What a mad and ironic week, hey.
The Hunter Region recorded its first COVID-19 case in ages last Thursday. Incredibly, it was exactly a year from its last case.
Soon after the cases were announced, punters were queuing up in droves for COVID tests and groceries. Meanwhile, HSC students in Sydney's hotspots were jumping the queue, getting ready to be vaccinated with our Pfizer jabs.
All this made us open our Spotify app and listen to the cult Manchester band, The Smiths, including their song Panic.
"Panic on the streets of London, panic on the streets of Birmingham, I wonder to myself, could life ever be sane again?" lead singer Morissey sang.
As a colleague pointed out, he was feeling as mad as Morissey as the Herald hit warp speed to cover as many angles of the breaking news as possible.
How ironic it was that the new cases included students. Only last weekend, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian had swiped Pfizer vaccines from the Hunter, Central Coast and other regions to give to HSC students.
Turns out students from the regions can get COVID-19, too. And they can also spread it to their families, just like those in Sydney. The locals were hopping mad.
Gladys has said repeatedly that lockdown restrictions will be eased once vaccination targets of 50, 70 and 80 per cent are reached. What if the regions haven't had a decent chance to get vaccinated by then? Will the Sydneysiders wait for us to be vaccinated before bringing more virus our way?
As federal Newcastle MP Sharon Claydon said, the Hunter Region had been "robbed of precious vaccines, leaving us all like sitting ducks, vulnerable and unprotected".
ScoMo came in with his Pfizer rescue package, prompting Sharon to ask how long the PM had been "sitting on this secret stash of Pfizer".
Novocastrians and Coasties were singing "Sharon for PM" after that burn.
Mad Week
Speaking of mad things, posters of Mad Men character Don Draper have shown up on telegraph poles around Hamilton, Cooks Hill and Merewether.
The Memewhile in Newcastle Facebook page posted three photos of Don [played by actor Jon Hamm].
One poster had the perplexing caption "Tuesday?". The others were captioned "Hamcastle" and "Ham Foot". The Ham Foot poster had a Monty Python theme.
"Anyone know what the story is with these?" the Memewhile post said.
Out of Work
The Memewhile in Newcastle Facebook page is concerned about unemfHSCployment.
It posted a photo of a Centrelink application form for unemployment benefits. The form was filled in like this:
Occupation: Burglar.
Reason for unemployment: Everyone is home.
