For help, advice and discussion about stuff not related to aviation. Play nice: no religion, no politics and no axe grinding please.
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#1840631
skydriller wrote:
kanga wrote:There is no let-up in the country's third wave with almost 6,000 people in intensive care - the highest number since mid-April last year. President Emmanuel Macron will chair a cabinet meeting this evening on a plan to reopen outdoor catering and eventually culture venues.


Putting aside my own views on the reactions of governments over the last year in dealing with COVID, does anyone else not see the totaly ironic conflict in the two statements above...

I really feel that Macaroon has not got a clue about what to do...

Regards, SD..

Let them eat cake.
By johnm
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1840651
As always the critical issue is intensive care bed capacity and the rate at which vaccination can be delivered. It may be that Macron is gambling on vaccination picking up speed. They're worrying close to ICU capacity though.....
By johnm
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1840661
Bill McCarthy wrote:I thought the Germans and the French had the answer to everything !


As we've noted before, they started off well and seem to have lost the plot, we made a Horlicks of it but seem to have got the damage limitation moving. That said there's no cause for complacency, we're a long way from being out of the woods and if it starts going pear shaped over the next 6 weeks then the lockdown release will come to a shuddering halt.

As a point of interest France has 6000 in ICU according to the stats from @kanga the UK's total ICU capacity is a fraction under 4000. Calculated on the basis of beds per 100,000 population and a UK population of 60 million.
By johnm
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1840674
Bill McCarthy wrote:We’ve taken our eyes off the ball- we may have to scrub round worrying about COVID if things get out of hand in the Black Sea and the Ukraine.


Ukraine is not in NATO, yet.....

Putin does not take kindly to what he sees as NATO sabre rattling and it seems that Biden has made some conciliatory gestures which Putin will see as victory.

Putin is a cold war warrior and will seek confrontation and indulge in provocation wherever he chooses. The question is whether it's worth doing anything other than a limited degree of containment when necessary and otherwise ignoring him.

A big question is whether Putin has managed to sort out the Russian military which completely fell apart after the collapse of USSR and I don't know what state they are now in.

In the meantime they seem to be flogging a fair bit of Sputnik vaccine around the place.....
#1840792
16 April BBC Europe summary:

"Denmark’s political parties have finalised plans to open up further next Wednesday – with indoor dining in cafes, restaurants and bars, as long as people book and provide a corona pass. Museums and art galleries will also be open for people with the “coronapas”. The downloadable pass shows if you have had a negative test in the past three days, have recently had Covid or have been vaccinated.

Two German states have decided to impose more stringent measures from Monday - Baden-Württemberg in the south-west and Mecklenburg-West Pomerania in the far north. In the north most shops and schools will shut – although hairdressers will stay open. The German government is changing the law so it can pull the so-called "emergency brake" across the country from Berlin, but that won’t happen until later next week.

Portugal will start lifting lockdown on Monday, but 11 local authorities out of more than 300 will have to wait because of a high incidence rate. Restaurants, shopping centres, high schools and universities will all reopen but Prime Minister António Costa has warned the transmission rate is higher now than it was at the start of March. France has confirmed it will reopen primary schools on 26 April and secondary schools a week later.

Dutch Health Minister Hugo de Jonge has rejected criticism of the spiralling cost of holding 445 test events over the next few weeks which have attracted 232,000 people. He insists the events are a “fantastic investment”, but critics point to the cost and the lack of public tender for the groups involved. One event in eight days’ time will attract 10,000 people.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is expected to have the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccination today. Aged 66, she is eligible for the AZ jab in Germany. Meanwhile, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, had her vaccination in Brussels yesterday."
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