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Young people are at very low risk of death so they have nothing much to worry about.
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The Irrational Fear and the cost of the Wuhan Virus, Is it worth it?
- Thread starter Hypocrite-The
- Start date
Young people are at very low risk of death so they have nothing much to worry about.
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I really like this phrase.
'because having no income to feed our families or pay our loans is as horrible as having the virus'
https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-...ubeis-migrant-workers-living-fear-debts-mount
'because having no income to feed our families or pay our loans is as horrible as having the virus'
https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-...ubeis-migrant-workers-living-fear-debts-mount
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I would say that it is WORSE than having the virus because in more than 80% of those infected only have minor symptoms.
However when poverty strikes 100% of those affected will be suffering badly.
Those here that are calling for a nationwide shutdown are simply selfish. There is no other way to describe them. It's disgusting that there are such people in the world and in this forum too.
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Well said...just look at how these economic parasites are demanding from The rest of the world. This chick on chemotherapy is better off dead as she is a burden to herself, to her family n society as society pays her Bill's. If she were to pay it herself will she sing a different tune? The old and the informed are just as selfish n greedy n inconsiderate as the rich.
Chemotherapy and the coronavirus threat — my immunity levels mean you need to care about COVID-19 - ABC News
By the Specialist Reporting Team's Mary Lloyd
Posted 4d
Mary Lloyd was diagnosed with breast cancer last year.
Mary Lloyd was diagnosed with breast cancer last year.(Supplied: Hugh Riminton)
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It has been a strange feeling hearing my possible death openly labelled inconsequential by public figures, commentators and even by some of my friends.
Some remark that coronavirus has "only a 1-4 per cent" fatality rate, while others implore that everyone relax because "most people will only get mild symptoms".
While these statements are broadly correct, there's a callous confidence that comes with knowing you're part of the 96 per cent who will survive an infection — instead of being among the potential "four-percenters" who might not.
Of course their comments are not aimed directly at us, but I cannot help wondering whether they know we're listening.
Last year I was diagnosed with breast cancer.
I had it removed and am now enduring four months of chemotherapy to keep me cancer-free.
I'm seven weeks into my treatment and every time I receive a dose of the cancer-killing stuff, it also knocks out part of my immune system.
A smiling family
Mary Lloyd, her husband Hugh and their three children outside a cancer centre in Sydney on the first day of her chemotherapy treatment.(ABC News)
Last week, I picked up a viral throat infection from one of my kids and ended up at Sydney's St Vincent's emergency department after the symptoms escalated worryingly. It was a real wake-up call.
If I'm to fight off a viral infection, it is my lymphocytes I'll be relying on.
The normal range for a healthy person is a count between 1.5 and 4. When my blood was tested by the emergency department halfway through my third chemo cycle, it showed my lymphocyte count had dropped to 0.6.
A reading that low does not mean I have no immune system to rely on, but it does leave me genuinely concerned that if I contract COVID-19 I might not be among the group who experience only mild symptoms.
I am by no means the only one with this worry.
When retired broadcaster Patricia Barraclough — who described herself as an "older" person — posted on Twitter that she felt uncomfortable seeing posts about it being "only" the elderly and those with underlying health conditions who will die from the virus, her sentiments were seconded by a range of mature people. This was echoed by those with chronic asthma, and compromised immune systems.
"I'm with you Patricia," Jenny Harrison, another "older" person wrote. "I do feel rather expendable when they keep saying that."
I don't just feel expendable, I feel exposed.
My best protection right now is to avoid coming into contact with the virus entirely, and my best chance of that happening is if it is not spreading within my community.
Right now, we are not feeling that love.
When people spread blithe messages about the fatality rate or flippantly comment about easily shaking the disease off, there is a risk others will take a similar careless approach.
Less care in the community will lead to more infections.
This is where it becomes truly terrifying for potential four-percenters: If so many people contract the virus that the healthcare system becomes overwhelmed, we cannot be sure we will receive the care we need.
Look at Italy. The death rate there is alarmingly high, not because the virus is more virulent, but because doctors are having to make that most dreadful of decisions.
They are having to "pick winners", which means taking account of patients' underlying health conditions and deciding who gets access to scarce resources like ICU beds, ventilators and ECMO machines (blood pumping machines).
Those less likely to survive are by necessity left to die.
I'm expecting to fully recover from my underlying health condition, but if I contract coronavirus at the height of this outbreak, can I be sure in a contest between myself and another patient I will hold the winning ticket?
Of course, I'd rather not find out, for their sake as well as mine.
The sign outside the centre
The Kinghorn Cancer Centre in Darlinghurst is telling people not to enter the centre if they have a cough, cold, flu or diarrhoea.(ABC News: Mary Lloyd)
So instead of relying on the health system to be adequately equipped if I do succumb, I am left reliant on people like my neighbour Sarah. Last week she had a sore throat and insisted on staying two metres away from me, and immediately got herself tested.
She did it not for the sake of her own health, but to protect me and her ageing father.
And I'm hoping people will take note of the signs at places like Sydney's Kinghorn Cancer Centre asking them not to enter the building if they are experiencing symptoms that could put chemo patients at risk.
If over the next few days, however, it does not feel like Australians as a community of people are committed to staying away from large events, practising social distancing, supporting people to work from home and keeping the virus out of schools, I will be taking action to isolate myself and my family until it is all over.
What we are faced with is a public health risk, not a risk to every individual's life. We need to respond accordingly.
So on behalf of all the potential four-percenters out there, I beg that people be vigilant and take the virus seriously, not because we are all potential fatalities, but because among us there are people whose best chance of surviving the outbreak is if its spread is slowed so our health system can adequately treat everyone in need.
Or better still, if they do not come into contact with the virus at all.
Mary Lloyd is a multiplatform producer and journalist for the ABC's Specialist Reporting Team.
Dr Norman Swan recommends 'severe' shutdowns
Posted 4d
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Typical feminist libtard generation. It's all about her and to hell with everybody else. Just count the number of "I"s and "Me"s the article above.
Yes and she forgets that her cancer treatment was funded by the taxes that are generated by her fellow countrymen going to WORK.
She should be told that for the next two years she'll have to fund all her own medical treatment as an aftermath of the shutdown and let's see how she suddenly changes her tune.
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Why u think the world is going down the dumps? Because all the sick, the old, the infirmed and the bloody greedy rich are sucking the life out of the working n middle class
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See how greedy n stupid n selfish these retarded shoppers are?
Girl is CRUSHED in a stampede at Coles as panic buyers stormed into a store in a mad rush for toilet paper
a group of people in a store: A girl, 13, was trampled by shoppers rushing to get toilet paper when the store opened
© Provided by Daily Mail
A girl, 13, was trampled by shoppers rushing to get toilet paper when the store opened
A little girl has been crushed by panic buyers who stormed a Coles in a mad rush to buy toilet paper.
The stampede at the Coles in Baldivis, Perth, on Wednesday left a 13-year-old girl injured and crying on the ground.
The mother, who is currently wheelchair-bound due to a recent operation, said she went to the supermarket to collect toilet paper and snacks for school with her daughter and nine-year-old son.
When the doors opened the mother was quickly separated from her daughter until she found her crying on the floor, according to The West Australian.
'She was pushed to the ground and then stood on by adults who had no care in the world for a child on the floor. People were walking over her while she was crying on the ground just to get what they wanted,' she said.
As her daughter tried to enter the store, shoppers knocked the young teenager to the ground as they charged towards the toilet paper located near the entrance.
The mother took her to get x-rays on a swollen knee and was waiting on results.
'I am shocked at how people were acting this morning even before the doors opened. People pushing, people telling people to get back in line,' she said.
The experience left her daughter shaken but the mother praised the quick thinking and compassionate response from staff.
'Once (the manager) had been told what had happened he took myself and my children straight out the back and got ice to put on my daughter's knee,' she said.
A spokesperson from Coles said they would be looking into extra security measures in the wake of recent panic buying.
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'Coles takes the wellbeing of our customers and team members seriously and we are constantly reviewing security measures to manage the unprecedented levels of demand we are seeing in our stores,' he said.
'We ask that customers to continue to show compassion towards fellow customers and team members at this challenging time.'
Microsoft may earn an Affiliate Commission if you purchase something through recommended links in this article
Girl is CRUSHED in a stampede at Coles as panic buyers stormed into a store in a mad rush for toilet paper
a group of people in a store: A girl, 13, was trampled by shoppers rushing to get toilet paper when the store opened
© Provided by Daily Mail
A girl, 13, was trampled by shoppers rushing to get toilet paper when the store opened
A little girl has been crushed by panic buyers who stormed a Coles in a mad rush to buy toilet paper.
The stampede at the Coles in Baldivis, Perth, on Wednesday left a 13-year-old girl injured and crying on the ground.
The mother, who is currently wheelchair-bound due to a recent operation, said she went to the supermarket to collect toilet paper and snacks for school with her daughter and nine-year-old son.
When the doors opened the mother was quickly separated from her daughter until she found her crying on the floor, according to The West Australian.
'She was pushed to the ground and then stood on by adults who had no care in the world for a child on the floor. People were walking over her while she was crying on the ground just to get what they wanted,' she said.
As her daughter tried to enter the store, shoppers knocked the young teenager to the ground as they charged towards the toilet paper located near the entrance.
The mother took her to get x-rays on a swollen knee and was waiting on results.
'I am shocked at how people were acting this morning even before the doors opened. People pushing, people telling people to get back in line,' she said.
The experience left her daughter shaken but the mother praised the quick thinking and compassionate response from staff.
'Once (the manager) had been told what had happened he took myself and my children straight out the back and got ice to put on my daughter's knee,' she said.
A spokesperson from Coles said they would be looking into extra security measures in the wake of recent panic buying.
Follow us on Facebook
'Coles takes the wellbeing of our customers and team members seriously and we are constantly reviewing security measures to manage the unprecedented levels of demand we are seeing in our stores,' he said.
'We ask that customers to continue to show compassion towards fellow customers and team members at this challenging time.'
Microsoft may earn an Affiliate Commission if you purchase something through recommended links in this article
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- Jun 27, 2018
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- 113
Canada to turn back irregular migrants at US border, jobless claims soar
Canada's Prime Minister Trudeau attends news conference at Rideau Cottage in Ottawa
FILE PHOTO: Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks at a news conference, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, at Rideau Cottage in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada March 19, 2020. REUTERS/Blair Gable
21 Mar 2020 03:22AM
(Updated: 21 Mar 2020 03:28AM)
Bookmark
OTTAWA/TORONTO: Canada will turn back irregular migrants walking over the US-Canada border, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Friday (Mar 20), as signs of economic damage intensified and a lockdown on non-essential travel across the world's longest undefended border was set to come into effect.
More than 500,000 applications for unemployment benefits were made so far this week. That compares with just under 27,000 applications in the same week last year, Trudeau said. The monthly number of unemployment insurance claims last year averaged 239,000.
"This is of course an unprecedented situation and it is putting a lot of pressure on our system but we’re on it," he told reporters outside his house, where he has been in isolation since his wife tested positive for the virus last week.
Air Canada, the country's largest carrier, said on Friday it will temporarily lay off more than 5,100 employees.
Canada has reported 925 cases of the COVID-19 respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus, and 12 deaths.
It closed its borders to most foreign nationals, agreed with the United States this week to close their shared border. A notice from the US Homeland Security Department (DHS) said restrictions will begin at 11:59pm EDT Friday and last until Apr 20.
Trudeau said the measure to return asylum seekers was a temporary one to protect the health of Canadians during the coronavirus outbreak.
"The people who crossed up until today will be in isolation ... but in future those trying to cross will be turned back to U. authorities," Trudeau
Thousands have illegally crossed the Canada-US border to file refugee claims in recent years, spurred by tougher US immigration policies under President Donald Trump’s administration.
The Canadian Council for Refugees said it was "shocked" at the decision to turn back migrants.
As the border deadline approached, traffic was already snarled on some crossings early on Friday.
"There's headlights as far as I can see," said Mayor Jim Willett in the tiny border village of Coutts, Alberta.
The Canada Border Service Agency attributed delays to stepped-up screening measures.
Miner New Gold Inc suspended operations at an Ontario mine after a significant number of workers making cross-border trips to the United States went into self-isolation.
Canada said it would support businesses to rapidly scale up production and re-tool manufacturing lines to develop critical health and safety equipment.
Ottawa plans to provide CUS$27 billion (£16.06 billion) in direct support to families and businesses struggling because of the coronavirus outbreak.
That is expected to blow out the fiscal deficit and lead to higher government borrowing by nearly 40 per cent, according to Reuters calculations.
BOOKMARK THIS: Our comprehensive coverage of the novel coronavirus and its developments
Download our app or subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates on the COVID-19 outbreak: https://cna.asia/telegram
Source: Reuters/nh
Stay on top of the news with CNA newsletters
This service is not intended for persons residing in the EU. By clicking subscribe, I agree to receive news updates and promotional material from Mediacorp and Mediacorp's partners.
