Northern Europe during Pandemic -- Summers 2020 & 2021 & onwards

[boatman61]

UK bans foreign travel for UK citizens unless absolutely necessary, anyone trying to flout this subject to 5000pound fine..

[Montanan]

Snipets regarding the UK:

The UK defence secretary, Ben Wallace, has said the government will protect the success of its vaccination programme at all costs, as speculation grows that strict restrictions on foreign travel could continue into the summer.
Asked about the prospects for travel, Wallace said: “We can’t be deaf and blind to what’s going on outside the United Kingdom. If you look in Europe, and the increases in infections, we can’t put at risk the huge amount of effort, by the taxpayer, by the NHS, by our scientists, in developing this vaccine. “And if we were to be reckless in any way, and import new variants that put it at risk, then what would people say about that?”


Mike Tildesley, a member of the Spi-M modelling group, which feeds into the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), has said continental holidays this summer currently appear extremely unlikely.

[arsenelupiga]

Originally Posted by Seaworthy Lass

If Ping’s statement is modified to “vaccinate the vulnerable” in line with UFO’s comments, I find myself nodding as well .

We have reached that stage with vaccinations in the UK. We are shortly to cover almost everyone who is in the groups responsible for 99% of deaths. This is 48% of the population. The AZ vaccine continues to offer close to 100% protection from severe illness plus chances are a fair chunk of younger people who are unvaccinated have acquired naturally immunity. Crisis over in my book. Yet we are still under “stay at home” lockdown .

If I wasn’t holding back with political comments I would have a fair bit to say .

SWL

sincere thanks to UK people that got vaccinated providing valuable data point to wider global community. I will now turn on clock and check in 3 years how is going. Then decide what to do.

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by arsenelupiga

I will now turn on clock and check in 3 years how is going. Then decide what to do.

Don’t I wish that was possible!

With serious and difficult to handle medical issues there is rarely consensus regarding optimal management even amongst highly respected experts in specialised fields, which really complicates things. I don’t think most people appreciate this.

In addition, this is not just a medical problem, but an economic one. There are also psychological impacts that result not just from the pandemic, but how we handle it, as well as educational and social consequences. All these need to be considered during this crisis. Simply following health advice from a selected small team of “medical experts” is not necessarily the best thing to do both in the long and short term.

Also, fear is rather than logic is driving a lot of our opinions and actions.

On top of that, although it would be nice to think that politicians were all acting in their nation’s best interest, this is a pipe dream. I don’t think conspiracy theories are in play, just plain politics.

And finally, what is in a nation’s best interest is not necessarily best for their neighbours, let alone humanity. We are all connected.

It is an extremely tough situation.

[Dockhead]

Protests in Swedish cities against pandemic measurses: https://www.msn.com/en-xl/news/other...lm/ar-BB1ejx9o

The first actual protests we've seen in the usually harmonious Nordics.

Goes to show that even the most moderate measures cause harm, and resentment. Schools, restaurants, and museums are open in Sweden, but there are increasingly severe restrictions on distance and capacity, and alcohol can't be sold after 20:00 (devastating bars) and restaurants now have to close at 20:30. A new restrictions limits people to 8 at a table in restaurants (I would have gone further than that).

Good news however is that economic forecasts have been upgraded several times all across the Nordics, and Sweden looks set to be the first European country to emerge from the pandemic recession, fully regaining pre-pandemic GDP by this summer already. This is terrific news. Europe as a whole is not expected to get there until mid to late 2022.


Sweden is doing better than the European average with vaccination, but of course far far behind the UK. They (stupidly in my opinion) paused used of the A-Z vaccine, which will make matters worse. But daily death rates continue to be low in Sweden, about 1.64 per million as of today, about 3x less than the European average of nearly 5. It may be that the effect of vaccination will kick in time to keep this awful third wave from pushing death rates up again. Daily infection rates in Sweden are pretty high at about 450, 1.5x the European average, as the virus continues to burn through the country.


Elsewhere in our region, Estonia continues to have the worst daily infection rate in Europe, at over 1100 per million (!). I was just in Estonia a few days ago and I have to say -- I wasn't too comfortable being there. This comes after Estonia did not experience the first or second waves at all -- like Finland, Estonia had a minimal level of infection all the way into November, when it broke 100 per million, and from the middle of February shooting up at a horrendous exponential rate.


We watch this nervously from Finland, wondering whether we will be next.

