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

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Montanan

No testing, no quarantining, no registration! As of February 12, 2022, all COVID-19 entry requirements have been lifted for all travellers to Norway.

https://www.visitnorway.com/plan-you...ing-to-norway/

. . .

Other restrictions have also been lifted. You do not need to wear a face mask anywhere in the country, and social distancing rules have also been lifted. Social and cultural life is now back to normal: all bars, restaurants, and museums are open, and you can attend all kinds of events, such as concerts and conferences.

Who can travel to Norway?
Everyone who has a valid visitor’s visa, or who is entitled to visit Norway without a visitor’s visa, or who holds a valid residence permit in Norway.

What happens if you get COVID?
If you are infected with COVID-19, it is recommended that you isolate yourself for 4 days. Although there is no longer a testing requirement, it is recommended that adults with symptoms test themselves.

Special entry rules for Svalbard
All travellers, including Norwegians, who do not possess a valid COVID certificate, must provide a negative test before travelling to Svalbard. All travellers must take a test within 24 hours after arrival.

Second time in half a year that Norway has declared an end to restrictions! Hope it sticks this time.


All the Nordic countries, acutely aware of the cost of even the very light restrictions we've had here, are eager to get back to normal life as soon as possible. Denmark were first, and they are having a relatively rough time with it. Hope it will go better in Norway. Finland and Sweden are taking it a bit slower.

[Montanan]

A second booster?

USA Food and Drug Administration Is Reportedly Considering Whether to Approve a Second Booster Shot for This Fall

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/med...?ocid=msedgntp

This fall, you may be able to get a second covid-19 booster shot along with your annual flu vaccine.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has begun reviewing data to decide whether to authorize a second booster dose of the messenger RNA vaccines from Pfizer and partner BioNTech and from Moderna, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday, citing people familiar with the matter.
According to the Journal’s report, regulators are also weighing whether this fourth booster could be the start of an annual covid-19 vaccination. As for the fall timeline, the thinking goes that because so many people already get their annual flu shot in the fall, they may be more willing to get a yearly covid-19 vaccine then too. However, a person familiar with the matter told the outlet that no decision is final at this point, and if a new variant crops up, it may be necessary to roll out additional booster shots sooner.
Planning is still in the early stages, and several issues would need to be resolved before health regulators moved forward with the process. Authorization would depend on determinations as to whether the second booster should be authorized for all adults or limited to certain high-risk populations such as the elderly, as well as whether another booster dose should target the Omicron variant or be formulated differently, one of the people familiar with the matter told the Journal.

[GordMay]

Wastewater Testing to Detect COVID-19 Outbreaks
One of the means of tracking the presence of SARS-CoV-2 is through Wastewater Surveillance Systems.

People infected with SARS-CoV-2 can shed viral RNA (genetic material from the virus) in their feces, even if they don’t have symptoms. This RNA can be detected in community wastewater [sewage].

Wastewater surveillance captures presence of SARS-CoV-2, shed by people, with and without symptoms. By measuring SARS-CoV-2 levels, in untreated wastewater over time, public health officials can determine if infections are increasing or decreasing, in a sewershed.
Thus, wastewater surveillance can be an early indicator that the number of people with COVID-19, in a community, is increasing. or decreasing.

Unlike other types of COVID-19 surveillance, wastewater surveillance does not depend on people having access to healthcare, people seeking healthcare when sick, or availability of COVID-19 testing.

This allows wastewater surveillance to serve as an early warning, that COVID-19 is spreading [or not], in a community.

More about:

➥ https://science.gc.ca/eic/site/063.nsf/eng/98235.html

➥ https://covid19-sciencetable.ca/scie...-surveillance/

[TeddyDiver]

Originally Posted by Montanan

No testing, no quarantining, no registration! As of February 12, 2022, all COVID-19 entry requirements have been lifted for all travellers to Norway.

https://www.visitnorway.com/plan-you...ing-to-norway/

. . .

