What It’s Like to Go Into Lockdown for the Second Time

Thought I'd make a post about this here, Australia is regularly at the forefront of laws and regulations pushed across the Five Eyes countries. Australia has recently reentered lockdown after another outbreak there. I've seen talk in the news about reentering lockdowns here where I live, Canada tends to follow along pretty closely behind Australia in this kind of thing.

This however, by this account, is Lockdown 2.0, No #ing around edition.


elemental.medium.com...

As I type these words from Melbourne, Australia, my family and I face some of the harshest lockdown restrictions anywhere in the world. We have a nightly curfew in place from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. in an effort to stop the invisible war raging in our streets, shopping centers, and homes. Australia was hailed as flattening the curve. We appeared to beat Covid. Then it all went wrong — a bungled hotel quarantine system for international travelers laced with a sex scandal became the start of the virus reentering the state of Victoria and creating community transmission that spread quickly.

A second lockdown here in Melbourne feels like a nightmare. I wake up each day and find it surreal. I can only go outside once per day for an hour of exercise. The state regulations require me to wear a face mask if I go outside my home. There are police and military in the streets and in beautiful natural settings like the Yarra River. They’re positioned there to ensure people are wearing face masks and to ask them why they are out. If a person’s answer is not one of the four reasons we’re allowed to leave home — to provide care, get to a medical appointment, go food shopping, or exercise for one hour — then officials are instructed to issue hefty fines of up to $5,000

The threat of unemployment ravages through the stories I read on my news feed each day. Whenever I speak to a friend or colleague via video chat, the conversation quickly turns to unemployment. Why? Businesses are being forced to close. I work in B2B sales in the technology industry. When I pick up the phone to a customer or a prospect, you can hear it in their voice. They are scared. They don’t want to make a decision about anything because nobody knows where Melbourne will be in a week, let alone next financial year. Planning for business is impossible.

The lockdown rules stated that going for a drive within Melbourne was legal as long as we stayed in the car. Halfway into our drive to experience freedom, the freeway began to slow. Four lanes merged into one: a police roadblock. I pulled up to the line of police officers and found a friendly one.
“Where are you off to, sir?”
“I’m heading to the beach for a drive and won’t be leaving my car, officer.”
“That’s not deemed essential travel. My advice would be to head straight home. When you arrive at your beach destination, there will be more police cars patrolling the area. You will likely be stopped again and the chance of them letting you off is almost zero. Only essential travel is allowed.”

Just a small taste of the police state to come soon to a newly re-locked down area near you. Framing this pandemic as an 'invisible war raging in our streets', not necessarily by the above writer, but by all media in general since the beginning, it's been framed as an endless struggle in exactly the same fashion as the war on drugs, the war on terror, and each of those brought massive leaps on surveillance and control over the general population, this one is looking to be the biggest leap yet.

These 'wars' all have one big thing in common, they're based on the fear of a mostly unseen, intangible enemy, that can be carried on indefinitely.

These police state level measures, that would make Hitler, Stalin and Mao, green with envy, are entirely unwarranted for even the inflated death tolls reported on this. In many cases these measures make no logical sense in any sort of disease control capacity.

Whether or not these second set of lockdowns will be lifted soon, ongoing recurring lockdowns for various reasons is likely to be an ongoing part of society after this.

Children are being conditioned to accept this, to report on fellow students for not complying, to live in constant fear of other people. These kids will grow up with these ideas firmly embedded in their consciousness' and there'll be no going back.

a reply to: dug88

And people said there's no reason to need weapons to counter govt tyranny.

Hahaha

That whole process is self defeating IMO.

Instead of it spreading through people out but being careful, it will be spread by the excess number our authorities coming into contact with the public.

You can't stop it. All you can do is slow it down some, but people will still get it. All lower numbers meant at the start is that it would be worse later on.

The main purpose for it is psychological. Get it now, or get it later; unless you go off grid and wait it out.

a reply to: dug88

Thanks for all of your well written OPs.

1. there is no reason to have an actual shutdown over this virus.
2. we are psychologically being conditioned to lose our thoughts reality on the horizon of what is real and what is not real.
3. Here in Japan we have freedom we have a virus with people dying from it we have new cases by the thousand a day yet we are being conditioned to accept it in a volunteer state of mental reality not physical reality that will not work on an island . Australia is an island and it's not going to work.
4. If this continues Melbourne will see a death of a city within about 40 days

a reply to: dug88

Only Victoria have implemented those harsh what they call stage 4 lockdown in an attempt to stop the virus spreading there.

They bungled the hotel quarantine badly there initially and that's why they are having trouble with the virus.

Early reports show that the lockdown is working and are reducing the daily cases.

In saying all that I'm glad I don't live there because it would suck big-time.

a reply to: dug88

This is biological not political. If everyone followed the rules in the first place it would have all been over and done with by now. Its a dammed if they do and a dammed if they don't scenario. It could have been seen as a bad flue , and let nature take its course, then it would have been "all these deaths could have been prevented" You have idiots out on the streets protesting, when they should have been in their bubble waiting for the virus to burn out. The blame game is pointless and the only way to deal with it is to hunker down. If Russia has a vaccine that works and it isn't distributed because its Russian , then that would be political.

a reply to: dug88

California and other states never ended the original lockdown. 5 straight months of hell for those people.

a reply to: musicismagic

I don't think shut downs are that devastating, Christmas is a massive shutdown , and you cant get much done until February when everyone is back at work.

a reply to: dug88

I live in Melbourne and to be honest, this level 4 lock down hasn't actually made a single difference to my life, except for the fact you got to where a mask. But I just wear one of them sock masks that bikers wear, which as it turns out, is actually pretty awesome for work, since its the middle of winter here and gets really cold in the middle of the night (I'm a night shifter).

