How are you all dealing with coronavirus and the restrictions many of us have to live

We do have a whole classification system for Covidiots, don't we? Add the students in the US going to Florida for Spring Break, crowding into bars.

And we have another winner. The Electoral Service is insisting on going ahead with municipal elections for April 10th and 11th. The Health Minister announced that if you are selected as a poll worker, you will be eligible for vaccinations. Here they publish a list of people online and in the main newspaper that are the "lucky" ones that get to work the polls all day for 7,000 pesos and a sandwich. They have been going on and on that you develop maximum immunity (whatever this vaccine actually gives you) somewhat after you've had the second vaccine. Do the math. If you get the first vaccine next week (22nd to 26th), there is not enough time to get a second vaccine before the elections. The spacing is 28 days for Sinovac.

Please, I need vibes that I don't get selected or if I am I have to find some way to get excused. I can't even imagine being closed up inside for hours close to other people. Masks will be required, but I am sure more than a few aren't going to wear them properly. We didn't go to vote about rewriting the constitution because the case numbers were high enough to make us feel uncomfortable. I saw footage and it just looked like Covid central. They really need to postpone them, I think.

Here in the USA most states are level or trending down but as of yesterday a few states are trending up again. The news didn’t say which ones but I bet it’s the ones that took off masks and opened 100%. Here it very politically driven. The rich find ways to get shots then do what they want.

Yeah but it's *other* countries that decide if Spain is safe enough for their citizens to travel to, no?

I just don't understand how "parts of Spain are no longer considered high risk" translates to "we can all go on holiday now!" The advise is stil not to travel unnecessarily. It's so selfish. Meanwhile My parents can't even come to visit me - not only because of quarantine rules but hotels here are closed for tourism.

And how can they justify it against German hotels also needing paying guests to survive, that's it's ok to travel all the way to Spain but they have to stay closed???

Sending “skip me” vibes that you will be skipped for the polls!

Thanks Nammu. I hope so. Normally I would suck it up and just do my civic duty, but not barely vaccinated in the middle of a pandemic.

I'm also sending 'no pollworker selection' vibes. I'd be coming down with a sore throat if I got lucky enough to win that lottery! How does the poll working work there? I did it once here and never will again. If you worked a full day, you showed up at 6 AM and couldn't leave until 10PM. It was so short staffed that there were no breaks. No sandwich. I worked a half day so 'only' worked til 3 or 4. Also, voters were angry because they were standing in line for hours in bad weather so it was just awful overall.

I also live in a tourist area and was very annoyed last year when tourists were not allowed but kept coming anyway. There was no enforcement of quarantine. One hotel that didn't follow the rules had an outbreak that got national press and there were no consequences. We were doing very well and that one outbreak kicked off Covid big time, just because some people did not want to follow the rules and felt it was okay to visit a hotspot and then run all over the state spreading it in multiple towns, in fire departments, jails, etc. Also, our tourism association was advertising our state as a 'safe place' to visit in Covid hotspot areas. We've been flooded with people fleeing NYC and some of the more densely populated parts of the Northeast so housing prices are through the roof. This whole pandemic sucks. It has changed the way I view a lot of local businesses who were desperate for the tourist dollars.


It also feels like a real slap in the face for the young to have spent the past year locked down if the elderly who are prioritized for vaccinations can go wherever they want.

@rechu I am sending my vibes too.

Do you know what precautions will be taken at voting stations? This May we have local elections and have been advised it's 'one in one out' at stations so there will be queuing outside the room. We will have to sanitize hands upon entry and wear masks (there's the issue, over here a person just has to say they're exempt no proof required).

If you do get selected I wonder if there are things you can do to help reassure yourself and keep yourself safe. Double masking (a surgical mask plus fabric) is one idea. Disposable gloves another.

All I can say is having worked in customer facing retail role throughout the pandemic the risks are not as great as I first feared. Retail workers did not get sick in big numbers. We come into contact with many people but those contacts are brief - infection happens with longer contact and shared airspace (15 minutes plus). When I realised this I relaxed a lot. So hopefully in a voting station contacts will be brief too.

The biggest risk in these scenarios are your colleagues as you are with them all day. When infection has spread in supermarkets it's been throughout staff who have been working closely and sitting in break rooms together. So if you do get selected, be careful to keep your distance from colleagues.

This year we were encouraged to apply for postal votes and first time ever we have - I'm the kind of person who likes the whole tradition of going to the polling station so for me it felt sad but postal votes felt like the right thing to do. Is there a similar encouragement to vote postal?

Best of luck and hope some of what I've written reassures you. I remember how very scared I felt at first going to work in the pandemic.

How can they force people to work at the polls? Here it’s volunteer positions and you can’t be forced

Unfortunately, it's not volunteer here. If you are chosen, you have three days to request to be excused for certain reasons. If you don't show up, fines are between US$140 and US$563. I'd almost rather pay the fine.