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60 million in New York, California restricted over coronavirus
A message about protecting yourself from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is seen on an electroni
A message about protecting yourself from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is seen on an electronic billboard in a nearly empty Times Square in Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S., March 20, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Segar
20 Mar 2020 11:22PM
(Updated: 21 Mar 2020 02:29AM)
Bookmark
LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK : New York and California imposed tough new restrictions, limiting the activity of 60 million people in the two states to curb the spread of the coronavirus and ordering all non-essential workers to stay at home.
In announcing Friday's (Mar 20) action, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo pleaded for more medical personnel and supplies to treat coronavirus cases that could overwhelm the hospitals in his state of nearly 20 million.
"This is the most drastic action we can take," New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said in announcing he would issue an executive order to mandate that 100 per cent of the non-essential workforce stay home and all non-essential businesses close.
"Remain indoors, go outside for solitary exercise," he said.
In Berkeley, California, many more people were out walking their dogs, running and biking than on a usual weekday morning, with pedestrians avoiding passing one another on the narrow sidewalks by veering onto the nearly empty street.
The California health orders on the state's 40 million people, imposed on Thursday, also allow for outside exercise as long as people stay six feet (two meters) apart.
Venture capitalist Meredith Finn, 37, was walking her dog Brady in the affluent West Los Angeles neighborhood of Brentwood, where streets were emptier than usual.
"It’s definitely the right move,” she said of California Governor Gavin Newsom's order. The order took immediate effect and he left open the duration.
“We need to take it really seriously and prevent spread of the disease. Obviously, it’s not the most fun to be home alone but I’m taking my dog out for short walks. I’m trying to stay in touch with friends and family with FaceTime and Zoom.”
More than 1,000 cases have been confirmed in California, where 19 people have died.
In Washington, DC, US President Donald Trump and other officials told reporters the United States was working with Mexico to suspend non-essential travel at the border. The border with Canada already is closed to non-essential traffic.
"Let me be clear that neither of these agreements with Canada or Mexico applies to lawful trade or commerce," acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said. "Essential commercial activities will not be impacted."
The pandemic has upended life in much of the United States, shuttering schools and businesses, prompting millions to work from home, forcing many out of jobs and sharply curtailing travel.
VENTILATORS NEEDED
The New York state order would be enforced with civil fines and mandatory closures for any businesses not in compliance, he said. Cuomo said it was not a "shelter in place" order and neither was California's.
Cuomo said essential services included food suppliers to grocery stores, pharmacies that needs drugs, keeping the internet working, and water and electricity supplies.
New York has 7,102 confirmed cases, 2,950 of which are new. The hospitalization rate is 18 per cent. Of the state's cases, 4,408 are in New York City, the most populous US city with about 8.5 million people.
Cuomo pleaded for the manufacture of ventilators and protective masks for an expected surge in cases.
"The ventilators are to this war what missiles were to World War Two," Cuomo said. He said the state would “pay a premium” to companies that could provide more personal protective equipment, gloves and masks, and he asked companies that might be capable of making these products to “get creative.”
More than 200 people have died in the United States and over 14,600 cases had been confirmed by Friday, the surge in cases reflecting an increase in testing. Health experts believe the actual number of COVID-19 cases to be far higher.
The US Federal Aviation Administration said it had temporarily closed the air traffic control tower at John F Kennedy Airport in New York because a technician had tested positive and controllers would work at an alternate location on airport property.
Part of the Indianapolis Air Route Traffic Control Center was closed for cleaning after new cases of COVID-19 were reported.
DISTRESS THERAPY
Psychologists and psychiatrists are beginning to report signs of distress among patients worried about the consequences.
Six clinicians interviewed by Reuters say the coronavirus has been the prime focus of virtually all recent therapy sessions.
Chicagoan Mike Wisler was prescribed a sedative to help him sleep when the financial and emotional impact of the pandemic hit the 50-year-old bartender. "My mind won't shut off," Wisler said. "As soon as I wake up, it's like, 'How am I going to get by this month?'"
The Trump administration announced moves to give relief to workers and students.
The US government was moving its tax filing day to Jul 15 from Apr 15, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said. The administration temporarily suspended interest and payments on federal student loans for at least the next 60 days.
Meanwhile, the US unemployment benefits programme, part of the safety net for the labor market, is about to face its biggest test in more than a decade.
More than 1.5 million applications could be filed this week, economists said, as people who work for restaurants, bars, hotels and other businesses suddenly find themselves out of work.
Canada's Prime Minister Trudeau attends news conference at Rideau Cottage in Ottawa
FILE PHOTO: Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks at a news conference, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, at Rideau Cottage in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada March 19, 2020. REUTERS/Blair Gable
21 Mar 2020 03:22AM
(Updated: 21 Mar 2020 03:28AM)
Bookmark
OTTAWA/TORONTO: Canada will turn back irregular migrants walking over the US-Canada border, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Friday (Mar 20), as signs of economic damage intensified and a lockdown on non-essential travel across the world's longest undefended border was set to come into effect.
More than 500,000 applications for unemployment benefits were made so far this week. That compares with just under 27,000 applications in the same week last year, Trudeau said. The monthly number of unemployment insurance claims last year averaged 239,000.
"This is of course an unprecedented situation and it is putting a lot of pressure on our system but we’re on it," he told reporters outside his house, where he has been in isolation since his wife tested positive for the virus last week.
Air Canada, the country's largest carrier, said on Friday it will temporarily lay off more than 5,100 employees.
Canada has reported 925 cases of the COVID-19 respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus, and 12 deaths.
It closed its borders to most foreign nationals, agreed with the United States this week to close their shared border. A notice from the US Homeland Security Department (DHS) said restrictions will begin at 11:59pm EDT Friday and last until Apr 20.
Trudeau said the measure to return asylum seekers was a temporary one to protect the health of Canadians during the coronavirus outbreak.
"The people who crossed up until today will be in isolation ... but in future those trying to cross will be turned back to U. authorities," Trudeau
Thousands have illegally crossed the Canada-US border to file refugee claims in recent years, spurred by tougher US immigration policies under President Donald Trump’s administration.
The Canadian Council for Refugees said it was "shocked" at the decision to turn back migrants.
As the border deadline approached, traffic was already snarled on some crossings early on Friday.
"There's headlights as far as I can see," said Mayor Jim Willett in the tiny border village of Coutts, Alberta.
The Canada Border Service Agency attributed delays to stepped-up screening measures.
Miner New Gold Inc suspended operations at an Ontario mine after a significant number of workers making cross-border trips to the United States went into self-isolation.
Canada said it would support businesses to rapidly scale up production and re-tool manufacturing lines to develop critical health and safety equipment.
Ottawa plans to provide CUS$27 billion (£16.06 billion) in direct support to families and businesses struggling because of the coronavirus outbreak.
That is expected to blow out the fiscal deficit and lead to higher government borrowing by nearly 40 per cent, according to Reuters calculations.
BOOKMARK THIS: Our comprehensive coverage of the novel coronavirus and its developments
Download our app or subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates on the COVID-19 outbreak: https://cna.asia/telegram
Source: Reuters/nh
Stay on top of the news with CNA newsletters
This service is not intended for persons residing in the EU. By clicking subscribe, I agree to receive news updates and promotional material from Mediacorp and Mediacorp's partners.
Subscribe
60 million in New York, California restricted over coronavirus
A message about protecting yourself from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is seen on an electroni
A message about protecting yourself from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is seen on an electronic billboard in a nearly empty Times Square in Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S., March 20, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Segar
20 Mar 2020 11:22PM
(Updated: 21 Mar 2020 02:29AM)
Bookmark
LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK : New York and California imposed tough new restrictions, limiting the activity of 60 million people in the two states to curb the spread of the coronavirus and ordering all non-essential workers to stay at home.
In announcing Friday's (Mar 20) action, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo pleaded for more medical personnel and supplies to treat coronavirus cases that could overwhelm the hospitals in his state of nearly 20 million.
"This is the most drastic action we can take," New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said in announcing he would issue an executive order to mandate that 100 per cent of the non-essential workforce stay home and all non-essential businesses close.
"Remain indoors, go outside for solitary exercise," he said.
In Berkeley, California, many more people were out walking their dogs, running and biking than on a usual weekday morning, with pedestrians avoiding passing one another on the narrow sidewalks by veering onto the nearly empty street.
The California health orders on the state's 40 million people, imposed on Thursday, also allow for outside exercise as long as people stay six feet (two meters) apart.
Venture capitalist Meredith Finn, 37, was walking her dog Brady in the affluent West Los Angeles neighborhood of Brentwood, where streets were emptier than usual.
"It’s definitely the right move,” she said of California Governor Gavin Newsom's order. The order took immediate effect and he left open the duration.
“We need to take it really seriously and prevent spread of the disease. Obviously, it’s not the most fun to be home alone but I’m taking my dog out for short walks. I’m trying to stay in touch with friends and family with FaceTime and Zoom.”
More than 1,000 cases have been confirmed in California, where 19 people have died.
In Washington, DC, US President Donald Trump and other officials told reporters the United States was working with Mexico to suspend non-essential travel at the border. The border with Canada already is closed to non-essential traffic.
"Let me be clear that neither of these agreements with Canada or Mexico applies to lawful trade or commerce," acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said. "Essential commercial activities will not be impacted."
The pandemic has upended life in much of the United States, shuttering schools and businesses, prompting millions to work from home, forcing many out of jobs and sharply curtailing travel.
VENTILATORS NEEDED
The New York state order would be enforced with civil fines and mandatory closures for any businesses not in compliance, he said. Cuomo said it was not a "shelter in place" order and neither was California's.
Cuomo said essential services included food suppliers to grocery stores, pharmacies that needs drugs, keeping the internet working, and water and electricity supplies.
New York has 7,102 confirmed cases, 2,950 of which are new. The hospitalization rate is 18 per cent. Of the state's cases, 4,408 are in New York City, the most populous US city with about 8.5 million people.
Cuomo pleaded for the manufacture of ventilators and protective masks for an expected surge in cases.
"The ventilators are to this war what missiles were to World War Two," Cuomo said. He said the state would “pay a premium” to companies that could provide more personal protective equipment, gloves and masks, and he asked companies that might be capable of making these products to “get creative.”
More than 200 people have died in the United States and over 14,600 cases had been confirmed by Friday, the surge in cases reflecting an increase in testing. Health experts believe the actual number of COVID-19 cases to be far higher.
The US Federal Aviation Administration said it had temporarily closed the air traffic control tower at John F Kennedy Airport in New York because a technician had tested positive and controllers would work at an alternate location on airport property.
Part of the Indianapolis Air Route Traffic Control Center was closed for cleaning after new cases of COVID-19 were reported.
DISTRESS THERAPY
Psychologists and psychiatrists are beginning to report signs of distress among patients worried about the consequences.
Six clinicians interviewed by Reuters say the coronavirus has been the prime focus of virtually all recent therapy sessions.
Chicagoan Mike Wisler was prescribed a sedative to help him sleep when the financial and emotional impact of the pandemic hit the 50-year-old bartender. "My mind won't shut off," Wisler said. "As soon as I wake up, it's like, 'How am I going to get by this month?'"
The Trump administration announced moves to give relief to workers and students.
The US government was moving its tax filing day to Jul 15 from Apr 15, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said. The administration temporarily suspended interest and payments on federal student loans for at least the next 60 days.
Meanwhile, the US unemployment benefits programme, part of the safety net for the labor market, is about to face its biggest test in more than a decade.
More than 1.5 million applications could be filed this week, economists said, as people who work for restaurants, bars, hotels and other businesses suddenly find themselves out of work.
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2018
- Messages
- 29,395
- Points
- 113
Coronavirus panic-buying threatens food security in remote NT community
Posted 4 hours ago, updated3 hours ago
A photo of an empty street
The community of Gan Gan(Supplied: Rachel Godley)
A remote NT community is facing the prospect of running out of food, a local Aboriginal group says, as panic-buying amid the coronavirus outbreak disrupts local supplies.
Key points:
The community of Gan Gan has around 130 people
Laynhapuy Homelands Aboriginal Corporation said the town had less than a week's food left
Gan Gan locals are concerned and say they are skipping meals
Laynhapuy Homelands Aboriginal Corporation manages the only food store in the small community of Gan Gan about four hour's drive south of Nhulunbuy in Arnhem Land.
Coreen Molony, a dietician with the organisation, said the community was now running out of food because of panic-buying at the Nhulunbuy supermarket.
"We now have people at serious risk of malnutrition and skipping meals."
The Gan Gan bush store is facing a food shortage in the coming days(Supplied: Rachel Godley)
Ms Molony said the organisation was unable to access enough supplies for the Gan Gan community because panic-buying at Nhulunbuy Woolworths was stripping shelves bare, and because of purchase restrictions for individual shoppers.
"People are coming in from remote communities unable to buy supplies they need because they can't bulk buy", she said.
"Restrictions are good for most people but are counterproductive for these sorts of arrangements where we need to bulk buy for a community", she said.
Taxi to town 'not an option'
Mari Kuku, who has been the bush shop manager at Gan Gan for nearly two decades, said the community was "worried".
"The locals here don't have the option of catching a $1,200 bush taxi to the nearest supermarket … and back to buy food for themselves", he said.
