These Imperilled Times
He returned to the site of that future temple; the site where the Parable of the Deceitful Woman had begun.
Another deceitful woman had fallen, the Premier of the State of New South Wales, Gladys Berejiklian, fleeing, or dodging, a corruption investigation from the ICAC, the supremely powerful Independent Commission Against Corruption.
She just packed her bags, up and left, with almost no ceremony and barely a backward glance, as accusations of malfeasance, of taking what might be called secretive "vaccination consultancies" as an explanation of the increasingly deranged push to have the entire population vaccinated.
With an experimental vaccine the efficacy of which was being highly debated.
He wasn't going to buy into any of it, except to note the timing was exquisite.
As what was once known as the Federation of Australian states began to crumble.
"I've had it in my head for years that the central government would collapse in 2047," he told his morning coffee man, apropos of basically nothing, except that they both wondered, or commiserated, many a morning, "whither to?" "whither to from here?"
None of us could have imagined what would happen to this country in such a short period of time.
An entire collapse.
Brutal scenes of extraordinarily brutal policing on the streets of Melbourne.
A derangement. A national derangement.
The neighbours of that future place of worship were disturbed by his presence, as they should so rightly be, and the spirits that be asked him, what do you want us to do?
"Kill all hostiles," he repeated the mantra. "I have been pushed beyond all limit; well, beyond all human limit. Show mercy if you will."
Which is what they did; with an immediate kind of peace transforming the area; for it was they, or more precisely the descendants of their related families, who would benefit from the wealth and glory that would ultimately transform this area, after the collapse of the country once known as Australia into feuding fiefdoms.
They would never know their minds had been rewritten.
As for Old Alex, he just kept working, there wasn't much else to do.
He fixed that stricken, lonely house; with the departure of his former housemate the place was now truly his; and as he explained to an old acquaintance, he wanted grandiosity, not pomposity. So he planted things in groups of nine, two varieties of grevillea, nine each, nine lilly pillies. a native tree with edible, if bitter, fruit; was about to order nine passionfruit, nine roses.
As Buffy once put it:
This I mean to whisper to my mind
This I mean to laugh with in my mind
This I mean my mind to serve 'til
Service is but Magic
Moving through the world
And mind itself is Magic
Coursing through the flesh
And flesh itself is Magic
Dancing on a clock
And time itself the magic length of God
"It happens but once in a lifetime," one of the Watchers on the Watch observed, and he silenced them, and showed them something few could, or should, ever see.
And so it was, we came to these imperilled times.
NEWS
These news items now date back to late September, almost three weeks ago. Much has happened in the interim.
A small number of fully-vaccinated people in NSW have died of Covid-19, but it shouldn’t stop you from getting the jab or cause you to question its efficacy, experts say.
As of today, 36 fully vaccinated residents have died in the state’s Delta outbreak representing around 11 per cent of overall deaths.
There was one fully vaccinated patient among the 15 deaths reported up to 8pm last night.
The woman, who was in her 70s and lived in Batemans Bay on the NSW south coast, died at home and had underlying health conditions. She received her second vaccine dose shortly before her death and was diagnosed with Covid-19 following her death, NSW Health said in a statement.
According to the most recent detailed breakdown of NSW Health data, as of September 11, 20 of the (then) 21 fully vaccinated people who had died were aged 70 or more. Of the 15 fully vaccinated people to have died since, eight had underlying health conditions.
“As the proportion of the population who are vaccinated increases, the numbers of cases who are fully vaccinated will increase but this does not mean the vaccines are not working,” NSW Heath noted in the surveillance report.
“The main thing to pick up on here is that about 11 per cent of people dying are fully vaccinated, but in the groups most likely to die (over 70 year olds, people with vulnerabilities), about 80 per cent are fully vaccinated,” James Cook University professor of infectious disease and epidemiology, Emma McBryde, told news.com.au.
“These two pieces of information together suggest a strong protective effect of vaccination of around a 30 to 40 fold decreased risk of death in the vaccinated.”
