A construction worker accused of assaulting police at an anti-lockdown rally in Sydney has been verbally slapped down in court over his defiance of public health orders.

Thomislav Mijic was applying for bail in the Supreme Court on Thursday, but was first given a stern lecture by Justice Peter Garling.

“Let there be no mistake. I do not care whether you believe in COVID or not,” the judge said.

“I do not care whether you think public health orders are appropriate or not.

“I’m just not interested in your view.

“What I am interested in is that you understand that, regardless of your view, you are obliged … to comply with every single public health order, which exists, or which may come into existence.”

“Understood Your Honour,” Mr Mijic, appearing via video-link in prison greens, said.

Justice Garling granted him bail to live in Liverpool, imposing conditions to mitigate the Crown’s concerns he would incite or participate in another rally.

He must report to police three times a week, must not go within five kilometres of the Sydney CBD, and cannot leave the house except to go to work in a pizza business or as a construction worker.

Under new vaccination conditions introduced this week, as a resident of a hotspot area, Mr Mijic will be unable to work on construction sites unless he is vaccinated.

He will next face Central Local Court on September 2.

Read more:

https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/state/nsw/2021/08/12/sydney-covid-protester-court/

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Local authorities in the NSW town of Walgett warn the local hospital cannot cope with a COVID-19 outbreak, as the state’s Health Minister sounds the alarm over low vaccination rates of Aboriginal people in the north-west.

Eight local government areas in western NSW were plunged into lockdown on Tuesday after positive cases were detected in the towns of Dubbo and Walgett.

Nearly 30 per cent of people in Walgett are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, identified as a priority group for vaccine access due to the higher burden of illness they suffer compared to the general population.

The local mayor Ian Woodcock said the consequences of an outbreak in a town with such a vulnerable population would be devastating.

Read more: https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/it-would-be-devastating-grave-concerns-over-nsw-indigenous-vaccine-rates-20210812-p58i35.html

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Let's place this in perspective:

According to the Aboriginal people in Walgett, they had enough vaccine for themselves, but THESE VACCINES WERE SUDDENLY TAKEN AWAY (The Drum ABC TV 12/08/2021) to inoculate Year 12 students in Sydney by one of the governments (probably Scomo's)... Then the NSW government has to URGENTLY now ship some new vaccines to Walgett...

by Finian Cunningham

The United States is facing perfect storm conditions for the grueling continuation of the Covid-19 pandemic. The long-term economic impact could hasten the end of its global power as we know it. 

Infections, hospitalizations and deaths are on the rise again – as they are in other capitalist states. But the outlook for the U.S. is uniquely bleak. 

Already, the US has the shameful title of having the world’s biggest death toll from the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 and its disease Covid-19. At over 630,000 deaths, that represent nearly 15 percent of the world’s total. Despite a relatively high level of vaccination (50 percent of the population), the disease appears to be resurgent. 

The problem for the United States is the dominance of capitalist imperatives over social policy which prevents a coherent, effective public health strategy. The imperative of private profit is also present in European nations, but to a lesser extent compared with the US. Britain is probably closer to the US than any other European country in its compliance with capitalist interests, and it is no coincidence that Britain has the worst Covid-19 mortality in Europe, despite having a high rate of vaccination. 

By contrast, in the United States, the public is largely expected to bear the costs of lockdowns, long-term unemployment and general living costs. With an over-reliance on vaccination alone, the Biden administration is declaring the end of lockdowns, social distancing and wearing of masks. Government aid for the unemployed and rental assistance for families is being terminated. 

Workers are being forced back to workplaces and schools are being reopened in total denial of the epidemiological scientific advice to maintain isolation. Why? Because of the imperative for capitalist businesses to resume profit-making. And of course, without adequate government support to laid-off workers, many millions of citizens are frustrated by the need to get back to work. 

One can easily understand anti-lockdown protests when people are not given financial support to cope with lockdown. The problem is not the practice of public health policy per se, it is the practice of public health policy in a capitalist society where there is little support for furloughed workers

Another distinctive problem for the United States – and to lesser extent European states – is the inordinate level of misinformation. Millions of Americans believe that there is no pandemic. Despite the death toll and prevalent sickness, it is incredible that so many people are convinced that the pandemic phenomenon is all a hoax. Such a view is particularly popular among Trump supporters and US Republicans who hold the outlandish conspiratorial belief that it’s all a giant ruse to take away individual liberty, impose a “Grand Reset” and a “fascist liberal tyranny” (what a discombobulation!). 