Mari Kuku has been store manager at the Gan Gan store for nearly 20 years(Supplied: Rachel Godley)
"We have a couple of older people living in this community, they're both in wheelchairs so they are very vulnerable."
Yinimala Gumana, a resident of Gan Gan, said locals were already skipping meals.
"We need to have stores in the shop so we can have food in this community."
Yinimala says the Gan Gan community is worried about a food shortage(Supplied: Rachel Godley)
Supermarket chains rush in extra workers
In a statement, Coles said it was urgently putting on an additional 50 casual staff in the NT to help cope with a spike in demand.
"We have opened three new distribution centres to help facilitate more deliveries to stores in the Territory and as fast as possible. And we will continue to monitor demand to ensure we're taking all necessary action to improve stock for all Territorians", a Coles spokesperson said.
Woolworths did not address the specific concerns raised by the Gan Gan community but a spokesperson did offer a general statement calling for calm.
"Our teams and suppliers are working round the clock to replenish stock levels for food and groceries as quickly as possible", the Woolworths spokesperson said.
"We ask customers to please respect the limits and only buy what they need, to help as many Australians as possible access the products they need."
The Laynhapuy Homelands Aboriginal Corporation said it was working with the NT Government and Woolworths to come to a solution quickly.
The Gan Gan bush store(Supplied: Rachel Godley)
Remote communities across NT 'anxious'
Northern Land Council chief executive Marion Scrymgour told ABC radio Darwin that people in remote communities across the NT were "anxious" as food stocks ran low.
"I worry about with all of this panic-buying … when you look at the shelves what's left there for people?"
Ms Scrymgour called on supermarket chains and the NT Government to prioritise remote communities.
NLC CEO Marion Scrymgour said food security was vital for remote communities during the coronavirus pandemic.(Mark Graham, file photo: AAP)
"We can't stop trucks. We have got to make sure food and other items are out in our remote communities. We have to make sure their food security is looked after so they don't have to come in to town."
The Northern Territory's deputy chief health officer, Dianne Stephens, said staff from the NT's Emergency Operations Centre had spoken to the supermarkets to get them to reverse restrictions on online orders and deliveries to remote communities.
Posted 4 hours ago, updated3 hours ago
A photo of an empty street
The community of Gan Gan(Supplied: Rachel Godley)
A remote NT community is facing the prospect of running out of food, a local Aboriginal group says, as panic-buying amid the coronavirus outbreak disrupts local supplies.
Key points:
The community of Gan Gan has around 130 people
Laynhapuy Homelands Aboriginal Corporation said the town had less than a week's food left
Gan Gan locals are concerned and say they are skipping meals
Laynhapuy Homelands Aboriginal Corporation manages the only food store in the small community of Gan Gan about four hour's drive south of Nhulunbuy in Arnhem Land.
Coreen Molony, a dietician with the organisation, said the community was now running out of food because of panic-buying at the Nhulunbuy supermarket.
"We now have people at serious risk of malnutrition and skipping meals."
The Gan Gan bush store is facing a food shortage in the coming days(Supplied: Rachel Godley)
Ms Molony said the organisation was unable to access enough supplies for the Gan Gan community because panic-buying at Nhulunbuy Woolworths was stripping shelves bare, and because of purchase restrictions for individual shoppers.
"People are coming in from remote communities unable to buy supplies they need because they can't bulk buy", she said.
"Restrictions are good for most people but are counterproductive for these sorts of arrangements where we need to bulk buy for a community", she said.
Taxi to town 'not an option'
Mari Kuku, who has been the bush shop manager at Gan Gan for nearly two decades, said the community was "worried".
"The locals here don't have the option of catching a $1,200 bush taxi to the nearest supermarket … and back to buy food for themselves", he said.
Mari Kuku has been store manager at the Gan Gan store for nearly 20 years(Supplied: Rachel Godley)
"We have a couple of older people living in this community, they're both in wheelchairs so they are very vulnerable."
Yinimala Gumana, a resident of Gan Gan, said locals were already skipping meals.
"We need to have stores in the shop so we can have food in this community."
Yinimala says the Gan Gan community is worried about a food shortage(Supplied: Rachel Godley)
Supermarket chains rush in extra workers
In a statement, Coles said it was urgently putting on an additional 50 casual staff in the NT to help cope with a spike in demand.
"We have opened three new distribution centres to help facilitate more deliveries to stores in the Territory and as fast as possible. And we will continue to monitor demand to ensure we're taking all necessary action to improve stock for all Territorians", a Coles spokesperson said.
Woolworths did not address the specific concerns raised by the Gan Gan community but a spokesperson did offer a general statement calling for calm.
"Our teams and suppliers are working round the clock to replenish stock levels for food and groceries as quickly as possible", the Woolworths spokesperson said.
"We ask customers to please respect the limits and only buy what they need, to help as many Australians as possible access the products they need."
The Laynhapuy Homelands Aboriginal Corporation said it was working with the NT Government and Woolworths to come to a solution quickly.
The Gan Gan bush store(Supplied: Rachel Godley)
Remote communities across NT 'anxious'
Northern Land Council chief executive Marion Scrymgour told ABC radio Darwin that people in remote communities across the NT were "anxious" as food stocks ran low.
"I worry about with all of this panic-buying … when you look at the shelves what's left there for people?"
Ms Scrymgour called on supermarket chains and the NT Government to prioritise remote communities.
NLC CEO Marion Scrymgour said food security was vital for remote communities during the coronavirus pandemic.(Mark Graham, file photo: AAP)
"We can't stop trucks. We have got to make sure food and other items are out in our remote communities. We have to make sure their food security is looked after so they don't have to come in to town."
The Northern Territory's deputy chief health officer, Dianne Stephens, said staff from the NT's Emergency Operations Centre had spoken to the supermarkets to get them to reverse restrictions on online orders and deliveries to remote communities.
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2018
- Messages
- 29,395
- Points
- 113
A majority of the ppl will just shrug of the virus. And yet the 80% have to suffer with economic uncertainties n putting food on the table just bcos a few ppl who have compromise immune systems who are better off dead are afraid of moving on. This is just the tyranny of the minority economic parasites
COVID-19 symptoms: Do I have a cold or coronavirus? - ABC News
Woman with thermometer.
COVID-19 is a respiratory illness, caused by a new virus.(Getty Images: Diego_cervo)
Do I have a cold or do I have coronavirus?
It's a question any of us feeling unwell may have asked ourselves in recent days and weeks as COVID-19 cases rise.
While the odds of your having COVID-19 are much lower than the likelihood of your having the common cold or flu, it's important you know what to look out for — and where you can get help.
What are the symptoms of coronavirus?
The most common symptoms of COVID-19 are fever, tiredness, and a dry cough.
Some people also experience a sore throat, runny nose, shortness of breath, nasal congestion, aches and pains, or diarrhoea.
Illustration of COVID-19 symptoms, including fever, cough and sore throat.
Symptoms of COVID-19 can range from mild illness to pneumonia.(Department Of Health)
Normally, our body temperature is between 36–37 degrees Celsius. Any temperature over 38 is classified as a fever, and so that is something to keep an eye on.
Symptoms are usually mild and begin gradually. They typically appear three to four days after exposure to the virus, but sometimes up to 14 days later.
However, some people become infected but don't develop any symptoms and don't feel unwell.
About 80 per cent of people who get COVID-19 will recover without needing special treatment.
But one in six will become seriously ill and develop breathing difficulties.
Older people and those with underlying health problems such as high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and diabetes are more likely to develop serious illness.
In Australia, the people most at risk of getting the virus are those who have recently been in a high-risk country or region, and people who have been in close contact with someone who has coronavirus.
How is COVID-19 different to the flu?
While COVID-19 and influenza both can cause respiratory symptoms, there are some key differences.
According to the Government's healthdirect website, influenza often includes muscle pains and headache, while these symptoms are uncommon in COVID-19.
Another difference between the two diseases is the kind of person affected. So far, severe COVID-19 has mainly affected older age groups and people with chronic illnesses.
To date, healthy people, children and pregnant women — who can become very sick from flu — haven't been significantly affected by COVID-19.
But health authorities have warned younger adults shouldn't be complacent about their risk from coronavirus, since it's not impossible for them to have a severe form of the disease.
So far, Australian data shows people in their 60s have the highest rates of diagnosis, followed by people in their 30s, then 50s.
I think I have COVID-19 symptoms. What should I do?
If you are sick and think you have symptoms of COVID-19, authorities recommend you seek medical attention.
If you want to speak to someone about your symptoms first, you can call the Coronavirus Health Information Hotline on 1800 020 080. It's operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
You can also use the symptom checker on healthdirect.
Before visiting your local GP or hospital clinic, you need to call ahead to make an appointment.
It's also important to call ahead to explain your symptoms, travel history, and any recent close contact with someone who has COVID-19, so they can prepare for your appointment.
GPs are now being reimbursed for telephone consultations on coronavirus, for those who think they might have it, or who have pre-existing health problems and do not want to come into a doctor's waiting room. They can also advise whether a telehealth consultation is appropriate.
In coming weeks, the Federal Government is also establishing 100 GP respiratory clinics to assess people.
What if I've been overseas recently?
If you have returned from another country and are experiencing any flu-like symptoms, such as a fever, cough, headaches, sore throat, fatigue, sweats, chills or shortness of breath, you should contact your doctor or local hospital.
Again, you need to call ahead so the doctor is aware of your symptoms and travel history before you visit the clinic.
People entering Australia from any overseas country — including Australian citizens — must self-quarantine for 14 days from their date of arriving in Australia. The same goes for people who have been in contact with a person infected with COVID-19.
Will I need to get tested for COVID-19?
Testing methods may include a blood test, a swab test inside your nose or in the back of your throat, or a sputum test, which examines a mix of saliva and mucus.
You will only be tested if your doctor decides you meet the criteria:
You have returned from overseas in the past 14 days and you develop respiratory illness with or without fever
You have been in close contact with a confirmed COVID-19 case in the past 14 days and you develop respiratory illness with or without fever
You have severe community-acquired pneumonia and there is no clear cause
You are a healthcare worker who works directly with patients and you have a respiratory illness and a fever
At this stage, if you do not have any symptoms, you will not be tested for COVID-19.
Because there is a global shortage of test kits that pathologists use to diagnose COVID-19, Australia is only doing targeted testing instead of widespread testing.
The guidelines for testing are being regularly updated as the spread of the virus changes in Australia.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison announces comprehensive shut down measures
COVID-19 symptoms: Do I have a cold or coronavirus? - ABC News
Woman with thermometer.
COVID-19 is a respiratory illness, caused by a new virus.(Getty Images: Diego_cervo)
Do I have a cold or do I have coronavirus?
It's a question any of us feeling unwell may have asked ourselves in recent days and weeks as COVID-19 cases rise.
While the odds of your having COVID-19 are much lower than the likelihood of your having the common cold or flu, it's important you know what to look out for — and where you can get help.
What are the symptoms of coronavirus?
The most common symptoms of COVID-19 are fever, tiredness, and a dry cough.
Some people also experience a sore throat, runny nose, shortness of breath, nasal congestion, aches and pains, or diarrhoea.
Illustration of COVID-19 symptoms, including fever, cough and sore throat.
Symptoms of COVID-19 can range from mild illness to pneumonia.(Department Of Health)
Normally, our body temperature is between 36–37 degrees Celsius. Any temperature over 38 is classified as a fever, and so that is something to keep an eye on.
Symptoms are usually mild and begin gradually. They typically appear three to four days after exposure to the virus, but sometimes up to 14 days later.
However, some people become infected but don't develop any symptoms and don't feel unwell.
About 80 per cent of people who get COVID-19 will recover without needing special treatment.
But one in six will become seriously ill and develop breathing difficulties.
Older people and those with underlying health problems such as high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and diabetes are more likely to develop serious illness.
In Australia, the people most at risk of getting the virus are those who have recently been in a high-risk country or region, and people who have been in close contact with someone who has coronavirus.
How is COVID-19 different to the flu?
While COVID-19 and influenza both can cause respiratory symptoms, there are some key differences.
According to the Government's healthdirect website, influenza often includes muscle pains and headache, while these symptoms are uncommon in COVID-19.
Another difference between the two diseases is the kind of person affected. So far, severe COVID-19 has mainly affected older age groups and people with chronic illnesses.
To date, healthy people, children and pregnant women — who can become very sick from flu — haven't been significantly affected by COVID-19.
But health authorities have warned younger adults shouldn't be complacent about their risk from coronavirus, since it's not impossible for them to have a severe form of the disease.
So far, Australian data shows people in their 60s have the highest rates of diagnosis, followed by people in their 30s, then 50s.
I think I have COVID-19 symptoms. What should I do?
If you are sick and think you have symptoms of COVID-19, authorities recommend you seek medical attention.
If you want to speak to someone about your symptoms first, you can call the Coronavirus Health Information Hotline on 1800 020 080. It's operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
You can also use the symptom checker on healthdirect.
Before visiting your local GP or hospital clinic, you need to call ahead to make an appointment.
It's also important to call ahead to explain your symptoms, travel history, and any recent close contact with someone who has COVID-19, so they can prepare for your appointment.
