I Live in a Country With Virtually No COVID. Sounds Great, Right? It's Not

[brooklynite]

Fodor's

It’s my dad’s birthday and we gather for a family Zoom call. We did this last year, too, making it over 12 months since my family was last able to reunite. I see my mom and dad, sitting excitedly at the kitchen table, my sister on another camera, and our family dog snuggled up on the kitchen floor. However, the happiness of a family birthday is tainted with underlying anxiety.

When will we be able to be together again for real, not via video calls? None of us are getting any younger—even Max, our beloved family chihuahua, is turning gray and losing his hearing as time slips by.

Since COVID began, my worst fear is getting a phone call that one of my parents or loved ones is unwell, as I know I might not be able to get back home. Because I’m an American living in Australia, the country’s strict border restrictions make it nearly impossible to travel freely.

Australia has shut down its international (and, sometimes, state) borders for over 12 months now, prohibiting almost all international travel. Australia’s efficient and strong response to the pandemic has meant we’ve nearly eradicated the disease—but what do the border closures mean for the tens of thousands of ex-pats who are unable to leave the country to be with family in emergency situations?

COVID has become a rare occurrence in Australia, with case numbers in the single digits and weeks on end of zero transmission. Contact tracers are able to work out the origins of almost every locally transmitted case, giving Australians the freedom to enjoy domestic travel, dinners out, and even concerts, providing the country with the confidence to return to a semblance of normality. I, along with my friends, are grateful for the return to day-to-day life as we know it. Although, for me, this comes with a tinge of guilt for having it so good, when others around the world are suffering.

[LisaL]

1. What's the alternative?

The reason Australia's number are low is that they made it very difficult to travel to Australia from other countries.
By they way someone wanting to be with relatives outside Australia can leave Australia to do so-it's coming back that will be very difficult. But those are the choices people are able to make.

[snowybirdie]

2. Not really

feeling too bad for these selfish folks.

[Hortensis]

3. They can leave, returning involves more than just flying back normally.

It is unfortunate, but the entire subcontinent has sacrificed to achieve its current state, not just expats.

[Kid Berwyn]

4. No "Liberate TASMANIA"?

Contact Tracing. Isolate the Ill. Restrict Travel. Vaccinate ASAP.

IF ONLY.

[rgbecker]

5. I know! We could ask the 578,996 who died in the US which is the best way to go.

Or their families if you can't them to talk.


USA Covid deaths: 578,996.......1741 per million.

Australia deaths: 910..........35 per million.

[link:https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/|

[Johonny]

9. Yup

I haven't been able to see my family and we've lost 578000 people. Most Americans have not been traveling to see family. Only the suicide bombers here.

[bullwinkle428]

6. Lachlan Murdoch (Fox News "grand poobah") moved his family back to

Australia shortly after the pandemic began, BECAUSE they are doing so much better than we had been doing.

And as far not being able to see family, I've gone over a year without seeing my mother, who is 83, so it's not like there's abundant opportunities to be together for many years to come. She is fully vaccinated now, and I will be as of next week, so we are finally planning to see each other in the near future.

[joetheman]

12. Yeah, after contributing to the super spreading of COVID here through FOX and Limbaugh and

all the other outlets who picked up on the Trumpian-Murdock BS about the pandemic being a hoax or not really bad. Their ill-gotten gain protects them since they can live anywhere without having to work. In the meantime, we must live with the past 50 years of mis-information and lies they planted in the minds of the poorly educated and the propaganda tools they left behind in the hands of the GOP.

[localroger]

7. Australia doesn't fuck around

They had one mass shooting after which they decided individual citizens don't need to have the kind of weapons that can be used this way, full stop. They had a buyback and a grace period and then made it illegal to own a long gun capable of firing more than a few rounds at a time, and they haven't had another mass shooting since. Meanwhile here in the US we have had two in the last week.