This kind of unscientific conspiracy delusion feeds into other irrational convictions that are opposed to wearing face masks in public or against the administering of vaccines. Irresponsible pundits and media commentators especially on the right-wing Murdoch outlets Fox and Sky promulgate anti-vaccination theories that are deterring large sections of the population from taking up inoculation. Some of the wilder fringes actually believe that vaccines will turn us into zombies as in the horror film, I Am Legend. Then these same pundits talk about the danger of “Covid civil war” breaking out. Well, they have helped create an atmosphere of confusion, fear, ignorance and distrust. 

The United States is doomed. In its private-profit-driving society, all basic measures of public health management are confounded. On top of this, the level of misinformation and misdirection also further thwarts a rational plan to contain the pandemic. That is why we are seeing a grave resurgence in the pandemic across the United States. By failing to contain the disease, the perfect storm conditions in the US make for the emergence of new deadlier variants of Covid-19. The biggest worry is that the existing vaccines will no longer be effective against a newer virulent strain of the virus.

Millennia of history attest that deadly plagues have altered the course of history and have even wiped out civilizations. 

Then along comes an invisible danger, a virus, that is ripping through the United States in a way not foreseen. And the vulnerability of the US is all down to its own internal failings as a capitalist society saturated with misinformation.

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/columnists/202108111083581935-covid-end-of-us-empire/

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The pandemic is challenging the underpinnings of modern conservatism and if right-wing parties can’t adapt, they’ll be doomed.

COVID-19 is destroying the foundational ethos of individual liberty and small government, to the point where conservatives have been at sea, unable to respond effectively to the health crisis.

It comes down to serving the public interest versus the self interest of elites and vested interests, which is not a conflict confined to conservatives: centre-left parties are fully capable of ignoring the public interest and looking after their mates.

But in a pandemic, it seems, left-wing governments are more inclined to impose the restrictions necessary to control the virus.

Two current illustrations of that are the mess in New South Wales and the crowds at Lord’s this week watching England v India, mask free.

The NSW Liberal government was reluctant to lock down hard enough and deprive its citizens of liberty, with the result that the Delta version of COVID-19 is now out of control.

The federal Coalition supported that, and criticised the Victorian Labor government’s hard lockdown, but is now forced into embracing total lockdown, along with Gladys Berejiklian.

The Conservative Johnson government in the UK is experimenting with no restrictions before full vaccination, with a “ping system” where your phone pings and tells you to go into isolation if you go near an infected person.

About 60 per cent of the British population is fully vaccinated, but a lot of the unvaccinated have been infected so they’re immune as well.

For that reason, Boris Johnson might pull it off and gradually improve health outcomes without further lockdowns, but the price is high in the meantime: Almost 100 people are dying per day and two million have “long covid”, or debilitating long-term complications from the disease.

The Australian strategy, imposed by the hegemony of chief medical officers, remains zero covid until herd immunity is reached.

The medical advice is that 80 per cent of the population needs to be fully vaccinated to end lockdowns, and even then, experts are saying, masks will still be needed, along with distancing and improved ventilation and CO2 monitoring in public indoor spaces.

The Morrison government cajoled, or bullied, the Doherty Institute into concluding that opening up could start at 70 per cent of the adult population vaccinated, or just 54 per cent of the total, which is plainly wrong.

But it allowed the government to present an optimistic scenario of opening up before Christmas, without vaccinating children, or imposing a mandatory vaccination regime.

The reality is that unless zero covid is abandoned, as it has been in England (but not in Scotland), then there will be lockdowns until 80 per cent of the population has been fully vaccinated.

That requires either most children under 12 to be vaccinated or more than 90 per cent of the adult population, which in turn would require mandatory vaccination.

In any case, it won’t happen this year, and it will probably take until March 2022 at the earliest.

The problem with the Liberal Party’s over-optimistic exit predictions is that no one – especially them – is prepared for the worst.

The conservative mindset would normally be to hope for the best while preparing for the worst, but not if you’re focused on today’s news cycle with a libertarian ideology.

Alan Kohler writes twice a week for The New Daily. He is also editor in chief of Eureka Report and finance presenter on ABC news.

He is now on leave until September. 

Read more: https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/finance-news/2021/08/19/conservatism-pandemic-alan-kohler/

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