Wuhan virus 2020

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

EU Europe ministers are discussing how to ease the current border restrictions, which violate the spirit of free movement in the EU. The European Commission has complained to Germany about its border controls, saying they go too far. But Germany is frustrated its infection rates are declining too slowly, or not at all.

In fact they are rising since a couple of days again, and in some hotspots are exploding, Munich as an example.

I think its the beginning of the third wave.

And the EU? Should STFU. Spirit of free travel - as if a pandemic soothes its mind by that argument. Other states want German travellers money, and if thew travcellers bring back a acceleraiton of infecitons in Germany, they do not care. Where is the European spirit there, he?

Internationaly mobility in fact shouk,d be brought down, and broders for private travels shpould be locked. While transpiorts of goods and wares should be allowed. Within locked regions (=nations) one should check for the possible freedom to open carefully the shops and private businesses - while keeping social mobility at as low levels as possible. The intense and long range and itnernaitonal piorvate travelling , must be brought to a standstill, in the local regions people must be given back greater civil rightds and freedoms again. The borders must be shut.

All this of course frontally collides with the EU and its idea of extending the massacre it assists as best as it can. My pleasure.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Catfish

@Jim re your post further 'north'
Ok thanks i know it should be obvious.. sometimes too easy to get triggered by the "Express" or "The Sun", but then it is their purpose i guess
Sorry

True that and apologies are not necessary Kai

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Skybird

In fact they are rising since a couple of days again, and in some hotspots are exploding, Munich as an example.

I think its the beginning of the third wave.

And the EU? Should STFU. Spirit of free travel - as if a pandemic soothes its mind by that argument. Other states want German travellers money, and if thew travcellers bring back a acceleraiton of infecitons in Germany, they do not care. Where is the European spirit there, he?

Internationaly mobility in fact shouk,d be brought down, and broders for private travels shpould be locked. While transpiorts of goods and wares should be allowed. Within locked regions (=nations) one should check for the possible freedom to open carefully the shops and private businesses - while keeping social mobility at as low levels as possible. The intense and long range and itnernaitonal piorvate travelling , must be brought to a standstill, in the local regions people must be given back greater civil rightds and freedoms again. The borders must be shut.

All this of course frontally collides with the EU and its idea of extending the massacre it assists as best as it can. My pleasure.

You positive you're not a Brexiter living in the UK?

[Skybird]

Bet not!



I assume not all is positive with current transformation issues on the British side as well, and I wait since 4 weeks on a delivery from the UK where before it took just 5-12 days, and now am told it may take another 2-3 weeks, but that is neither unexpected nor anythign different than just luxury problems of the comfortable first world. In the long run, I strongly I assume, still, I would prefer to be on the British side of things.



And even without the British thing is the EU killing my last nerve. Same goes for this self-paralysing typically German complacency about things, the world, oneself, everything.

[Jimbuna]

Boris Johnson says the government will look at the use of vaccine passports, but there are complex issues to consider.

The UK PM is "optimistic" Covid restrictions in England can be lifted on 21 June - the end of a four-step lockdown easing.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is setting out her plan for easing the lockdown in Scotland.

The Scottish government hopes to lift the stay at home restriction from 5 April, she says.

From the end of April, she says she expects a phased reopening of the economy including: non-essential retail, hospitality, gyms and hairdressers.

If all goes to plan, Scotland will return to varying levels of restrictions from the last week in April.

12 million high-grade masks used in the NHS may not meet the right safety standards and have been withdrawn.

UK unemployment rate rises to 5.1% in the three months to December, official figures show.

A further 548 people in the UK have died within 28 days of a positive Covid-19 test; there have been 8,489 more cases.

[Onkel Neal]

Finally. My doc called and they'll have me in for the first shot Friday.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Onkel Neal

Finally. My doc called and they'll have me in for the first shot Friday.

You lucky dog!



We have not even every 20th citizen vaccinated with the first jab, and not even every 50th with the second.
Of 1.4 million delivered doses of the AZ vaccine, only 1/7 have been used, the rest (roughly 1.2 million doses) lays around unused. Many vaccination centres here are - idling.