Haven't even seen a single copper on the road after curfew either, let alone been pulled over and asked why I'm out after curfew or whatever.

Lock down only works to slow the spread and help the hospitals once it's in an area. It doesn't and will not stop the spread it has to run it's course. Isn't it winter in Australia, spike would be expected if so

originally posted by: Subaeruginosa
a reply to: dug88

I live in Melbourne and to be honest, this level 4 lock down hasn't actually made a single difference to my life, except for the fact you got to where a mask. But I just wear one of them sock masks that bikers wear, which as it turns out, is actually pretty awesome for work, since its the middle of winter here and gets really cold in the middle of the night (I'm a night shifter).

Haven't even seen a single copper on the road after curfew either, let alone been pulled over and asked why I'm out after curfew or whatever.

Glad to hear it from someone first hand. I have family down that way. They seem to be going about their work and respective lifestyles. Me, no problems up where I am. Thanks for posting that. Puts an 'on the ground' perspective.

Kind regards,

Bally

It probably would have been wiser to force a total lockdown of families that had members in their household over 50yo. This would have allowed herd immunity to do its work whilst reducing overall mortality rates. Mortality rates for those under 50 is 0.32% which is typically less than a severe influenza outbreak.

As it stands we likely to have another ecomic collapse like 2008 with it potentially being far worse.

a reply to: dug88

My brother in the Philippines is under the same sort of lockdown. He's scheduled to have a major operation but oh no, no public transportation, only one person per household allowed out, one hour of exercise. He could get a medical pass to go for the operation but it's across three districts and that's not allowed.

The bestest part is doctors are allowed to go between districts but other health care workers can't so no nurses and support staff unless they happen to live either next to or in the hospital.

originally posted by: anonentity
a reply to: dug88

This is biological not political. If everyone followed the rules in the first place it would have all been over and done with by now. .

No...no, it wouldn’t.

Has MSNNC been drilling this little saying into its viewers heads? Has Mika been starting and ending her rants with this?

If society had shut itself up and worn masks for 4 weeks when the flu first appeared, would it be over and done with by now? No, because it’s a virus, and we don’t have cures for those. Remember SARS? MERS? Same virus family as Covid-19. Are they eradicated? No, because they are viruses. Did we have to pull a full-on surveillance state to get through those outbreaks? No. We don’t need to now either.

a reply to: dug88

"What It’s Like to Go Into Lockdown for the Second Time ?"

Answer ?
THIS:




Clear enough ?.....

a reply to: billxam

Yeah I have a friend in the Philippines it's the same for her. In fact, she just showed me her new mandatory face shield. She wasn't able to return to see her family from the town she works at for months, they have week long quarantines just travelling from one town or city to another. There's police lockdowns at the entrances and exits to cities, military patrols.

originally posted by: bally001

originally posted by: Subaeruginosa
a reply to: dug88

I live in Melbourne and to be honest, this level 4 lock down hasn't actually made a single difference to my life, except for the fact you got to where a mask. But I just wear one of them sock masks that bikers wear, which as it turns out, is actually pretty awesome for work, since its the middle of winter here and gets really cold in the middle of the night (I'm a night shifter).

Haven't even seen a single copper on the road after curfew either, let alone been pulled over and asked why I'm out after curfew or whatever.

Glad to hear it from someone first hand. I have family down that way. They seem to be going about their work and respective lifestyles. Me, no problems up where I am. Thanks for posting that. Puts an 'on the ground' perspective.

Kind regards,

Bally

There's a bunch of Victorians up here now that jumped in their cars to escape the lockdown. No doubt bringing the virus here with them. Fun times.

a reply to: KansasGirl

I disagree I am in NZ and we had a normal life after the first round worked, and in a few weeks we will still get back to a normal life, the latest clusters have been identified and confined. It looks like it came in on freight. Here everyone is taking it very seriously and doing everything to stop the spread. As far as Draconian measures go , if you have a real and valid reason to enter or leave Auckland and are not sick, the Cops will let you through. The rest of the country is in a level two which means keeping a distance and wearing a mask. I doubt this outbreak will last long as everyone knows what to do after the last one.

a reply to: dug88

The official rules of the Victorian lockdown:

Coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions Victoria - Victorian Government Website

New Zealand has also just gone into lockdown for a second time. It has not been as onerous as the Melbourne lockdown but we have had far fewer cases so far, so the threat is less.

My son is living in Melbourne and says the only issue he is having is motivating himself to continue his studies. He is an avid gamer and everyone he knows is online and gaming at most times.

Additionally, this post is acting like the situation is permanent. In both Australia and New Zealand, the COVID-19 situation came under control and these are just regional outbreaks. They will be brought back under control again in the short term.

Currently, there are strong indications that the number of new infections are falling, in both countries, and that things will return to manageable levels soon.

At least they don't have the runaway unchecked growth in cases that are seen in other countries.