Australia

Thursday September 10, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday September 10, 2020

Speed of coronavirus vaccine race ‘crazy’ and unsafe, scientists warn

Leading scientists across the world say rushing the development of a coronavirus vaccine to bring it to the public before the end of this year is unrealistic, unsafe, and even “crazy”. 

February 28, 2020

Despite reports from across the world suggesting a vaccine could be ready in weeks – particularly from the United States, where “Operation Warp Speed” reportedly has officials on standby to distribute the vaccine by October, ahead of the presidential election –  experts are increasingly concerned that the rhetoric is in no way matched by the data. 

None of the leading vaccine candidates have yet completed clinical trials, the regulatory bodies who licence vaccines are already struggling to cope with coronavirus demands, and questions over manufacture and distribution haven’t been considered, experts say. 

Professor Beate Kampmann, director of the Vaccine Centre at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told The Telegraph: “This timeline is neither realistic, nor is it sensible to put this kind of pressure on the analysis of important trials. It is highly politicised, and I am not a fan of this approach.”   

April 11, 2019

She said that it was essential for all new vaccines to go through comprehensive clinical trials. 

In normal times, a vaccine takes up to ten years to develop, including several years of testing. Under the current plans outlined by politicians in the UK, Russia, and the United States, this has been crunched to less than 12 months. 

“It is extremely unwise to proceed with licensing any vaccine without a proven track record for safety and efficacy, in any country,” Professor Kampmann said.

Life in a Pandemic

“If they are found to be useless or even dangerous, you might jeopardise the entire vaccine programme. The more this moves from science into politics, the more it becomes a little crazy.”     

The World Health Organization said on Friday it does not expect to see a vaccine until mid-2021, and it is working with experts to define the criteria for declaring a vaccine successful.  On the same day, US newspapers also carried reports of a planned joint statement from some of the big pharmaceutical companies, pledging that they will not release a coronavirus vaccine until its usefulness and safety are proven. 

At the same time, the head of ‘Operation Warp Speed’ in the US, Dr Moncef Slaoui, hit back at accusations of political influence, telling Science Magazine he would resign if there was “undue interference”. (The Telegraph) 

 

Thursday January 9, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday January 9, 2020

2020’s Horrible First Week

Students, professors, newlyweds, friends and family members died in Wednesday’s crash of a Ukraine International Airlines flight travelling from Tehran to Kyiv.

The disaster that killed 176 people, including at least 63 Canadians, reverberated around the world and across Canada, with vigils taking place in cities with significant Iranian-Canadian communities last night.

Speaking to reporters in Ottawa on Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said a total of 138 people missed a connecting flight from Kyiv that landed in Toronto on Wednesday afternoon, suggesting there may be more Canadians killed in the crash.

As a nation continues to grieve, attention will inevitably shift to how exactly the Boeing 737-800 commercial jet crashed just minutes after taking off.  (iPolitics)

President Donald Trump on Wednesday tempered days of angry rhetoric and suggested Iran was “standing down” after it fired missiles at U.S. forces in Iraq overnight, as both sides looked to defuse a crisis over the U.S. killing of an Iranian general. (Reuters)

Two thirds of Puerto Ricans remained without power and nearly a quarter lacked drinking water on Wednesday after earthquakes battered the Caribbean island, including the most powerful to strike the U.S. territory in 102 years. (Reuters)

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison was corrected by locals on Kangaroo Island on Wednesday after telling them he was thankful nobody died.

Morrison told a group of residents of the fire-ravaged island: “Well thankfully, we’ve had no loss of life”.

“Two,” one person responded. “We’ve had two.”

Looking to another person for confirmation, he quickly backtracked, claiming he meant first responders, not locals.

“Two. Yes, two, that’s quite right,” he said. “I was thinking about firefighters firstly.” (website 10 Daily)

 

Wednesday August 9, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday August 9, 2017

Authorities seek ways of deterring hikers from Mount Albion Falls

The “meat-loving” marine creature that ate at the legs of a Melbourne Australia teenager has been identified as a flesh-eating sea flea, known as a lysianassid amphipod.

July 14, 2017

Marine biologist Dr Genefor Walker-Smith said the creatures, which left 16-year-old Sam Kanizay with significant bleeding from his legs, were a small, scavenging crustacean that usually fed on dead fish or sea birds.

Amphipods are related to shrimp and prawns but are smaller in size, ranging from 6-13mm. They are not venomous and their bites do not cause any lasting damage.

They are commonly known as sea fleas or sea lice, although Walker-Smith noted that sea lice was more commonly used to refer to isopods, a different type of crustacean.

Kanizay said on Monday he was soaking his legs at Brighton beach when he felt the creatures attack, causing wounds that would not stop bleeding.

September 17, 2016

“By the time walked across the sand about 20 metres … I looked down and noticed that I had blood all over my ankles and feet,” he said. (Source: The Guardian) 

Meanwhile, Hamilton fire prevention officer Steve McArthur said a total of 10 hikers needed assistance getting out of Albion Falls after an “excessive amount of water” came Monday afternoon. No one was injured, he said.

Albion Falls has been at the centre of the public and political backlash lately over people ignoring safety warnings and trespassing.

This has led the city to bolster safety features, including adding $75,000 worth of fencing and increasing ticketing enforcement of trespassers. (Source: Hamilton Spectator) 

 

 

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Friday July 18, 2014

Friday July 18, 2014By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday July 18, 2014

Australia’s carbon tax repealed after 2 years

Australia’s Conservative government repealed a much-maligned carbon tax on the nation’s worst greenhouse gas polluters on Thursday, ending years of contention over a measure that became political poison for the lawmakers who imposed it.

