When you going Diving?

[Chris Ross]

Starting to get Pissed off. Was looking forward to getting a dive in Bali before this Christmas but the fearful are in control and that ain't an option. To add to the frustration I had a hip replacement 3 months ago and it still ain't right, surgeon said it bled badly and has affected the muscles around it.
So lots of physio and some gym/pool stuff and hopefully my one trip only set up will get wet again next year!!!!

I think the problem is that the Meek have inherited the Earth...............

I am still astounded at divers complaining about measures in place to stop the spread of Corona virus, I hear all this stuff about only killing off the old and frail, I'm fit, I'll be fine etc etc. As a diver you really don't want to catch this disease, the damage done to your lungs could keep you out of the water for an unknown period of time even after you have apparently recovered. The damage it can do to your lungs is apparently quite severe and I certainly don't want to be the one who finds out the hard way just how bad the damage can be and whether or not its recoverable - never mind the more altruistic desire not to be an asymptomatic carrier infecting people who are more vulnerable. Here's an article from Europe about divers who caught, have recovered - apparently- but are still not fit to dive some time after recovery. CAN COVID-19 PATIENTS RETURN TO DIVING? - DIVE Magazine.

Right now Queensland is accessible I believe if you're not in greater Sydney, so local opportunities are opening up - I think it's great we will have a chance to travel with very little risk of getting infected relatively shortly due to the pains we went through.

 

[Ardy]

Chris: I am 73 and in the firing line so to speak.
I am of the opinion that next winter it will be back and the idea that anything bar a vaccine will be effective is a denial of what humans have done in the past. We are going to have live with it for years at least and the death rate is insignificant compared to the Spanish Flu, I hear it is about 4x more dangerous than the flu.
We cannot destroy the economies of the West over a disease that is hardly the worst we have seen. I grew up in a time when kids were paralysed by Polio, killed by whooping cough, made sterile by Measles and lost lungs due to TB. You have not had to suffer any of those things due to the ability of medical science. We live in a world where the risks of Covid have been over-reported and different views have been under-reported.
The population are shocked as they assumed there are no risks from diseases (therefore anti-faxers) and the only risk is getting in your car or going diving, rock climbing etc.
Time to wake up and realise that the greatest threat to human health is a dead economy!
Have a read what Ivor Cummings has to say it might give you some hope!.

 

[Chris Ross]

It appears to be less dangerous just because the measures in Australia at any rate have been so successful unfortunately then add to that asymptomatic carriers who spread it around. I'm certainly glad I live here rather than the USA - they reported 200,000 new cases just the other day. Economies will recover unlike many Covid victims. I'm quite aware of past diseases and the risks they pose. A lot of the vaccine work appears to be promising, seems like the result will be for the vast majority of people you'll still get it but the deadly complications are prevented. I see the lockdowns as getting us through to the vaccine relatively unscathed.

 

[Mike1967]

Right now Queensland is accessible I believe if you're not in greater Sydney

Or Victoria, hopefully it'll be opened to us on Dec 1st.

 

[Ardy]

Chris we are going to have to wait and see. I am not happy with the state of the economy and as a person with family and bills to pay you should be more concerned with the next 5 years as it will take that long for the economy to recover.
To totally stuff the west all china has to do is a request we repay the loans we have taken from them.
A trillion $$$ in debt for a country with 25m people is a huge debt to pay off. You don't seem to be too concerned about that? It won't affect me I have enough to see me off this planet, it is you and yours that will have to carry this along with all the other debt the West has picked up over the last 20 years.

 

[David Novo]

To totally stuff the west all china has to do is a request we repay the loans we have taken from them.

Are all those sovereign bonds puttable? I doubt it. As such, how is China going to request that the loans are repaid now and not accordingly to their repayment schedule?

