Covid-19 Politics

[Stavros]

Meanwhile in the UK the end is in sight...or so we are told. The statistics look good right now, but in my pessimistic view, there are still dangers ahead because while the UK reaps the reward of a successful vaccine campaign -thank you NHS!- if we are not safe until all are safe, it is tempting to think of a weekend in Lisbon, a week on the Costa del Sol, or Mykonos, or Crete or...but the situation in India -and thousands enter the UK from India each week- and Brazil is scary. New variants will complicate the overall picture, a new surge of cases cannot be ruled out. But at least in the UK we can be thankful for not having an idiot like Tucker Carlson pouring scorn on the vaccination of children, indeed, scorning most rational forms of behaviour.

So we may be booking that restaurant for late May -asuming they can get the staff to serve customers (I think NYC also has this staffing shortage) - and while there are limited seating arrangemens for concerts in Symphony Hall from late May to July, I would be cautious about changing my behaviour, though I hope to go to at least two of the concerts if I can get tickets, as I know from previous exprience the audience will not be crowded together.

The Guardian has a summation of the current UK situation which starts like this-

"The handling of the coronavirus crisis in the UK has provided few moments to celebrate, but the day we reach zero deaths from the disease will clearly be one to toast. That day may not be far off. On Tuesday, the UK reported four Covid deaths within 28 days of a positive test. On Monday it was only one. Months of painful lockdown, in the face of more transmissible variants, and the rapid rollout of effective vaccines, have proven their worth. We have good reason to feel optimistic for the months ahead."
https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...n-for-optimism

[broncofan]

All of the countries that have been able to vaccinate a large part of their population have benefited from greater epidemiological control. The problem is mobilizing the efforts everywhere before the virus mutates and new rounds of vaccines are needed and we face another race to vaccinate. I think the mrna platforms can be used to quickly develop new vaccines but it takes a while for manufacturing to ramp up and vaccinating billions of people once is obviously difficult, let alone distributing a third dose.

It is a shame that in the U.S. we are getting closer to a point where supply of the vaccine exceeds demand. The efforts of Fox News and other propaganda mills to sow confusion about the vaccine will cost more lives. The decision about whether to vaccinate should be very straightforward for almost every adult. I am all for weighing the costs and benefits of a medical decision but when the benefits exceed the risks by so much it looks like misinformation and dogma are interfering with public health.

[Stavros]

I can understand Trump's postion, because his is plain ignorant, and has no intellectual curiosity to enable him to change his views. What puzzles me is Carlson, who has a degree in history, claims to be a fan of Grateful Dead, if that means anything, and has four children -have any of them been vaccinated against measles and polio? It seems to me an almost deliberate attack on science, not because of the science, but politics, and politics that is cheap and nasty. Obama encourages young people to get vaccinated so there must be something wrong, because Obama said it. Dr Fauci does the same, and it is 'child abuse'. There is something of the 'dark arts' of Murdoch here -never report news when you can create it. The danger is that there are enough people there (and sadly here in the UK too) who regard vaccinations as a conspiracy to sterilize the population or infringe the liberty of the individual, all of whom have been vaccinated as children and, I assume, none of whom want Polio, or want their children to die from Measles.

[filghy2]

Meanwhile in the UK the end is in sight...or so we are told. The statistics look good right now, but in my pessimistic view, there are still dangers ahead because while the UK reaps the reward of a successful vaccine campaign -thank you NHS!- if we are not safe until all are safe, it is tempting to think of a weekend in Lisbon, a week on the Costa del Sol, or Mykonos, or Crete or...but the situation in India -and thousands enter the UK from India each week- and Brazil is scary. New variants will complicate the overall picture, a new surge of cases cannot be ruled out. But at least in the UK we can be thankful for not having an idiot like Tucker Carlson pouring scorn on the vaccination of children, indeed, scorning most rational forms of behaviour.[/url]

The end has been in sight in Australia for several months now but somehow we never quite get there - if by end you mean a complete return to normal. This is in a country with only one Covid death so far this year.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-...case/100119776

That said, things are pretty much back to normal for the great majority of people for the great majority of the time (apart from overseas travel). The authorities here are generally applying a zero tolerance strategy, which means restrictions are reimposed for short periods whenever there is a small number of community transmission cases. Most people are still accepting of these temporary inconveniences.