GPs are now being reimbursed for telephone consultations on coronavirus, for those who think they might have it, or who have pre-existing health problems and do not want to come into a doctor's waiting room. They can also advise whether a telehealth consultation is appropriate.
In coming weeks, the Federal Government is also establishing 100 GP respiratory clinics to assess people.
What if I've been overseas recently?
If you have returned from another country and are experiencing any flu-like symptoms, such as a fever, cough, headaches, sore throat, fatigue, sweats, chills or shortness of breath, you should contact your doctor or local hospital.
Again, you need to call ahead so the doctor is aware of your symptoms and travel history before you visit the clinic.
People entering Australia from any overseas country — including Australian citizens — must self-quarantine for 14 days from their date of arriving in Australia. The same goes for people who have been in contact with a person infected with COVID-19.
Will I need to get tested for COVID-19?
Testing methods may include a blood test, a swab test inside your nose or in the back of your throat, or a sputum test, which examines a mix of saliva and mucus.
You will only be tested if your doctor decides you meet the criteria:
You have returned from overseas in the past 14 days and you develop respiratory illness with or without fever
You have been in close contact with a confirmed COVID-19 case in the past 14 days and you develop respiratory illness with or without fever
You have severe community-acquired pneumonia and there is no clear cause
You are a healthcare worker who works directly with patients and you have a respiratory illness and a fever
At this stage, if you do not have any symptoms, you will not be tested for COVID-19.
Because there is a global shortage of test kits that pathologists use to diagnose COVID-19, Australia is only doing targeted testing instead of widespread testing.
The guidelines for testing are being regularly updated as the spread of the virus changes in Australia.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison announces comprehensive shut down measures
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- Jun 27, 2018
- Messages
- 29,395
- Points
- 113
All these economic misery to the working class due to the 5% kia see old n sick farts..is it worth it?
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2018
- Messages
- 29,395
- Points
- 113
Scott Morrison's coronavirus 'hibernation plan' needs work to stop economic collapse - ABC News
The Federal Government has suggested the economy go into hibernation.(AAP: Lukas Coch)
Share
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg told his Treasury officials earlier this week that the economy needed to be put into cryogenic suspension. He was right.
As we contemplate a general economic hibernation this winter, it is also time for the Government to pause, just for a moment, and consider how its policy prescriptions to date, or even the ones that we know are in contemplation, do not support that plan.
What the Treasurer meant when he was talking to Treasury was that we need to be able to virtually freeze-frame the economy and all the people in it, just as they are, with their businesses, their employee/employer relationships, business/banker relationships, landlord/tenant relationships all preserved to be unpacked again when the threat of coronavirus has passed.
If we can do that, and avoid people being sacked, businesses being foreclosed or evicted, tenants being evicted, then the chances of a reasonably rapid recovery are that much better. We would not have to spend all the time involved rebuilding those basic arrangements, and confidence.
What does it mean in practice?
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg outlines the details of second stimulus packageSuspended in place
It means that people don't have to pay as many of the bills that they normally have to pay and can concentrate on surviving, in increasing circumstances where their businesses or households aren't getting any income.
We are seeing more and more of this freeze-framing happening — either via government intervention or not — with banks being prepared to suspend business and mortgage payments, insurance companies suspending premium payments, and governments indicating they will suspend rent and taxes payments.
That is great, and also pragmatically rather sensible if people don't actually have the money for these things anyway. As long as there is a huge government-provided net to support such a thing.
The Reserve Bank's actions last week do support a lot of this, as do some of the decisions of the federal and state governments.
But we also have to acknowledge just how dramatically the world, and the conversation, have moved on since the Federal Government released its first so-called "stimulus" package on March 12.
The $715 million assistance package is only helpful if airlines can continue to operate.(Reuters: David Gray)An idea that's so March 12
The Government spoke then of "supporting business investment" and "providing cash flow assistance to help small and medium-sized business to stay in business and keep their employees in jobs".
It may have been well-meaning and went a lot further than people had expected, but as the economy has been in freefall, the idea that businesses might be encouraged to go out and invest, or even that small and medium businesses would keep their doors open sounds so, well, March 12.
While the Government has announced massive new spending subsequently to support the economy, it has with the other hand been taking necessary steps, driven by public health concerns, to close the economy down, with the obvious ramifications for small and medium business.
So while a big increase in social welfare was announced last weekend, it has had both a positive effect of providing support, but also negative one of making it easier for businesses to feel they can "let people go", rather than trying to keep them on the books.
Similarly, the $715 million assistance package for the airlines — which have subsequently laid off close to 30,000 people — has been superseded.
As Virgin Australia chief executive Paul Scurrah said this week, the assistance would only be received, and only work, if the airlines continued to operate.
Queues form outside Centrelink offices for the second day.Business and government at odds
Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their jobs — or at least been "stood down" — in the past couple of weeks.
The Government has foreshadowed even more assistance is on the way.
But before we see these new measures, we need a clear-eyed view of where the gaps are now, in assistance already announced, and where the efficacy of that assistance has been diminished by the sheer scope of economic collapse.
The first is in that area of keeping employers and employees together.
The UK announced wage subsidies in the last week.
Our Government remains steadfastly opposed to them, even though the most unlikely people are now advocating them.
Labor's Jim Chalmers reports business leaders are universally saying this has got to happen.
The Government says it shouldn't because it can more effectively deliver assistance through existing tax and social welfare systems.
Jim Chalmers joins InsidersAre there alternatives to a long wait?
The most conspicuous problem with that argument — the one we can most easily see — is what happened to the MyGov website and the Centrelink queues this week.
However, the most alarming problem with that argument — in terms of its actual effect — is that people aren't going to actually get the assistance they need for at least a month — April 27.
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said this week that "even using the existing system, the existing processes and programs, this is the amount of time it takes to get this additional level of support into the community".
Let's leave the damning indictment of how we have let our systems get to this point in a modern IT age for another day, and ask whether, if it is going to take a month anyway, surely there must be cause to at least look at alternatives?
Labor asks why the Government couldn't use the single touch payroll system — which commenced last year and gives real-time data on employees — to create a different base from which to pay wage subsidies.
While we all mull that question, it is worth noting that while hundreds of thousands of people wait for assistance from the Government, the UK wage subsidy is 80 per cent of previous wage capped at 2,500 pounds a month.
By comparison, our new JobSeeker payment will be 80 per cent of the minimum wage, if you assume current levels of rent assistance.
Surely, if we want to keep a pulse in the economy we need a sizeable part of the population to have a slightly more sustainable level of income.
A negative effect of the new welfare provisions is that it makes it easier for businesses to feel they can "let people go", rather than trying to keep them on.(ABC News: Jessica Warriner)A super problem builds
There are still holes in the system too. The situation of households where one person has been laid off but not the other is one problem area. Tough withdrawal rates for levels of assistance as incomes rise really bite into the assistance households receive.
Equally, there are many visa holders in Australia whose situation is precarious, including hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders, international students, and others without residency who are stuck here, as well as asylum seekers.
There are also questions about what impact the government's decision to allow people to get access to their superannuation — up to $10,000 this year and the same next year — will have on either a spooked share market and/or the superannuation system in the longer term.
Funds report being inundated with people trying to access their money — requiring big sell-offs.
Just as we must all stay at home to reduce the ravages of this pandemic, we must put the economy to sleep in the best way we can to await better times.
That requires of our political leaders ever more flexibility and preparedness to abandon stubbornly held policy positions, particularly on wage subsidies.
The economy may need to go into hibernation, but our politicians have never needed to be more awake to new ideas.
Laura Tingle is 7.30's chief political correspondent.
Share
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg told his Treasury officials earlier this week that the economy needed to be put into cryogenic suspension. He was right.
As we contemplate a general economic hibernation this winter, it is also time for the Government to pause, just for a moment, and consider how its policy prescriptions to date, or even the ones that we know are in contemplation, do not support that plan.
What the Treasurer meant when he was talking to Treasury was that we need to be able to virtually freeze-frame the economy and all the people in it, just as they are, with their businesses, their employee/employer relationships, business/banker relationships, landlord/tenant relationships all preserved to be unpacked again when the threat of coronavirus has passed.
If we can do that, and avoid people being sacked, businesses being foreclosed or evicted, tenants being evicted, then the chances of a reasonably rapid recovery are that much better. We would not have to spend all the time involved rebuilding those basic arrangements, and confidence.
What does it mean in practice?
It means that people don't have to pay as many of the bills that they normally have to pay and can concentrate on surviving, in increasing circumstances where their businesses or households aren't getting any income.
We are seeing more and more of this freeze-framing happening — either via government intervention or not — with banks being prepared to suspend business and mortgage payments, insurance companies suspending premium payments, and governments indicating they will suspend rent and taxes payments.
That is great, and also pragmatically rather sensible if people don't actually have the money for these things anyway. As long as there is a huge government-provided net to support such a thing.
The Reserve Bank's actions last week do support a lot of this, as do some of the decisions of the federal and state governments.
But we also have to acknowledge just how dramatically the world, and the conversation, have moved on since the Federal Government released its first so-called "stimulus" package on March 12.
The Government spoke then of "supporting business investment" and "providing cash flow assistance to help small and medium-sized business to stay in business and keep their employees in jobs".
It may have been well-meaning and went a lot further than people had expected, but as the economy has been in freefall, the idea that businesses might be encouraged to go out and invest, or even that small and medium businesses would keep their doors open sounds so, well, March 12.
While the Government has announced massive new spending subsequently to support the economy, it has with the other hand been taking necessary steps, driven by public health concerns, to close the economy down, with the obvious ramifications for small and medium business.
So while a big increase in social welfare was announced last weekend, it has had both a positive effect of providing support, but also negative one of making it easier for businesses to feel they can "let people go", rather than trying to keep them on the books.
Similarly, the $715 million assistance package for the airlines — which have subsequently laid off close to 30,000 people — has been superseded.
As Virgin Australia chief executive Paul Scurrah said this week, the assistance would only be received, and only work, if the airlines continued to operate.
Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their jobs — or at least been "stood down" — in the past couple of weeks.
The Government has foreshadowed even more assistance is on the way.
But before we see these new measures, we need a clear-eyed view of where the gaps are now, in assistance already announced, and where the efficacy of that assistance has been diminished by the sheer scope of economic collapse.
The first is in that area of keeping employers and employees together.
The UK announced wage subsidies in the last week.
Our Government remains steadfastly opposed to them, even though the most unlikely people are now advocating them.
Labor's Jim Chalmers reports business leaders are universally saying this has got to happen.
The Government says it shouldn't because it can more effectively deliver assistance through existing tax and social welfare systems.
The most conspicuous problem with that argument — the one we can most easily see — is what happened to the MyGov website and the Centrelink queues this week.
However, the most alarming problem with that argument — in terms of its actual effect — is that people aren't going to actually get the assistance they need for at least a month — April 27.
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said this week that "even using the existing system, the existing processes and programs, this is the amount of time it takes to get this additional level of support into the community".
Let's leave the damning indictment of how we have let our systems get to this point in a modern IT age for another day, and ask whether, if it is going to take a month anyway, surely there must be cause to at least look at alternatives?
Labor asks why the Government couldn't use the single touch payroll system — which commenced last year and gives real-time data on employees — to create a different base from which to pay wage subsidies.
While we all mull that question, it is worth noting that while hundreds of thousands of people wait for assistance from the Government, the UK wage subsidy is 80 per cent of previous wage capped at 2,500 pounds a month.
By comparison, our new JobSeeker payment will be 80 per cent of the minimum wage, if you assume current levels of rent assistance.
Surely, if we want to keep a pulse in the economy we need a sizeable part of the population to have a slightly more sustainable level of income.
There are still holes in the system too. The situation of households where one person has been laid off but not the other is one problem area. Tough withdrawal rates for levels of assistance as incomes rise really bite into the assistance households receive.
Equally, there are many visa holders in Australia whose situation is precarious, including hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders, international students, and others without residency who are stuck here, as well as asylum seekers.
There are also questions about what impact the government's decision to allow people to get access to their superannuation — up to $10,000 this year and the same next year — will have on either a spooked share market and/or the superannuation system in the longer term.
Funds report being inundated with people trying to access their money — requiring big sell-offs.
Just as we must all stay at home to reduce the ravages of this pandemic, we must put the economy to sleep in the best way we can to await better times.
That requires of our political leaders ever more flexibility and preparedness to abandon stubbornly held policy positions, particularly on wage subsidies.
The economy may need to go into hibernation, but our politicians have never needed to be more awake to new ideas.
Laura Tingle is 7.30's chief political correspondent.
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2018
- Messages
- 29,395
- Points
- 113
To save a few lives by starving n destroying the rice bowls of the majority. A good tradeoff indeed...
COVID-19 crisis could plunge half a billion people into poverty, says charity Oxfam
COVID-19 microscope image
This image obtained Mar 12, 2020 courtesy of The National Institutes of Health(NIH)/NIAD-RML shows a scanning electron microscope image of SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19. (Photo: Handout/National Institutes of Health/AFP)
09 Apr 2020 09:13AM
(Updated: 09 Apr 2020 09:20AM)
Bookmark
LONDON: The fallout from the coronavirus spread that has killed more than 83,000 people and wreaked havoc on economies around the world could push around half a billion people into poverty, Oxfam said on Thursday (Apr 9).
