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ET thank you for your help.
If you read the article from France 24, you will soon grasp the sense of it. The sense of that article is that in one of the poorest parts of France, about a quarter of the people who currently reside there are immigrants, some legal others not who speak 130 different languages. They struggle to access normal health care or are put off as they are illegal.
BUT the good news is by having pop-up vaccination places local to where they reside or work, with no compulsion to be on the government lists, people will come forward and bring their friends, for vaccination.Switzerland is going mental. The Swiss weekly trend is plus 82%.
The U.K. is not doing too well, weekly trend is plus 6%.We do seem to be racking up a lot of covid deaths, lately, in Europe. I expect mostly Delta?
In France, People have to show proof they have either been vaccinated, tested negative for Covid or have recovered from the disease in order to enter a museum, cinema, sports venue, travel on a long distance train, access a hospital, enter a café or any indoor place selling alcohol or food.
Black Market Covid Health Passes are becoming common.
https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20210818-black-market-for-fake-covid-health-passes-flourishes-in-franceIt does seem that Health (covid) passports are starting to sweep the World. I would not be at all nonplussed if Javid makes them compulsory in England. If he does, Sturgeon would follow but on previous form she would pip him to the post, just to show how controlling she is.
It seems I was wrong, Germany is curving up. Last few days, all above 8,000 new cases. A month ago, they were just in the hundreds, each day.
France has now pushed through the one in ten barrier.
So more than one in ten people in France have been tested to prove they have or have had covid. Obviously many more will have had mild or asymptomatic covid that has not been registered.
France only test a fraction of their people, compared to the United Kingdom.A piece in the Guardian today from someone based in New Zealand.
“it was indeed crazy of New Zealand to go into lockdown with just one case – no wait, 22 – hang on, 107 … You get the point. The fact that coronavirus case numbers can mount rapidly should be obvious by now, but apparently not.
Our per-person death rate is 400 times less than the British one. And if any British people think that’s down to New Zealand’s being an island, they might want to take a look at the shape of their own country on a map.”
That’s a flavour. Much of what is discussed has been mentioned in this and other threads.
BBC News: Covid in Scotland: Warning over restrictions as cases hit new high (24 Aug 2021)
“Nicola Sturgeon has said she cannot rule out the reintroduction of some Covid restrictions as the number of daily cases reached a record high.
The first minister said the country was at another “fragile and pivotal moment” in the pandemic.
New cases in Scotland have more than doubled over the past week, and that is one of the sharpest rises we have experienced at any point during the pandemic,” she said.
She said the latest daily figure was the largest recorded in a single day “
I think the numbers are going up in most countries of Europe and U.S.A. and Canada and New Zealand and Australia and Japan.
This is not over yet.Useful critical analysis of covid talking points and statistics here:
— URL snipped —
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covid does not seem to be alleviating.
Just in Europe, more deaths and more people in Intensive Care, the majority would seem to be those who refuse vaccination.“covid does not seem to be alleviating.”
It’s not all bad news MN, there are some good news points. Compared to similar levels of cases previously there are considerably fewer hospitalisations, ventilated patients and deaths in UK. This is a positive point. Vaccines are reducing the impact of case load.
The latest COVID-19 vaccine surveillance report from UK Gov gives a lot of the detail. It’s worth reading it through. One concern I noted is a quote from it in the first “population impact” section.
“Based on antibody testing of blood donors, 97.7% of the adult population now have antibodies to COVID-19 from either infection or vaccination compared to 18.7% that have antibodies from infection alone. Over 95% of adults aged 17 or older have antibodies from either infection or vaccination. The latest estimates indicate that the vaccination programme has directly averted over 82,100 hospitalisations.”
Over 95% of people aged 17 and over have antibodies but yet the case numbers are still increasing.
A total of 6,835 new cases were reported on Friday – more than 1,800 above the previous highest figure. This is the third time this week a new record has been set.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the sharp rise was a “cause for concern”
— BBC NewsWhat I think might be happening in the United Kingdom, is massive testing, catching people who are not ill but have a smidgen of covid virus.
In France hardly anybody is tested unless they are quite ill, yet they have less cases but many more in intensive care.Scotland’s Health Secretary Humza Yousaf warned the NHS was facing a “perfect storm” of covid pressure.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-58370841
Mr. Yousaf told BBC Scotland the NHS was under “severe, severe pressure”, particularly with A&E services and ambulance turnaround.Young people who are not yet jabbed or only single jabbed, older people who are refuseniks.
Perhaps the vaccine strategy is not enough on its own. The current vaccines are effective but yet 40% of hospitalisations are vaccinated individuals. Younger people are not at fault, they were not given vaccines initially through no fault of their own. Another variant with a slightly higher resistance to the vaccines could throw a huge spanner in the works.
I read two articles in the Irish Times. The first We can live with the virus? This is dangerous wishful thinking has pertinent quotes:
“We have lived through multiple occasions where we hoped for the best but didn’t adequately prepare for the worst, and this has not served us well.”
“Having already seen the virus evolve to be more transmissible, and partly vaccine resistant, multiple times in the space of a year, it would be foolhardy to bet on that not happening again.”
On the same front page is an article on how difficult it is for the Irish tourism industry.