One policy that has attracted a lot of criticism is the banning of travel from India (currently until May 15). There is a real question as to the morality of leaving your own citizens stranded in a vulnerable situation. Apparent inconsistencies in the treatment of different countries don't help - there was no ban on flights from the US or Europe when they had higher per capita infection rates previously.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-...d-19/100117620

It's not as if these people would be moving around freely as they would have had to spend 2 weeks in quarantine.

[Stavros]

I think we can agree that had countries such as the US and UK banned entry into the country in January or even February 2020, the incidence of infection would not have been so great. It didn't take long for Trump in office to impose bans on selected 'majority Muslim' countries, and while the US air space was shut down for 'only' two days after 9/11, it has been estimated it took six years for the aviation industry to recover from the shock.

In the case of Covid, I think it is a matter of Geography rather than politics -Australia is in a postion where it knows the situation in India has not so much deteriorated, as collapsed, in spite of previous successful efforts to contain the virus. Throw in the potential for variants, and the logical position is to ban entry from India until India has control of the situation. I would also have thought Australia could fly its citizens from India into the country somewhere, test them, or hold them in a hotel until they are satisfied they are not infected, or if they are, quarantine them- and vaccinae them- for the required time. It would be easier to handle a limited number of people than just trust to luck and test every say, 50th person arriving fom India. We are all still vulnerable, so it makes sense to do things that are practical and safe for all.

[filghy2]

I would also have thought Australia could fly its citizens from India into the country somewhere, test them, or hold them in a hotel until they are satisfied they are not infected, or if they are, quarantine them- and vaccinae them- for the required time. It would be easier to handle a limited number of people than just trust to luck and test every say, 50th person arriving fom India.

That is what happens already. With the exception of New Zealand, international arrivals are strictly limited and 2 weeks quarantine is mandatory.

Anyway, the government has already announced that flights from India will recommence. They are arguing that the pause was needed to avoid the system being overwhelmed with infections. The problem is that forcing Australian citizens to remain in India would have put them in an even worse situation.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-...ghts/100123156

What the flight ban really suggests is that the government lacks confidence in the quarantine arrangements. As this has been going on for 14 months now I think more should have been done to strengthen the quarantine facilities. This is unlikely to be the last pandemic, so we should have moved past the point of relying on stop-gap arrangements.

[Stavros]

In a perfect example of box-ticking, the UK Govt has now released the 'Green List' of countries UK citizens can visit without having to quarantine upon return, they include Tourist Hot Spots -well, maybe not always hot- such as St Helena (for all you Napoelon fans), Ascension Island, Trista da Cunha, the Falkland Island and the South Georgia and Sandwich Islands...then there is Gibraltrar -two streets, duty free shops and those disgusting monkeys; Iceland (for all you Game of Thrones geezers), and those hop-on-a-plane destinations such as Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. That leaves Portugal and Israel -but presumably not the illegaly occupied Palestinian territories, or the Gaza District where you find the typical Mediterranean getaway -sun, sea, sand and falafel. Maybe next year.

So no Greece or Spain, and with Turkey on the Red List, EUFA are being asked to re-consider Istanbul as the venue for the Champions League final between two clubs based in England -Manchester City and Chelsea.

I did a check and there is a city break in Lisbon in early June from Expedia with a return flight at £113 which is not bad. But I am not making any plans.

The list is here-
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/explainers-52544307

[blackchubby38]

Thank you for clarifying the situation in city and state...

Their latest installment of who has the biggest one revolves around the safety in the subways as it relates to crime and the homeless problem.

Cuomo: "I wouldn't let my daughters ride the subway".

De Blasio: "The subways are safe and its the MTA (Metropolitan Transit Authority) and the media blowing things out of proportion".

Meanwhile, this happened at 5:00 in the afternoon in Times Square:

www.cnn.com/2021/05/08/us/new-york-times-square-shooting-3-injured/index.html

This city is so screwed.

[Stavros]

Their latest installment of who has the biggest one revolves around the safety in the subways as it relates to crime and the homeless problem.

Cuomo: "I wouldn't let my daughters ride the subway".

De Blasio: "The subways are safe and its the MTA (Metropolitan Transit Authority) and the media blowing things out of proportion".

Solution: the bus network! --?

[Vladimir Putin]

As of mid-April I am fully vaccinated. Exactly two weeks after my second dose, I had a private session with a female GG bodybuilder. It was my first hug in 14 months.