The report released by the Nairobi-based charity ahead of next week's International Monetary Fund (IMF)/World Bank annual meeting calculated the impact of the crisis on global poverty due to shrinking household incomes or consumption.
"The economic crisis that is rapidly unfolding is deeper than the 2008 global financial crisis," the report found.
"The estimates show that, regardless of the scenario, global poverty could increase for the first time since 1990," it said, adding that this could throw some countries back to poverty levels last seen about three decades ago.
READ: COVID-19 pandemic 'amplifying' poverty in UK
The report authors played through a number of scenarios, taking into account the World Bank's various poverty lines - from extreme poverty, defined as living on US$1.90 a day or less, to higher poverty lines of living on less than US$5.50 a day.
Under the most serious scenario - a 20 per cent contraction in income - the number of people living in extreme poverty would rise by 434 million people to 922 million worldwide. The same scenario would see the number of people living below the US$5.50 a day threshold rise by 548 million people to nearly 4 billion.
Women are at more risk than men, as they are more likely to work in the informal economy with little or no employment rights.
"Living day to day, the poorest people do not have the ability to take time off work, or to stockpile provisions," the report warned, adding that more than 2 billion informal sector workers worldwide had no access to sick pay.
The World Bank last week said poverty in East Asia and the Pacific region alone could increase by 11 million people if conditions worsened.
Commentary: COVID-19 will hit gig workers particularly hard
To help mitigate the impact, Oxfam proposed a six point action plan that would deliver cash grants and bailouts to people and businesses in need, and also called for debt cancellation, more IMF support, and increased aid. Taxing wealth, extraordinary profits, and speculative financial products would help raise the funds needed, Oxfam added.
Calls for debt relief have increased in recent weeks as the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic has roiled developing nations around the world.
READ: India's poor, hammered by COVID-19 lockdown, fear for future
In total, governments around the world would need to mobilise at least $2.5 trillion to support developing nations.
"Rich countries have shown that at this time of crisis they can mobilize trillions of dollars to support their own economies," the report said.
"Yet unless developing countries are also able to fight the health and economic impacts the crisis will continue and it will inflict even greater harm on all countries, rich and poor."
COVID-19 crisis could plunge half a billion people into poverty, says charity Oxfam
COVID-19 microscope image
This image obtained Mar 12, 2020 courtesy of The National Institutes of Health(NIH)/NIAD-RML shows a scanning electron microscope image of SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19. (Photo: Handout/National Institutes of Health/AFP)
09 Apr 2020 09:13AM
(Updated: 09 Apr 2020 09:20AM)
Bookmark
LONDON: The fallout from the coronavirus spread that has killed more than 83,000 people and wreaked havoc on economies around the world could push around half a billion people into poverty, Oxfam said on Thursday (Apr 9).
The report released by the Nairobi-based charity ahead of next week's International Monetary Fund (IMF)/World Bank annual meeting calculated the impact of the crisis on global poverty due to shrinking household incomes or consumption.
"The economic crisis that is rapidly unfolding is deeper than the 2008 global financial crisis," the report found.
"The estimates show that, regardless of the scenario, global poverty could increase for the first time since 1990," it said, adding that this could throw some countries back to poverty levels last seen about three decades ago.
READ: COVID-19 pandemic 'amplifying' poverty in UK
The report authors played through a number of scenarios, taking into account the World Bank's various poverty lines - from extreme poverty, defined as living on US$1.90 a day or less, to higher poverty lines of living on less than US$5.50 a day.
Under the most serious scenario - a 20 per cent contraction in income - the number of people living in extreme poverty would rise by 434 million people to 922 million worldwide. The same scenario would see the number of people living below the US$5.50 a day threshold rise by 548 million people to nearly 4 billion.
Women are at more risk than men, as they are more likely to work in the informal economy with little or no employment rights.
"Living day to day, the poorest people do not have the ability to take time off work, or to stockpile provisions," the report warned, adding that more than 2 billion informal sector workers worldwide had no access to sick pay.
The World Bank last week said poverty in East Asia and the Pacific region alone could increase by 11 million people if conditions worsened.
Commentary: COVID-19 will hit gig workers particularly hard
To help mitigate the impact, Oxfam proposed a six point action plan that would deliver cash grants and bailouts to people and businesses in need, and also called for debt cancellation, more IMF support, and increased aid. Taxing wealth, extraordinary profits, and speculative financial products would help raise the funds needed, Oxfam added.
Calls for debt relief have increased in recent weeks as the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic has roiled developing nations around the world.
READ: India's poor, hammered by COVID-19 lockdown, fear for future
In total, governments around the world would need to mobilise at least $2.5 trillion to support developing nations.
"Rich countries have shown that at this time of crisis they can mobilize trillions of dollars to support their own economies," the report said.
"Yet unless developing countries are also able to fight the health and economic impacts the crisis will continue and it will inflict even greater harm on all countries, rich and poor."
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- Jun 27, 2018
- Messages
- 29,395
- Points
- 113
Unemployment rate predicted to reach 10 per cent amid coronavirus pandemic, pushing Australia into recession - ABC News
By political reporter Kath Sullivan
Posted Yesterday
People in face masks stand in a long queue outside the Centrelink office at Southport on Queensland's Gold Coast.
It would be the first time the unemployment rate has hit double digits since April 1994.(AAP: Dan Peled)
Share
Unemployment is set to soar to its highest rate in almost three decades, with 1.4 million Australians expected to be out of work.
Key points:
The unemployment rate will rise from 5.1 per cent to 10 per cent in the June quarter, according to Treasury figures
But estimates show the rate would have been higher without the JobKeeper program
The Treasurer said the economic shock from coronavirus was set to be far more significant than the global financial crisis
New Treasury figures forecast the jobless rate will double in the June quarter from 5.1 per cent to 10 per cent, all but confirming Australia will enter a recession as it deals with the COVID-19 pandemic.
It will be the first time the unemployment rate has hit double digits since April 1994 and the figure is a fraction below Australia's peak unemployment rate of 11.2 per cent in 1992.
But Treasury's estimates show the unemployment rate would be much higher, and peak at 15 per cent, had the Government not intervened with the $130 billion wage subsidy program known as JobKeeper.
"The economic shock facing the global economy from the coronavirus is far more significant than what was seen during the global financial crisis over a decade ago," Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said in a statement.
"Every arm of government and industry is working to keep Australians in jobs and business in business, and to build a bridge to recovery on the other side."
Treasury's estimate follows a similar prediction by Westpac, which had anticipated the economic impact of coronavirus could see Australia's unemployment rate rise as high as 17 per cent — a figure it revised down to 9 per cent once JobKeeper was introduced.
Economist Chris Richardson, from Deloitte Access Economics, said studies from Australia and overseas had shown if a person did not regain employment within two years of losing a job in a recession, they were unlikely to ever work again.
"So you're not just saving a job today … this is a lifetime of savings," Mr Richardson said.
More than 800,000 businesses have registered for the JobKeeper program, which will provide $1,500 per employee per fortnight to eligible businesses.
The first payments are expected early next month, backdated to March 30.
Up to 6 million workers, almost half the Australian workforce, are expected to benefit from the six-month wage subsidy.
Treasury's unemployment forecast comes just one week after credit ratings agency Standard and Poor's reaffirmed Australia's AAA credit rating but predicted Australia's economy would plunge into recession for the first time in three decades.
By political reporter Kath Sullivan
Posted Yesterday
People in face masks stand in a long queue outside the Centrelink office at Southport on Queensland's Gold Coast.
It would be the first time the unemployment rate has hit double digits since April 1994.(AAP: Dan Peled)
Share
Unemployment is set to soar to its highest rate in almost three decades, with 1.4 million Australians expected to be out of work.
Key points:
The unemployment rate will rise from 5.1 per cent to 10 per cent in the June quarter, according to Treasury figures
But estimates show the rate would have been higher without the JobKeeper program
The Treasurer said the economic shock from coronavirus was set to be far more significant than the global financial crisis
New Treasury figures forecast the jobless rate will double in the June quarter from 5.1 per cent to 10 per cent, all but confirming Australia will enter a recession as it deals with the COVID-19 pandemic.
It will be the first time the unemployment rate has hit double digits since April 1994 and the figure is a fraction below Australia's peak unemployment rate of 11.2 per cent in 1992.
But Treasury's estimates show the unemployment rate would be much higher, and peak at 15 per cent, had the Government not intervened with the $130 billion wage subsidy program known as JobKeeper.
"The economic shock facing the global economy from the coronavirus is far more significant than what was seen during the global financial crisis over a decade ago," Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said in a statement.
"Every arm of government and industry is working to keep Australians in jobs and business in business, and to build a bridge to recovery on the other side."
Treasury's estimate follows a similar prediction by Westpac, which had anticipated the economic impact of coronavirus could see Australia's unemployment rate rise as high as 17 per cent — a figure it revised down to 9 per cent once JobKeeper was introduced.
Economist Chris Richardson, from Deloitte Access Economics, said studies from Australia and overseas had shown if a person did not regain employment within two years of losing a job in a recession, they were unlikely to ever work again.
"So you're not just saving a job today … this is a lifetime of savings," Mr Richardson said.
More than 800,000 businesses have registered for the JobKeeper program, which will provide $1,500 per employee per fortnight to eligible businesses.
The first payments are expected early next month, backdated to March 30.
Up to 6 million workers, almost half the Australian workforce, are expected to benefit from the six-month wage subsidy.
Treasury's unemployment forecast comes just one week after credit ratings agency Standard and Poor's reaffirmed Australia's AAA credit rating but predicted Australia's economy would plunge into recession for the first time in three decades.
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2018
- Messages
- 29,395
- Points
- 113
Cooped up in small homes and lacking awareness, Jakarta’s urban poor find it tough amid partial lockdown
Jakarta's slum
Sisters (from left) Wati, Mila Karmila and Suhana find it hard to stay put at home during Jakarta's large-scale social restrictions. (Photo: Kiki Siregar)
Bookmark
JAKARTA: Siti Patonah and her third-grader daughter, who live in a slum in South Jakarta, spend most of their time crouching together in front of her handphone these days.
With schools closed since Mar 16 to curb the spread of COVID-19, her daughter’s teachers have been sending videos to the parents for the students to watch.
Homework, usually some written tasks, has to be completed, and photos of the completed sheets are then sent back to the teachers for marking.
“I have to accompany my child every day because I need to explain the lessons and homework to her.
“It is very hard because I am not a teacher. I have to make sure that my child understands, with my own method, that’s the problem,” Patonah, 44, told CNA.
studying at home in Jakarta
Siti Patonah (right) has been helping her daughter Salwa to study from home since March 16. (Photo: Kiki Siregar)
She accesses all the materials on her handphone, and occasionally browses the Internet for additional information.
While network connection is not an issue, she said her usual 3GB monthly plan is simply not enough and she has to fork out money to buy twice as much data so her daughter can continue studying at home.
They do not have broadband connection at home.
READ: Crowds, minor infractions on first working day after social restrictions imposed in Jakarta
The city’s education department has yet to announce when will schools open again. Last Friday (Apr 10), a partial lockdown known as large-scale social restrictions kicked in, further reducing the movement of people in the capital of Indonesia.
Jakarta is the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak in Indonesia, accounting for close to half of the country’s 5,136 COVID-19 cases as of Wednesday.
Patonah’s small family is part of about 1.2 million poor citizens in the megacity of 10 million people, according to data from the Jakarta government.
Her husband Endang Sopian, 45, has been sitting idly at home since Mar 26 after his employer, a restaurant in one of Central Jakarta’s high-end malls, shut down to heed the Indonesian government’s call for people to stay home.
He received his March salary but was unsure if he would still get his paycheck in April. He also stopped working as a part-time e-hailing rider out of fear that he might get infected.
Endang Sopian's family
Endang Sopian (left), his wife Siti Patonah (right) and their child Salwa cooping up at home in Jakarta due to COVID-19. (Photo: Kiki Siregar)
Sopian said he would have to resume working as a rider should they run out of savings.
“I’m just here at home. I sleep a lot. My daughter actually asked me, ‘Why are you always sleeping?’” he said.
READ: Indonesia’s economic stimulus not enough to stop layoffs, focus should be to contain COVID-19: Experts
Their house is about 40 sq m, enough for the three of them to live in, but there is no balcony or yard.
“So in the morning, I go out of the house to sunbathe to keep my body healthy,” Sopian said.
NINE PEOPLE IN A SMALL HOUSE
Social distancing is a privilege the poor cannot afford, as illustrated in the case of Mila Karmila and Wati, who live together in a rickety house in a small alley in Jakarta.
A foul stench lingered in the air as the sisters opened up about their daily struggles amid the large-scale social restrictions.
They are aware that Jakarta is plagued with a disease and that it has affected their lives, but they have no idea what the restrictions entail.
“The television is broken, how are we supposed to know?” said Wati, 45, who goes by one name.
READ: 'There must not be more victims’: Indonesian volunteers and businesses unite to produce protective gear
A total of nine people - including their husbands and children, as well as an older brother - live together in the 20 sq m house, so the sisters prefer to spend their time outside the house for some fresh air.