I hope your shoulder burns!

[Skybird]

If true, not good.

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/n...own-propaganda

Who is the author:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-senger-55440b35

About it:

https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6192742875001

The Chinese are not new to international mass bullying like this. But the scale would be unprecedented.

But the EU desperately wants to close ties with China. "Changing China by interacting with it". "Changing China by trading with it (at thew west's tehcnological and intellectual expenses and at China's terms and conditions)." Has never worked. Will never work. Stupid EU, stupid Germany - once again. BTW, has not worked with Russia, too.

[Jimbuna]

England's secondary schools face a "big logistical task" as they are asked to test pupils three times in the first two weeks after reopening, says the education secretary.

Secondaries are being asked to run summer schools to help pupils most in need of catching up on lessons lost to Covid.

There are concerns about teachers burning out if they have to work through the holiday, and some unions are wary of overwhelming pupils.

More people with learning disabilities are to be prioritised for the Covid-19 vaccine.

It has been announced by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, which decides vaccine priorities in the UK.

Asked at Prime Minister's Questions about financial support for people who cannot afford to self-isolate, Boris Johnson says the government will continue to help councils.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer says about three in ten people who should be self-isolating are not and says it is a "gap in our defences"

Ghana becomes the first recipient of Covid-19 vaccine doses distributed by the global vaccine sharing initiative Covax.

[Jimbuna]

In Spain, PM Pedro Sánchez has unveiled a package worth €11bn ($13.4bn; £9.5bn) to boost small and mid-sized businesses. He admitted the nation was exhausted by the pandemic, but said he hoped half the population would have had a vaccination by the end of June.

Denmark is planning to ease some shopping restrictions and allow schools in parts of the country to reopen on 1 March, the government says, amid a further drop in infections.

Poland is to unveil regional restrictions to counter a rise in cases since measures were relaxed 12 days ago. More than 20,000 people flocked to the main ski resort of Zakopane when it reopened, with many forgetting social distancing.

The authorities in Sweden are expected to toughen nationwide Covid recommendations later. Several regions have recently stepped up guidelines asking passengers to wear face masks on public transport at all times - not just in rush hour.

Ukraine is to begin a nationwide vaccination programme, one of the last European countries to do so. Authorities there have repeatedly delayed the start date, sparking mass anger among the population.

[Jimbuna]

[Skybird]

Reaction times in Germany and in South Korea are galaxies apart.

https://www.welt.de/politik/ausland/...s-Dilemma.html

It took Germany more than a year to plan a test strategy that will help prevent future lockdowns. A comparison with South Korea makes it clear how blatant the mistakes were - and shows further grievances in Germany.

On January 20, a flight from the Chinese metropolis of Wuhan landed at Incheon International Airport in Seoul. One passenger on board had symptoms of fever. A test showed: Corona, it was the first case in South Korea. One day earlier, on January 19, 2020, a Chinese woman landed at Munich Airport. She had been visited by her parents in Wuhan in Shanghai the previous day. The Chinese woman was Germany's patient zero - in the following days she took part in a workshop at the Bavarian auto supplier Webasto and infected several colleagues.

The “novel corona virus” was still considered a Far Eastern problem for weeks in Germany. In this country, nobody simply wanted to see how small the world is now. In truth, the pandemic from China spread to East Asia and Europe relatively simultaneously. The only answer to the Corona crisis was not at all simultaneous: Asia and Europe were two planets here. The comparison of South Korea and Germany shows this particularly blatantly.

Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) recently announced that there should be free rapid corona tests for every German from March 1. But this date cannot be kept after all - the Chancellor canceled the start date. Too many questions about implementation are apparently too unclear. "I find it very frustrating to see what has been going on in Germany for a year," says Christian Taaks, who has lived in Seoul for three years and heads the office of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, which is close to the FDP. “Here in South Korea, people were always very quick and reacted immediately to new developments, as well as to every single case of infection. The communication about the necessary measures was always crystal clear."


