SELF-ISOLATION A 'LOGICAL CONSEQUENCE' OF COVID TEST
Andrew Wright has a gripe about COVID-19 testing ("Major flaw in testing regime", October 4), but it's not a "flaw", it's just a logical consequence of the procedure.
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A COVID-19 test will tell (remembering that there are margins of error both ways) if the person carries the virus up to and no later than when the swab is taken.
So, if I wish to visit someone in a "bubbled" facility such as Aunty Ethel in the nursing home then I'd need to isolate between the test and the visit so that the result of the test was still valid on the date of my visit.
If I've been to a couple of tumultuous parties in the meantime, then whatever the test said would be out of date; I would have needed to isolate between the time of testing and its result to medically allow me to visit Aunt Ethel.
The need to isolate while his result came back seems to be Mr Wright's main peeve but he doesn't explain his reason for taking the test in the first place to justify this complaint.
Perhaps he had a test because, as he says, there was "no queue" at the site (always an attraction) or "just to rule it out".
The test did both of those things: Mr Wright got his test quickly, it seems, and the result later ruled out any infection up and until the time of the swab.
The fact that he was advised to isolate until that result became known was made was for the obvious logistical reasons I've described.
It was under the assumption that he had the test for some reasonable purpose, rather than just (like Everest to climbers) "because it was there" or because there was "no queue".
So, I can't see how his complaint should affect anyone who has a real reason to be tested.
Robert T. Walker, Wagga
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PROTESTS SHOW PEOPLE ARE TIRED OF ALL THE RESTRICTIONS
Fortunately Australia was not called U.S.A. That is, the United States of Australia.
In times gone by when Australia was in a crisis situation such as wartime or depression etc., the states worked together in harmony as a Commonwealth of Australia.
In this current pandemic, the states have never been more divided nor shown such disrespect for the Australian government.
The state premiers, in general, are running their states without parliaments sitting. They declare states of crisis or emergency and then rule as a dictator.
It comes as no surprise that, after so many lockdowns, the people are tired of so many restrictions and are being force into rallying for more just and fair laws.
The right to peaceful protest is just one of many rights our defence personnel fought for.
To see thousands of citizens marching across Australia must surely tell our premiers that they must correct some of their mistakes and not hound these people with their riot squads, police with rubber bullets, pepper spray and batons.
The price of unjust laws is civil disobedience.
Norman Alexander, Wagga
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