aquascoot wrote on Jun 17^th, 2024 at 12:25pm:


Education system.

You confuse critical thinking skills with seeking information that validates your already-held beliefs.

You've been let down because you've been left mainly with the latter, or at least the mistaken belief that the two are equal.

aquascoot wrote on Jun 17^th, 2024 at 12:38pm:


Unless you are an Infectious Disease Specialist, Epidemiologist, Virologist, Public Health Expert, Intensive Care Specialist, Pulmonologist, Immunologist, General Practitioner, Researcher or Scientist, your intuition is nothing but an uninformed gamble based on your wants and desires.

You got lucky.

And I'm so glad you did.  I would have loved to take the same bet as you, but the stakes were too high.

Instead, I wore a mask, got vaccinated, socially distances where possible and started a neighbourhood group to force us all to get to know each other and help out the elderly around us with the things they needed from a shopping run to something as simple as putting the bins out for them.

To the community in general, they're full of arseholes bitching and moaning about masks, accepting the most stupid of logic about them killing people all to justify not being told what to do, at least the small community we created during COVID has lasted and we're a better neighbourhood for it.

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You can't make that claim either.  They could be scared by the conspiracy theories around the vaccines. 

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I don't know enough about his position to make any claim either way.

Carl D wrote on Jun 17^th, 2024 at 12:53pm:


It depends on what your priorities are.

Early on during the pandemic, I lost friends in the US, I had close relatives in isolation watching the elderly die around them.  These were people I cared about and respected, some family some close friends, and their messaging was simple.

Please wear your mask when you go outside, don't risk it, if not for you, for those around you.  Try to avoid getting the virus and if you do, stay home.

So I did.

At the time we didn't know how well masks worked to protect the wearer, but the understanding was that respiratory droplets were the main transmission vector and masks helped reduce their escaping into the environment which would help reduce transmission.

So I did.

So at the time, I would be an advocate of "doing the right thing", kept up to date on the latest medical and scientific understanding and the best advice to protect yourself and your family and I would advocate for that.

Fast forward to now and while a lot has been learned about COVID from the virus to the vaccines and everything in between, the greatest lesson I learned had nothing to do with the virus itself but the people.

I used to be far more active in my community.  I did Meal on Wheels, I would donate money to various causes and would generally be a considerate person, opening doors for people, giving up my seat on public transport for those who need it etc.

But I learned that all of that is a waste of time to an ungrateful and entitled population.

People would not take the most simple of actions to help out those around them during COVID and not only that, they would attack those who did. 

I could accept if you one was a little baby and didn't want to wear a mask because they don't like being told what to do, but to then attack others who are, deliberately trying to spread the virus by coughing on people etc, all to prove a point.

I'm done.

I had people deliberately coughing on me before we had access to vaccines because I was doing the weekly shop, wearing a mask and social distancing, and they'd just cut in front of me while I'm getting a jar from the shelf because they couldn't wait their turn.  So much for 1.5 meters.  I asked them "you right mate" and they just turned and started coughing in my face.

Then some will make comments when we were wearing our masks during the mandates that anyone doing that is scared or a sheeple etc, like in person, getting up in your face and screaming so much you can feel their spittle all over you, not just some little bitch behind a keyboard, then trying to make life difficult for the staff at restaurants or shops just trying to survive during lockdowns.

These people showed me that mateship and all the things we Aussies claim as our culture, it's all bullshit.

It's all about what others can do for me, fullstop.

People are just selfish trash and will gladly take take take but never offer to help in return.

They are not worthy of my compassion, my time, effort or money.

Unless I know you and you are within my circle, there is no automatic caring or respect. 

Brisbane will flood again, I won't be going up there as part of the mud army ever again.  My wife won't and I'd hope our children won't either.

If people want to be c, then they'll be treated like it.

That said, as much as I'd love to become selfish and just stop caring about those around me.  It's not that simple in practice.

During the Christmas storms on the Gold Coast, I had a generator, plenty of fuel, portable fridges and plenty of battery storage for smart devices

3 of my neighbours had extension cords over the fence powering their fridges for a week from the geny and with even our cell going down, I setup some directional wifi so they could share the starlink connection I have as a backup so they could at least communicate with relatives without having to drive a few suburbs away to get phone reception again.

But I guess they are in the circle we created since COVID.

The point is, it's all about your priorities.

Ask me during the pandemic and I would have been all about community, doing what was right by me and my family, but also what was right where possible for those around us.

Ask me now, f em.

They won't lift a finger to help those around them and the proportion of people like that is so high, I'm done thinking about them and their needs, so f em.

We know, even with the vaccines that COVID isn't a mild respiratory virus and while I will do what is needed for myself and my family, I don't care about anyone outside my circle.

Not anymore.

I would agree with a lot of what you're saying about the CHO, but at the end of the day, I really find it hard to care about the rest of the people in the state.  They have shown themselves unworthy of it.

very interesting, is this guy more qualified then carl, skippy and pecca
this guy who says that covid is just another respiratory virus and there is nothing special called long covid?
this guy who says we dont need to collect stats becasue the virus has weakened?


are we to believe the science or 3 whacky conspiracy theorists ?


Dr John Gerrard, Chief Health Officer
BSc (Med) MB BS (Syd) MSc (Microbiology) DLSHTM DTM&H (Lon) FRACP

Dr Gerrard was appointed Chief Health Officer for Queensland Health in December 2021. He was the long-term Director of Infectious Diseases at the Gold Coast Hospital, where he was instrumental in the design the Gold Coast University Hospital, which has been at the front line of Queensland’s COVID-19 response.

A leading infectious disease specialist, Dr Gerrard identified Australia’s earliest known case of AIDS early in his career. He has since been involved in malaria vaccine trials and has worked internationally to strengthen pandemic preparedness, including travel to Sierra Leone during the 2014 West African Ebola epidemic, where he helped establish Australia’s first Ebola Treatment Centre. He was awarded the Australian Humanitarian Overseas Service Medal for this work.

Carl D wrote on Jun 17^th, 2024 at 4:37pm:


but he is the science that you and skippy and gweg say we must believe

as skippy says

"unless you have degrees like John Gerrard you should shut your mouth "

SadKangaroo wrote on Jun 17^th, 2024 at 12:32pm:

ShellShilo wrote on Jun 17^th, 2024 at 5:38pm:


Correct, but I'm not talking about now with hindsight, I'm talking about what it was like in the beginning with all the unknowns at the time.

Carl D wrote on Jun 17^th, 2024 at 7:40pm:



when you are the only one masking up on an international flight
and you call the other 499 people insane
i think you need to look in the mirror and own your "narcissistic personality disorder"