From what I saw on TV regarding the last elections, people were supposed to wear masks, but there wasn't much else being done, and you always have the idiots that don't wear their masks correctly. There wasn't much spacing in the lines either. I definitely feel that I'd be more worried about working in close quarters with the other poll workers for hours. That's the larger exposure risk. They may do testing. I think it was done last time, but that's not foolproof either.

With so many areas in quarantine, and probably more to come, it seems like a huge contradiction that they are insisting on the elections.

We tried to do an online order with the only supermarket that delivers here, but they are out of almost everything. My husband will have to try and go out today to stock up on some things.

The impending quarantine is a dark cloud hanging over my head. The permissions to leave your house are reduced to 2 hours twice a week.

Yet again, those of us that follow the rules have to suffer. The covidiots will keep doing what they want.

I hope you can get supplies before the lockdown starts. I'd pay the fine if I were selected, even if it wasn't Covid, though I am not sure what % of a weekly wage that represents where you are. A friend in Canada told me her town postponed elections for a year. I am not sure how I would feel about that but it seems to have been a widely supported choice. I liked the mail in options we had for our election but I always mail in. They can't find enough volunteers to staff the polling stations so they shut more and more down each year which makes the lines longer at the few left open.

I work for a US company, so I do pretty well compared to the average Chilean since I get a US-level wage. For me it wouldn't be a hardship to pay that. The average wage here is probably US$800 a month and the minimum is US$460 before health insurance/pension deductions, so, it's a lot for someone on minimum wage. I was just on the election website and they haven't announced anything yet.

I don't know if mail in voting would work here. The mail service in this country was never great. When I lived in the capital, it worked somewhat, out here in a more rural area, it was always worse and the pandemic hasn't helped matters. The municipality where I used to live at least had two post offices for about 100,000 people. Usually 2 or 3 people were working. Here, we have only one post office for 109,000 people and if you're lucky there are 2 people working. Sometimes it's only 1. I am still waiting for a package my dad sent in November!

Ouch, that is a high fine for most then. Five months is a really long time to wait for a package!

I agreed to meet vaccinated family for lunch outside tomorrow but now I am really regretting it. I thought we would do a picnic but they want to go to a restaurant. The one they've suggested does not seem safe to me. I did eat at an outdoor restaurant last summer but people were sitting far apart and the case counts were in the single digits.

Covid World Vaccination Tracker - The New York Times

Hmm, according to our Health Minister a few weeks ago, we should start seeing cases come down after 30% have had both vaccines. According to the vaccination tracker, we're at 29%. I wonder if we will actually see any change in another week or so, or if it was just more BS from the government. We hit another recent high as far as number of cases today, 6,604. The only time cases were worse was last June and July.

Well, my husband's attempt to shop didn't go too well. The parking lots at the several supermarkets he tried were completely full. It was completely chaotic. When they announce changes in phases on Mondays, it doesn't take effect until Thursday, so people have bit more time to organize. But, when they announce on Thursdays, it takes effect on Saturday. It's not enough time. He managed to stop off at a produce stand for vegetables, at least. Then when he got back home, he saw the truck of the company that usually delivers us the 20 liter jugs of water to us. He was able to flag him down and buy 3 jugs. It's not like we have no other food in the house, but there were some things we had hoped to buy.

It's good you were able to find some things. How do the two permits per week work? Two per person or per household? Is it for a certain time slot?


26% have gotten at least one vaccine dose here. Cases are starting to go back up. Vaccines are being distributed based on age but most of the new cases are in the young. The good news is that the vaccine supply has finally caught up with demand and it is becoming available to people months before anyone expected. I just learned that I will be eligible in mid-April. When they first started this, my turn was in July.

It's done by RUT, which is like your social security number. You have to go to website that has been set up and request it. Then you print the permit out or download it to your phone so you can show it if you are asked for it. I don't know what people that don't have internet or aren't computer literate do. Each person gets two permits per week. Foreigners with no RUT use their passport. I guess if I wanted to gamethe system I could use my US passport to get 2 permits and my RUT to get two more, but I won't.


Yeah, the water was very important. The tap water here has a lot of sediment, so it's not good to drink. Even the pets drink purified water. One of our dogs had a bladder stone and the vet said the sediment might have contributed to it.

Even if you don't plan on using it, having the passport is a good back up in an emergency. My husband just became eligible for a vaccine and has an appointment next week! He won't find out which one until he gets there.

Of my gosh! The same here regarding celebrating elections. Last Autumn and now in Madrid too. They are not even needed. They will be celebrate in advance because of political reasons. My f@cking lord!
They haven’t still said anything about the conditions where they have been hold these elections but the previous elections, the people on the polls had to dress this especial outfit to avoid being contagion.

I’m crossing my fingers and toes lol, so your name don’t appear in that list.

Thanks all. I guess the positive vibes worked. Neither my husband nor I were chosen. There's a second, smaller, list that comes out for people whose excuses were approved. So, we're not fully out of the woods, but it's less likely. I imagine that some people who may have tried to get excused will decide to do it so they can get vaccinated earlier. However, they are only going to have one dose.

