of Australia's 7,000 COVID deaths so far. So Mark McGowan has saved the lives of 608 West Australians by putting public health ahead of profits.
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It's reckless to abandon COVID isolation without first having public health campaigns so people understand why mingling while infected is antisocial. Remember the ads that showed remorse-stricken drivers who killed a kiddie by speeding? And "If it's not on, it's not on?"
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The recent reports of C19 acquired in Australian hospitals reminded me that the successful Ruby Princess (plague cruise) lawsuit last year flew under the radar but is hugely significant. It illustrates that any commercial enterprise can be sued under consumer laws if they don't
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COVID and 'flu cases in residential aged care are exploding at the highest rate in more than a year. No-one seems to care. It's now up to individual facilities to make their own decisions about infection control. 35% of facilities are run for profit. It will be interesting in
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Another excellent question in NSW Parliament by Greens Dr. Amanda Cohn, concluding with "Here at Parliament, we benefit from recently upgraded air ventilation and filtration systems that exceed minimum standards. That level of protection should not be exclusive to
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The recent cases of Legionnaire's in Sydney motivates me to get back on my soapbox about the lack of regulation of ventilation in buildings where people congregate.
Why is it so hard to regulate ventilation. Why is it portrayed as a lengthy task requiring changes of public
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@CollignonPeter
The article you quote also says "Am I surprised that stopping universal masking didn’t affect the rate of healthcare-associated SARS-CoV-2? No – in my experience, universal masking was never implemented satisfactorily, and compliance with masks actually covering the mask and nose
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I have recently obtained numbers hospital acquired C-19 from Vic and Qld, and roughly 1 person dies every day in each State due to this. NSW says they don't know assume similar or worse. Any journalists interested, DM me for data.
The staff aren't wearing masks on the lung transplant ward. I feel like giving up. I mean, honestly, what is the point?
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I have a lot of clients in their eighties. In the last week two of them told me they have never felt so sick, could hardly speak a sentence, but "tested negative for COVID". Neither knew that RATs are very unreliable nor that Paxlovid exists. I recommended calling an ambulance
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This is current guidance for hospitals in a NSW local health district. Staff can return to work 3 days after a positive COVID test. This is probably when they are most infectious. And not even required to mask... because the pandemic's apparently over.
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We've had the same terrible messaging from Australian medical experts. When our Health Minister was quoted as saying that 99.6% of Australians have hybrid immunity to COVID-19, I filed an FOI request to get to the bottom of it. What was actually said was that blood tests
@chrischirp
What did make the news was JCVI member Professor
@adamhfinn
telling us that “almost everyone in the population [is] immune to
#SARSCov2
”. No wonder everyone thinks
#COVID19
is over and runs the gauntlet of
#LongCovid
or worse with messaging like that.
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The Fair Work Commission yesterday rejected an ANZ Bank employee’s request to permanently work from home to eliminate the risk of contracting COVID at work, in a test for workers and employers still battling over edicts to return to the office.
I act for the employee and
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I see COVID cases are growing at the highest rate in a year. Hospitals are an obvious place of transmission (lots of sick people close together) yet neither workers nor patients are using the respiratory protection the health department's plan says is necessary. This is a class
Seems according to their own rules NSW Health should now be on "red alert" mitigations
@dramandacohn
@NjbBari3
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Why are Australian children < 16 denied COVID-19 boosters, when it's recommended in the USA and elsewhere? Why can't adults get a booster now it's > 6 months since our last one? It's a vaccine-only strategy, without the vaccine.
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Here's the logical outcome of dropping isolation mandates without any supporting pubic health education. This is from a Sydney school telling parent's kids should come to school even if sick, provided they are "able to attend" i.e. are not "very unwell" (just contagious).
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"CO2 monitors to be mandatory in all Dutch classrooms"
Meanwhile, in Australia, education departments REFUSE to allow parents to DONATE CO2 monitors for classrooms. "
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Tweet your suggestions here for any specific information we should ask for. This is part of Covid Safe Schools Inc's ongoing project to expose decision-making that does not follow science and threatens public health
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Could every workplace in Australia (includes schools hospitals, shops, etc) please note that SafeWork Australia says merely following health orders is NOT sufficient to meet your WHS duties. /2
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About this "personal responsibility" narrative.
I have the choice whether to isolate when infectious, and I must do my own risk assessment and decide whether I want to wear a mask when I go to the shops.
So why 6 mths post vax
#4
am I not allowed to choose to have 5th vax?
