About those up to 40,000 Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine doses withdrawn from rural & regional New South Wales at the end of July 2021.....

In 2021 the New South Wales Higher School Certificate written exams for Year 12 students commence on 19 October and conclude on 12 November.

In Greater Sydney there are est. 52,400 students enrolled in Year 12 and it seems that the NSW Berejiklian Government has been unable to persuade Australian Prime Minister & Liberal MP for Cook Scott Morrison to release enough Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to protect an est. 24,153 of these students living in Western and South Western Sydney during the current highly infectious Delta Variant Outbreak.  Despite the fact that children and adolescents are over represented in the current infection growth within the state and there is as yet no end date in sight for this viral outbreak.

ABC News, 28 July 2021

On 28 July 2021 NSW Health announced that: Up to 40,000 Pfizer doses will be allocated from NSW Health's rural and regional supply of COVID-19 vaccine to help Year 12 students in south west and western Sydney get back to school for face-to-face learning on 16 August.

By 31 July people in regional NSW were beginning to report receiving cancellation notices for scheduled appointments for first and second doses of the Pfizer vaccine, as well as at least one vaccination hub being stripped of Pfizer completely.

Twitter, retrieved 1 August 2021

One has to wonder about the logistics of the Premier and Health Minister’s plan to first dose vaccinate those approx. 24,153 high school students - who along with their peers are currently studying from home during the Greater Sydney lockdown – over a short window of 18 days.

Given the ever rising infection numbers, people living in rural and regional New South Wales are openly wondering if any thought has been given to the impact on their communities once the Delta Variant firmly establishes itself outside of Greater Sydney.

A little truth telling about the Australian hotel quarantine system & national vaccine rollout - popularly known as 'The Morrison Shitshow' - during the global COVID-19 pandemic

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_0zFEtPbiA&t=33s
 

Just 31 days out from the beginning of Spring and parts of the Clarence and Richmond valleys are listed as drought affected

 

CDI = Combined Drought Indicator. RI = Rainfall Index. SWI = Soil Water Index. PGI = Pasture Growth Index. DDI = Drought Direction Index. Data current to 22/7/2021 (AEST)

This drought affected area represents est. 1.9% of the NSW North Coast region, with est. 97.9% of the region not experiencing any level of drought.

Cartoons of the Week

 

Andrew Dyson

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Andrew Dyson

North Coast news you may have missed this week.......

 

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced on Wednesday 28 July 2021 that up to 40,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine would be redirected from the state's rural and regional COVID-19 vaccine supply to help Year 12 students in some of Sydney's worst-affected suburbs get back to school for face-to-face learning.

But with several COVID-19 cases in regional towns, including Coffs Harbour, Orange and the Central Coast, residents reacted cautiously to the announcement. 

"There are frontline health care workers who [still] haven't been vaccinated [in regional areas]," Rural Doctors Association of Australia's CEO Peta Rutherford said. 

"We just say it with warning — if they're moving the vaccines into Sydney, we would expect, should there be an outbreak, that the Premier is prepared to move Sydney vaccines to a rural town if required." 

On the Mid North Coast, the mayor of Nambucca Heads, Rhonda Hoban, said despite no COVID-19 cases so far, there were a lot of vulnerable people in the community still waiting to be vaccinated. 

"We've got three times the state average of people over the age of 65, a high Indigenous population and a significantly higher than average number of people who suffer chronic health conditions," Councillor Hoban said. 

"The real issue has been that we've had close to 18 months and we still don't have enough vaccines. 

“If there was an outbreak in the Nambucca Valley and they rushed Pfizer here, immunity is not immediate.” 

Similar concerns were held by the Mayor of Lake Macquarie Kay Fraser, who said regional NSW was being treated like Sydney's "poorer cousin". 

“I have a real issue with it," she said. 

“If it’s going to come out of the Hunter region or some of those regional areas out at Orange, where there is COVID-19, I’m really concerned.”  [ABC News, 29 July 2021]

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Twenty-four 24 brand new homes funded by a $4.1 million grant by the NSW Government - 12 two-bedroom and 12 single-bedroom - are to be built in South Grafton for disadvantaged families in partnership with North Coast Community Housing.

Work is expected to begin on the Bimble Ave site in South Grafton early in 2021, following council approval.

“North Coast Community Housing CEO John McKenna said the project would help alleviate housing stress by providing a significant boost to housing options in Grafton.

“The mixed tenure development is aimed at addressing three issues in the current housing market by offering six of the units for sale, nine units at an affordable rent for key workers and nine units for those most in need of social housing,” Mr McKenna said.” [DailyTelegraph, 28 July 2021]

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Details of the fines issued to 26 year-old George Thompson who breached the Greater Sydney lockdown by flying to Ballina on 14 July 2021 before being driven across the NSW-Qld border where allegedly “he used someone else's details to check into venues around Brisbane…..