In concrete terms, very quickly means: The first positive Corona case was reported in Germany on January 27, 2020 . It was one of the Webasto employees who had been unsuspectingly infected by the Chinese colleague. On the same day, the first meeting between government officials and private biotech companies took place in a room in the Seoul train station. Four days later, a first company presented the prototype for a corona rapid test. On February 4th, the test by the South Korean company Kogene Biotech received its first emergency approval. At the end of February, numerous other companies had already approved their own kits. On February 28, South Korea passed 15,000 tests a day.
The country set up more than 600 test stations across the country in just a few days. Many of them were drive-through tents, where drivers could do a test within ten minutes, the result of which they received on their smartphone after three days at the latest. Everyone was allowed to be tested, with or without symptoms. Initially, people without symptoms had to pay, later the tests were done free of charge for everyone.
On March 3, 851 new infections were reported. From that day on, the numbers dropped.

On March 16, 250,000 people had already been tested in South Korea, all cases followed up and the spread of the epidemic stopped. Germany, on the other hand, had lost control - and went into the first lockdown on March 22nd.

Now South Korea had a big advantage. Because the government had come under severe criticism due to the slow response to the MERS epidemic in 2015 , a great deal of preparations had been made for a new epidemic since then. Germany, however, was taken completely unprepared.

The Federal Republic of Germany also quickly built up test capacities and tested more than many other countries in the first wave. But only people with symptoms are entitled to tests and the results can often take a long time to be reported. Fatal in an illness that is often asymptomatic.

Germany is not aiming for a strategy like the one in South Korea. In a paper dated April 17, 2020, the Ministry of Health lists the problems it sees: Rapid PCR tests cannot be carried out "in large quantities". Only "very few tests at the same time" are possible. In addition, the corona viruses are pathogens of a very high risk class. South Korea had shown the opposite for two months: PCR tests had been carried out there in large quantities, simultaneously and, thanks to the drive-through concept, also very safely for the medical staff.

The Ministry of Health writes in the paper that antigen tests are necessary to quickly test many people and better protect risk groups, for example when visiting old people's homes. What followed: federal skirmishes, organizational errors and the summer vacation, which left many things paralyzed. It was not until October, when a second wave could no longer be prevented, that a “national vaccination strategy” was decided which, among other things, was supposed to systematically protect old people's homes with antigen tests. It took until well into January for it to be implemented. In the second wave, a very large part of the corona victims died in old people's homes . Also because the tests came too late.

After almost four months of soft, then hard lockdown, the Minister of Health has now announced free, free rapid tests for everyone - such tests are an important accompanying measure to get out of hard lockdown. The plausible reason: If you know who is infected, you no longer have to be locked up in general and you can gain a piece of normality. But the four months of lockdown had apparently not been enough to prepare adequately. Now the start of the tests has been postponed again for at least a week.

Christian Taaks says that from Seoul he looks "sometimes stunned" at Germany. For him there is an explanation as to why his adopted home reacted so much faster - and it is not just his previous experience with MERS. "Here in Korea, neither the government nor the opposition use the topic to raise their profile," says Taaks. “There are also no prime ministers who say one thing today and another tomorrow. It is a scientific, not a political matter, and the Disease Control Authority is held in high regard. It leads the way."

In addition, there are “huge differences” in the use of technology, says Taaks. "The Internet was invented and here it is also used by the state." Federalism is not necessarily the problem, local solutions are good and sensible. It's a question of speed and digitization. "When I hear on the radio that the infection numbers in Germany on Monday are always imprecise and virtually unusable because many health authorities have not reported, then I cannot understand."

In addition to testing, the second pillar of South Korean success was so-called tracing. Tracking infections to stop them from spreading. The government in Seoul softened the data protection rules considerably. The people in South Korea receive anonymized information on their mobile phones when an infected person was nearby and where they were last.

