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From the very beginning, the Australian Prime Minister has tried to argue that we should "live with the virus". Recently he has been crowing and gaslighting at the same time, claiming that we are able to do so. It's gaslighting because when he said it (16/07/2020) there was no vaccine. Make no mistake, he wanted us "to live alongside the virus and to open up your economy", which meant "die for the economy". But of course, a year later we have multiple vaccines, and they're surprisingly effective for most people. Which is just as well, because the behaviour of people when the city opened up, was rather reckless as video from Chapel Street show, keeping in mind that mask-wearing is still supposed to be requisite.
I take the opportunity to point out that the UK now has roughly ten times as many coronavirus deaths per day than what they had on July 19, their so-called "Freedom Day". Of course, the vaccine has kept the number of deaths much lower (about 1/10th) than the numbers from January this year, albeit with greater case numbers. In Victoria, for those aged 16 and above, the state is now at 74.7% fully (two doses) vaccinated, 16.8% partially (one dose), 8.5% are unvaccinated. There are 144 people in ICU, 93% of whom were not fully vaccinated. Two-thirds of new cases each day occur in those who are not fully vaccinated. These numbers do not lie. Whilst it's a little surprising that the Victorian AMA has said that the anti-vaxxers should not seek treatment if infected, and "let nature run its course".
Obviously, such matters still dominate a lot of my thinking. Still, there are other activities in my life, even if somewhat related. Following on from my presentation at eResearchAustralasia, I have been meeting with the Assoc. Prof. who runs the cryo-electron microscopy laboratory at my workplace to see if we can further optimise their workflow, and with a longer presentation planned with a similar team at the University of New South Wales this week. The challenges are significant; their datasets are enormous, the processing is done in an interactive approach, and a great deal of visualisation is required, meaning expensive GPU servers which of course means latency between the researcher and the server.
I take the opportunity to point out that the UK now has roughly ten times as many coronavirus deaths per day than what they had on July 19, their so-called "Freedom Day". Of course, the vaccine has kept the number of deaths much lower (about 1/10th) than the numbers from January this year, albeit with greater case numbers. In Victoria, for those aged 16 and above, the state is now at 74.7% fully (two doses) vaccinated, 16.8% partially (one dose), 8.5% are unvaccinated. There are 144 people in ICU, 93% of whom were not fully vaccinated. Two-thirds of new cases each day occur in those who are not fully vaccinated. These numbers do not lie. Whilst it's a little surprising that the Victorian AMA has said that the anti-vaxxers should not seek treatment if infected, and "let nature run its course".
Obviously, such matters still dominate a lot of my thinking. Still, there are other activities in my life, even if somewhat related. Following on from my presentation at eResearchAustralasia, I have been meeting with the Assoc. Prof. who runs the cryo-electron microscopy laboratory at my workplace to see if we can further optimise their workflow, and with a longer presentation planned with a similar team at the University of New South Wales this week. The challenges are significant; their datasets are enormous, the processing is done in an interactive approach, and a great deal of visualisation is required, meaning expensive GPU servers which of course means latency between the researcher and the server.