[Montanan]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Protests in Swedish cities against pandemic measurses: https://www.msn.com/en-xl/news/other...lm/ar-BB1ejx9o

The first actual protests we've seen in the usually harmonious Nordics.

We watch this nervously from Finland, wondering whether we will be next.

Complete anger and chaos in the streets, no doubt.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

... like Finland, Estonia had a minimal level of infection all the way into November, when it broke 100 per million, and from the middle of February shooting up at a horrendous exponential rate.
We watch this nervously from Finland, wondering whether we will be next.

So you keep mentioning Finland.
But, we all know that Finland isn’t even a real place!

After all, no real country could so consistently place first in education, healthcare, gender equality, literacy rates, national stability, the least corrupt government in the world, freedom of the press, low crime rate, etc.

In fact, Finland is actually a fictional landmass, concocted by the Japanese and the Soviet Union, during the Cold War, in an effort to secure fishing rights in the Baltic Sea. The fish, that are caught in “Finland”, are shipped via the Trans-Siberian railway to Japan, under the disguise of Nokia products. The railway, and Nokia, were created for this sole purpose.

Finland’s so-called population is actually made up of people from eastern Sweden, northern Estonia, and western Russia [these people do really exist, and genuinely believe they are in Finland].
\Why did they pick Finland for their name? Well, it's simple really: The country was originally made for fishing. What do fish have? Fins. Thus Finland.

[Wotname]

Time for

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baHsoEAAMZU

[Montanan]

Jumping on the Finland bandwagon.

[TeddyDiver]

Now we are at it, the essence of Finish language https://www.reddit.com/r/Finland/com...nish_language/

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by TeddyDiver

Now we are at it, the essence of Finish language https://www.reddit.com/r/Finland/com...nish_language/

That is hilarious! And indeed, what a highly inflected language like Finnish looks like to English speakers.


HOWEVER, it's actually easier than Russian, because there is no gender, and the declension patterns are perfectly regular. The grammar is gorgeously logical and perfectly conceived.

[mglonnro]

Originally Posted by GordMay

So you keep mentioning Finland.
But, we all know that Finland isn’t even a real place!

After all, no real country could so consistently place first in education, healthcare, gender equality, literacy rates, national stability, the least corrupt government in the world, freedom of the press, low crime rate, etc.

In fact, Finland is actually a fictional landmass, concocted by the Japanese and the Soviet Union, during the Cold War, in an effort to secure fishing rights in the Baltic Sea. The fish, that are caught in “Finland”, are shipped via the Trans-Siberian railway to Japan, under the disguise of Nokia products. The railway, and Nokia, were created for this sole purpose.

Finland’s so-called population is actually made up of people from eastern Sweden, northern Estonia, and western Russia [these people do really exist, and genuinely believe they are in Finland].
\Why did they pick Finland for their name? Well, it's simple really: The country was originally made for fishing. What do fish have? Fins. Thus Finland.

Also, at the moment, you are allowed to come here by (sail)boat without a negative test result

[triibutu]

Originally Posted by mglonnro

Also, at the moment, you are allowed to come here by (sail)boat without a negative test result

Soon...

[seandepagnier]

Eventually some countries will force injections on arrival using whatever vaccine they choose regardless of your previous vaccines.

[Montanan]

The UK may Red List European countries and restrict travel.

Lord Bethell, a health minister, told the Lords that surging Covid rates in European states, with up to 10 per cent linked to new variants, could require drastic measures. "We are all aware that the possibility lies that we will have to 'red list' all of our European neighbours," "But that would be done with huge regret, because we are a trading nation, we do work in partnership with other countries. We depend on other countries for essential supplies, not only medicines, but food and others."

British Airways and other airlines are axing summer holiday flights as a health minister raised the prospect that European countries could face a "red list" travel ban. BA confirmed that, in the past week, it has cancelled summer flights across Europe and on UK domestic routes, including in July and August, amid fears there may only be a handful of countries on the "green list" when foreign travel is due to resume from May 17. The cancellations by BA and easyJet have provoked anger from travellers. BA is not axing routes all together but is cutting back flights on some of them, including Amsterdam, Germany, Italy and Sweden, by as much as a quarter.

Boris Johnson's travel taskforce will report on April 12 with plans for a "traffic light" system in which travel to "red list" countries would remain banned, "amber" countries will require quarantine and "green list" destinations are expected to require testing and/or vaccination certificates.