Thread by @MackayIM

Queensland records zero new local cases of COVID-19, Jeannette Young praises people for getting tested abc.net.au/news/2021-10-0… via @ABCaustralia

Agree with CHO on how we've managed to "dodge a bullet" so often when clustered emerge. I'd add that having a clearly spoken, straightforward, collaborative CHO, dep. CHO(s), Premier, dep Premier - it makes a big difference.

We've also had good luck (and the south has had its share of bad luck), we don't have the high rise higher density living, we are outdoors more, we do have a sprawling State (problem for vaccination),

But we've also had a great response from our community when specific areas are asked to step forward for testing. Sampling numbers spike. We lockdown quickly, stopping spread. We test and trace, we open up again.

This pattern has (so far) kept the public onside. There's no one thing though. Its complex web of things. Tone and quality of communication are very important.
But at some point the luck will run out, we'll possibly see multiple clusters (like Melb did?) which

have been bubbling along for some time before being found. Numbers could climb & - as has happened everywhere - contact tracing will be overwhelmed. A lockdown might already have been called. Cases will eventually outpace lockdowns because those who must still work get infected

and start new fires.
Households will provide the fuel.
Hospitalisations will rise (just not to the extent we've seen pre-vaccination), then deaths. The speed of the rise may be reduced thanks to vaccination effects.

But every pocket of unvaccinated people will catch fire and burn brightest.
Those in regional areas who have not seen cases will see them, & their effects on loved ones.

Their social media will fill with ~10% of their infected unvaccinated friends becoming very sick, requiring hospitalisation. Some will die there.

It'll become very real very quickly. The media will be singing loudly their song of anxiety.
The unvaccinated will wish they'd started vaccinating 3mths ago.
But it will be too late because the best immune response requires both doses of vaccine plus another couple of weeks.

Queensland.
Please make the effort to get vaccinated NOW. Ask your boss for time off to get the shot. Walk into a clinic *this* weekend.
Put in the extra effort to seek out a vaccine site. Check again. Make noise if you can't find one.
qld.gov.au/health/conditi…