And with COVID they looked at what the math said was necessary and they did it. We could have done it too but nobody wanted to inconvenience the businesses which might take a financial hit until it was out of control and too late. Australia was strongly proactive, we were weakly and insufficiently reactive. Trump leaving it to the states meant that even if a state wanted to be proactive, they were like a no-peeing area in a swimming pool, since there is supposed to be free travel between the states.

You can always say that it's easier for a nation like Vietnam with an authoritarian government to put a lid on COVID becuase FREEDUMB, but I don't think anyone is accusing the Australians of being a bunch of commie fascists. They just suck it up and do what has to be done when they see the situation.

[EX500rider]

14. "and they haven't had another mass shooting since."

Except for all of these:?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_massacres_in_Australia

[localroger]

16. Yes, please do look at that list.

Since the Port Arthur mass murder, the only thing that has even come close in number of victims are three arson attacks -- and that is a very amplified list including pretty much everything that has ever happened with more than one victim regardless of the weapon used. In fact the three arson attacks are the only mass killings they have had in the 25 years since Port Arthur that took more than 10 victims, and I see only two more that have claimed more than five. And nothing since has come close to the 35 victims of Port Arthur. So yeah, they pretty much haven't had anything else like Port Arthur since they decided to deal with it. America racks up a list comparable to their entire 25 year post-Port Arthur inventory in a few months.

[rgbecker]

17. It wouldn't take much time to at least look at the list.

Seems to be a problem there with all sorts of means of death, but not many arbitrary killing of random victims in huge numbers like we see in the USA.

[link:https://www.vox.com/2015/8/27/9212725/australia-buyback|

FROM THE LINK:

However, the paper's findings about suicide were statistically significant — and astounding. Buying back 3,500 guns correlated with a 74 percent drop in firearm suicides. Non-gun suicides didn't increase to make up the decline.

There is good reason why gun restrictions would prevent suicides. As Matthews explains in great depth, suicide is often an impulsive choice, one often not repeated after a first attempt. Guns are specifically designed for killing, which makes suicide attempts with guns likelier to succeed than (for example) attempts with razors or pills. Limiting access to guns makes each attempt more likely to fail, thus making it more likely that people will survive and not attempt to harm themselves again.

The buyback also may have reduced the rate of mass shootings. A 2018 study found that, in the 18 years before Port Arthur, Australia experienced 13 mass shootings; in the 22 years since, the country has only suffered one such incident.

Bottom line: Australia's gun buyback saved lives, probably by reducing homicides and almost certainly by reducing suicides.

[oioioi]

8. Yankee go home.

[Raftergirl]

10. I haven't seen any family since early March 2020

Haven’t seen my 92 yr old mom since Feb. 2020 or my kid since March 2020.

We’ve done all our gatherings on Zoom.

At least in Australia they don’t have to worry about out of control CV.

[Crunchy Frog]

11. Deadly pandemics have consequences?

[muriel_volestrangler]

13. It's not "perfect", but it's still pretty good

She's basically saying that some of the problems that people in high-risk countries have also apply to their ex-pats in Australia. But by no means all.

[Worried2020]

15. Well, over half of the deaths in Ontario are old folks,

.

many in homes, intensive care etc.

Over 7600 deaths in Ontario alone, and this 3rd spike is higher than the previous 2

Scroll down for the graph - it's scary. Heck, Ontario has got almost twice the deaths of China, who as we know, imposed a severe lockdown right off the bat over a year ago, and they pretty much squashed it, as did their neighbors like Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, etc.

https://www.thestar.com

We wanna socialize, carry on as if we're invulnerable, and we're dropping like flies in North America.

Kudos to the Australian leaders who value the longevity of their citizens above all else.



W

[MrsMatt]

18. I think of my grandfather

who emigrated from Sweden to the United States at age 15 in 1905. Only family he ever saw again were those who emigrated too. He never met with his parents and half his siblings ever again.

Similar feeling.