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"Children who start in day-care have 2–4 times as many respiratory infections compared to children who are cared for at home, and day-care staff are among the employees with the highest absenteeism."
"Conclusion: Since airborne transmission is dominant
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Is your child traumatised by the daily danger of unmitigated risk of disease at school? The Australian Senate is inquiring into school refusal – difficulty attending school associated with emotional distress and can mean that children have trouble going to school. ...2
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@michrajah
ATAGI say most people don't need a boost because everyone's been infected and that counts as a boost. That discriminates against the minority who have been cautious and not been infected, and those who were quick to get vaccinated in the days government cared.
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To those who say it's only frail old people who need to worry about COVID.
SIRA NSW stats: Since June 2021 there were about 40,000 COVID-19 workers comp claims out of a total f=of 85,000. That's > 1% of the workforce, so not including oldies. /2
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NSW Health today lost its argument that they don't need to to provide information if it is held in a database containing extraneous data which is private or irrelevant, claiming that to do so would involve creating a new document.
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I had to check the source of this, couldn't believe there is a government doing a worse job of public health education than Australia.... but it's true. This is current - not March 2020.
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@IsThisReallyNe8
Reminds me that for years back in the 70s I would go to restaurants and ask if they allowed smoking (which they all did) and when they said yes I'd say oh that's too bad, and leave.
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Covid Safe Schools Inc will be giving evidence to the Parliamentary Inquiry into Long Covid and Reinfections so schoolkids or parents' stories would be great to illustrate what's going wrong in classrooms and what could be done better. A tweet long will be plenty. DM for privacy.
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This is not unusual now. Teachers are also being encouraged to attend school COVID positive. It's a clear breach of Work Health and Safety laws. The duty of care does not end with the DoE. Every worker down the line has that duty. Let's see if the government regulators step up.
NSW ed’n department cracking down on kids being absent.
My son has Covid (again) from school.
In a meeting yesterday, the school said he should go to school and sit in the library when he is sick.
What are we doing?
@JaneCaro
@psvbluemts
@DavidJoffe64
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Great point (paraphrased) about schools at yesterday's Parliamentary Inquiry into Long Covid: We don't expect children to show teachers how to use an Epipen. Why do they have to explain to teachers why the windows should be open?
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Catherine Bennett, Chair in Epidemiology Deakin University says in The Conversation today "Antivirals have played an important role, but so too has population immunity, now estimated at 99.6%". Her source? A dodgy newspaper article that gives no source.
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NSW Health has painted itself into a corner by downplaying COVID as no worse than the flu - if we don't need to worry about COVID why worry about flu?
Protect yourself and your family from influenza (flu), so you can keep doing the things you love this winter.
Influenza is serious, but your yearly flu vaccine offers the best protection from getting really sick and it is now available from your doctor or pharmacy.
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@DavidJoffe64
The Australian Health Department has refused to tell me what vaccines they have on order. I have now resorted to FOI.
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It makes no sense that the amount of sick leave available is no more than it was before it was expected everyone will catch a nasty virus 3-4 times a year.
My brother, a Sydney Trains driver, is currently still on sick leave WITHOUT PAY due to the fatiguing effects from his recent first Covid bout. He thinks it would be dangerous to passengers if he went back to work not fully well. He’s being financially punished for doing
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Both my State and Federal Health Ministers refused to tell me what C19 vaccines are on order to meet Australia's vaccine-only policy. Now the Health dept has rejected my FOI request. I will appeal this but that could take months or even years. /2
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When they gave up all COVID precautions in March, the NSW Premier and his obedient public servants said "ignore the case numbers, all that matters now is deaths are falling". Here's the result. Have they sprung into action? Will the new Labor government care?
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Doctors furious as WA Government deliberately drops COVID from new immunisation campaign
"Premier Roger Cook has sounded the alarm over vaccine complacency and misinformation, as he prepares to launch a new public health campaign warning of the risks of vaccine-preventable
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Why we urgently need mandatory indoor air quality standards.
Here's CO2 levels in a theatre I attended yesterday. The constant increase in CO2 during each half of the show is a clear indicator that the HVAC is not coping. Patrons were also complaining that it was too hot. /2
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@CollignonPeter
We should also be able to attend hospitals confident that every area is properly ventilated, not just operating theatres.
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"If we had another pandemic now, we would make exactly the same mistakes" - That is why this class action is so important (as well as getting a fairer outcome for the HCWs who are now unable to work and turning to food banks to feed their families).
