mike carey

A couple of ABC News productions on the virus: A Q&A with a GP and an ABC medical reporter - And a podcast home page. This is produced each week day - https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/coronacast/

About 6pm on Friday evening, Peter Dutton, the Home Affairs Minister, who is one of the most senior cabinet ministers announced that he had contracted the virus. The last cabinet meeting was on Tuesday so the medical advice is that other ministers don't need to self-isolate. Nevertheless, the PM has decided not to attend the football on Saturday night. Unfortunately his announcement said he decided not to attend to avoid his attendance being misrepresented rather than just to set an example.

The meeting has wound up and a presser held involving the PM and all the first ministers. — About half the nine members of COAG are from each side of politics, but this was a complete unity ticket. Only the PM, the Chief Medical Officer and the premiers of the two biggest states (one from each side of politics) spoke. — They are setting this group up as a National Cabinet that will meet weekly. — The cabinet will be supported by the already established Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC) which consists of the chief medical or health officers of each jurisdiction. (With eight states and territories, this sort of coordination mechanism is easier than it would be with 50 states.) — Non essential gatherings of 500 or more people should not happen from Monday (the PM will still go to the football, the opposition leader who was also going to attend will not). Schools, universities and shopping centres will not be affected. — The Chief Medical Officer explained that the risk in static events like sports crowds, where people stay in the same spot for two hours or more, were greater than railway stations and airports, where contact with other people was more in passing. — The government has increased the travel advisory for Australians to defer any non-essential overseas travel to any country (I don't plan to follow this advice, at least not now). — No additional inbound travel bans are being contemplated. Reduced overall levels of international travel mean that monitoring will be easier, most travellers will be Australians returning home, and as community transmission increases the significance of imported case declines in the scheme of things. — One thing that stood out is the extent to which the roles of the CMO and the AHPPC have primacy in the decision processes. The Australian stock exchange opened the day and fell by over 8% but late in the day it had a remarkable turnaround and a few minutes ago it closed up 4.4% on the day.

When I saw your previous reply before you deleted it, I assumed that would be the reason. I should clarify, the COAG meets as a heads of government meeting, but the name is also used for other counterpart minister meetings, attorneys general, health ministers and so on.

Me too. And since the AUD is down sharply from when the first half of the hotel bill was charged, I'm ahead at least for the moment.

There's a COAG meeting in Sydney today (council of Australian governments, a meeting of the PM and state and territory premiers and chief ministers, similar to Canadian first ministers' meetings) to discuss the pandemic. The Chief Medical Officer has advised them that they should cancel public gatherings of over 500 people. The Australian F1 grand prix had been cancelled this morning when crowds were queuing to enter practice sessions, and Cricket Australia had announced that a three game series against New Zealand will be played behind closed doors. As late as this morning the PM had been saying he was going to attend a National Rugby League gme this weekend. It's the first weekend of the new season.

It is somewhat, but there actually is a logic to it. There is passport free travel within the Schengen area so there is no way for the US to differentiate between countries within the area (any more than it would be possible for Schengen countries to differentiate between people who had visited a particular state in the US). As @tassojunior noted, US immigration would not know where you'd been if your passport wasn't stamped. The UK may not have done so before Brexit because EU citizens had automatic right of abode in the UK, but now they probably would stamp it. When I've travelled there, my passport was invariably stamped with my 6 month 'leave to enter' stamp. (Leave meaning permission, not depart.) I think the bigger issue with the announcement was that there had been no consultation with the EU and even Canada wasn't advised in advance. Hey, I'm just sitting in my basement*, a quiet loser on the internet. I only knew because I had checked an airline web page for their advisory on the issue because I'd been chatting to TB about his impending trip to Europe. *Not really.

As I read it flights will still be operating, but there are restrictions on travellers. They apply to people who have been in a Schengen area country in the previous 14 days. US citizens and residents will be subject to quarantine of some sort on return, and will have to arrive at designated US gateway airports, and non-US citizens will be denied access to the US. Their departure point doesn't matter, it's whether they have been in the Schengen area in the previous 14 days that matters.

