back to article Pokémon Go players fined for breaking down-under COVID-19 lockdown rules

Police in the Australian state of Victoria have fined Pokémon Go players for venturing out during COVID-19 quarantine. Victoria's capital city, Melbourne, has returned to lockdown after COVID-19 cases reached new highs after weeks in which only isolated cases emerged. The city's four-million-plus residents are now only …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So have these Bozos been on a Pokemon hunt in a car, or have the cops become Judge Dredd and decided the law on the street that this doesn't count as exercise. As I recall when Pokemon was released it was seen as good exercise.

  2. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    Crazy

    As much as I find a single Pokemon player to not really be a problem, a 20+ KFC reunion in the middle of a pandemic is really pushing it.

    It's like taking a stroll in a forest. Honestly, officer, apart from you, who do think I came in contact with ? You're the only other person around here, so you're the one putting me in danger.

    Now Pokemon Go could be a problem if many players are congregating in the same place. If I understand the game, there are a limited amount of physical locations where those things can be found, so you're likely to see several people go to the same place, hopefully not at exactly the same time. But still, roving Pokemon Go players seem to me to be largely less of an issue than full-blown KFC parties.

    1. Will Godfrey Silver badge
      Unhappy

      Re: Crazy

      Less likely to come into contact - maybe. More likely to be from totally different places and hard to identify - definitely.

    2. NightFox

      Re: Crazy

      "It's like taking a stroll in a forest. Honestly, officer, apart from you, who do think I came in contact with ? You're the only other person around here, so you're the one putting me in danger."

      But the trouble is you can't have discretionary rules because many people's discretion is poorly founded (as just a cursory glance of Facebook will confirm) - Pascal went walking [in the forest] and encountered a police office and that was OK, so I can also go for a walk [in a highly populated area].

      But as soon as you start trying to be more granular with the rules (it's OK to go walking in forests but not in highly populated areas), people say the rules are too confusing - is a wood a forest? how many people makes an area highly populated?

      So you're back to having a simple one-size-fits-all rule which has to be enforced with no scope for discretion.

      1. Martin Summers Silver badge

        Re: Crazy

        Nightfox you've hit the nail square on the head. Now if only more people cared to understand the necessary simplicity of the rules there'd be less wailing and gnashing. People choose not to understand because it suits them. So many people in the world couldn't care less about doing what's right for everyone, so they carry on as normal and pretend the rules were confusing.

    3. Outski
      Pint

      Re: Crazy

      With Ingress (what PoGo is based on, in terms of locations), all our monthly First Saturday gatherings are now virtual, so no mass gatherings, just remote portal charging from the couch

      -------------> always a factor in FS events

      1. Ken Moorhouse Silver badge

        Re: always a factor in FS events

        Sounds like Thirst Saturday would be a better name for your gatherings.

        You've then got the perfect excuse for extending the idea to other Saturdays.

      2. taxman

        Re: Crazy

        So playing a GPS game based on being at real world locations (except that isn't the case) but doing it in a "virtual world" just seems to imply that the game you play could be run from being in a virtual world anyway ?

        Going back to the item tho'. It just goes to show that there are a number of adults who think chasing after imaginary creatures based on code held in a database being actually on their streets is healthy.

    4. big_D Silver badge

      Re: Crazy

      I'm guessing, if you did the Pokemon Go quietly as part of your exercise, it wouldn't be noticed, but in groups or running around back and forth and making a spectacle, on an otherwise deserted street, you'd probably be noticed and stopped.

      Pokemon Go is hardly an essential activity.

  3. The Central Scrutinizer

    I live in Melbourne. These people are morons, pure and simple. While the vast majority of us are doing the right thing, people like them put us all at risk.

    Enjoy your $26,000 bucket of KFC, dickheads.

    1. oiseau
      Thumb Up

      Enjoy your $26,000 bucket of KFC, dickheads.

      Words out of my mouth.

      And to think there are people who have actually asked what a DH is.

      O.

      1. The Central Scrutinizer

        Yeah, the virus is all nonsense bla bla....

