Covid-19 Politics

[Jericho]

should I ever fly again

God, that's depressing.
I seriously doubt I'm as well travelled as you, Stavros but, I was thinking the same thing, recently.
"Will I ever get off of this Godforsaken little Island again"?

[Jericho]

In other news, I had my first dose of the AZ jab Saturday.
Holy shit, it knocked the crap out of me, Sunday!!!
I'm fine now, but I'm not looking forward to the follow up!

[Stavros]

In other news, I had my first dose of the AZ jab Saturday.
Holy shit, it knocked the crap out of me, Sunday!!!
I'm fine now, but I'm not looking forward to the follow up!

I wonder why it affected you so much? I assume you are fit and healthy, indeed, virile...I am still waiting for my No 2, as it were. I have to be realistic about the prospects of foreign travel, given the current situation in France and Germany, as a German friend is going home later this year having decided Brexit Britain is beyond hope. I have already conceded never seeing Syria again, and any trips across the Atlantic will depend on how they think of us, while them coming here -we were going to do a family trip to Spain before the lockdown- is delayed, possibly for years; but because of age and potential illness, it all does look rather bleak. But a friend of mine who is almost 90 was a keen traveller in his 80s so I should probably lighten up a bit. As for UK holidays, looks like Wales or Scotland, as I have cycled through Devon and Cornwall, and once was enough. I did aso visit friends in Plymouth, which is a dump and a rough naval town to be avoided on Saturday nights unless you like drunks, working class girls in micro-dresses- and fist fights, though the scenic Dawlish rail line out of the city to Bristol is worth seeing. One of those regions of the country that do nothing for me.

[Jericho]

Virile? Oh hell yes...I'm a god-damned sexual tyrannosaurus!

I don't know. Nothing I needed to notify them about, but it did knock me on my arse.
Just speshul I guess, one of the 1 in 10.

Parts of North Wales are nice (the south, not so much), though I would leave the bicycle at home! I've always wanted to visit the Orkney's but never got round to it, so this year could be the one, restrictions permitting of course.
Otherwise, It'll be a weekend in Rhyl...As if I wasn't depressed before!

[filghy2]

[QUOTE=Stavros;1963122But I for one will probably wear a mask on public transport, in retrospect I think a mask in the past might have spared me some bouts of 'flu or something similar. It might even help, should I ever fly again, to sleep on a plane, something I struggle to do.[/QUOTE]

Mask-wearing has long been common in Asian countries, even before Covid. I used to think of it as an odd cultural quirk, but now it makes more sense.

I assume that you Brits are still free to ignore government warnings and travel if you want. Us Australians haven't been able to travel anywhere for the past year, though it looks like the long-awaited travel bubble with New Zealand will finally be announced soon. Fortunately Australia is a much bigger country than the UK.

[Stavros]

Otherwise, It'll be a weekend in Rhyl...As if I wasn't depressed before!

Ah, Rhyl...look on the bright side...there must be a bright one.

[Stavros]

I assume that you Brits are still free to ignore government warnings and travel if you want. Us Australians haven't been able to travel anywhere for the past year, though it looks like the long-awaited travel bubble with New Zealand will finally be announced soon. Fortunately Australia is a much bigger country than the UK.

It is complicated by our restrictions, and those on the Continent and elsewhere, with the different phases of the vaccination campaign and surges in France and Germany limiting the options as the UK drags itself out of quarantine. Ignoring the rules is common, but I am not sure how far, but patience is wearing thin. We are in the midst of a mini-heat-wave with all that implies for beaches and parks.

Two links below offer the confusing array of conditions, but by May-June Greece and the Islands, or some of them might be a reasonable destination. I have friends who spend a month in Crete every May but I haven't spoken to them recently to find out of they are going this year. I have only been once but it is a splendid place to visit, should you ever make it to this part of the world.

These links are to articles/guides published in late March-
https://www.cntraveller.com/gallery/...safe-to-travel

https://www.wanderlust.co.uk/content...ravel-updates/

[filghy2]

The latest Republican cause in relation to this virus is banning of vaccination passports, and their use as a condition of access to services.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...d-ron-desantis

It appears that vaccination sceptics (who are mostly Republican) not only want the right to avoid vaccination, but they want to ensure they can face no disadvantage as a result of their choice.

This could potentially affect the ability of Americans to travel, as some countries may require proof of vaccination as a condition of entry - as already applies to diseases like yellow fever if people have visited affected countries.

This example shows once again that the right these days is not so much about limited government as it is about using the power of government to enforce the preferences of the tribe. As this article notes, there are other instances where Republican states have limited the ability of private entities to restrict what their users can do, eg on guns.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/ar...sports/618476/

[Stavros]

The latest Republican cause in relation to this virus is banning of vaccination passports, and their use as a condition of access to services.

Vaccine passports are also the focus here in the UK of a rebellion against the Govt on the basis of personal data protection, but hasn't this ship sailed from port? How far can a US Citizen go without a Social Security number? US ciitizens on the whole don't need passports because they never leave the country, but if it is a case of data protection, who has the information on them derived from their Social Security number, their driving licence, their birth and marriage certificate, their email, Facebook et al accounts where one assumes at least one is in their real name?

I have ID cards in a country that has resisted attempts to create them -a British Library card with my photo and signature; a Senior Citizen Bus Pass also with my photo and signature; ID/Admission cards for two specialist libraries; a Debit Card from my bank; a membership card for a chain of shops called the Entertainment Centre should I want to sell them CDs and DVDs, which sometimes I do; loyalty cards for various shops and supermarkets -and a passport. I am not even sure there is anything wrong with Georgia wanting to smarten up its ID rules on voting, except that the State should automatically issue ID cards and if that means photographing every citizen who wants to vote, they should organize it and pay for it.

So if I were to have a problem with a Vaccine Passport that is my only guaranteed method of visiting relatives in a foreign country, at this stage of our lives, I must have a problem with all the other ID cards I have, but I don't. The only other problem that I could foresee would be some discriinatory ruling that means the EU or another country will not recognize the AstraZeneca vaccine so in that case a Vaccine Passport would not be doing its job.

The wider issue of Data and how it is used is an interesting one, it seems mostly to shape commerce allowing companies to ascertain who and where their customers are; and by governments who want to spy on me, for who knows what reason? But when it comes to existing data, I think we are on that ship that sailed, so what happens next?

[broncofan]

The latest Republican cause in relation to this virus is banning of vaccination passports, and their use as a condition of access to services.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...d-ron-desantis

I just got my first Pfizer dose. I can't imagine thinking the decision (for an American) of whether to get a vaccine is even close. Incidentally, I had bad headaches for three days and a sore arm for about four days. Nothing severe but fairly obvious in the case of the headaches.

I've seen a couple of posts about traveling and I am thinking about it in the next couple of months or in the summer but there aren't a ton of places to go. What I mean is that many of the countries that allow Americans to enter have severe outbreaks. If, for instance, I went to Brazil, a lot of the enjoyment of going to Brazil is offset by whatever public health measures there are. Even if I could go to clubs in Rio or something, I'm not sure I want to do that where the virus is pretty rampant.

I'll post the recent New York Times link. South Korea might be a decent option, as they have a good system in place for controlling the virus and letting life proceed cautiously. But most countries that have their outbreaks under control are not allowing much discretionary travel. Sorry to be U.S.-centric but this was the search I did.

https://www.nytimes.com/article/coro...trictions.html