At least 53.40% of people 16 and over in Australia are fully vaccinated as of today
53.40% vaccinated
77.30% 1st dose
70%
80%
more detail
A handful of deaths from the virus in the fully vaccinated, Prof McBryde added, is not unexpected “because no vaccine is perfect and they lower your odds dramatically [of contracting the virus] but not completely”.
Research fellow at Monash University’s Allergy and Clinical Immunology Laboratory, Emily Edwards, agreed, telling news.com.au that while unfortunate, “a small number of deaths will occur in the fully-vaccinated as the vaccine is not 100 per cent effective”.
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Four out of six paramedics in the New South Wales Riverina town of Finley are still unvaccinated, despite a looming deadline for all health workers in the state to get vaccinated by September 30.
Key points:
NSW Health figures show 7 per cent of healthcare workers remain unvaccinated
The state's Deputy Chief Health Officer, Dr Marianne Gale, says there are "real concerns" around vaccine refusal in some regions
Aged care worker Charmaine Rakanace was hesitant about the vaccine before she contracted COVID-19
In the town of Tumut, paramedic John Larter has been vocal about refusing the jab.
"I'm quite prepared to take the risk that if I get COVID, that I will respond to it and have natural immunity," he told ABC's 7.30.
The Paramedicine Council of NSW recently suspended Mr Larter — who is also deputy mayor of Snowy Valleys Council — over complaints he spread COVID-19 vaccine misinformation online.
Mr Larter denies the allegations.
Unvaccinated paramedics are only a fraction of the vaccination headache facing public health services across the state.
NSW Health figures show 7 per cent of all clinical healthcare workers remain unvaccinated, which is about 7,350 staff.
Two staff members at Deniliquin Hospital said that 10 nurses had not had the jab and raised concerns that the maternity ward could shut down.
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Victorian paramedics will be relying on students, SES crews and volunteer first responders to help drive ambulances as coronavirus cases create unprecedented demand.
One of the state’s top paramedics said ambulance and hospital services were the busiest they had ever been, urging people to call triple-zero only in an emergency.
Ambulance Victoria executive director of clinical operations Mick Stephenson said paramedics were taking about 150 Covid-positive patients to hospital each day, all of whom need to be screened, slowing down hospital admissions.
“It’s absolutely fundamental that only those who are seriously unwell go to hospital and all others receive care as they can in the community,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
“What we know at the moment is we’re getting a lot of calls from patients with Covid-19 who are anxious or are concerned about having Covid-19 and are calling an ambulance for those reasons, but not because they’re sick.”
Triple-0 operators have been inundated with calls, with an almost record-breaking 3250 ambulance requests made on Monday - levels not seen since the deadly 2016 thunderstorm asthma event.
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NSW will extend COVID lockdowns for 18 regional areas, and send another into a snap shutdown, after posting 941 more local cases on Thursday.
It is the state’s highest daily number of cases since it reported 961 last Sunday.
There were also six more virus deaths in the previous 24-hour period.
They were four men and two women aged from their 70s to their 90s, and take the state’s toll from its Delta outbreak to 337.
NSW Health said on Thursday that stay-at-home orders would be extended for a host of LGAs until October 11. They are: Bathurst Regional, Bourke, Central Coast, City of Broken Hill, City of Cessnock, Dubbo Regional, Eurobodalla, Goulburn Mulwaree, Kiama, City of Lake Macquarie, City of Lithgow, City of Maitland, City of Newcastle, Port Stephens, Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional, City of Shellharbour, City of Shoalhaven, and Wingecarribee.
A seven-day lockdown has also been ordered for the Snowy Monaro LGA from 3pm Thursday because of recent transmission of the virus in the area. NSW Health said the orders also applied to anyone who had been in the region since September 22.
The extended lockdowns came as Premier Gladys Berejiklian promised to bring forward the return of more freedoms as the state hit 80 per cent fully vaccinated.
“They won’t be major things but there will be tweaks. We’ll announce that at 70 per cent double dose,” she said on Thursday.
“There are a number of people in the community who have asked us to consider certain things and Health is considering those things and if it’s safe to do so we’ll be able to resume some of those activities at 80 per cent, as opposed to 1 December.”
