Bring back Paul Lobb. He's a quality news anchor, highly respected by a loyal audience who appreciate and admire the delivery of his professional news reading.
In my opinion, Nine Entertainment has made an enormous mistake removing him. I imagine viewership has well and truly fallen by now. The solution is to bring Lobb back, and for Nine to act in good faith by demonstrating they "Love this city" - they definitely do not love Newcastle by removing one of the most popular newsreaders in the country.
On a different matter, we live in the 21st century and NBN needs to get on board by streaming the evening news online. Come on Nine, you stream other channels. It is time to allow your Newcastle audience to have greater viewing choice by introducing live streaming of NBN's evening news.
Peter Longworth, Charlestown
Help those caring at home
ANN Daniels letter, "Elderly should have options, COVID or not", (Letters, 22/12), tells how difficult it must be for the elderly in general, and her mother specifically, to be locked up in a nursing home during COVID.
I understand completely, having cared for my wife at home for the last 55 weeks. My wife is bed bound with dementia and needs every care that one can imagine. My wife was in a nursing home for six months prior, where she suffered three falls at night fracturing her shoulder twice, her pelvis twice plus ribs and tail bone. When there is only one person on duty at night looking after 20 patients not secured to their bed, scattered over two cottages, accidents will happen.
When the first COVID lockdown occurred, I could not contemplate her being locked away like a prisoner in her room so chose to immediately bring her home. This was in hindsight the best decision I could have made so she could be cared for by her best mate 24/7. Not everyone can do that.
Since being at home, no falls, never alone, never locked away in a room and improving in many ways. This is not to take anything away from the many wonderful and caring staff in the nursing homes who work under very difficult circumstances.
Maybe the answer lies in having more elderly people cared for at home, but this can only happen if more is done by the government to subsidise the carer for loss of income and the cost of equipment. Some equipment can be claimed now but only if pre-approved by the government prior to purchase. Sometimes decisions must be made quickly without either approval of the government or the knowledge of the rules and are not covered. Hospital beds for the home and wheelchairs or the like are major necessary expenses that in many cases are not covered in the home but are paid for by the government within the nursing homes along with salaries. So having more people cared for at home is a big win for the government.
John Yates, Belmont
A different ball game
"IT'S best to let it run, this new version of the virus. Much less dangerous. Getting to the endemic phase. Just as we live with influenza each year". So say the sensible experts. My recent disappointment at the crowd cancellation for the Boxing Day Jets game was fueled further by Victoria allowing the Test cricket to proceed. No real social distancing at the MCG.
Do we accept the wisdom of the politicians? I think not. But then we are given little choice. We have acquiesced, leapt beyond the 90 per cent vaccinated target - only to be knocked down again at Christmas. I guess being in the lucky country should be our main focus. And I should be a cricket fan instead.
Stephen Wilmot, Maitland
Plato and the big lie
WHEN Donald Trump was US President, Peter Dolan invoked Christianity to support him. With a disgraced Trump gone, he now uses Plato to excuse him, ("Dissent is not treasonous", Letters, 21/12).
Mr Dolan says the concept of the "big lie" predates Trump, and reaches for Plato's Republic to prove it. The suggestion is clear - Trump's lies were nothing more than the continuation of a tradition dating back to Ancient Greece. However, and ironically enough, the term "the big lie" was in fact coined by Hitler in 1925, and subsequently employed by Goebels as a propaganda technique. Further, a true reading of Plato offers Trump no redemption at all.
In the ancient world, a myth was respected as a story revealing an important truth, rather than a falsehood to be debunked. Plato's program for establishing his ideal state involved the propagation of foundation myths, designed to persuade its citizens to embrace the classes of society to which they had been assigned, and their roles within them, contentedly and in harmony with their fellow citizens. In the Republic, Plato has Socrates describe these myths as "noble lies" - inventions designed to create and sustain a stable, functioning society. If you think about it, all societies are to some extent built on such myths. Stories in which we are immersed and continually re-tell about ourselves, our culture and our country.