I think they need to be canceled. The former Health Minister Mañalich came out and said as much. I agree with him there. I mean, you're telling people to stay at home, but then go out and vote? It's a mixed message.

We have had not word on the condition of the Interior Minister who is hospitalized with COVID. He's essentially like the Vice President in our system, so it's weird that the government hasn't said anything about his condition.

Well nearly all the Metropolitan Region was sent back to quarantine, apart from the high rent districts of Santiago. Hmm, how ever did that happen? Our friend with the dog walking/pet sitting business will not be able to work. There area has a higher number of active cases than here, with a smaller population even though there are a lot of elderly people there who have finished getting their two vaccine doses several weeks ago.



Then, they are making all businesses close on weekends in the two strictest phases including essential businesses supermarkets and pharmacies. You can't get a permit to go out at all. More stupidity. That just will create more crowds during the week, the same as when they closed malls on weekends right before Christmas.

But, the Health Minister said that the elections are still on. He was rambling on about how candidates have already spent money on their campaigns? So, money before health. I got it. I think he needs to go, now and take the undersecretary with him.

While seeing that the cases and categories of covidiots are increasing exponentially along the thread, I have a proposal.
All these covidiots should be the last to be vaccinated. L.M.A.O.!

@AzulOscuro - or we could make them take the Chinese vaccine! In fact, our President and Health Minister already did. Maybe it's affecting their brains. The leader of the Medical College recently made some pretty strong criticisms of the government's handling of the pandemic:

Los dardos de Izkia Siches: El gobierno “lo peor”, Paris “buen soldado” e ingenieros “que se las dan de epidemiologos”

That has been all over the news lately.

Another Covidiot, a congressman on the news today was saying that we were able to do the plebiscite on the constitution just fine back in October, and that there didn't seem to be related outbreaks. The anchor of the show quickly found the stats. We were only having around 1,000 new cases a day back then. Now it's 7,000 - obviously a very different situation.

@rechu, so it’s the Chinese vaccine the one that is being provided there? The Infantas got this vaccine but they were already touched up there. It’s family blood. lol!

Ok, I disagree a little with you in the sense that it’s normal that the first vaccine to be developed has less positive effects.
I’m hearing marvellous things said about the future Spanish vaccine but it’s in the future. 2022. They are testing it on rodents. It will probably given through the nose (uh) but they say the person who receive the vaccine can’t infect others. But, this is still in the hypothetical world.

I love your humor sense.

Lockdown has been extended until April 18. Guess I'm not going home over Easter.

I'm so done with everything. I bought a few books some weeks back, but I can't even get through those. I used to love reading

I even have a concert ticket for a corona proof open-air concert in summer. 2 days before my birthday. It should have been perfect.But I can't get excited over anything anymore And I'm pissed off over the concert as well. "Dance without a mask in your own section!". Unless you're single and live alone. Tickets only sold by 2, 3 or 4. So now my options are a) move into a flat share and go with a flatmate, b) find a partner and go with them c) go with someone else and wear a mask the entire concert or d) go by myself, look pathetic and pay for both tickets (and they're not cheap)

I've actually already bought 2 tickets so I need some solution. Afraid C and D are my only realistic options.

@BreakForTheLight. That sucks. I'm really sorry. I felt the same way last week when they announced we were headed back to lockdown. And now with the new restrictions announced today, my mood went down another notch.

@AzulOscuro Sadly, we really did get the worst vaccine in Sinovac. Studies in Brazil showed 50.4% efficacy. That compares to around 94-95% for Moderna and Pfizer, AstraZeneca and J&J are somewhere in the 70s. There were some studies done in Indonesia that showed a better rate for Sinovac. However, those were earlier before the variants started to become an issue. Being in South America, it seems like the Brazilian trials have more of a relevance here than ones done in Asia. It's likely the Brazilian variant was already there during the study since it wasn't too long ago. There was an infectious disease expert on TV the other day saying the same thing. Several other people I know who are knowledgeable about these things say the same.


I think part of the problem, as with so much here, is how the government handled it. They went in full propaganda mode to sell the vaccine as the solution. They refused to discuss different levels of vaccine efficacy. The Health Minister and his minions should have said that this was the best we could get for now and it's been shown to reduce hospitalizations but it's not so effective in preventing transmission so we are still stuck with the other prevention methods like masks. They have started to do so recently, but how many people got vaccinated and immediately let their guard down thinking they were more protected than they were?


Then here they announced that in a study by the Catholic University, 90% of people have developed an "immune response" to the vaccine. Several months ago when first discussing this with my sister, who works in this area, she said the virus seems to be pretty easy to generate some sort of immune response to. The question is if it is the immune response is sufficient to fight the virus. Without more information, it's hard to know if the response is useful or not.


I think the Infantas got Sinopharm. Supposedly it has better efficacy numbers, but Chinese vaccine makers are not exactly forthcoming. They publish press releases, but as far as phase 3 studies that are peer reviewed - nothing so far as I have heard. Serbia is using Sinopharm and cases keep going up there too, in contrast to the US, UK and Israel that are vaccinating a lot and seeing cases fall.