Wati is a housewife while her husband is an informal parking attendant who earns tips from drivers.
However, after the large-scale social restrictions came into effect, there are almost no cars on the roads and he is staying at home with no income.
Karmila, 40, earns one million rupiah (US$64) per month by washing and ironing clothes for people living nearby.
an alley in Jakarta's slum
Suhana drops by to visit her sisters Mila Karmila and Wati amid Jakarta's large-scale social restrictions. (Photo: Kiki Siregar)
Her husband is a public minivan driver, who usually earns 100,000 rupiah a day.
Since the pandemic, he only earns about 20,000 rupiah which he has to spend on gas, leaving basically nothing behind for the family’s basic necessities.
“We don’t even have rice to eat,” Karmila told CNA.
As the two were chatting, their older sister Suhana dropped by. The 46-year-old lives in a different sub-district in South Jakarta and came visiting on Tuesday despite the large-scale social restrictions.
“I’m bored at home. I want to meet my sisters,” she said. “But I will go straight home after this.”
“If the police catch me, I will just say I want to visit my family because I don’t have money and I need to borrow money from them. It’s not that I am violating the regulation,” she said.
‘I TRY NOT TO WORRY THAT MUCH’
Just a few metres away, Ila Sanilah, 44, still operates her coconut water stall in front of the shack she shares with her husband and 22-year-old son. Business has been badly hit by the social restrictions.
Jakarta's coconut water seller
Ila Sanilah (right), who sells coconut water outside her house, has seen a decrease in sales since Jakarta implements the large-scale social restrictions. (Photo: Kiki Siregar)
“Usually we sell about 100 glasses of coconut water per day, but it will now probably take us a week to sell the same.”
“I can’t save with my current income. Nowadays I’m just thankful that we can still eat,” she said, adding that one glass is sold at 5,000 rupiah.
Jakarta's slum
Sisters (from left) Wati, Mila Karmila and Suhana find it hard to stay put at home during Jakarta's large-scale social restrictions. (Photo: Kiki Siregar)
Bookmark
JAKARTA: Siti Patonah and her third-grader daughter, who live in a slum in South Jakarta, spend most of their time crouching together in front of her handphone these days.
With schools closed since Mar 16 to curb the spread of COVID-19, her daughter’s teachers have been sending videos to the parents for the students to watch.
Homework, usually some written tasks, has to be completed, and photos of the completed sheets are then sent back to the teachers for marking.
“I have to accompany my child every day because I need to explain the lessons and homework to her.
“It is very hard because I am not a teacher. I have to make sure that my child understands, with my own method, that’s the problem,” Patonah, 44, told CNA.
studying at home in Jakarta
Siti Patonah (right) has been helping her daughter Salwa to study from home since March 16. (Photo: Kiki Siregar)
She accesses all the materials on her handphone, and occasionally browses the Internet for additional information.
While network connection is not an issue, she said her usual 3GB monthly plan is simply not enough and she has to fork out money to buy twice as much data so her daughter can continue studying at home.
They do not have broadband connection at home.
READ: Crowds, minor infractions on first working day after social restrictions imposed in Jakarta
The city’s education department has yet to announce when will schools open again. Last Friday (Apr 10), a partial lockdown known as large-scale social restrictions kicked in, further reducing the movement of people in the capital of Indonesia.
Jakarta is the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak in Indonesia, accounting for close to half of the country’s 5,136 COVID-19 cases as of Wednesday.
Patonah’s small family is part of about 1.2 million poor citizens in the megacity of 10 million people, according to data from the Jakarta government.
Her husband Endang Sopian, 45, has been sitting idly at home since Mar 26 after his employer, a restaurant in one of Central Jakarta’s high-end malls, shut down to heed the Indonesian government’s call for people to stay home.
He received his March salary but was unsure if he would still get his paycheck in April. He also stopped working as a part-time e-hailing rider out of fear that he might get infected.
Endang Sopian's family
Endang Sopian (left), his wife Siti Patonah (right) and their child Salwa cooping up at home in Jakarta due to COVID-19. (Photo: Kiki Siregar)
Sopian said he would have to resume working as a rider should they run out of savings.
“I’m just here at home. I sleep a lot. My daughter actually asked me, ‘Why are you always sleeping?’” he said.
READ: Indonesia’s economic stimulus not enough to stop layoffs, focus should be to contain COVID-19: Experts
Their house is about 40 sq m, enough for the three of them to live in, but there is no balcony or yard.
“So in the morning, I go out of the house to sunbathe to keep my body healthy,” Sopian said.
NINE PEOPLE IN A SMALL HOUSE
Social distancing is a privilege the poor cannot afford, as illustrated in the case of Mila Karmila and Wati, who live together in a rickety house in a small alley in Jakarta.
A foul stench lingered in the air as the sisters opened up about their daily struggles amid the large-scale social restrictions.
They are aware that Jakarta is plagued with a disease and that it has affected their lives, but they have no idea what the restrictions entail.
“The television is broken, how are we supposed to know?” said Wati, 45, who goes by one name.
READ: 'There must not be more victims’: Indonesian volunteers and businesses unite to produce protective gear
A total of nine people - including their husbands and children, as well as an older brother - live together in the 20 sq m house, so the sisters prefer to spend their time outside the house for some fresh air.
Wati is a housewife while her husband is an informal parking attendant who earns tips from drivers.
However, after the large-scale social restrictions came into effect, there are almost no cars on the roads and he is staying at home with no income.
Karmila, 40, earns one million rupiah (US$64) per month by washing and ironing clothes for people living nearby.
an alley in Jakarta's slum
Suhana drops by to visit her sisters Mila Karmila and Wati amid Jakarta's large-scale social restrictions. (Photo: Kiki Siregar)
Her husband is a public minivan driver, who usually earns 100,000 rupiah a day.
Since the pandemic, he only earns about 20,000 rupiah which he has to spend on gas, leaving basically nothing behind for the family’s basic necessities.
“We don’t even have rice to eat,” Karmila told CNA.
As the two were chatting, their older sister Suhana dropped by. The 46-year-old lives in a different sub-district in South Jakarta and came visiting on Tuesday despite the large-scale social restrictions.
“I’m bored at home. I want to meet my sisters,” she said. “But I will go straight home after this.”
“If the police catch me, I will just say I want to visit my family because I don’t have money and I need to borrow money from them. It’s not that I am violating the regulation,” she said.
‘I TRY NOT TO WORRY THAT MUCH’
Just a few metres away, Ila Sanilah, 44, still operates her coconut water stall in front of the shack she shares with her husband and 22-year-old son. Business has been badly hit by the social restrictions.
Jakarta's coconut water seller
Ila Sanilah (right), who sells coconut water outside her house, has seen a decrease in sales since Jakarta implements the large-scale social restrictions. (Photo: Kiki Siregar)
“Usually we sell about 100 glasses of coconut water per day, but it will now probably take us a week to sell the same.”
“I can’t save with my current income. Nowadays I’m just thankful that we can still eat,” she said, adding that one glass is sold at 5,000 rupiah.
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2018
- Messages
- 29,395
- Points
- 113
Desperate buffalo dairy farmer dumps milk after coronavirus crisis dries up artisan cheese market - ABC News
Mitch Humphries says he is heartbroken to be dumping buffalo milk
Share
A buffalo dairy farmer in Far North Queensland is dumping thousands of litres of quality creamy milk as his industry fights for survival.
Key points:
Demand for buffalo milk and meat has crashed due to COVID-19
Cheesemakers are also suffering from restaurant closures
Consumers are being asked to help by eating Australian-made buffalo products
Orders from restaurants, cafes and cheesemakers have all but dried up since strict measures were introduced to prevent the spread of COVID-19 — and the premium market for buffalo meat has also been evaporating.
Every three days Mr Humphries opens the valves on his vat and pours milk through his paddocks into an effluent trap at Millaa Millaa, because his cows still need to be milked and, legally, raw milk cannot be given away.
"It's just devastating," Mr Humphries says, who owns Australian Dairy Buffalo Company.
He has called on consumers to help by seeking out Australian-made buffalo cheese and meat at supermarkets.
"I actually had orders on the road and my processors rang me up and said, 'Don't send them or turn them back'."
He said after breeding buffalo cows for 20 years it was now likely he would need to "dispose" of his herd.
"We can only go on so long pouring milk out and having zero income — with all the costs associated with feeding the animals and running the dairy."
Margaret Thompson smiling with the cows in the bales behind her.
Margaret Thompson is proud of how far the buffalo industry has come.(ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols)
Dairying with a difference
After dairy deregulation, Margaret Thompson and her late husband, Mal, swapped from milking Guernseys to building up a buffalo herd at Witta, in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland.
"Lots of people who can't drink ordinary milk can drink buffalo milk."
The Maleny Buffalo founder used a Churchill scholarship to visit dairies overseas where buffalo cheese has been big business.
"In Italy they have big herds of buffalo," Ms Thompson said.
"You can go to a big place there where they are all robotically milked and, if you go through the world, buffalo really are the animals of choice for everything.
"It's a premium product."
Margaret Thompson smiling with the cows in the bales behind her.
Barry the buffalo bull may be large but he loves hugs from Maleny Buffalo's Christopher Thompson.(ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols)
Restaurant closures devastate farmers
There are fewer than 10 buffalo dairies in Australia and most of those also sell buffalo for meat.
That is the side of Ms Thompson's business that her son, Michael Thompson, had been successfully pursuing with the help of passionate chefs in cafes and high-end restaurants.
"We've had a number of local restaurants come on board … [and] have used us for many years."
Now the business's future is uncertain.
"We just have to play a wait-and-see game but I think we need to acknowledge that something's wrong," Ms Thompson said.
A boy hugs a buffalo bull.
Maleny Buffalo's Michael Thompson with a cow and calf.(ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols)
Australian Buffalo Industry Council president, Bryan Jans, runs Sunrise Plains buffalo dairy in Victoria's South Gippsland and says prior to the pandemic things were looking good for the buffalo dairy and meat industry.
"We went through the CSIRO for halal slaughter of buffalo and on the cheese side the herds were starting to get to that size where it was good commercial scale.
"We've had a lot of awards with product, which has got it out into the face of the public and being accepted, not as a strange alternative, but actually as a real player in the agricultural sector."
Bryan Jans sitting behind one of his dairy buffaloes.
Bryan Jans fears some producers will not survive the financial crisis.(Supplied: Sunrise Plains Buffalo Dairy)
Industry lifeline needed
Concerned that some buffalo farmers would not survive the financial crisis, Mr Jans wrote to Federal Agriculture Minister David Littleproud, and asked for industry assistance.
The minister's office told the ABC a team would follow-up his request for help.
A spokesperson said the industry could benefit from the billion-dollar regional package for business, agriculture and tourism impacted by COVID-19 and JobKeeper payments of up to $1,500 a fortnight, for self-employed business operators.
"Absolutely anything would be welcome," Mr Jans said.
"It's just a waste of so much work and effort poured into it, so we will try and work as best as we can to try and limp through to the other side."
Mitch Humphries says he is heartbroken to be dumping buffalo milk
Share
A buffalo dairy farmer in Far North Queensland is dumping thousands of litres of quality creamy milk as his industry fights for survival.
Key points:
Demand for buffalo milk and meat has crashed due to COVID-19
Cheesemakers are also suffering from restaurant closures
Consumers are being asked to help by eating Australian-made buffalo products
Orders from restaurants, cafes and cheesemakers have all but dried up since strict measures were introduced to prevent the spread of COVID-19 — and the premium market for buffalo meat has also been evaporating.
Every three days Mr Humphries opens the valves on his vat and pours milk through his paddocks into an effluent trap at Millaa Millaa, because his cows still need to be milked and, legally, raw milk cannot be given away.
"It's just devastating," Mr Humphries says, who owns Australian Dairy Buffalo Company.
He has called on consumers to help by seeking out Australian-made buffalo cheese and meat at supermarkets.
"I actually had orders on the road and my processors rang me up and said, 'Don't send them or turn them back'."
He said after breeding buffalo cows for 20 years it was now likely he would need to "dispose" of his herd.
"We can only go on so long pouring milk out and having zero income — with all the costs associated with feeding the animals and running the dairy."
Margaret Thompson smiling with the cows in the bales behind her.
Margaret Thompson is proud of how far the buffalo industry has come.(ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols)
Dairying with a difference
After dairy deregulation, Margaret Thompson and her late husband, Mal, swapped from milking Guernseys to building up a buffalo herd at Witta, in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland.
"Lots of people who can't drink ordinary milk can drink buffalo milk."
The Maleny Buffalo founder used a Churchill scholarship to visit dairies overseas where buffalo cheese has been big business.
"In Italy they have big herds of buffalo," Ms Thompson said.
"You can go to a big place there where they are all robotically milked and, if you go through the world, buffalo really are the animals of choice for everything.
"It's a premium product."
Margaret Thompson smiling with the cows in the bales behind her.
Barry the buffalo bull may be large but he loves hugs from Maleny Buffalo's Christopher Thompson.(ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols)
Restaurant closures devastate farmers
There are fewer than 10 buffalo dairies in Australia and most of those also sell buffalo for meat.
