A story about Kennett's Melbourne. In 1993, I was working at Cambridge Uni, but my father was sick, so I flew back into Tullamarine Airport, catching the airbus to the top end of Elizabeth St, where I waited for a tram to take me & my baggage down to Flinders Street Station. /2
I waited for over 30 minutes and a single tram passed me. I looked around for a time table, but there wasn't one at the tram stop. And them I had a moment on panic: Had I arrived on a Sunday morning? Not only no trams, but virtually no cars either. /3
I pulled out my itinerary and checked the arrival date. I standing in the middle of the CBD on a Monday morning at a little after 9am, and the city was as dead as if hit by a pandemic. That was what Kennett did to Melbourne.
*then (I think I need a proof reader)
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
Anthony Whealy is a former New South Wales Supreme Court judge whree he served alongside Brereton, chair of The Centre for Public Integrity, and a former assistant commissioner to the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption. /2
Anthony Whealy is a former New South Wales Supreme Court judge and is highly critical of the National Anti-Corruption Commission: /3
“I was severely disappointed and disturbed to see that the power to hold public hearings had been very seriously limited by the addition of the requirement that there be exceptional circumstances,” says Whealy, who is now chair of The Centre for Public Integrity. /4
COVID damages the frontal lobes, particularly the dominant frontal lobe, which plays a key role in moderating socialisation. It tempers social impulses, like violent or sexual urges. But is there any evidence the ongoing COVID pandemic has changed social behaviours? /2
A new report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics finds that there were 35,138 victims of sexual assault recorded nationwide in 2023, a 31-year high.
The rate of women killed by an intimate partner in Australia increased by ~30% in 2022-23, compared to the previous year. /3
The number of blackmail and extortion victims has increased by 56% to 3380 people, while there were 409 victims of homicide and related offences, up 20 victims on the previous year. Australia’s road toll has been increasing since 2020, reaching 1,253, the highest since 2018.
"The damage of the WHO’s false claims continue to reverberate today. Doctors and hospitals continue to infect their patients with flu, RSV, strep, and now COVID as infection control measures like HEPA filtration go completely unmentioned in the new guidance document. " /2
"Hospitals continue to place highly infectious patients close to COVID-negative patients, falsely believing that curtains and a few feet of distance will protect vulnerable sick people." /3
"Doctors and nurses continue to lack proper PPE, while acquiring Long COVID at high rates and dealing with out-of-control hospital crowded all over the world." /4
I have been made aware of a major risk factor some people have that makes COVID a more serious risk for them than for others. As far as I know, there has not been a systematic study to quantify this risk, nor been any public health attempt to warn this group. /2
About 25% of the adult population have a patent foramen ovale. This is a hole between the left and right atria (upper chambers) of the heart. This hole exists in everyone before birth, but most often closes shortly after being born. /3
Normally, a PFO is not a significant problem. A small proportion of blood might pass through it from right to left sides of the heart, by-passing the lungs, but the proportion of air not oxygenated is not functionally significant. /4
But first, some basic principles: 1) COVID is primarily transmitted by aerosols - minute micro-droplets that waft in the air like cigarette smoke. 2) It is transmitted from an infected person to an uninfected person. /3
3) Some infected people are much more likely to transmit infections than other people. 4) Some locations are much more likely to allow transmission of infections. 5) Some behaviors are much more likely to allow transmission of infections. /4
This is a tricky post. This time, 4 years ago, I was contacted by a person in a major government scientific organization. They said that they (pleural) had tried to warn the (then Morrison) government of an outbreak of a SARS-like virus in China. /2
They said that they had been warned directly by Chinese scientists, who were greatly concerned about the possibility of the disease spreading. They said that the government had not responded. /3
To put this in context, this was around the time of many major bush fires (Hawaii) resulting in a heavy demand for face masks. I posted the alert on Twitter & attempted to purchase N95/P2 masks from pharmacies. /4