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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#1837997
johnm wrote:@A4 Pacific most EU countries are also NATO members in case you hadn’t noticed :roll:


Think again, the EU is much use a chocolate fireguard. If anything it's standing with a bucket of petrol to chuck on the fire.

It took NATO to sort out Yugoslavia, just like it's NATO looking after Latvia and Poland despite their EU membership. The only thing that troubles Russia is NATO because Germany and France have made EU is no more than a supplicant and utterly reliant customer on a regime that kills journalists and carries out chemical weapons attacks in EU states. It's only NATO that stops Putin from walking into Ukraine, for now.
A4 Pacific liked this
#1838522
6 April BBC summary of European developments:

"The first phase of reopening has begun in Denmark, with hairdressers and tattooists back at work and some children’s age groups back at school. Key to the reopening is a negative test and test centres have been very busy in the run-up to reopening. So-called corona passports will also become very important in the coming weeks.

Several European countries are giving their vaccine campaigns a post-Easter boost from this morning. The Stade de France in Paris, known for legendary sporting clashes on the pitch, has opened this morning with the aim of providing 10,000 vaccinations a week. It’s one of more than 35 so called vaccinodromes that are aimed at ramping up the vaccine campaign. Latest figures show 9.3 million first doses have already been given in France. But hospital cases are still rising.

Germany’s network of 35,000 family doctors is getting involved too this week. So far the country's vaccination campaign has been limited to 430 special centres. Meanwhile, the south-western state of Saarland is beginning its exit from lockdown even though cases are still rising. Outdoor gatherings and outdoor café visits are allowed as well as contact sports with a negative test.

Italy is also aiming to speed up its vaccination campaign, with more than eight million vaccine doses expected to arrive this month alone. Prime Minister Mario Draghi has set an eventual target of half a million vaccinations a day.

Portugal's president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, last night hailed the second phase of lockdown easing as a "historic day". All but the largest on-street shops were allowed to open along with cafés and restaurants serving customers outside.

Spain’s health minister says 11 or 12 regions are seeing a clear upward trend in infection, particularly Catalonia and Navarre in the north and Ceuta on the African mainland. This month is seen as key to pushing the vaccine campaign and retired doctors and nurses are being enlisted in many areas to take part."
#1838647
When is a vaccine not a vaccine?

Having said that getting vaccinated, with a stamp in the book (or modern equivalent) was proportionate and acceptable, to pursue the analogy, when we had the yellow fever (or whatever) vaccination we were then Ok to travel without significant fear of getting or giving the disease and without needing any sort of a test to cross a border.

So what is the point of a COVID vaccination if you still need a test every time you cross a border?

Is the fear that 'it might have mutated into something else' really justified or is just political and/or medical derriere covering?

Why not test for every other known pathogen under the sun? I can't see any sense in this.
eltonioni, flybymike liked this
#1838703
7 April BBC European summary:

"Hungary is reopening shops and resuming services this morning as Covid restrictions are eased, even though the hospitals are full and some 250 people are dying every day. Hungary has a relatively high vaccination rate so Prime Minister Viktor Orban says he feels a “moral imperative” to open up.

Turkey has declared a record 49,584 new cases in the past 24 hours and another 211 deaths. It too is moving ahead fast with its vaccination campaign with more than 10 million people receiving a first dose.

The EU’s medicines agency EMA is expected to update its advice later today on the safety of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine after reports of rare blood clots. The agency has consistently said benefits of the drug outweigh the risks.

One of the favourites to replace Angela Merkel as Germany’s chancellor, Markus Söder, has backed a so-called “bridging lockdown” of two to three weeks until vaccinations help cut the rate of infection.The idea came from the leader of Merkel’s CDU party, Armin Laschet, even though he’s previously resisted calls for tougher measures. Infections in the past 24 hours are below 10,000, which is well down on a week ago. Germany’s network of family doctors has begun taking part in the vaccination campaign.

An overnight curfew in Hanover in northern Germany has been lifted after a court declared it probably unlawful. The court said existing measures had not properly been enforced and a curfew should only be seen as a last resort.

Two Italian police were hurt yesterday in scuffles during a Rome protest by traders and restaurant owners calling for a reopening of businesses. Extremist groups reportedly infiltrated the protest.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has blamed the EU for the slow rollout of vaccinations. Italy blocked 250,000 Oxford-AstraZeneca doses last month but Morrison also says EU export controls have meant another 3.1 million doses are still to arrive. However, EU officials reportedly say it’s the drug’s producer and not them holding things up."

.. and some effects on EU life expectancy figures:

"The Covid pandemic has affected life expectancy in Europe, according to latest data across the EU released by its statistics agency Eurostat.

It says, on average, life expectancy at birth has been rising by more than two years per decade since the 1960s. But while many countries have seen that rise slow down in recent years, the decline in 2020 in some EU member states from 2019 is quite marked:

Belgium's life expectancy fell from 82.1 years to 80.9
Bulgaria's fell from 75.1 to 73.6 years
Spain, with life expectancy among Europe's highest, fell from 84 to 82.4 years
Italy's was down from 83.6 to 82.4
In Lithuania, Poland and Romania life expectancy from birth was down by 1.4 years
The Netherlands, France and Austria saw a decline of 0.7 years "
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