Other restrictions have also been lifted. You do not need to wear a face mask anywhere in the country, and social distancing rules have also been lifted. Social and cultural life is now back to normal: all bars, restaurants, and museums are open, and you can attend all kinds of events, such as concerts and conferences.

Who can travel to Norway?
Everyone who has a valid visitor’s visa, or who is entitled to visit Norway without a visitor’s visa, or who holds a valid residence permit in Norway.

What happens if you get COVID?
If you are infected with COVID-19, it is recommended that you isolate yourself for 4 days. Although there is no longer a testing requirement, it is recommended that adults with symptoms test themselves.

Special entry rules for Svalbard
All travellers, including Norwegians, who do not possess a valid COVID certificate, must provide a negative test before travelling to Svalbard. All travellers must take a test within 24 hours after arrival.

But not over. Here in Vadso we have over 300 confirmed cases during the last two weeks which is 6k per 100k. 3 of 10 of my coworkers have it.. https://www.vg.no/spesial/corona/fyl...kommuner/5405/

[Montanan]

UK: People with COVID in England won't need to self-isolate
The British government says people with COVID-19 will not be legally required to self-isolate in England starting in the coming week, as part of a long-term plan for “living with COVID.”

the UK's Conservative government says it will remove “all remaining domestic COVID regulations that restrict public freedoms” as part of a “move away from government intervention to personal responsibility.”

The legal requirement to isolate for at least five days after a positive COVID-19 test will be replaced with advisory measures, and the coronavirus will be treated more like the flu as it becomes endemic.

The new plan foresees vaccines and treatments keeping the virus in check, though the government said “surveillance systems and contingency measures will be retained" if needed.

“COVID will not suddenly disappear, and we need to learn to live with this virus and continue to protect ourselves without restricting our freedoms,” Johnson said.

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireSt...-week-83011095

[Montanan]

Originally Posted by TeddyDiver

But not over. Here in Vadso we have over 300 confirmed cases during the last two weeks which is 6k per 100k. 3 of 10 of my coworkers have it.. https://www.vg.no/spesial/corona/fyl...kommuner/5405/

Unfortunately it is not over.

I perceive that this pandemic is shifting towards being endemic and will mainly be of significant health hazard to the unvaccinated and those that are immune compromised. The major societal challenge being the remaining fairly large subset of unvaccinated and undervaccinated [i.e., unboosted] and the youngest who have yet been approved for vaccination.

For those who have chosen to be vaccinated [and who have had Covid] there is lesser potential of being infected and / or much lesser potential of becoming seriously ill or dying.

The Long Covid and lingering underlying enhanced adverse health issues post Covid will take its toll, individually and as a healthcare burden to society. While one may recover from the acute stage of Covid, there is definitely much higher post Covid illnesses and reduced life expectancy results.

I am fully vaccinated and boosted so my risk are comparatively modest but there are lots of persons that remain at high risk so whenever I go out in public I put on my mask so as to mitigate against the slim possibility that I may be contagious and expose others and I minimize my length of exposures. It is no big deal to put on a mask, heck it keeps my face warm during Montana's cool winter when I prepare myself to leave the car to enter a store; it will be -22 C tonight and quite windy, a tad chilly, albeit it does tend to cause fogging of my glasses and that is an annoyance.

Sadly, the USA while having the resources to have everyone vaccinated still has a very large portion of our population unvaccinated. That leaves a massive lingering pool of persons to keep getting ill and keep transmitting the disease. Harsh lessons of reality can be learned from America, or chosen to not be learned as the case may be.

Who is dying of COVID amid omicron surge and widespread vaccine availability?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/med...?ocid=msedgntp

"With around 60% of Americans fully vaccinated during the most recent wave, daily deaths from omicron are still relatively high, 2,200 deaths per day, which begs the question: Who is dying of COVID-19 when there is such strong vaccination coverage?

