1,036* is the magic number in NSW this week.

I tuned in for my daily gaslighting from our political leaders this morning and *that’s the number of times Gladys Berejiklian has contradicted herself or her Chief Medical Officer in Media Briefings this month.

POLITICIANS ON THE SAME PAGE – BUT DIFFERENT BOOKS?

Earlier this month she said that getting vaccinated would prevent hospitalisation.  In the same press conference, minutes later, her health official announced that that two people hospitalised in ICU were fully vaccinated.

The NSW Premier – who, during last year’s COVID19 outbreak couldn’t self isolate for TWO hours after her test is clearly exasperated that most of Sydney can’t enthusiastically get on board for her indefinite lock-downs.

Last Thursday, Gladys said “if you do go out, assume you have the virus”. FFS.  If you assume you have the virus, you’re meant to stay at home.

This was on the day when the police finally arrested a guy who tested positive weeks ago, has refused to self-isolate and has been out and about in Western Sydney.  So he was out, and I assume that HE assumed he had the virus, just as Gladys asked.

But despite my personal doubts, many of the good people of NSW assume our premier knows exactly what she’s doing. And those good people are trying to flee into Queensland.

I’m also a bit disappointed that the Premier has neglected to give public credit to the state opposition who have shown her extraordinary support by putting themselves in self isolation since the last election.

LEADERSHIP BY EXAMPLE

At least Victorian Premier Dan Andrews self-isolated for almost 4 months with a broken back, then came back to work and gave himself a pay-rise. That’s leadership by example for all the other people in the community earning more than $400,000 a year: If you’re worrying about getting or spreading COVID at work, take 4 months sick leave and come back to your pay-rise.

THE NATION’S STUFF-UPS ARE GREATER THAN THE SUM OF ITS STATES

Revealed in yesterday’s news, the federal government’s COVID safe app cost $8 M and successfully traced 17 contacts.

What a waste!  That’s more than $475,000 per contact trace. For the cost of ONE contact trace, we could have paid a state Premier for a year (provided they didn’t vote themselves any more pay-rises).

THE VALUE OF SLOGANS IN VACCINATION DEBATES

I wanted to make a balanced decision about getting vaccinated so I carefully listened to both groups of lunatics screaming obscenities on social media.

If you believe the ‘science’ we make decisions emotionally then try to back-fill them with our own version of logic.

So, with all ‘carefully considered decisions’, like getting married, it all comes down to emotional slogans.

Anti-vaxers were repeating the slogan “Do your own research”. So I decided to try that.  I went to Google and typed in ’confirmation bias’ and it told me exactly what I thought it would.

Anti-anti-vaxers – including the NSW Premier and her Chief Medical Officer this week – were pushing the slogan “Trust the science. Trust the medicine”.

With perfect comedy timing, today’s news reveals that a well-known neurosurgeon allegedly operated on the wrong side of a woman’s brain. And here’s me thinking that not knowing the difference between left and right wasn’t brain surgery. But as it turns out, yeah, that is brain surgery.

Trust the science.  Trust the medicine.

Or as I call it, “Brain Roulette”.

CONSIDER THE SOURCES

I also saw news reports this week that 72% of all anti-vax messages originated from just SIX sources.

That message worked on me: I thought “that’s a horrifyingly low number of sources to get important global information from”.

As opposed to all the other global news which, like most people, I get from ONE or TWO sources.

GETTING VAXED

After applying (unsuccessfully) 5 times for the Microsoft vaccine microchip, I got my first shot of the Amazon vaccine microchip this week.  My personal side-effects included numb forearms and hands, ironically meaning I couldn’t order anything on Amazon. My other side effect was a common one: a false sense of moral superiority.

In the week following my vaccination, Microsoft shares were down and Amazon shares were up, so I feel fully vindicated in my ‘decision’ to get the only vaccination available (see ‘confirmation bias’).