Thread by @iMusing

wild cases are up to 546 in NSW today. Berejiklian is boasting about dose and testing numbers and saying “stay home”. She has extended the regional NSW lockdown to 28 August.

https://twitter.com/nswhealth/status/1428160208694513667

she is promising “opportunities” to the fully vaccinated population again “to do some things you can not do now”. This is her #CampaignComms to the Liberal Party base in northern and eastern Sydney.

no mention of whether fully vaccinated Liberal Party voters will be allowed to go skiing with their unvaccinated children.

“every death is a horrendous tragedy”🤐

Dr Gale is repeating the numbers and Liberal Party comms.

the vaccination status of ICU patients.

western NSW. Please be vigilant and get vaccinated. There are 3 more cases in Wilcannia, which will be reported in the numbers tomorrow.

the 5 Hunter New England cases are all linked. Sewage testing traces in Foster, Bateau Bay and one more I missed.

the “additional 7 days” regional NSW lockdown to 28 August is re-announced by Barilaro. He reads out rural and regional areas with cases. Yamba was the other sewage surveillance positive results.

again today Barilaro says the government is staying ahead of the curve, an insulting lie.

Warboys is “terribly concerned” that people are not staying at home and are leaving home even tho they keep telling people to stay home. Same same same.

someone has been refused bail, reports Warboys. What, like the person who was arrested in Dubbo and jailed in Bathurst before being bailed to Walgett?

the guest appearance today is Resilience Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons. He talks about the complexity of service provision in the “focus LGAs” and lists a bunch of government agencies and NGOs.

mentions “testing and isolating away from work” but not the payment to do so. “Support and payments to businesses” gets a run tho.

we are all so critically dependent on the extraordinary men and women in these focus LGAs who keep us all going, says Fitzsimmons. The freight hubs, the environmental waste, the food distribution. Indeed.

Fitzsimmons says the overwhelming majority of people are doing the right thing and he will continue to focus on compliance with Mr Warboys. Same message, different deliverer.

physically distance and reach out socially, says Fitzsimmons. Reach out thru your local council and community orgs etc

first Q is on extension of lockdown. Berejiklian says she is working on proposals for “what it will look like” when we reach higher vax rates.

remembers belatedly to mention getting those case numbers down in LGAs of concern. She repeats her 70% 80% double dose September and October will be difficult for NSW mixed messaging.

this is about making sure we provide the best information to the community at the right time, says Berejiklian, a lie.

there is no rule book for delta, she recites, for the billionth time. The “rule book” for delta, btw, says lock down fast and hard.

presser peak utility point has passed. Berejiklian is back to repeating the confused and confusing talking points that are the hallmark of her leadership, her politics, her decisions that have landed us at almost 700 new cases overnight.

she is blathering about travel and the need to co-exist with delta. Some of us would settle for seeing our friends and family, Premier.

isn’t it confusing that you are announcing over 680 cases a day and in the next breath say you are looking to bring those numbers down and looking to ease restrictions?
A: life freer delta is infectious blah blah blah.

the quicker we can vaccinate those most vulnerable, vaccinate “those who are out and about because they are active” - she must mean essential workers. Slips the September-October frame for double dosed freedoms back to November for vaxing the vulnerable. Very clear.

schools?
They are working very hard. Drink.

HSC. Drink.

our year 12s. Our students. Drink. Drink. Drink.

Premier you still have over 4,500 mystery cases.
Well that’s the way delta works. It doesn’t matter what rules are in place, it is insidious. It is infectious. “Covid never had a rule book, delta is no rule book on steroids.”

she is standing saying there has never been pandemic planning in the history of the world.

*paraphrased and abridged.

her previous double doses freedoms are now “come November come October”.

regular reminder that this jagged timeframe bullshit is because her planned “freedoms” are things like hair appointments and ski holidays and dining out for the wealthy.

she is quite shocked at how many people left their house for the wrong reasons. Get. Fucked.

she has no fear in taking any decisions they need to, to get those numbers down says Berejiklian, a lie.

the virus keeps moving and keeps teaching us things, says Berejiklian, and unforchunately the highest number of cases are in the same areas of greater Sydney. Does she announce the test and isolate payment to underscore “what they are doing” in west and SW Sydney? Of course not.

sounds like her earlier boasts about flattening the curve in Fairfield were premature and false.

Q: are you giving people false hope by not adjusting the 28 August lockdown deadline?
A: we need to make sure that the measures we take work.
She says this a lot, as well as the no rule book thing. Both can not be true. Both can be, and are, false.

back to school is a program they are working on. She appreciates the stress of having to home school, and work, and lockdown, she claims, from people who are in that position and tell her about it.

Dr Chant Dr Chant, repeats the premier.
One can only hope Dr Chant is having a day off ay.

Dr Gale: particular concern around western Sydney and south western Sydney and the vast majority of people are doing the right thing and one of the main drivers of case numbers are large households and essential workers. Delta is highly transmissible.
Nothing new. Nothing.

tl;dr the NSW government is doing exactly the same thing day in day out with a revolving cast of supporting characters - all white except the political leadership - delivering exactly the same messaging, day in day out.