Infectious disease doctors say it is still mainly unvaccinated people, most of whom are in their 30s and 40s with no underlying health issues, who are dying. The vast majority of patients -- anywhere from 75% and greater -- we're seeing is primarily unvaccinated individuals who are getting COVID and wind up in the hospital severely ill and are currently dying," said Dr. Mahdee Sobhanie, an assistant professor of internal medicine and an infectious diseases physician at The Ohio State University.

A small percentage of deaths are among fully vaccinated (and boosted) people who are either older or have preexisting conditions that increase their risk of dying.

Nearly two years into the pandemic, unvaccinated Americans are still making up the majority of COVID deaths.

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that during the first week of December -- when the omicron variant began taking hold -- unvaccinated people were dying at a rate of 9 per 100,000.

By comparison, fully vaccinated people were dying at a rate of 0.4 per 100,000, meaning unvaccinated people were 20 times more likely to die of the virus, . . . .

"We started [in 2020] with the most vulnerable deaths among the elderly," Dr. David Zonies, associate chief medical officer for critical care services at Oregon Health & Science University, told ABC News. "As we transitioned into different variants, the age demographic shifted. Now we see very young people dying. It's around 30-year-olds and 40-year-olds."



These unnecessary severe illnesses and deaths will continue for as long as SARS-CoV-2 is around and keeps developing new variants while there are people will not be proactive to protect themselves and others by becoming vaccinated and continuing to update their vaccinations.

It is very difficult to not lose patience with the unvaccinated, I have a growing intolerance which is very much against my nature to be intolerant. And I have diminishing empathy when a person has chosen to be unvaccinated and becomes ill, which again is very discomforting to me to experience such change in my being.

In discussions with nurses and doctors at our local hospital, and with pharmacists that I have the opportunity to engage with, they too are struggling with retaining any degree of tolerance and empathy with unvaccinated patients and they are truly tired from the extra efforts they have had to undertake during the pandemic. Several have said that they simply have stopped crying when they lose a patient from Covid that arrives unvaccinated. One told me: "You can't substitute your caring, in place, for those that will not care for themselves. Doing such will drain you."

Hoping everyone stays healthy.

[goboatingnow]

Yes I notice a remarkable annoyance amongst my doctor friends directed at a section of the population that for personal ( and ill informed ) reasons have chosen to not get the vaccine. The see preventable sickness being presented to them.

[Montanan]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

Yes I notice a remarkable annoyance amongst my doctor friends directed at a section of the population that for personal ( and ill informed ) reasons have chosen to not get the vaccine. The see preventable sickness being presented to them.

Indeed, the medical community is pretty much done with the Covidiots. Our medical community were the one's having to face the most risk during the first year of the pandemic back when there was little knowledge of the virus, and before vaccines were developed and issued. They did not shirk from their chosen professions; they stepped forward and confronted the danger head on, with endurance and braveness and compassion. I will be forever grateful and respectful of them.

Recalling how I really got upset earlier on the pandemic when I saw a bunch of protesters standing outside the County Court house ranting about mask mandates, carrying semi-automatic long guns, dressed in camo, and quasi tactical gear, looking all Rambo like. I parked my car and confronted them, telling them how ridiculous it was to be bringing a gun to a virus fight. I knew one of the yahoos, a father of two beautiful young girls, a nice enough chap, so I loudly asked him in front of the others if he also brought his gun to the pediatrician's office when his daughters received their routine childhood vaccinations so that they could be admitted to elementary school. Grown, immature men and women, packing weapons of war, yammering stupidity, whilst on the lawn of a civilized society's judicial chambers.

I asked:

So who or what are you prepared to fight?
Nary a single utterance of response. Tough guys made to look dumb and feel really small and embarrassed.

So are you going to shot someone, or are you going to go get your shots?
Again, silence.

Then I told them: Just go home and be ashamed of yourselves. Go on, GET!

The Sheriff came over and thanked me for causing the gun toting crowd to disburse. I had merely said what he was thinking but which he could not say in his legal position. The Sheriff and I get along quite well.

