Believe me if you don’t see me and I don’t tell you anything
If one day I get lost and never return.
Believe me, I want to be a machete in the middle of the harvest
A fierce bullet in the centre of combat.
Believe me that my doves have rainbows,
My hands of fine songs.
– Vicente Feliu
On Monday the 27th December, it took my sister seven hours to get a Covid test which was mandated for all people visiting Brisbane over Christmas. She had no symptoms it was merely a requirement. We went to Murrarie testing centre first. We were turned away with the traffic controller telling us there was no guarantee of getting test after three hours wait. We then went to private pathology lab at Carina which was closed. So we went to Terry White chemist at Coorparoo and the attendant said a rapid antigen test would not suffice. Then we went to the Mater hospital and my sister waited four hours in the hot muggy atmosphere of Brisbane to get a Covid PCR test.
In Queensland, the Premier announced via tweet at 7:26 AM · Dec 29, 2021 that:
“From January 1, travellers into Qld from interstate hotspots can use a negative Rapid Antigen Test to satisfy border pass requirements. A PCR test will no longer be required.”
Yesterday a worker in a pathology lab has given us grim insight into the chaos that has been caused by the authorities’ letting-it-rip strategy over Christmas.
“We cannot cope. Healthcare staff have been left a burden which we do not have the resources to manage. The quality of patient care is suffering. I cannot speak for nurses or doctors on these wards, they must be going through unimaginable stress and hardship. What I witnessed yesterday has left a terrifying impression on me. The hospitals are not equipped for this.”
Meanwhile we are being told there are only a few cases in hospital. Yet there are nearly 1,000 people in Brisbane in “home care”. Some people are not equipped to deal with the severity of the disease at home and die as a result.
When there is hardly any Covid the pathologists think all samples are likely negative so they are batched … putting maybe 100 swabs in one reaction. That batch reaction would be negative when no Covid around. Very quick testing turn around. If there is a lot of Covid you either can’t batch thus slowing things down …. or you batch and have to go back and test all 100 samples again if the batch is positive.
So testing turnaround always much quicker per swab when no Covid.
Here is what the pathology lab guy in NSW has to say about PCR (polymerase chain reaction):
“PCR is a complicated, lengthy, multi step process that requires trained staff to complete all the way through. The equipment used for PCR testing was not meant for the volumes that are required at the moment, and as such, we have had to find ways around these limitations. First of all, pathologies started batching samples to cope with the frequency of testing that was required during the lockdown a few months ago. This method essentially boils down to mixing multiple samples together and testing them as one unit. If the test comes back negative, all samples in the batch are resulted accordingly. If the batch comes back as positive, we can run each ... see https://workersbushtelegraph.com.au/2021/12/28/how-the-immune-system-works/
Song: Rosie Byrne - Don't look back in anger.
