The next meeting of the 17 Group will take place at 7 pm on Wednesday the 3rd of July in unit 6 at 20 Drury St, West End. It will be addressed by Matthew Wengert on the topic: “Red Flags in the North: Townsville erupts, July 1919“. This will be an interesting sequel to Ray Evans’s recent lecture about the Brisbane red flag riots in March 1919.
Summary:
The men imprisoned for their part in Brisbane’s ‘Red Flag Riots’ were in Boggo Road at His Majesty’s pleasure when the 1919 ‘Flu epidemic hit the prison. This was part of the ‘Spanish Flu’ pandemic––the deadliest event in human history, which killed more people than the two world wars combined.
The ‘Flu killed around 15 000 Australians that year, including more than 300 in Brisbane by its peak in late June. People were terrified of this disease for which there was no effective treatment. A massive demonstration in Townsville saw over a thousand unionists march to the city wharves to protest against one vessel’s violation of quarantine regulations. But within a few weeks residents were falling ill, and the infection was spreading between workers at the biggest workplaces––including several meatworks and the railway workshops.
When two union leaders were arrested at the end of June there was a violent eruption of political anger in Townsville. One of the arrested men was gravely sick with influenza, and police were blamed for not getting him to hospital quickly enough. Riots broke out in early July 1919, and a group of radicals stormed the police lock-up. Firearms were taken from local shops, and gun battles occurred between police and socialists. A special train took police from Brisbane and other regions to bolster the force at Townsville––but railway comrades were not so keen for this train to run on time.
Biographical notes:
Matthew Wengert is an historical researcher and writer, with a particular interest in medical history and stories from Queensland’s colonial frontier. He worked as a research assistant on Ross Fitzgerald’s political biographies of Ted Theodore and Fred Patterson. His recent book––‘City in Masks: How Brisbane fought the Spanish Flu’––was funded by the Brisbane City Council’s award for local history research. With his colleague Louise Martin-Chew he was awarded the 2019 John Oxley Fellowship from the State Library of Queensland, to research the visual history of the Government Printing Office.
Unfortunately, after Lenin’s death, his son Artyom Fedorovich became an adopted son of the monster. When he himself died prematurely in 1921 there was an official day of mourning. He was buried in the Kremlin Wall, a signal honour. And though, to borrow a popular phrase, it is not his State of Origin, but in a sense his State of Departure, Queensland may share, however reluctantly in his posthumous glory.”
Dan O’Neill for the 17 Group
WBT publishes this info from the ACTU about the Corona virus COVID 19. [The information is current at 9 March 2020].
Summary
• 89,000 Confirmed cases globally – 33 in Australia
• 3,000 deaths
• 30,000 recovered
• Travel and isolation restrictions in place for China and Iran (subject to change)
• Significant economic impact in Australia and elsewhere
• There is a clear WHS risk and consequential duty on employers to manage this risk • Workers should be granted ‘special leave’ in relation to COVID-19 given the significant public health risk and likely duration of the illness and requirement to self-isolate
• Casual workers most at risk of experiencing hardship in the event of an outbreak in Australia due to lack of available paid leave.
• Some casuals (such as in higher education and aviation) are already experiencing financial hardship
• Federal Government should take the necessary steps to ensure all workers, in particular insecure workers, are being provided the necessary financial support in the event of an outbreak.
What is Coronavirus [Covid-19]?
Coronavirus [COVID-19] is a virus in the same family as the common cold. It is passed between people by contact with droplets from the lungs of an infected person. That can occur through infected droplets in the air or on surfaces.
About 80% of people with COVID-19 infection will have a mild illness, 20% will develop a form of pneumonia, a severe illness. The death rate in China is currently 3.4% and for those outside mainland China 1.4%. The consistent feature of the infection appears to be fever.1
The current evidence is that it takes between 2 and 10 days before people who are infected become sick and develop a fever. A person may not be showing any signs of illness, hence the ability for the infection to spread.
This is not unlike the common cold or influenza, but it appears to be more infectious.
Unlike influenzas, there is currently no vaccine and therefore the prevention of the spread of the virus can only be achieved by isolating cases and the practice of good respiratory and hand hygiene i.e.––––
Maintaining distance of at least 1 metre from anyone who is coughing or sneezing
Covering of the mouth or sneezing/coughing into elbow
Regular hand disinfection and washing hands with soap and water
Disposal of tissues etc into closed bins immediately after use
Staying at home if unwell, even with mild symptoms such as headache and slight running nose
Coronaviruses can survive longer on surfaces than influenza virus.
The current advice to prevent spread is “Surface disinfection with 0.1% sodium hypochlorite or 62–71% ethanol significantly reduces coronavirus infectivity on surfaces within 1 minute of exposure time.”
1 WHO https://www.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus
Commonwealth Department of Health – this site is updated regularly
https://www.health.gov.au/health-topics/novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov