This is growing into a worldwide story about an issue that is occurring everywhere but has first been taken note of in Western Australia: The hospitals in Australia are being overrun. Not from Covid. And no one can explain why. People can explain why, all right, but don’t actually want to.

And then there’s this, also from today: Something Really Strange Is Happening At Hospitals All Over America. Here’s the first para:

In a year that has been filled with so many mysteries already, I have another very odd one to share with you.  Emergency rooms are filled to overflowing all over America, and nobody can seem to explain why this is happening.  Right now, the number of new COVID cases in the United States each day is less than half of what it was just a couple of months ago.  That is really good news, and many believe that this is a sign that the pandemic is fading.  Let us hope that is true.  With less people catching the virus, you would think that would mean that our emergency rooms should be emptying out, but the opposite is actually happening.  All across the country, emergency rooms are absolutely packed, and in many cases we are seeing seriously ill patients being cared for in the hallways because all of the ER rooms are already full.

And then from Western Australia. This is what the Premier of WA said.

Our hospitals are under enormous pressure. This is the same in [the rest of Australia]. This has been something no one has ever seen before, the growth in demand in our hospitals, why it is is hard, hard to know… There is huge numbers of people coming through the door, so we’re doing everything we can to try to manage it.

Not Covid but the after-effects of the vaxxines seems to be a probable cause but no one is saying so. Here’s one of the comments:

Yes, it’s amazing how all the reasons [for taking the vaxxine] are nothing to do with health, at all. My own GP, even while assessing me for chest pain and breathing difficulties that I’ve been experiencing since the first shot, couldn’t understand why I wasn’t going to get the second vaccination. “Because that’s what you need when you travel or enrol at universities”, “So you’re prepared to lose your job over this?”. Nothing about health. Nothing at all. Not to mention trying to brush off my symptoms as a post-nasal drip. And saying that I shouldn’t be counting on my natural immunity because “it’s now proven to wane”. Absolute rubbish. I was completely recovered and feeling strong as an ox before being subjected to that experimental concoction. I am spitting mad.

There is then this from The Age: ‘Like watching them drown’: When loved ones go down the vaccine rabbit hole. It’s about people who are hesitant to be vaxxinated. These people are so crazy, it seems.

Australian Psychological Society chief Zena Burgess says psychologists are regularly dealing with clients whose families are in turmoil over the COVID vaccine.

“You need to gently question them about their views,” she says. “Asking things like, ‘where did that information come from?’, ‘do you think that’s a reliable source?’

“Regardless of their beliefs, people’s relationships can weather challenges, but they just might need professional help,” she says.

Jolanda Jetten, Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Queensland, is researching the psychology of those susceptible to anti-vaccine and conspiracy messaging. She said more empathy is warranted from the wider community to better address people’s fears and make it easier for families to seek help.

“We need to be careful about ridiculing people,” she says. “For me, it’s very clear you only enhance that ‘us versus them’ mentality.”

“There are good reasons why our trust has declined in official advice. What we’ve seen is that when everything in the world seems like it’s really unravelling… when people feel that things are getting out of control- conspiracies are basically explanations for why something happens.”

“It’s also social media where the idea that if I feel alienated from mainstream society and I can go online and very quickly find a group who think like me – and that’s very reassuring.”

We’ll see what happens as our hospitals continue to fill  up.