“It is really tough what personal data is read out here in order to create movement profiles.” But Taaks, after all a representative of a liberal foundation, also says: “In the end, it is a weighing up. Citizens' freedoms are also massively restricted if one can no longer lead a normal life in lockdown. "

As a liberal, he wonders about the concept of freedom some Germans have in the pandemic. "We already have a different understanding of a sense of responsibility here in South Korea," says Taaks. "In Germany the pair of terms 'freedom and responsibility' is unfortunately often confused with 'freedom and egoism', individualism and egoism are mixed up."

It is still unclear when a functioning rapid test concept will be available in Germany. The next steps will be discussed on March 3rd. On March 3rd, 2021, mind you, not 2020.

Yesterday they said in the news that Marocco is faster and better organsied, than Germany. They have a vaccination blitz going on of which Germany can only dream.

[Gorpet]

Originally Posted by Catfish

Thanks Gorpet for the update Do you think there is a trend with infections going down at last?


re Jim: "Eu threats exposed"?

The bigmouthed headline in typical Express fashion is a bit misleading. For what i read the one corporate body being held accountable should be Astra-Zeneca, and then the UK. Astra-Z. did not act in "best reasonable effort", it prefers the UK, and its boss Soirot even lied about this "first come first served" since the deal with the EU was signed before the one with the UK.
As just of all the publishing of the treaties mentioned in the "Express" has shown. How embarrassing.


So one vaccine is being developed in Germany, by a turkish immigrant, it is being tested, and while those tests have not been concluded for children and elderly people, Johnson decides to use the vaccine beforehand. He is lucky since it works, nobody dies and it is HIS PERSONAL VICTORY. Laughable.

Then scientists in Oxford develop another vector-based vaccine, and while there are treaties the company tries to withhold it from the EU, preferring the UK. Nationalist reasons? Money? Whatever, not an act in good faith.

The US company Pfizer jumps the train and becomes a "partner" of german BioNTech Pfizer, meaning it becomes the distributor. So the Germany-produced vaccine is sent deep-frozen to the US, being filled in flasks, and is being shipped back to Germany, deep-frozen. Makes so much sense. Or at least parts of it are sent back, because uh you know, USA. Remember the mask thing, anyone?

I had no problem with all that at first, itis a pandemic, all have to work together, maybe a bit of nationalism is ok and can be expected when England needs some positive news in its brexit shambles.
But when this whole boondoggle unfolded, i do now think the EU was expecting a bit too much when it comes to equal distribution and fairness, from its friends and allies.

Skybird is right, the EU is much too lenient, it expects equality and international co-operation, but it seems not all see it that way to put it mildly.
re the title "... exposes EU threats", wouldn't it be nice if the EU actually did that, for a change. This nationalism and perceived exceptionalism of some stinks to the high heavens.

Catfish, I can't answer your question about a trend. All we get is what the local news station will give us . Local news weather and sports. Florida has 67 independent county,s We do not know what the rates are in the 5 counties that border Orange County my county.Our state health care system is ran from the Capitol which is in Tallahassee." try spelling that just 1 time" somewhere in the the north western part of the state.We do not know the faceless workers in the "Bureau" of Health that will decided who will be next. So now we have Anarchy cause every chicken leg in our melting pot wants their reward for their vote. Here every frontline worker From Politician to the library worker want's their families jabed to and the hell with everybody else.

Now i'm married have been for 20 + years .And most folks have a few years plus or minus in our ages.My wife has got her 2 jabs.In America showing a marriage license and id so we can both get the jab at the same time. Verboten .

[Gorpet]

Oh by the way i do know where the Capitol of Florida is. Here is the deal every license plate has the county you are from on it. So if im up there driving around in that county. And i'm a tourist and can prove it ok . If i can't produce the required documents. Car gets towed i go to jail, finger printed mug shot and now you get your face shoved straight into a blank piece of paper so they can get your DNA from the bloody mess your face makes.

[Gorpet]

So if you want to still come and visit Disneyland pay attention to the license plate. When you get your rental car. Its only good for the county you rented it in. If you leave the county and get hurt you have left the safety of your zone. And they will say Welcome to America. You gotta pay. It's Demorat Capitalism and rest assured your local countrymen are loving it.