        Human stupidity never ceases to amaze me.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It did seem odd to me that Pokémon Go launched a TV ad recently in the middle of a pandemic

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      To be fair on them, that is for a virtual play from home festival rather than something people will meet up for

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Conflicting Laws in this instance

    As while the police are doing their bit for immediate public safety and upholding the regulations set out by the elected authorities, they are in effect nullifying the effect of a much more important “law”.

    Darwin’s.

    As a medic, I break this regularly by saving certain individuals from the consequences of their own actions yet, strangely, this is not what might get me into trouble.

  6. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
    Windows

    Pokémon Go is still a thing?

    Can;t they set up a version that works in Second Life for the die-hard players?

    1. Outski

      Re: Pokémon Go is still a thing?

      Second life is still a thing?

  7. wolfetone Silver badge

    Gotta Catch 'em All

    Except for COVID19.

    No one wants that.

    Not even if it were a shiny.

  8. Marty McFly Silver badge
    Holmes

    Math + logic does not equal the hysteria

    Fact: US population is around 329 million.

    Fact: The CDC reported the US death rate in 2018 was 723.6 per 100k people.

    Math: Therefore the US should have 2,378,670 deaths this year.

    Fact: CDC is reporting around 135k Covid deaths in the US.

    Math: The 135k Covid deaths represent a 5.6% death rate increase.

    Logic flaw: There is zero co-morbidity with these Covid deaths.

    Assertion: Many Covid victims would have died anyway from other causes.

    Conclusion: Covid barely represents a statistical bump in the amount of deaths the US has every year.

    1. Claptrap314 Silver badge

      Re: Math + logic does not equal the hysteria

      Care to re-run those numbers without the lockdowns?

      If (and I do mean IF) the excess death rate is "noise", that mean's we've done it right.

      Since you're so good with facts, I'll let you figure out why.

      1. NeilPost Silver badge

        Re: Math + logic does not equal the hysteria

        ... and improved knowledge about treatment

        - proning patients

        - CPAP

        - Dexamethasone

        - Remdesivir

        - PPE

        ... and in US younger people getting ill in recent post lockdown times.

        All dragging (thankfully) the Case Fatality Rate down.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Math + logic does not equal the hysteria

      That’s the total deaths in 4 months-ish of reporting against the previous 12 month totals?

    3. Sorry that handle is already taken. Silver badge
      FAIL

      Re: Math + logic does not equal the hysteria

      I think you meant to use the joke icon?

    4. big_D Silver badge

      Re: Math + logic does not equal the hysteria

      You are forgetting that those who are infected, but don't die in hospital, whilst being treated for COVID-19 are not counted in the official figures

    5. julian.smith
      Facepalm

      Re: Math + logic does not equal the hysteria

      I'm happy to let natural selection do its thing in the (formerly) United States.

      It's the shit_show that keeps on giving

      Are you tired of winning yet?

    6. TomG

      Re: Math + logic does not equal the hysteria

      Fact: We are all going to die eventually.

      conclusion: Lets put it off as long as possible.

  9. Ken Moorhouse Silver badge

    Couldn't the creators of Pokémon Go...

    Couldn't they have simply turned off the locations of these mythical creatures, or change the name of the characters to give strong hints?

    For instance Picadrycough or Pokégohome

    1. NeilPost Silver badge

      Re: Couldn't the creators of Pokémon Go...

      Or put a mask on the Pokemon as a clue...

      Or just sent the fully functional location track and trace details !! to the cops.

      NHSx should have subbed the development of UK Track and Trace to Fucking Nintendo.

  10. Zolko Silver badge

    missing maths

    "authorities recorded around 100 COVID cases each day"

    and how many were TESTED to find these cases ? and how many ILL people are there each day ? By now, everybody knows that most people who get infected by Covid-19 aren't really ill, not more than by a regular flu, heck, most don't even know they have it, they're asymptomatic. So for this 100 to be of any scientific value, at least 2 more numbers are needed:

    - how many where tested in the same period (to find the infectious rate)

    - how many are severely ill (to find how dangerous the situation is).

    Throwing a number in the wild without context is a sure sign of panic propaganda.

  11. John_3_16
    Facepalm

    Huh?

    We should lend them T-rump for 6 months as their leader. He made COVID disappear in the USA with one speech. Poof. It was gone. And an empty headed army of morons still believe it. Stay safe all...

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