Tourism recovery: ‘We’ve a mountain to climb to reconnect Ireland’““Unfortunately, it came too late by comparison to other European countries, who were ahead of us with very positive announcements at early stages,” says Ruth Andrews, chief executive of the Irish Tour Operators’ Association (ITOA), which represents the country’s 34 largest inbound tour operators, bringing in 11 per cent of overseas visitors to Ireland. Tour operators are “still operating on losses equivalent to 95 per cent” of 2019’s business.”
I am sure Ruth is lovely and all that but STFU whining. We can live without our tourism for a bit. We should, and everywhere else should, be banning trips that are purely for tourism reasons. Stay away unless it’s absolutely necessary and even then quarantine first. Continue vaccinations and continue all the other containment measures at the same time and lets get it done.
Australia
“We cannot live in this cave forever”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-58381168
Australia to come out of Lock-Down, when 70% of adults are jabbed.
U.K. is going up and up. Over forty thousand new cases on Friday. Although we claim three or four times more cases than is claimed by France, France has more than twice the number of people in intensive care?
A young woman, who works for my council, told me today, that all council staff have to do lateral flow tests, each week.
Some time after she was double jabbed, the lateral flow test showed she was positive. She said the resulting disease was similar to a not bad cold.
Now, today, we again show more than forty thousand positive cases but the critical cases are barely rising. In the U.K. we test far more than any other European main country, far more than double, that are tested in France. We have many more positive cases, per day, than any other European country.So, either we in the U.K. are testing too many people or the Europeans are not testing enough?
Michael norton, August 31, 08:44:
– “Australia to come out of Lock-Down…”
Australia wasn’t in lockdown. From the BBC link, Australia’s Prime Minister was:
– “…referring to the multiple city lockdowns and closed state borders. […] Western Australia and Queensland […] along with South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory – have Covid rates at zero or near to zero, after sealing off their borders.”
It’s a mistake to judge Australia by the UK policy of national lockdowns; after their initial lockdown, Australia moved to instant but short and regional lockdowns, which is working very effectively, except (1) New South Wales made restrictions voluntary and (2), about the same time, the Delta variant got in. You can very clearly see what’s happening here:
Endcoronavirus.org – green-zone-rankings – Australia
Nearly 90% of the cases are in New South Wales, but it’s also bleeding into adjacent territories.
Michael norton, Sept. 4 and 6:
I don’t know the reasoning behind various governments’ testing policies. I guess that different governments issued different budgets, and the current levels of testing are the results.
Yes, the UK is finding more cases than France because it is testing more; the deaths and numbers of people in hospital are better indicators of overall prevalence than is testing because testing misses the majority of cases.
Testing is useful to the epidemiologists for developing their understanding of the spread, and for predicting regional hospital demand.
Looks like Australian covid positive numbers are going through the roof.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-10/outbreak:-how-australia-lost-control/13537068
Hiding in caves only slowed it down, until along came DELTA.
French Prosecutors looking into government failings are investigating Agnès Buzyn for “endangering the lives of others”.
Ms. Buzyn left the post in February 2020 to run for Paris mayor, saying Covid was low risk. But she later spoke of knowing a “tsunami” was approaching.
It is one of the world’s first cases of a minister facing legal accountability for their pandemic response.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-58523027
well if it can happen in France it could happen in the U.S.A. or in the U.K.Michael, Australia wasn’t “hiding in caves”. I keep pointing out the evidence, and you keep ignoring it to drop anti-lockdown slogans. Yet elsewhere you’re criticising Scotland for its health service becoming overloaded.
Covid is not trivial. It frequently causes very serious illness. It would be inhumane not to treat that illness because it causes slow, days-long suffocation, probably the most distressing life-threatening condition I can think of, so distressing that the US chose water-boarding as their primary means of controllable torture that didn’t leave incriminating physical injury.
You can’t have it both ways. Scotland’s health system is overwhelmed because covid was not adequately restricted.
Clark, I do not think I have claimed covid is trivial, that is why I am double-jabbed.
I am over 70. Almost everyone I know, are now double-jabbed, and getting on with our lives in groups, mostly outdoors.“Hiding in caves” is what many Australians claim their government want them to do, to avoid Delta.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison says it is “absurd” for regions – including New Zealand – to chase elimination forever in a Delta world.
He was commenting on some Australia states and territories that have said they will continue to pursue elimination and keep their borders closed to NSW.
“Any state and territory that thinks that somehow they can protect themselves from Covid with the Delta strain forever, that’s just absurd,” Morrison told the 9 News Breakfast show today.
“New Zealand can’t do that. They were following an elimination strategy. They’re in lockdown.”
Morrison likened staying on the elimination path to living in a cave.
“Covid is a new different world. We need to get out there and live in it. We can’t stay in the cave, and we can get out of it safely,” he said.
“If not at 70 or 80 per cent [vaccination coverage], then when?”
Now in the U.K. many over 16 have had a single jab. Over 18 most double-jabbed.
Life is for living, not hiding.Clark I have a close relative who is now seeing more covid people than ever before, most of those have not been vaccinated and most caught it on holiday in the West Country. People from all over the U.K. and Ireland have been holidaying in the West Country. Shoulder to shoulder, with those they do not know.
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