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Apparently Domicron's kids go to Tangara, where one third of the staff have come down with COVID causing the school to go 100% online for a week.
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Glad to see these cases coming forward. "Ms Sultana alleges the business did not require employees to take adequate steps such as wearing any form of face masks or to use hand sanitisers to prevent or reduce the risk of contracting Covid-19 while on site."
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Ruby Princess class action was decided today in favour of the passengers.
Full decision:
Summary: /2
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I'm part of the team developing this wristwatch sized CO2 monitor. The kickstarter campaign has raised enough for us to go ahead with full production, but there are still some available at discounted price.
Our KickStarter campaign finishes in 4 days time.
4 days left to obtain an AirSpot at these amazing discounted prices.
Please don't miss out and help us deliver
#CleanIndoorAirEverywhere
#COVIDisNotOver
#COVIDisAirborne
#IndoorAirQuality
#SaferAir
#IAQ
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I was honoured to represent "Fiona" in this disability discrimination case in the NSW Consumer and Administrative Tribunal. The Tribunal was very critical of the NSW Department of Education and awarded $15,000 compensation for hurt and humiliation.
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"It is no longer mandatory to isolate if you test positive to COVID-19.. .this does not impact on the duties of an employer to do all that is reasonably practicable to minimise the risks of COVID-19 at the workplace, including asking workers to stay at home when unwell."
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On Long Covid Awareness day, Qld CHO has the answer. Don't call it long covid. Yes, you can get similar long term disability from other viruses, but the point is we work hard to prevent everyone getting those other infections several times a year. COVID
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Well done Italy! "Taking into account the great risk of contagion connected to places with vulnerable people in health care settings with the current COVID-19 pandemic, it is necessary and urgent for respiratory protective devices to be used in health care settings".
🔴
#BREAKING
Today 🇮🇹.
@MinisteroSalute
extends OBLIGATION of
#masks
in all social & health facilities throughout the national territory until 31.12.2023. We thank all the 🇮🇹actors who contributed to extend this measure of public health.
#LongCOVID
#CovidIsNotOver
#COVIDisAirborne
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Promising results in an Australian lab: “siRNA can stop SARS-CoV-2 replication by directly targeting the virus itself, which means there is no immune system involvement, so a recipient doesn’t need a functioning immune system for the treatment to work."
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Has anyone filed a State or Commonwealth complaint of disability discrimination for the lack of infection control measures in Australian hospitals? Please DM me if you have, or if you'd like to.
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A bit of history to give hope to Australians campaigning for
#Cleanair
.
In 1992 Liesel Scholem was the first Australian to receive compensation for disease caused by exposure to environmental tobacco smoke in the workplace (NSW Health Dept, ironically).
10 years later... /2
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NSW Health has released its weekly report, including charts showing decreasing COVID-19 cases and hospitalisations. What is missing is a chart, or in fact any mention of, INCREASING deaths. So I've done it for them.
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Great to see NSW teachers striking. They could also refuse to attend schools which are dangerous workplaces. Right now riddled with disease, but chronically unhealthy due to unreasonable work demands.
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Safework is offering $1,000 grants to improve workplace safety. Hard sanitisers are on the list. Air purifiers are specifically excluded.
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This is NOT a parody. This is an actual Australian Government Dept of Health and Aged Care blog "Protect yourself and loved ones from infectious disease this festive season"
As well as the traditional "wash your hands" advice and wrong information that
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... and of course the real travesty is that financial support for casual workers isolating was withdrawn. That forces the less fortunate workers to choose between social responsibility and paying the rent.
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This is great news. Upper room germicidal UV has been used for decades in other settings and is a better long term proposition than portable air filters for many reasons. The findings will be relevant to schools as well, as schools and aged care facilities are quite similar in
the victorian govt is funding a trial, led by
@BurnetInstitute
, to assess the efficacy of germicidal UV light in reducing covid + other airborne viruses in aged care facilities. minister is up early this morning, has already visited one facility where tech has been installed
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illustrates how seriously Australians are being kept in the dark about incidence of C-19. Wastewater is pretty much the only indicator being published and as seen in this recent Perth data, there is far more C-19 around now than any time this year, yet
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When I saw the latest COVID variants are called FU1 and FU2 I honestly thought someone had come up with a hilarious summary of the government's public health strategy.
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Perrottet admits he and the Department of Education ignored health advice when setting COVID policy for schools, in this speech at the Committee for Economic Development of Australia 25 Feb 2022. Not about education, just a false sense of confidence.
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Anyone can get Long Covid, including the young, healthy and vaccinated.