No amount of camouflage clothing or tactical gear or high-capacity magazines of bullets was going to provide anyone with protection from a highly transmissible virus. Those gun nuts were far from being any part of a well-regulated militia. Well-regulated militias are routinely vaccinated. George Washington saw to that with the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War.

To this day, I find it hard to accept the reality that so many people can be so damned stupid and belligerent.
There is freedom and then there is freedumb. Far too much Freedumb has been community spread. Just saying and believing.

So looking forward to the day, when Covid can for the most part be put behind us.

I am disappointed that we will not have learned the mistakes and misinformation from this pandemic and will have the same occur again during the next pandemic.

[goboatingnow]

as you can appreciate , such displays of so-called "protests" are viewed as mentally deranged in other parts of the world. IN our case , there have been no attempts at coercion , no talk of mandatory vaccines etc . The population ( 94%) trotted along and got their shots, wore their masks and generally without laws or elements of coercion adopted the necessary safety protocols. The issues were never politicised and the publics retained their faith in their politicians and the public health teams advising the politicians. Of course it remains to be seen what the analysis shows up as being good decisions and what were bad.

[AKA-None]

Well the one thing I have learned from Covid is that if one comes along with a kill rate of 5-10-20% a lot of people are simply going to die.
People just seem to have forgotten how to listen to others and figure out how to simply just get along and work together to solve problems, or even to consider if there actually might be a problem

It seems humanity just hasn’t figured out how to move forward. I don’t want a vaccine keep your vaccines out of my body. Give me my freedom to do as I wish. Well unless we change the word vaccine to abortion then that’s different.

I just want to sail more often and visit places I’ve never been to. Sigh

[bil56]

freedom, freedom, freedom!!! the big word came out...
well no, when you live in society, you are not free of everything, you choose to live outside the system, therefore also to refuse care, to refuse a doctor or a nurse to touch you to infuse or intubate , and therefore to agree to die in your entrenched, outside of society, and then also refuse the aid and subsidies you will need during the long months of your care, if you survive...

it's funny, I explained that to a group of kids, 99% understood,
I think there are a lot more stupid adults...

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by AKA-None

Well the one thing I have learned from Covid is that if one comes along with a kill rate of 5-10-20% a lot of people are simply going to die.
People just seem to have forgotten how to listen to others and figure out how to simply just get along and work together to solve problems, or even to consider if there actually might be a problem

It seems humanity just hasn’t figured out how to move forward. I don’t want a vaccine keep your vaccines out of my body. Give me my freedom to do as I wish. Well unless we change the word vaccine to abortion then that’s different.

I just want to sail more often and visit places I’ve never been to. Sigh

“ freedom to do as you wish “

Sorry mate Your freedoms stop at my nose

There are no absolute freedoms because you don’t live on this planet on your own.

For example you may wish to have freedoms to go where you like while carrying a communicable disease. The rest of world will quite rightly limit your freedom because they have a degree of freedom not to be infected by you.

You simply can’t all have “ freedoms “ as they inevitably conflict.

[Buster Brown]

I don’t wear a mask.

I’m not vaccinated against Covid

I legally carry a gun.

I’ve been cruising for the past two years and having a blast.

Feels pretty free to me.

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by Buster Brown

I don’t wear a mask.



I’m not vaccinated against Covid



I legally carry a gun.



I’ve been cruising for the past two years and having a blast.



Feels pretty free to me.

Once you stay at home. Venture further afield , where freedoms are offset against responsibilities and things will change.

I am vaccinated , own three guns ,and cruise the EU without fear or favour for as long as I want . Feels pretty free to me too but it’s a different “ freedom “ because it’s balanced by responsibilities both to my fellow citizens and citizens of other countries. I believe my “ freedoms “ are more responsible and socially cohesive.

[Buster Brown]

What have you done that is more responsible? Receiving a vaccine that has failed in preventing you from getting or transmitting a virus? Wearing a mask that is nothing more of a symbol that you care?