I'm not surprised there are people risking themselves over dodgy beliefs.  

My current theory is that whoever Q Anon was or if it was the person who took over from him, whoever it is, not a nice person, had this idea - I wonder if I can make the namaste folk believe in the right wing agenda.

Mullumbimby is known as the NSW capital of anti-vaxxers.  Look, I am on the sidelines of the debate tho I would vaccinate if it were a reasonably achievable choice for me to make, and I think if you aren't going to vaccinate then you need to be responsibie about it.  And from the sidelines I can appreciate why a person might have concerns about vaccination, but I cannot see how that conflates with wearing masks in shops and social distancing.

There are police in town keeping the peace because of trouble with people insisting on their right not to wear a mask.  How dumb is that?  en masse dumb, like they're in a religion.

The latest I heard was that the vaccination is a conspiracy of genocide.  so is the corona virus when it isn't being the flu or a complete fabrication.  How can one person say all those things in one conversation and not hear for themselves how impossible it is for them all to be true?

Rawat's edict that we not talk about our experience to new people was clever, like putting the fence around the flock once it was big enough, giving us less chance of deprogramming ourselves - and it had the added bonus of sticking the boot into our self esteem - not good enough to talk about my own inner experience.

Lesley,

'we will develop immunity one way or another'

No, the guy already had COVID in early 2020. Immunity? Guess not.

Healthy vs. unHealthy? He was a buff fitness instructor.

No, we're going to need vaccinations and repeated boosters just like the flu shot.

I haven't caught the flu since the pandemic started.  but I got it at least once a year beforehand.  Flu shots don't seem to work very well, all the old ladies round here got their flu shot and were still getting and spreading the flu all around.  social distancing has worked amazingly well on stopping the flu round here.

Lesley,

No offense, but I think your sources of COVID and vaccine info is a little lacking.

COVID is most likely going to be just like the flu virus needing boosters. Immunity wanes with time for the COVID vaccines. It doesn't mean the vaccines don't work. It's expected and normal for the anti-bodies to wane over time.

Keep in mind, regardless of the waning, so far it certainly appears that if you are vaccinated the chances of serious hospitalization illness and death are close to zero. The only people dying at this point in the US are the unvaccinated.

but the hospitalisations and deaths seem to me quite an appreciable percentage - just shows how horrible it is.

yes re the fitness trainer, maybe he got the delta strain the second time round.  The thing is the rapidity of the evolution of the corona virus compared to the rapidity of the vaccination response isn't it?  As I understand it we are on a losing wicket because the microscopic things reproduce so fast.  

I saw a show where they are working to develop a nasal spray vaccine.  The idea being more rapid response and stopping the virus at the door - in the airways before it gets in.

Drek, I know I don't want to get the virus.  I don't want to get the vaccine either but if the risk of getting the virus becomes appreciable then either I must literally become a hermit which I think tends to send people loopy, or attempt a vaccine at which point I do have a nice doctor I can go to and formulate a plan on how to do it.  Unfortunately I tend to believe it could easily be curtains for me, even doing it in hospital.  so there is another option would be to move to a more remote area, go and live with the wallabies on Bruny Island - has appeal I really do like the company of wallabies even though it is in the teeth of the Antarctic winds.  but I am hopeful we will stay covid free in my locality where the sun is shining today.  very nice, now if I could just swap my neighbours for the wallabies....

Lesley, I apologize for being bossy.

And I know that you might be unable to get the vaccine.

But, for you here's an anti-body treatment that looks promising.

I don't think that is likely to work for me either.  it is hard to understand.  it's happening to me and I find it hard to understand but the facts remain constant.  no immune problems then eat spring roll, a few hours later I am in anaphylactic shock.  

I used to believe that anaphylaxis was the upper end of allergic reactions but now I have understood there are grades of anaphylaxis and what happens to me is the worst of the worst. 

so from no problems to the worst of it via one Chinese spring roll.  I was warned way back then to be careful with food, insects and drugs.  And I was told it was an ongoing process but still I hoped and did all I could to recover a good immune response.

they were right.  exactly right.  it is over 30 years I have lived with it and it has gone exactly as predicted.  (well I have survived better than expected) but the ongoing accretion effect.  The only thing I can say is that if I can go 3 years without a shock then I recover to my best ability to withstand one.  currently it is I dunno maybe 4 years since the last one, a paper wasp sting.

I have been super careful with drugs, always looking when I have needed to take antibiotics for something I have already had.  always refusing anything I didn't have to take.

But then along came Dr Deepak, the f*ckwit who insisted on shocking me not once but twice with contrast dye.  That was not all he did.  I probably am so traumatised I'm not going to go to any hospital ever again.  But that aside, the point is the ongoing accretion effect - I had a highly allergic reaction to the blood thinner they gave me afterwards.  it's a knock on effect, I will now be more intolerant of more drugs. 

It is hard to describe how things went with the contrast dye.  The first shock I was under sedation and remained conscious for maybe one or two seconds once the needle went in.  The second I was under general anaesthetic and woke up to die but the anaesthetist had a hold, and it was love that kept me alive.

all of that is a long way of saying I am at the pointy end of anaphylaxis now, I have already survived way past my bedtime and will still be around for a long time yet if I can avoid any more drug induced shocks - well that's my sense of it anyway, there are anti biotics and painkillers I can take and basically feel pretty healthy.

I got told yesterday how this wave of infection in NSW started - one guy.  He picked up a Middle Eastern flight crew and took them to their hotel.  He caught it from them.  He was supposed to be vaccinated to do that job but he wasn't.  The last I looked, a day or two ago, they were saying we are on a knife edge, whether we can get the numbers back down.

I'm hopeful the numbers will go down, by far the bulk of people are doing everything they can to avoid infection now.

Lesley, I sure hope that you're going to be ok. Does not sound fun. Sounds pretty unpleasant.

It seems that Australia does not yet have decent vaccine percentages and that with Delta being so contagious you guys might be in for a rough patch.

It's so strange, but a couple of months ago we thought we had COVID beat and baseball games and concerts and all that stuff. And now, we're all back on our heals.