That is the side of Ms Thompson's business that her son, Michael Thompson, had been successfully pursuing with the help of passionate chefs in cafes and high-end restaurants.
"We've had a number of local restaurants come on board … [and] have used us for many years."
Now the business's future is uncertain.
"We just have to play a wait-and-see game but I think we need to acknowledge that something's wrong," Ms Thompson said.
A boy hugs a buffalo bull.
Maleny Buffalo's Michael Thompson with a cow and calf.(ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols)
Australian Buffalo Industry Council president, Bryan Jans, runs Sunrise Plains buffalo dairy in Victoria's South Gippsland and says prior to the pandemic things were looking good for the buffalo dairy and meat industry.
"We went through the CSIRO for halal slaughter of buffalo and on the cheese side the herds were starting to get to that size where it was good commercial scale.
"We've had a lot of awards with product, which has got it out into the face of the public and being accepted, not as a strange alternative, but actually as a real player in the agricultural sector."
Bryan Jans sitting behind one of his dairy buffaloes.
Bryan Jans fears some producers will not survive the financial crisis.(Supplied: Sunrise Plains Buffalo Dairy)
Industry lifeline needed
Concerned that some buffalo farmers would not survive the financial crisis, Mr Jans wrote to Federal Agriculture Minister David Littleproud, and asked for industry assistance.
The minister's office told the ABC a team would follow-up his request for help.
A spokesperson said the industry could benefit from the billion-dollar regional package for business, agriculture and tourism impacted by COVID-19 and JobKeeper payments of up to $1,500 a fortnight, for self-employed business operators.
"Absolutely anything would be welcome," Mr Jans said.
"It's just a waste of so much work and effort poured into it, so we will try and work as best as we can to try and limp through to the other side."
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2018
- Messages
- 29,395
- Points
- 113
Has the Lockdown Worked? - The Dennis Prager Show
Why are governments the world over rendering hundreds of millions of their citizens jobless, impoverishing at least a billion people, endangering the family life of millions (straining marriages, increasing child and spousal abuse, and further postponing marriage among young people), bankrupting vast numbers of business owners and workers living paycheck to paycheck, and increasing suicides?
The reason given is that we must lock down virtually all human social and economic activity in order to prevent millions of people from dying of the coronavirus and overwhelming hospitals.
But is it true? Was this lockdown necessary?
In order to answer these questions, we need to know how many people would have died from COVID-19 if we hadn’t ruined the world’s economic life.
The truth is we don’t know. And the truth is we never knew. A large swath of the “expert” community cloaked itself with unscientific certitude, beginning, on March 16, with a model from the Imperial College London — the source governments relied upon for the decision to ruin their economies — which projected about 2.2 million Americans and half a million Brits would die.
Almost every national leader, politician and media outlet in the world believed that model. As I explained in my last column, modern men and women have substituted “experts” for prophets and priests. Science is the secular religion, and “experts” are its prophets and priests. In fact, they have greater authority among the secular, especially those left of center, than the pope of the Catholic Church has among Catholics. Whereas popes have invoked the doctrine of “infallibility” twice in the history of the Catholic Church, “experts” invoke it every day among the secular faithful.
But on what grounds are we to believe that millions would die without ruining the American — and the world’s — economy? Without our being told by an omniscient God, there is no way to know the definitive answer.
But here are some data that cast doubt on those assumptions, based entirely on the only metric that matters: deaths per 1 million. The number of confirmed infected people is meaningless, since so few people anywhere have been tested for the virus, and we don’t know how many people already had the virus and never knew it. (Moreover, asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic carriers of the virus constitute the majority of those infected.)
As of yesterday, according to the Worldometer website, the United States ranked 12th, with 71 deaths per 1 million people. (I have not included San Marino and St. Martin because they have such small populations.)
France’s death rate is 229 per 1 million, three times greater than that of the United States, and it went on national lockdown March 17. America didn’t go on national lockdown because that decision is the responsibility of states. So, let’s take California, the most populous American state (and therefore nearest to France’s population). California went on statewide lockdown March 19, two days after France. The death rate from coronavirus in California is 2 per 100,000. Two. Deux.
That means France, which went on lockdown only two days prior to California, has more than 10 times the death rate.
And Nebraska, one of the few U.S. states that has not locked down — to the intense anger of the state’s Democrats at its Republican governor — has a death rate of less than 1 per 100,000 (according to the Washington Post’s daily listing of U.S. coronavirus deaths).
What do these statistics say about the efficacy and indispensability of a lockdown?
To give you an idea of how unreliable much “expert” thinking is, the Los Angeles Times published an article on April 10 titled “California’s Coronavirus Death Toll Is Way Below New York’s. Here’s Why.”
In it, the authors, needless to say unquestioningly, reported that Nicholas Jewell, identified as “a UC Berkeley biostatistician,” explained why California had so many fewer deaths than New York:
“Just putting those controls in place a single day earlier makes a huge, huge difference in the growth rates,” Jewell said, referring to California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s March 19 lockdown order, whereas New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo waited three more days to lock down New York state. That, according to the expert from UC Berkeley and the Los Angeles Times, explains the “huge, huge difference in the growth rates” between the two states.
Then the article added a line that undermined its entire thesis:
“Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis didn’t impose a stay-at-home order until April 1.” Apparently, it never occurred to the Los Angeles Times authors to even look up Florida’s death rates. The nonconservative media have been largely worthless during this crisis — intellectually vapid, and, along with “experts,” the primary stokers of panic.
If a few days’ delay in ordering the lockdown of a state (or country) makes a “huge, huge difference” in death rates, Florida should have had a worse death rate than New York, let alone California. Yet Florida’s death rate is among the lowest in the country: 24 per 1 million — despite the fact that Florida, along with Maine, has the largest percentage of elderly people (those 65 and over) in any American state.
And then there is Sweden, the one industrialized Western democracy that did not shut down — engendering intense anger from scientists and other “experts,” as well as left-wing media (i.e., virtually all major media) across the world. Sweden, which still has its restaurants and businesses open, is far below Spain, Italy, Belgium, France, the U.K., the Netherlands, Switzerland and Luxembourg — all of which have national lockdowns — in deaths per 1 million. Yes, Sweden’s death rate per 1 million is higher than its Scandinavian neighbors, Norway and Denmark, which did lock down their economic life. But as of the latest report, in the past two days, Sweden, which has almost exactly the same number of people as Denmark and Norway combined, lost 20 of its citizens to the coronavirus, while its neighbors lost 18.
The left blames President Donald Trump for our crisis (as if only America is undergoing economic ruin and loss of life).
If they were honest, they would blame reliance on “experts” and “modeling.” But they hate Trump more than they love Americans — or truth.
This column was originally posted on Townhall.com.
Why are governments the world over rendering hundreds of millions of their citizens jobless, impoverishing at least a billion people, endangering the family life of millions (straining marriages, increasing child and spousal abuse, and further postponing marriage among young people), bankrupting vast numbers of business owners and workers living paycheck to paycheck, and increasing suicides?
The reason given is that we must lock down virtually all human social and economic activity in order to prevent millions of people from dying of the coronavirus and overwhelming hospitals.
But is it true? Was this lockdown necessary?
In order to answer these questions, we need to know how many people would have died from COVID-19 if we hadn’t ruined the world’s economic life.
The truth is we don’t know. And the truth is we never knew. A large swath of the “expert” community cloaked itself with unscientific certitude, beginning, on March 16, with a model from the Imperial College London — the source governments relied upon for the decision to ruin their economies — which projected about 2.2 million Americans and half a million Brits would die.
Almost every national leader, politician and media outlet in the world believed that model. As I explained in my last column, modern men and women have substituted “experts” for prophets and priests. Science is the secular religion, and “experts” are its prophets and priests. In fact, they have greater authority among the secular, especially those left of center, than the pope of the Catholic Church has among Catholics. Whereas popes have invoked the doctrine of “infallibility” twice in the history of the Catholic Church, “experts” invoke it every day among the secular faithful.
But on what grounds are we to believe that millions would die without ruining the American — and the world’s — economy? Without our being told by an omniscient God, there is no way to know the definitive answer.
But here are some data that cast doubt on those assumptions, based entirely on the only metric that matters: deaths per 1 million. The number of confirmed infected people is meaningless, since so few people anywhere have been tested for the virus, and we don’t know how many people already had the virus and never knew it. (Moreover, asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic carriers of the virus constitute the majority of those infected.)
As of yesterday, according to the Worldometer website, the United States ranked 12th, with 71 deaths per 1 million people. (I have not included San Marino and St. Martin because they have such small populations.)
France’s death rate is 229 per 1 million, three times greater than that of the United States, and it went on national lockdown March 17. America didn’t go on national lockdown because that decision is the responsibility of states. So, let’s take California, the most populous American state (and therefore nearest to France’s population). California went on statewide lockdown March 19, two days after France. The death rate from coronavirus in California is 2 per 100,000. Two. Deux.
That means France, which went on lockdown only two days prior to California, has more than 10 times the death rate.
And Nebraska, one of the few U.S. states that has not locked down — to the intense anger of the state’s Democrats at its Republican governor — has a death rate of less than 1 per 100,000 (according to the Washington Post’s daily listing of U.S. coronavirus deaths).
What do these statistics say about the efficacy and indispensability of a lockdown?
To give you an idea of how unreliable much “expert” thinking is, the Los Angeles Times published an article on April 10 titled “California’s Coronavirus Death Toll Is Way Below New York’s. Here’s Why.”
In it, the authors, needless to say unquestioningly, reported that Nicholas Jewell, identified as “a UC Berkeley biostatistician,” explained why California had so many fewer deaths than New York:
“Just putting those controls in place a single day earlier makes a huge, huge difference in the growth rates,” Jewell said, referring to California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s March 19 lockdown order, whereas New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo waited three more days to lock down New York state. That, according to the expert from UC Berkeley and the Los Angeles Times, explains the “huge, huge difference in the growth rates” between the two states.
Then the article added a line that undermined its entire thesis:
“Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis didn’t impose a stay-at-home order until April 1.” Apparently, it never occurred to the Los Angeles Times authors to even look up Florida’s death rates. The nonconservative media have been largely worthless during this crisis — intellectually vapid, and, along with “experts,” the primary stokers of panic.
If a few days’ delay in ordering the lockdown of a state (or country) makes a “huge, huge difference” in death rates, Florida should have had a worse death rate than New York, let alone California. Yet Florida’s death rate is among the lowest in the country: 24 per 1 million — despite the fact that Florida, along with Maine, has the largest percentage of elderly people (those 65 and over) in any American state.
And then there is Sweden, the one industrialized Western democracy that did not shut down — engendering intense anger from scientists and other “experts,” as well as left-wing media (i.e., virtually all major media) across the world. Sweden, which still has its restaurants and businesses open, is far below Spain, Italy, Belgium, France, the U.K., the Netherlands, Switzerland and Luxembourg — all of which have national lockdowns — in deaths per 1 million. Yes, Sweden’s death rate per 1 million is higher than its Scandinavian neighbors, Norway and Denmark, which did lock down their economic life. But as of the latest report, in the past two days, Sweden, which has almost exactly the same number of people as Denmark and Norway combined, lost 20 of its citizens to the coronavirus, while its neighbors lost 18.
The left blames President Donald Trump for our crisis (as if only America is undergoing economic ruin and loss of life).
If they were honest, they would blame reliance on “experts” and “modeling.” But they hate Trump more than they love Americans — or truth.
This column was originally posted on Townhall.com.
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COVID-19 lockdowns have cost 1.6 million Australians their incomes, ABS survey shows - ABC News
By business reporter Michael Janda
Posted Yesterday, updated Yesterday
A line stretches back as far as the eye can see outside Centrelink.
The coronavirus lockdown has had a dramatic effect on employment figures in Australia.(ABC News: Chris Taylor)
Share
Around 8 per cent of adult Australians, or more than 1.6 million people, appear to have lost their incomes in the first week of the total COVID-19 lockdown, according to early official estimates.
Key points:
The survey is based on the first week of the current tough coronavirus restrictions
Official unemployment figures released last week which showed little change were from before strict social-distancing measures came into force
The new survey shows an estimated 12.5 per cent of Australians in work in early March no longer were by the first week in April
These latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) are based on a sample of 1,059 households interviewed in the first week after the current tough restrictions on movement, gatherings and selected services were introduced around the nation.
While the survey is vastly smaller, and therefore less statistically accurate than the monthly labour force data, it shows a dramatic effect from the lockdown.
In the first week of April, just 56 per cent of respondents were working paid hours, versus 64 per cent in early March before the current restrictions entered force.
That means more than 1.6 million people who were in paid work in early March no longer were by the first week in April.
That is on top of the 5.2 per cent of people looking for work who were already unemployed in mid-March.
However, there were signs that many employers were trying to hang onto staff, or promised them continued work when the restrictions eased, with a smaller 3-percentage-point fall in those saying they "have a job" from 66 to 63 per cent.
Although that in itself implies nearly 600,000 people were added to the ranks of the unemployed, close to doubling the unemployment rate in just one month.
