Recommendations in Australia are that schools/uni is still good to go. That being said a bunch of schools and universities have decided to make alternate arrangements.
I don’t envy decisions makers who have to balance keeping things running and keeping the virus under control.
Sweden: moved all education for students aged 16+ online. Might be an okay middle ground. Might not.
Luckily these days technology is pretty handy with Zoom and other things. Also much content is online already with that shift having gone through the past decade or two especially in higher education.
I haven’t heard much about how it’s playing out in genuine higher education. I know our staff that helps on-board educators has a lot to do at the moment indicating that there are programmes that maybe weren’t that far along the process already.
Meanwhile, practical higher education has a bit more of a challenge, wherein students are interacting with physical materials in some way (industrial design, chemistry,…)
For pre-uni I’m not that well-informed.
There’s plenty of courses that max online as possible so much so that there classified as online courses e.g. some teaching degrees but you still needa do the placements.
As I understand universities in Victoria, Australia Are looking to quickly maximise online content and modify in person stuff to minimise risk like smaller class sizes
It’s a fucked up situation for sure, not least because we won’t know which option was the right decision until much, much later. I suspect there isn’t a way to go that isn’t going to have major bad consequences.
My uninformed (so, worthless) opinion is that it would be better to keep as much running normally as possible. Because, as far as I understand it, we’re all going to get infected. Relatively few of us are going to experience much more than a bad cold. Except, the number of people likely to get badly sick will be enough to cripple our health system. So we can keep things running, but people will die. Not necessarily from COVID, but from being unable to get treated because hospitals will be packed beyond capacity. Once the virus runs its course, things go back to normal.
Or, we can effectively shut the whole country down until this blows over and the economy goes to shit. Fewer people die, but the majority of the country is fucked up for several years. Big businesses will mostly be fine because they will be bailed out or just move to another country (which is already happening anyway, and hurting a fair few people). If the government doesn’t freeze things like interest rates, mortgage payments, etc while at least subsidising some kind of paid leave for people unable to work during the shutdown anyone without the capacity to survive a few months without income, a very large section of the population will become destitute within a couple of months. As far as I can tell there are only three relatively small groups who would not need additional government assistance just to survive. First, those already entirely reliant on welfare payments, which is a very small group. Second, those who have sufficient cash reserves to keep up with all their payments without receivng income for an extended period. Lastly, those who have minimal financial obligations: no repayments of any kind. I suspect those three groups combined would account for, at most, a third of the population. Everyone else would be fucked. So you’d end up with a relatively healthy population, the majority of whom would have lost almost everything. Most small and medium businesses would have gone bust.
From what I know of our government, they will value the economy, especially big business, over most other things. The shutdown won’t happen unless they can see no possible alternative.
Australia is in the position to observe what happens in Italy, Spain, France, Germany and basically whole Europe. In theory they should be able to make the most informed decisions possible. I don’t know details about the readiness of Australia’s health care system but so far the lack of restrictions suprises me a bit.
You forgot one thing: the bailouts make the value of your money decrease. The government basically creates more money out of thin air. Eventually prices go up and even the people with money start to suffer.
You had six months of expenses set aside? Well, it might only last four or five now. And it just gets worse and worse as it goes. The effects of this will continue long after the virus is gone.
Very similar to the minimum wage increasing
Normally yes, but the US dollar is actually going up. People are buying US dollars because they think it’s the safest currency to have in an economic crisis which is driving the price up. A sort of self-fulfilling prophecy.
Things could change depending on how hard the virus hits the US.
I don’t see how the value won’t increase if they just start sending everyone cash. I hope my money is just as valuable in six months.
Woke at 261 lbs, looking a little bit more bloated.
Ok, so it occurred to me there are two factors playing into how Australia is approaching the situation.
One, I think Australians generally downplay how serious things are because a lot of crap happens here: fires, floods, all that shit. One more natural disaster is viewed as the same old shit. The difference here is the panic buying, which we haven’t seen before. Apart from that though, there seems to be relatively little public desire for more measures to be taken. I think the AMA is pushing for more measures, but there seems to be more public focus directed at panic buying. I much, much more comment about stopping panic buying than infection control measures.
Two, our federal and state governements are being pretty quiet and slow to act. The current mob in charge federally have a really, REALLY poor track record with disaster response. They get pretty good expert advice, but often ignore it because it doesn’t suit them or seens too much work to implement. They don’t like spending money on anything unless it buys them votes. The state governments can’t do that much without federal backing.
If it’s any consolation, I’ve heard this virus doesn’t like heat. Is it still warm there?
And pani buying is the worst. People who haven’t bought a certain item in years are suddenly buying three months worth. They’re the problem.
It’s coming into autumn, but still relatively warm: 50 to 77 degrees in your Fahrenheit. We’ve gone from nine cases in Canberra a couple of days ago to 19 now. We’re doing pretty well compared to most other Australian cities. I think what is hurting us the most (Australia wide) outside the panic buying is people refusing to take precautions because they aren’t being forced to.
With all the panic buying, I’m getting to the point where I’m seriously considering getting whatever I can because there comes a point where I’m going to look after my family with little thought for anyone else. I don’t want to, but I won’t let my wife and child get disadvantaged.
Our routine is to load up on groceries on the 20th of each month. We were about 10 days too late. We’re not hurting but a lot of our usual stuff is gone. It’s slightly annoying at this point but I’m worried it’s going to get worse - even the tofu was gone!
This speaks volumes
I had a look around and a lockdown is well on the way. Most states have shut their borders, and school closures look like they are on the way. Advice is to limit all non-essential travel.
Honestly, I think I’m going to stop going to the gym until this is over. I’m a reasonably intelligent adult, so I shouldn’t need a government order to make me do what is necessary. I’ll limit myself to going to work and when necessary, the shops. We’ve gone from nine to 19 cases in under 48 hours. I think the only responsible thing for me to do is take what measures I can to avoid increasing the risk of infection.
Yep announcement today regarding shutting down non essential services from Tuesday. Waiting to see if work is considered essential or not. Schools to close from Tuesday.
The ACT hasn’t reached that stage yet but I realised (took me long enough) that I can take precautions without being told to. I’m thinking of hitting Bunnings shortly to grab the pipe and caps so all I need to do tomorrow is cut the pine at work and put it together.