The Long COVID Inquiry received over 550 submissions from Australian and overseas experts and people living with Long COVID. The report was published 8 months ago and the Minister has done nothing to act on
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This is a product I and some other Australian "AirHeads" have been developing. It uses a new CO2 sensor which is much smaller than the first generation but just as accurate.
AirSpot is small enough to wear like a watch, attach to a keyring, or clip to your child's schoolbag.
We're about to launch our first wearable fresh air monitor on Kickstarter.
Make sure you don't miss out on the fantastic rewards we have on offer.
#MaskUp
#CleanIndoorAir
#COVIDisAirborne
#COVIDisNotOver
#IAQ
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A lot of sudden deaths of healthy young people are being attributed to post COVID-19 damage. Of course people have always been dying suddenly so what we need to see is some hard facts from the actuaries or health researchers.
@KarenCutter4
or others?
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This sums up pretty much everything that's wrong with our PH & WHS policies. News reports today say he only got tested because he had 'hayfever'. The employer didn't even bother to require players to test, and then allowed Matt to endanger himself, other employees and the public.
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@CollignonPeter
OK I've now read the whole study. The conclusion is "...our findings suggest transmission likely occurred when P2/N95 respirators were not worn rather than suboptimal fit testing" which (Peter Collignon will be disappointed to hear) means respirators do reduce transmission by the
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Novavax Australia told me: "The TGA submission for the new variant strain Nuvaxovid vaccine is planned for October. Depending on the date of approval, the first batch is expected by the end of the year or early January and available in pharmacies and clinics soon after."/2
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I have extracted 7 short segments from a recent 4SD Foundation Open Online Briefing December 2023, highlighting latest evidence that COVID could be causing long-term cardiovascular damage in everyine, including children.
These clips are linked in my next 7 posts.
Full video:
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@ColinKinner
@qldhealth
@ColinKinner
I have obtained some AHPPC documents under FOI. In Sept 2022 they noted "Hospital-acquired COVID-19 infections have mortality rates as high as 7%". That's 70 times higher than the general population case fatality rate. Here are the names of those at that meeting.
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All protection from COVID is being scrapped.
I am told not to worry because we now have antiviral drugs for people like me with heightened risks.
The NSW Health rules for prescribing antivirals say that I don't qualify BUT I WOULD IF I WERE NOT VACCINATED.
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Had a fantastic night at
@SydneyLyric
theatre last night, seeing “Hairspray”. What an amazing show, everything about it was outstanding. I had previously been told by management that HVAC was up to standard, well maintained, and 100% fresh air (no recirculation). And it was! /2
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NSW Health says RSV is high and flu and Covid are low. Well that sounds like good news except if you read the actual report it says the exact opposite:
* COVID UP 34%
* FLU UP 30%
* RSV DOWN 7%
Someone please tell me I've read the wrong report so I can delete this tweet.
The latest NSW Respiratory Surveillance Report shows that respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) activity is high. COVID-19 and influenza activity is low. Now is the recommended time to get your influenza vaccine.
Full report:
More info:
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This lawfirm makes a good point – "In the wake of two well-known recent, deadly coronavirus outbreaks – SARS in 2003 and H1N1 in 2009 – should hospitals in the United States have been better prepared to deal with COVID-19?"
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Anyone else noticed that when the Reserve Bank Board mandates higher interest rates to mitigate inflation the government cannot interfere, yet the government can ignore the strong advice of the Chief Medical Officer to mitigate spread of a deadly virus?
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Ch. 7 Weekend Sunrise: "Most of us are kinda immune". This is a doctor giving advice which could, kinda, make people think that most of us are immune, so no need to take precautions to protect ourselves or others.
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I have always marvelled at how a pathogen becoming endemic was marketed as a good thing... here's a compelling explanation.
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Zoe Hyde's letter in the MJA: "A growing body of evidence indicates children are more affected by COVID‐19 than initially thought."
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I've been plotting again. Here's the data from the last 10 weeks of reports of COVID-19 in Australian residential aged care. Albo's delivering on his promise to free up aged care places by Christmas.
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Question for GPs, or anyone else with knowledge of the facts. When it becomes necessary to get a GP referral for a PCR test, what guidelines will GPs follow? Under what circumstances would they refuse a referral? Will this be under the PBS?
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Public Health 101. The dissonance between the NSW Education Minister dropping the last of the COVID protections in schools and the Health Minister saying we should fear the upcoming winter led me to look closely at the case numbers over the last few weeks.
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