The biggest change was in the proportion of people who said they were still employed but not currently working paid hours, up 5 percentage points to 8 per cent of Australians.
This may indicate that many workers were stood down or took leave in the initial stages of the shutdown. It may also reflect many casual workers being told there were no shifts available, rather than being sacked outright.
But while hundreds of thousands of Australians lost paid work in the space of just one month, many of those who still had a job found they were working longer hours.
The ABS said that 12 per cent of people still in a job worked longer hours than usual in the first week of April due to COVID-19, although twice that number worked fewer hours due to the pandemic.
Older Australians not much more concerned about COVID-19
Aside from the dramatic effect on Australians' working lives, the ABS survey also asked how COVID-19 was affecting our personal lives and hygiene habits.
An overwhelming majority of Australians were taking action to minimise their risk of catching and transmitting COVID-19 — even those who were not concerned about their personal safety.
Just over two-thirds of Australians were concerned about their personal health because of COVID-19, with women much more worried (73 per cent) than men (62 per cent).
Interestingly, given that susceptibility to the disease and death rates from COVID-19 escalate rapidly within older age groups, the ABS found only minimal extra concern amongst those aged over 65 (71 per cent) compared to those aged 18-64 (67 per cent).
However, the survey showed that even most of those relatively unconcerned about their own health were taking measures to combat the spread of the virus.
The most common social changes were keeping a greater distance from others (98 per cent), avoiding public spaces and public events (88 per cent) and cancelling personal gatherings (87 per cent) — although these actions were hardly surprising given that many activities in these categories had become illegal and subject to heavy fines.
Almost nine-in-10 Australians reported washing their hands or using sanitiser more than usual in the first week of April, while around half said they touched their face less than before.
However, only a third of older Australians (over 65) reported touching their face less, versus more than half of working-age Australians — although this may reflect a higher rate of self-isolation amongst the elderly, at around three-quarters versus less than two-thirds of younger people.
With borders closing and Easter trips away from home being strongly discouraged by governments, it is perhaps not surprising that the ABS found that more than half of those surveyed had changed travel plans for either work or leisure due to COVID-19 during March.
By business reporter Michael Janda
Posted Yesterday, updated Yesterday
A line stretches back as far as the eye can see outside Centrelink.
The coronavirus lockdown has had a dramatic effect on employment figures in Australia.(ABC News: Chris Taylor)
Share
Around 8 per cent of adult Australians, or more than 1.6 million people, appear to have lost their incomes in the first week of the total COVID-19 lockdown, according to early official estimates.
Key points:
The survey is based on the first week of the current tough coronavirus restrictions
Official unemployment figures released last week which showed little change were from before strict social-distancing measures came into force
The new survey shows an estimated 12.5 per cent of Australians in work in early March no longer were by the first week in April
These latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) are based on a sample of 1,059 households interviewed in the first week after the current tough restrictions on movement, gatherings and selected services were introduced around the nation.
While the survey is vastly smaller, and therefore less statistically accurate than the monthly labour force data, it shows a dramatic effect from the lockdown.
In the first week of April, just 56 per cent of respondents were working paid hours, versus 64 per cent in early March before the current restrictions entered force.
That means more than 1.6 million people who were in paid work in early March no longer were by the first week in April.
That is on top of the 5.2 per cent of people looking for work who were already unemployed in mid-March.
However, there were signs that many employers were trying to hang onto staff, or promised them continued work when the restrictions eased, with a smaller 3-percentage-point fall in those saying they "have a job" from 66 to 63 per cent.
Although that in itself implies nearly 600,000 people were added to the ranks of the unemployed, close to doubling the unemployment rate in just one month.
The biggest change was in the proportion of people who said they were still employed but not currently working paid hours, up 5 percentage points to 8 per cent of Australians.
This may indicate that many workers were stood down or took leave in the initial stages of the shutdown. It may also reflect many casual workers being told there were no shifts available, rather than being sacked outright.
But while hundreds of thousands of Australians lost paid work in the space of just one month, many of those who still had a job found they were working longer hours.
The ABS said that 12 per cent of people still in a job worked longer hours than usual in the first week of April due to COVID-19, although twice that number worked fewer hours due to the pandemic.
Older Australians not much more concerned about COVID-19
Aside from the dramatic effect on Australians' working lives, the ABS survey also asked how COVID-19 was affecting our personal lives and hygiene habits.
An overwhelming majority of Australians were taking action to minimise their risk of catching and transmitting COVID-19 — even those who were not concerned about their personal safety.
Just over two-thirds of Australians were concerned about their personal health because of COVID-19, with women much more worried (73 per cent) than men (62 per cent).
Interestingly, given that susceptibility to the disease and death rates from COVID-19 escalate rapidly within older age groups, the ABS found only minimal extra concern amongst those aged over 65 (71 per cent) compared to those aged 18-64 (67 per cent).
However, the survey showed that even most of those relatively unconcerned about their own health were taking measures to combat the spread of the virus.
The most common social changes were keeping a greater distance from others (98 per cent), avoiding public spaces and public events (88 per cent) and cancelling personal gatherings (87 per cent) — although these actions were hardly surprising given that many activities in these categories had become illegal and subject to heavy fines.
Almost nine-in-10 Australians reported washing their hands or using sanitiser more than usual in the first week of April, while around half said they touched their face less than before.
However, only a third of older Australians (over 65) reported touching their face less, versus more than half of working-age Australians — although this may reflect a higher rate of self-isolation amongst the elderly, at around three-quarters versus less than two-thirds of younger people.
With borders closing and Easter trips away from home being strongly discouraged by governments, it is perhaps not surprising that the ABS found that more than half of those surveyed had changed travel plans for either work or leisure due to COVID-19 during March.
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- Jun 27, 2018
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- 113
If its soo bad. Why lockdown for a flu?
Coronavirus could cause famines in dozens of countries, UN's World Food Program says - ABC News
Posted 2h
Countries in Africa and the Middle East are most at risk of "a hunger pandemic".(AP: Farah Abdi Warsameh)
Share
The United Nations (UN) has warned the coronavirus pandemic may lead to "multiple famines of biblical proportions".
Key points:
WFP executive director David Beasley warned the world was "on the brink of a hunger pandemic" if immediate action was not taken.
He said the countries at greatest risk were those across Africa and the Middle East.
He told the UN Security Council on Tuesday that even before COVID-19 became an issue, he was telling world leaders this year would bring "the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II".
Mr Beasley said 821 million people went to bed hungry every night all over the world, 135 million more people were facing "crisis levels of hunger or worse" and a new World Food Program analysis showed that as a result of COVID-19 an additional 130 million people "could be pushed to the brink of starvation by the end of 2020".
He said WFP was providing food to nearly 100 million people on any given day, including "about 30 million people who literally depend on us to stay alive".
Mr Beasley, who is recovering from COVID-19, said if those people could not be reached, "300,000 people could starve to death every single day over a three-month period".
He said that figure did not include increased starvation due to coronavirus.
He warned that in a worst-case scenario "we could be looking at famine in about three dozen countries".
The WFP warns that beyond malnutrition, a shortage of food will leave those affected with weaker immune systems, making them particularly vulnerable to coronavirus.
Coronavirus could cause famines in dozens of countries, UN's World Food Program says - ABC News
Posted 2h
Share
The United Nations (UN) has warned the coronavirus pandemic may lead to "multiple famines of biblical proportions".
Key points:
- WFP executive director David Beasley says "we could be looking at famine in about three dozen countries"
- He says the number of the world's hungry could nearly double by the end of the year
- Mr Beasley warns a food shortage will leave those with weaker immune systems vulnerable to COVID-19
WFP executive director David Beasley warned the world was "on the brink of a hunger pandemic" if immediate action was not taken.
He said the countries at greatest risk were those across Africa and the Middle East.
He told the UN Security Council on Tuesday that even before COVID-19 became an issue, he was telling world leaders this year would bring "the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II".
Mr Beasley said 821 million people went to bed hungry every night all over the world, 135 million more people were facing "crisis levels of hunger or worse" and a new World Food Program analysis showed that as a result of COVID-19 an additional 130 million people "could be pushed to the brink of starvation by the end of 2020".
He said WFP was providing food to nearly 100 million people on any given day, including "about 30 million people who literally depend on us to stay alive".
Mr Beasley, who is recovering from COVID-19, said if those people could not be reached, "300,000 people could starve to death every single day over a three-month period".
He said that figure did not include increased starvation due to coronavirus.
He warned that in a worst-case scenario "we could be looking at famine in about three dozen countries".
The WFP warns that beyond malnutrition, a shortage of food will leave those affected with weaker immune systems, making them particularly vulnerable to coronavirus.
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2018
- Messages
- 29,395
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If the virus is soo deadly to old farts, why are they still alive?
Daughter's fears for mother in coronavirus-stricken Newmarch House aged-care facility - ABC News
Posted 1h
Yvonne Rane has tested positive for coronavirus.(Supplied)
Share
The daughter of a resident at a Western Sydney aged care facility at the centre of a coronavirus outbreak says her mother is in a game of "Russian Roulette".
Key points:
Three residents have died at the facility in Caddens, which has been the centre of a COVID-19 cluster after a staff member worked for six days despite having mild symptoms of the virus.
Forty-one residents and staff at the facility have tested positive for coronavirus.
Ms Payne is concerned her mother is at risk of dying as she has dementia and diabetes.
"It's like Russian Roulette … I can't say mum's got a better chance than anyone else there (Newmarch House)," she said.
Before the coronavirus lockdown, Ms Payne asked about taking her mother out of Newmarch House until the pandemic had passed.
She was told that was not possible.
Ms Payne was later left shocked when contacted by Newmarch House about her mother's condition.
"I received a call from one of the nurses and the first thing she said was I needed to complete an updated advanced care plan in case mum deteriorated," she said.
"I was just stunned … And I asked the nurse 'are you ringing and asking me this because mum's got COVID-19?'"
Newmarch House confirmed her mother had COVID-19.
Ms Payne told the ABC she opted to use palliative care for her mother, rather than a respirator, if her condition deteriorated.
She has not been able to visit the facility since it was placed in lockdown on March 23.
Anglicare CEO Grant Millard said Newmarch House was "in the eye of a storm".
"Everyone is struggling to find staff for us, including the Commonwealth Government and eight agencies," he said.
"We are deeply sorry for the effect that it has had on some of the people we look after and that they have had to wait for the care they deserve during this crisis."
Gregory Crawford, President of the Australasian Chapter of Palliative Medicine, said people need to have a conversation about what they want when they're facing the end of their lives.
"Conversations [about dying] are really important in our society and shouldn't just be [about] COVID-19, but this is a really critical time to open those conversations and discuss them," he said.
Palliative medicine physician, Meera Agar, said communication with family members was critical when their loved ones had a life-threatening illness.
"When deterioration occurs from any illness … over a short period of time … people feel they need that information and understanding of how things are changing and what the new plans are."
Daughter's fears for mother in coronavirus-stricken Newmarch House aged-care facility - ABC News
Posted 1h
Share
The daughter of a resident at a Western Sydney aged care facility at the centre of a coronavirus outbreak says her mother is in a game of "Russian Roulette".
Key points:
- Three residents at Newmarch House have died from coronavirus
- Louise Payne tried to get her mother out of the facility before the lockdown
- The nursing home's management says it's "in the eye of a storm"
Three residents have died at the facility in Caddens, which has been the centre of a COVID-19 cluster after a staff member worked for six days despite having mild symptoms of the virus.
Forty-one residents and staff at the facility have tested positive for coronavirus.
Ms Payne is concerned her mother is at risk of dying as she has dementia and diabetes.
"It's like Russian Roulette … I can't say mum's got a better chance than anyone else there (Newmarch House)," she said.
Before the coronavirus lockdown, Ms Payne asked about taking her mother out of Newmarch House until the pandemic had passed.
She was told that was not possible.
Ms Payne was later left shocked when contacted by Newmarch House about her mother's condition.
"I received a call from one of the nurses and the first thing she said was I needed to complete an updated advanced care plan in case mum deteriorated," she said.
"I was just stunned … And I asked the nurse 'are you ringing and asking me this because mum's got COVID-19?'"
Newmarch House confirmed her mother had COVID-19.
Ms Payne told the ABC she opted to use palliative care for her mother, rather than a respirator, if her condition deteriorated.
She has not been able to visit the facility since it was placed in lockdown on March 23.
Anglicare CEO Grant Millard said Newmarch House was "in the eye of a storm".
"Everyone is struggling to find staff for us, including the Commonwealth Government and eight agencies," he said.
"We are deeply sorry for the effect that it has had on some of the people we look after and that they have had to wait for the care they deserve during this crisis."
Gregory Crawford, President of the Australasian Chapter of Palliative Medicine, said people need to have a conversation about what they want when they're facing the end of their lives.
"Conversations [about dying] are really important in our society and shouldn't just be [about] COVID-19, but this is a really critical time to open those conversations and discuss them," he said.
Palliative medicine physician, Meera Agar, said communication with family members was critical when their loved ones had a life-threatening illness.
"When deterioration occurs from any illness … over a short period of time … people feel they need that information and understanding of how things are changing and what the new plans are."
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