 

[bvanant]

I think that the news on the vaccine front is encouraging and that in a few months time travel will be getting back to normal. In the US about 300K people have died from this with all of the social distancing and mask wearing and closures. I suspect it would be 5x worse if we had done nothing. Doug Ebersole's main point was that while for many folks Covid is just a bad flu, for others hospitalization is needed. He made the point that he wouldn't want to get sick in the wilds of Indonesia or PNG. Yes indeed it is a pain to not go diving when we want (we have cancelled at least 5 trips) but in the grand scheme it is decidedly a first world problem. Here in the U.S. the economy at least is not doing any where near as badly as we had feared, but politics is still fun.
BVA

 

[Ardy]

Hi Bill and David. The American economy is in better shape than some as you didn't shut down your economy as extensively as we and most of Europe/UK did. We have all generated debts with little chance of paying them back over the last 20 years and this has just added a lot to it. It is unlikely that it could be repaid in the current generations lifetime. I suspect that there will be governments going to the Chinese and requesting extended terms, good luck with that.
Bill, Sweden did not close their economy at all and have come through it better than the rest of Europe. I am hopeful of this vaccine but it will take years to roll it out and the places I dive will be down the order of things.
300k people dead in the US population of 320m is 0.09375 % of your population. Considering the foretellers of doom were stating a min loss of 0.1% it is actually 10x less than expected.
Take away the old people who would have died anyway and those that didn't die from the flu etc. due to social distancing. It has not overwhelmed our hospitals and health services. BTW those catching it are of academic interest, the death rate and the hospitalisation rate are the key factors for me.
It has created a huge impact on our debt levels which few seem to be concerned about, which I find amazing.e in Australia.

 

[David Novo]

Hi Bill and David. The American economy is in better shape than some as you didn't shut down your economy as extensively as we and most of Europe/UK did. We have all generated debts with little chance of paying them back over the last 20 years and this has just added a lot to it. It is unlikely that it could be repaid in the current generations lifetime. I suspect that there will be governments going to the Chinese and requesting extended terms, good luck with that.
Bill, Sweden did not close their economy at all and have come through it better than the rest of Europe. I am hopeful of this vaccine but it will take years to roll it out and the places I dive will be down the order of things.
300k people dead in the US population of 320m is 0.09375 % of your population. Considering the foretellers of doom were stating a min loss of 0.1% it is actually 10x less than expected.
Take away the old people who would have died anyway and those that didn't die from the flu etc. due to social distancing. It has not overwhelmed our hospitals and health services. BTW those catching it are of academic interest, the death rate and the hospitalisation rate are the key factors for me.
It has created a huge impact on our debt levels which few seem to be concerned about, which I find amazing.e in Australia.

I am from Portugal not the USA. We did not have debt to GDP ratios below 100% during the last 10 years. That is a serious problem. Australia has been increasing their debt to gdp but it was still below 50% in 2019...

If you compare apples with oranges, Sweden seems to have been getting good results. However, the "Swedish fairytale" does not look so good if you compare it with countries with similar population density / distribution, such as Norway and Finland.
If you look at recent news, they also have abandoned their "herd immunity policy", as they don't find the results so pleasing anymore.

P.S.: Hospitals are actually currently overwhelmed in Portugal.

 

[Pressurehead]

for others hospitalization is needed. He made the point that he wouldn't want to get sick in the wilds of Indonesia or PNG. Yes indeed it is a pain to not go diving when we want

I am also over 70 and know I am in the firing line , but agree with Bill and David on this subject.
Back on subject:
When you going Diving?
Diving next week, 2 easy dives on the reefs off Moolooalba max 18m
This to celebrate 52 years of diving, have dived around the world and I am now happy to dive local.
As a side note:
You know the air/mix in your cylinder is good in the local area, some of the great places I have dived around the world the diving was GREAT, but I remember looking at some of the compressor systems/setups and thinking 'that's not right', you know, intake, exhaust, oil used, over heating , when was that last serviced? etc etc, And the hire gear , if you want to know if their gear is looked after look at the regulators and BCDs they hire, I have NEVER hired a regulator or a mask, the 2 MOST important pieces of kit.