Teachers should be back on the job
FOR the first time in two years it is good to see the Department of Education following the science in its decision to allow unvaccinated teachers to return to the classroom.
The science now clearly shows that the Covid-19 vaccines which were developed to provide limited immunity to SARS CoV2 (but not prevent infection or transmission) are no longer effective because the original virus no longer exists due to mutations.
This is clearly evidenced by the high rate of infection in the fully vaccinated. It is also evident that the unvaccinated do not become sicker than the vaccinated when infected (just ask them).
Thanks to several overseas studies we now understand that the unvaccinated acquire long lasting broad spectrum immunity to current Covid strains. These teachers are no danger to themselves or anyone else in their schools and should be working.
Julie Dean
Richmond
LIFE IN PARADISE
I refer to the article in the Mercury (July 21) by David Killick titled “Why have we given up the Covid fight?” Why indeed?
This latest incarnation of the donothing Tory government has no narrative, no identity, no plan.
Premier (and Health Minister) Jeremy Rockliff gives off an air of utter disconnection from reality.
And, as for the last eight years, the state’s grossly under-resourced health system is forced to do more and more with less and less.
Result? Unbelievably long waiting lists continue to grow, so-called “elective surgeries” are put on hold, and people keep dying for no good reason at all.
That’s life in our island paradise for those 50,000 plus people waiting interminably for surgeries or specialist
appointments, and who can’t afford private health insurance.
This government is a blundering, shambolic joke and it needs to be gone. Justin Harding Invermay
HAVE THE JAB
Having just come out of isolation after having acquired Covid, I had the opportunity to be so very thankful for the vaccinations that were available, including the two boosters which capped off the protection against more serious complications.
With the pandemic still at large, it is inconceivable that people are still hesitant to have their inoculations and are prepared to leave vaccines expiring on shelves.
People have every right to access health care from their local GP and hospital services, provided that they also show a level of responsibility to do whatever they can to maintain their wellbeing.
Ed Sianski West Moonah
CAN’T PLEASE EVERYBODY
Whether governments should mandate the wearing of masks or not brings to mind the words of Herbert Bayard Swope (1882-1958): “I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure – which is: Try to please everybody.”
Rodney Quinn
Bellerive
POLLIES NEED SCRUTINY
The federal Treasurer advises to stock up on test kits before they expire in July, surely they should be made available till September saving pressure on hospitals by elderly patients.
Reported deaths if they are correct of over 300 a week are not acceptable, they should designate the number of those that were not vaccinated and those who had been vaccinated.
Australians would have an outcry if 300 deaths on our roads or armed services were accepted as normal in that period.
Finally, politicians should be held accountable, state and federal for the impost they have put on our paramedics, nurses, hospitals and doctors.
Private enterprise would not tolerate this, and their renumeration would be reviewed.
Brian P Khan Bridport
RELY ON COMMON SENSE
I refer to Jennifer Bond of West Hobart (“What’s Our Outlook”) and Kate Eagles of Lindisfarne (“More Transparency”) opinions of July 20.
Unfortunately, the reality is that the prediction of the equilibrium of endemicity with Covid-19 hasn’t eventuated as we are in an unstable endemicity.
The evolutionary driver of Covid is not the increased rate of transmission that is causing the massive increases in case numbers, it’s the “immune escape”.
The virus is escaping the immunity generated by vaccination as well as escaping immunity by a previous infection. That it has the ability to reinfect even those recently vaccinated or infected. Now reinfection may occur as early as 28 days after recovery.
It’s an unstable endemic environment we live in and Covid is not going to be eradicated.
Not only do we have the new BA4 and BA5 the new now have the BA2.75 variant to contend with. The reporting of Covid case numbers by the state government is irrelevant and I can’t understand why they report it as many people don’t bother to report it which makes the figure fictitious.
Because “mask wearing” is the only true preventive precaution, I would suggest the elderly and those with an underlying medical condition keep wearing them. The decision to wear one should be based on common sense rather than mandated as we are an educated country.
Les Young Austins Ferry