July 26: Mr Thompson was fined $4,000 for failing to comply with a border direction, $4,000 for providing false information and $1,300 for failing to comply with a direction from an emergency officer. Ms Gray was fined $4,000 failing to comply with a border direction.” [Daily Mail, 29 July 2021]

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News Corp in Australia is hedging its bets when it comes to 'anti-vaxx' sentiment now the NSW Delta Variant Outbreak really starts to bite

 

The Guardian, 29 July 2021:

The Daily Telegraph has ended Alan Jones’s regular column amid controversy about his Covid-19 commentary, including calling the NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant a village idiot on his Sky News program.

There has been apparent tension inside News Corp Australia between the anti-lockdown Sky After Dark commentators like Jones and Andrew Bolt and the Holt Street newspapers, which have been promoting vaccination and criticising the “freedom” protest in Sydney.

The Daily Telegraph editor Ben English told Jones he was dropping his column because it didn’t “resonate” with readers.

Jones, 80, says he doesn’t believe his columns don’t resonate with readers.

“If the argument has been it’s not resonating, I don’t have to defend myself,” Jones told The Sydney Morning Herald.

“Have a look at Sky News YouTube, Sky News Facebook and Alan Jones Facebook and you can see. The same column that I write for the Tele goes up on my Facebook page.

“The public can check it for themselves. 35 years at top of the radio - and I don’t resonate with the public? Honestly.”

Asked about Jones’s attacks on Chant, the NSW health minister Brad Hazzard told reporters at a press conference that a lot of people “don’t base their decisions in science, or evidence”.

“All I will say is we are in a one-in-100-year pandemic,” he said. “The community need to understand the decisions are taken as best as possible on the basis of evidence and science to keep us safe.”

Jones’s final Telegraph column last week criticised Australia’s response to Covid-19, which he argues is no worse than the flu for healthy people.

On Monday on Sky News, Jones launched an attack on Chant, calling her “dumb” and “out of touch”. “How many villages are missing their idiot?” he said.

The former 2GB broadcaster also defended the Sydney protesters…..

How does one know that a particular water security solution is probably a bad idea? It is supported by the NSW National Party

 

Rous County Council is the regional water supply authority providing water in bulk to the Council areas of: Ballina (excluding Wardell); Byron (excluding Mullumbimby); Lismore (excluding Nimbin); and Richmond Valley (excluding land to the west of Coraki). A population of around 100,000 is serviced by this water supply system with the actual area of operations being approximately 3,000 sq kms.

Its constituent councils have at least 83,051 person who are eligible to vote in local government elections.

On the basis that allegedly around 10 per cent of of the district population and, 3 out of a total of 43 councillors in the 4 constituent local government areas, supported further investigation of the now rejected Dunoon Dam proposal, NSW Nationals MLA for Clarence & Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture and Forestry Chris Gulaptis is yelling about the democratic process.

The Daily Telegraph, 26 July 2021:

ROUS County Council needs to use some common sense in developing its future water strategy according to Clarence MP Chris Gulaptis.

Mr Gulaptis, who was also the Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture and Forestry, said he was disappointed the majority of Rous councillors ignored the overwhelming wishes of the community at Wednesday’s extraordinary meeting and abandoned investigations into Dunoon Dam as an option.

Councillors voted 5-3 to keep Dunoon Dam out of the region’s future water strategy and instead tap into groundwater aquifers in Alstonville and Tyagarah, which Mr Gulaptis said the most recent studies showed was very limited.

“I applaud councillors Robert Mustow, Sandra Humphrys and Sharon Cadwallader for supporting the wishes of over 11,000 petitioners and written submissions who were in favour of the Dunoon Dam proposal being further investigated,” he said.

“The five opposing councillors showed a complete disregard to the community consultation process and the community has every right to lose confidence in them and the democratic process. It quite rightly is a slap in the face to local democracy.

“Water is one of the most basic elements we need to survive, and I acknowledge the vision of past Rous councillors who recognised this and purchased land for a dam to secure the water needs for a growing population.

“I find it staggering the majority of current councillors are prepared to ignore this longstanding strategy along with disregarding the wishes of the overwhelming majority of the community whose submissions supported investigating the dam as an option.

“I acknowledge that desalination, recycling and extraction from the aquifers is an option, but so too is the dam.

“I strongly believe all options should all be on the table, including the dam, for investigation to assure the community that Rous has been thorough in arriving at the best option for the region’s future water needs. “It is often said that local government is the government closest to the people. Clearly that is not the case of the five elected councillors in this instance, who are ignoring the will of more than 10,000 constituents.”