COVID Latest: 14,000 Deaths Potentially Avoided In Australia
Wednesday: vaccine nasal spray; Aussies want welfare raised
Morning! It’s Wednesday, May 27. Here’s today’s ‘5+5: coronavirus edition’.
Each day I’m bringing you 5 things to know about COVID-19 + 5 non-corona things too.
If you haven’t already, please sign up above ^^ to get this every day in your emails (and tell your friends).
You can email me at joshbutler.journalist@protonmail.com for tips, ideas or want to chat. You can also find me on Twitter at @joshbutler; on Facebook; or on Instagram.
Wash your hands and sneeze into your elbow. Remember physical distancing - at least 1.5 metres of separation.
Latest Australian stats: as of 9pm Tuesday, Australia has 7113 reported cases of COVID-19 (that’s +15 since the day before), with 6553 reported as ‘recovered’; there have been 102 deaths; and more than 1,288,000 tests have been done, according to the latest federal Department of Health stats. Full global stats breakdown below.
5 CORONAVIRUS THINGS
14,000 deaths avoided?
Australia has just over 100 deaths from coronavirus. That number could have been 140 times higher, if our outcomes were similar to the United Kingdom, said chief medical officer Brendan Murphy yesterday (link). "If we had their death rate and outcomes, we would've had about 14,000 deaths in Australia, not just over 100," Murphy said, comparing us to the U.K. on account of our similar healthcare system.
Speaking to a parliamentary inquiry on Australia’s response to the virus, Murphy said he backed restrictions being eased but “with a fair amount of caution”, warning of a possible flare-up in cases — “particularly in the eastern seaboard states where there have been recently some community transmission” — without strong rules in place.
It comes as a Queensland man, aged just 30, was confirmed on Wednesday morning as Australia’s latest COVID death (link).
Borders brouhaha barrels on
The border biff continues, with QLD Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk being blasted by the NSW and federal governments for keeping her state’s border closed. Now, Pauline Hanson and Clive Palmer are both supporting bids to protest the decision on constitutional grounds (link), with High Court challenges to be lodged. Other criticisms have included that banning travel is affecting tourism and other business.
Hanson’s fundraising campaign has kicked off at a cracking pace:
“We're not going to be lectured to by a state that has the highest numbers in Australia," Palaszczuk said last week of criticisms from NSW (link), adding “I hope they get their community transmission under control because that means we will be able to open up sooner.”
Aussies want welfare raised permanently
As part of the government’s coronavirus response, the Centrelink JobSeeker payment (formerly known as Newstart) was effectively doubled, to $1100 a fortnight. It was always billed as a “temporary” measure, with politicians saying it would be reduced again after six months — back to its meagre, well-below-poverty-line level, which leaves many thousands of Australians unable to afford basic food, transport, housing or medical care, and having to rely on charity or family for support. A new poll, published by the ABC, shows most Australians think the payment should remain at its current elevated level, or go even higher (link).
More than a third thought the current $1100 was correct, and another 20 percent said it should be increased more. Around one-third thought it should go down again.
COVID vaccine may need to be taken every year
CSIRO director of Health and Biosecurity, Dr Rob Grenfell, says Aussie researchers are looking at the potential for a coronavirus vaccine to be administered through a nasal spray — but it may need to be taken every year, not just once. Speaking to The New Daily (link), he said that “living with the virus is definitely the most likely future scenario,” and that it may not be as simple as just eradicating it.
Today’s stats:
The latest stats from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering (as of 9.30am AEST Wednesday) report 5,588,299 confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide. There have been 349,894 deaths.
The United States has 1,680,625 confirmed cases, with Brazil next but far behind on 391,222, then Russia (362,342). The U.S. has the most deaths (98,875), then the United Kingdom (37,130) and Italy third on 32,955.
In Australia, the latest federal stats (as of 9pm Tuesday) show 7113 cases, 6553 people recovered, 102 deaths, and 1,288,223 tests.
The latest Australian graph:
5 NON-CORONAVIRUS THINGS
Twitter is finally fact-checking Donald Trump’s wild tweets (link). In several tweets overnight, the President continued claims that mail-in ballots would be fraudulently used to rig elections, despite astonishingly little evidence this has ever happened. When those tweets are viewed on mobile (not desktop, for some reason), included below the tweet in bright blue text is a link saying “get the facts about mail-in ballots”, linking to fact-checks (link). He’s not real happy
Australian law firms are looking at a class-action lawsuit against police over allegedly “systemic” misuse of strip searches (link). It follows growing evidence that NSW Police have been breaching their own guidelines around searching people — including minors — for drugs at music festivals.
Former Melbourne school principal Malka Leifer is mentally fit to be extradited to Australia to face child sex charges, an Israeli court has ruled (link).
A Townsville man has built a giant kookaburra in his yard, equipping it with a booming laugh (link). You’ve got to check this out:
Cronulla Sharks rising star Bronson Xerri has tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs, just two days out from the NRL season restarting. The Sydney Morning Herald quoted an unnamed “doping expert” who described the combination of drugs allegedly in his system as “Ben Johnson in the late 1980s bad” (link). He has been provisionally suspended, has the right to ask for another sample to be tested, and may face several years banned from competition (link).
IMPORTANT EVERY DAY
Be hygienic; wash your hands properly, at least 30 seconds with soap and water, multiple times a day (here’s how you need to do it, plus a handy Dr Karl video tutorial); sneeze and cough into your elbows.
Listen to only official information from the World Health Organisation and legitimate health bodies — Don’t share dodgy stuff on Facebook. If it looks too good (or bad) to be true, it often is.
World Health Organisation latest statistics here.
Australian government latest statistics here.
Signing off — stay safe, be healthy, look after yourself and others.
Josh