The Senate voted 39 to 32 to axe the $24.34 Cdn tax per metric tonne of carbon dioxide that was introduced by the centre-left Labour government in July 2012. Conservative lawmakers burst into applause as the final tally was announced.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s conservative coalition government rose to power last year on the promise of getting rid of the tax, assuring voters that removing it would reduce household electricity bills. He plans to replace the measure with a taxpayer-financed $2.57 billion fund to pay industry incentives to use cleaner energy.

“Today, the tax that you voted to get rid of is finally gone: a useless, destructive tax which damaged jobs, which hurt families’ cost of living and which didn’t actually help the environment,” Abbott told reporters in Canberra.

Australia is one of the world’s worst greenhouse gas emitters per capita, largely because of its heavy reliance on the nation’s vast reserves of cheap coal for electricity.

Opposition leader Bill Shorten lashed out at Abbott after the vote, dubbing him an “environmental vandal.” (Source: CBC News)

In June, Harper praised Abbott, who was visiting Ottawa, for his work as chair of the G20, as well as for ending Australia’s carbon tax.

“You’ve used this international platform to encourage our counterparts in the major economies and beyond to boost economic growth, to lower taxes when possible and to eliminate harmful ones, most notably the job-killing carbon tax,” Harper said.

Harper also took an indirect shot at Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, saying Harper and Abbott know that budgets don’t balance themselves. Canadian Conservative MPs jumped on Trudeau last February after Trudeau said economic growth would mean “the budget will balance itself.”

Abbott and Harper praised each other, with Abbott telling reporters that Harper has been a guide to centre-right politicians around the world. (Source: CBC News)

OTHER MEDIA

Posted at iPolitics.

Saturday November 6, 1999

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday November 6, 1999

Aussies don’t love Queen but will keep her

‘If you vote No, ” warned Senator Aden Ridgeway as campaigning for Australia’s Nov. 6 referendum on the monarchy drew to a close, “it will take at least another century before this country revisits the question.” If he is right, then Queen Elizabeth II of Australia will presumably be succeeded by King Charles III of Australia (and maybe Queen Camilla, if he eventually marries his long-time lover), then by King William V, followed perhaps by Queen Fiona I, King George VII … and so on all the way down to the end of the 21st century.

Ridgeway, an Aboriginal Australian, was mainly urging his own people not to be swayed by the fear-mongering and nit-picking that has sabotaged what once looked like an easy victory for those who wanted to dump the British monarchy and make Australia a republic. After the most recent polls, the Australian Broadcasting Commission estimated the odds against a republican victory at 100 to one.

Aborigines will mostly vote Yes, for they have little reason to love the British connection: it was British settlers who reduced them to a mere 2 per cent minority in their own country in only two centuries. The majority of more recent non-British immigrants to Australia (where 20 per cent of the population is foreign-born) will also vote Yes, as will around half of those Australians who are actually of British descent — but that is not enough.

British Monarchy Merch

It takes a two-thirds majority to change the Australian constitution, and the Yes vote, while it will probably be well above 50 per cent, is very unlikely to reach 66.6 per cent. The result will be the worst of all possible outcomes: Australia will be stuck with a British monarchy that a majority of its citizens have clearly shown by their votes that they do not want. How did such a normally sensible country get into this silly predicament?

There has been a republican movement in Australia since the end of the last century (mainly because the “British” settlers in Australia actually included many Irish with no love for Britain). It is purely an argument about symbols, of course, since the country has actually been fully independent for over half a century: Queen Elizabeth never interferes in the decisions of the Australian Governor-General, who is selected by the Australian government. But symbols matter greatly to some people.

Sensing in the early ’90s that the changing demography of Australia had eroded the old British ties, the republicans fixed on 2001, a century after the Commonwealth of Australia was created out of the six existing British colonies on the continent, as the date when the country should at last get its own head of state. A sympathetic Labour government promised a referendum on the issue — but politics has moved on, and it is being held under a conservative Liberal-Country Party government whose leader, Prime Minister John Howard, is deeply unsympathetic to the republican cause.

So Howard had the referendum question written as follows: “A proposed law: To alter the Constitution to establish the Commonwealth of Australia as a republic, with the Queen and Governor-General being replaced by a President appointed by a two-thirds majority of the members of the Commonwealth parliament. Do you approve this proposed alteration?”

With the bare-faced cheek for which Australian politicians are famous, Prime Minister John Howard urged the public to vote No last week not because they love their Queen (most of them don’t), but because the proposal to replace her with an appointed president is deeply flawed. Just as if he had not been personally responsible for the form of that proposal.

The republicans, for their part, are a fractious lot who fell right into Howard’s trap, splitting over the issue of whether the president should be appointed by parliament or directly elected by all 19 million Australians. The more doctrinaire ones stomped off in fury, insisting that only a directly elected president would do — a position that would make more sense if either the monarch and the governor-general, or the president who might replace them, had any real power under the Australian constitution.

So about a third of the No votes that scupper an Australian republic, it is estimated, will be cast by ardent republicans who fondly imagine that if they reject this referendum proposal as unsatisfactory, they will be able to vote on another, better one in a few years’ time.

Senator Ridgeway has a firmer grasp of political reality: there will probably not be another referendum on the monarchy for at least a generation, if not longer.

Nevertheless, Prime Minister Howard has not been so foolish as to follow the original plan and invite Queen Elizabeth II, as Australia’s head of state, to open the Olympic Games in Sydney next year. He is going to open them himself. – Gwynne Dyer is a London-based independent journalist. (Hamilton Spectator, C2, 11/2/1999)