More than the US but far less than South Korea. The eligibility bar is relatively high, but testing is being ramped up. The public health system is now allowing payment for phone and Skype consultation to help triage patients, and funding for pathology tests simplified. The government is providing funding for pop-up clinics to help separate respiratory patients from other. Hanks and his wife are in the Gold Coast University Hospital.

Guilty, chatted with you in PS last year, didn't hire.

That surprises me a little as the shoot-down was significant for Malaysia. But the trial is still in its preliminary stages so, with the political intrigue involving Mahathir and Anwar Ibrahim, it's understandable that the New Straits Times would focus on that.

I apologise for reviving an old thread. The trial has begun in Amsterdam of three Russians and a Ukrainian for shooting down MH17 five and a half years ago. This week, Australian television has had families of some of the victims preparing to go to the Netherlands for the trial and also coverage of the trial and of family members who have travelled there for it. In a different thread I posted a link to an Australian Story episode about one of those families. There were 38 Australians on that aeroplane. and it is still a significant issue here, and there are Australian Federal Police (AFP) officers in Amsterdam for the trial. In 2014 the AFP were on the ground in Ukraine as part of the investigation, and the transport of remains and aircraft wreckage from Kharkiv to the Netherlands was conducted by Royal Netherlands and Royal Australian Air Force aircraft.

It's a false dilemma. Seasonal flu spreads everywhere, this virus hasn't done so [yet]. So the exposure of the whole country to it isn't the same as that of seasonal flu. Also, the flu is mitigated by vaccine and this virus is not, so there is no 'immunity' that will reduce its effect, and hence there is a greater fear factor. The lack of any base-level immunity also means that local coronavirus effects will not be constrained in the way that local effects of influenza would be. We don't yet know what the mortality will be from this virus. It may be less than that of seasonal influenza, but it's too early to say so. It's dangerous, and in Italy the percentage of deaths has been high, In the US, testing is next to non-existent so we don't know the percentage of infections that result in serious disease, or if people have died without being diagnosed with the disease. It may end up being a nothing-burger but it's far too early to say that it is.

Happy birthday, you stud. Have a great day, but get that cardio in.

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Matt is one of the presenters on Radio National's Breafast news program, working from 'home'. Listening to the program, this worked seamlessly. The thread below this is good-natured and at times a bit nerdish. [MEDIA=twitter]1237116035053977601[/MEDIA]

Terrible pun by Ms Crabb. [MEDIA=twitter]1237161396904722432[/MEDIA] In summary Qantas is cutting international services by about 25% from April to September because of reduced forward demand. All services by A380s except SYD_LAX will be operated by smaller aircraft, BNE and MEL-SFO flights will be suspended and SYD-SFO will be operated by the larger B747 rather than B787. Some Singapore services will go from two to one daily flights but will be operated by larger aircraft. Eight of the A380s will be parked, two more will have heavy maintenance and cabin upgrades, leaving two operating. The airline will bring forward maintenance to put the period of reduced operations to good use.

In other news, on 8 March The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy turned 42. That is all.

19 November. (And I know you only asked the question as a cue for a joke, but that was a great post.)

You are such a sweet man. Maybe I'll be back in NYC some day.

I think @Epigonos lives in Orange County or the LA basin. But either way, Aeromexico may be the way to go if United stops flights to Puerto Vallarta.

If they do, go to Tijuana and take a flight on Aeromexico. They won't cancel [probably] and likely cheaper.

And as a counterpoint and mood killer (but necessary assertion about male fragility): [MEDIA=twitter]1236431408215678976[/MEDIA]

Today, 8 Mar 20, the Women's T20 Cricket World Cup final was held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Australia played India before a crowd of over 86,000 people. The Indian captain's mother and father, who had never seen their daughter play in a professional game, were in at the stadium. It failed to overtake the 1999 USA-China women's FIFA world cup final crowd of over 90,000 at the Rosebowl as the largest ever crowd at a women's event, but was a massive event for women's sport. The signature performer before and after the game was Katy Perry. For the record, Australia won.

Wait! You're not? Well, so much for that idea, I'll just stay in whatever lounge I can get into.