In contrast, Trump's lies were just that - lies. His biggest was about a stolen election. They were in no way concerned with the construction and safeguarding of anything but his own self-interest. They had as much to do with Plato as Trump did with Christianity, which is to say nothing.
Michael Hinchey, New Lambton
Pandemic puzzles
IT'S now almost two years since we first heard the news from Wuhan that a new pandemic was happening, COVID-19 was confirmed by WHO, as a virus that was particularly dangerous. It would be very difficult to contain. And so it has been.
The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center tracks the details of infection worldwide. Just use Google, country and COVID and there is a full graph of what has happened. Go further and you will find the world maps of performances by all countries. The information is available to all.
Puzzle 1: Why is it not discussed in the media or by our health authorities or our government that the bleeding obvious is not part of our thinking... China's performance is astonishingly better. This is from the earliest to the present.
Puzzle 2: Why are the very bad performers, USA in particular, Brazil, India and Britain etc not seeking China's advice? After all, we buy huge quantities of their manufacture, like personal protection equipment.
Puzzle 3: Why are we not approving and buying the cheapest vaccinations available, as we do with flu etc.? India has been the world leader. Their AstraZeneca, manufactured under license, had to cut production through lack of orders. It was Australia's first choice, remember.
Puzzle 4: Australia has only approved about three vaccinations; the world has over a dozen doing the job elsewhere. Why so exclusive? I would be happy to get Johnson and Johnson's one shot, but it is not available. Why not? My friends in Singapore have a choice. Anyone would think there is something else going on.
Fred Whitaker, Newcastle
SHORT TAKES
UNFORTUNATELY Peter Moylan (Letters, 24/12) our state premier seems to have a preoccupation for putting profit before people. One look at his lineage reveals his connection to the World Bank, and reveals why he has even more preoccupation for protecting businesses instead of the public than our previous premier did.
Adz Carter, Newcastle
I KNOW that Newcastle is the home of car culture but was it necessary to turn walk-in people already in line away from the COVID test station at Honeysuckle to process more cars on Boxing Day?
Alan Hamilton, Hamilton East
A STUDY has shown younger adults are drinking less alcohol than their parents did in their younger days no surprise considering the massive amount of cocaine and mdma that young Australians consume lately the parade of Botox babes entering court to face charges of drug supply is daily news the fact they seem to be oblivious to the severity of their actions is no surprise considering the pathetic sentencing record of the court these days probably due to a sympathetic legal system.
Steve Barnett, Fingal Bay
REGARDING the man who paid off the lay-bys at Marketown (Herald, 24/12) - this is a wonderful feel-good story in a time of great anxiety. So glad to see the motivation was to keep local businesses running. Blessings on the anonymous donor. May they be an inspiration for others.
Liz Love, Eleebana
TO Peter Dolan (Short Takes 24/12). Talk about not letting the truth interfere with a good story. I did not suggest that frontline workers would not be at risk from vaccinated people - quite the contrary, I was making the point that my being able to pass the virus on to them is NOT the reason I don't want to be treated by anti-vaxers and/or conspiracy theorists, but because in my opinion they lack proper medical judgement. If 41.2% of all cases are fully vaccinated, then 58.8% are not fully vaccinated, meaning that 58.8% of the cases are coming from less than 10% of the adult population. No figures can be conjured up to suggest that the 41.2% is something good. I don't know where the 56.5% comes from, but it leads me to ask "who's lacking sound judgement?".
Doug Hoepper, Garden Suburb
IT'S clear from Letters and Short Takes conversations that a more complex breakdown of COVID numbers is required from government and media to support "living with COVID" approach. Not just infections, but hospitalisations, deaths and percentages of those unvaccinated at least. Those reveal the rationale behind the NSW approach, but known only to those watching ABC24 most of the time, and searching credible sources online.
