How are you all dealing with coronavirus and the restrictions... #2

I’ve been vaccinated and the positivity rate and new cases are very low in my city. Nobody has died in several days. I feel some degree of security going to restaurants, movies and generally back to my social groups in person. I am wearing my mask much more often than not and socially distancing. My daughter is not vaccinated and I don’t want to accidentally pass something on to her. These relaxed mandates feel really freeing and good as long as one stays vigilant and responsible. I expect we’ll need a booster shot possibly in the fall.

The mask mandates didn't help in France. Covid cases still exploded. Masks have been around for over 100 years and in 2019 WHO said about face masks that “there is no evidence that this is effective in reducing transmission…”

https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/...9-eng.pdf?ua=1

If face masks really worked they would have saved tens of millions of people in the 1918 pandemic.


CDC:
"In pooled analysis, we found no significant reduction in influenza transmission with the use of face masks"
Nonpharmaceutical Measures for Pandemic Influenza in Nonhealthcare Settings—Personal Protective and Environmental Measures - Volume 26, Number 5—May 2020 - Emerging Infectious Diseases journal - CDC

There's a furore here because apparently last Friday the government quietly published new guidance online for the 5 areas which have growth of infections of Indian variant. The guidance said people were to avoid travelling in or out of the areas or to mix indoors. Except they didn't communicate this with the local authorities and it's only been publicised today 4 days later.

To me it's edging towards a local lockdown but they don't want to be blamed for it so they're quietly letting local authorities look like they're to blame.

I don't know where this leaves us now, especially those who are fully vaccinated.

Yeah I read about that in the Dutch news. That does sound absolutely ridiculous!

I think Germany has classified the entire UK as a variant area again due to the Indian variant? Not 100% sure though.

My dad has had his second shot now, my mum should be getting hers soon. Germany is giving vaccinated people the same freedom as people tested negatively but I think the hotels are still closed for tourists and I can't have them staying in my tiny flat so I guess we will all need some more patience.

Last weekend I read the goal was to have all school kids (12-18) vaccinated before the end of August and the start of the new school year. The latest news is they want to start vaccinating them in June I'm getting really worried about not getting mine anytime soon now.

Well, this is really bad news. A friend just informed me that her husband was diagnosed with diabetes, which puts him at increased risk for a severe case of Covid. He's about 60 so was vaccinated pretty early on due to age, but at that point there was almost no Pfizer available. It was reserved for health workers and a few situations like people on dialysis or undergoing chemo. So, you can guess what vaccine he got. He is an electrical engineer, so he can't always work from home. He and his co-workers have to visit clients and sometimes travel to other locations in the country. She's extremely concerned and stressed, which is very understandable.

Ah that's a shame about the hotels! Glad your parents are almost fully vaccinated now though and hope you can see them as soon as possible.

The furore over the ridiculous government advice which was sneaked out last week has settled down- they met with local leaders and agreed no special measures are needed. So we are being told to be careful but live our lives as usual. It's good but how ridiculous we had to go through this worry again - we just came out of a 5 month lockdown!

I completely agree with other countries listing us as an Indian variant risk and banning us or heavily restricting our travel - I think it's ridiculous Spain is saying UK visitors dont need to give a negative test to travel there. I just hope Spain don't get another wave from this.

Good news for me is my 2nd vaccine is being brought forward to next month instead of July - I got an email today. This is because I live in an area affected by the variant.

@BreakForTheLight you asked about vaccine efficacy for the India variant a while back. I read today the official data is 33% for first dose of either Pfizer or AstraZeneca and 2nd dose of Pfizer takes this to 88% and AstraZeneca 60% after 2 weeks .

Covid-19: Single vaccine dose is 33% effective against variant from India, data show | The BMJ

So 2nd doses are very important but also the Pfizer is a clear higher performer - I'm so glad our elderly and vulnerable were mostly given it. Hoping that will protect them from any new surges.

I recalled you so much today when wearing the f@cking mask under the sun rays of my city today.
It said that you better not give a lot details on the net about where you are and such, but I’m in the f@acking South of Spain, so you can all guess how we are dealing with the hot weather now. And thus, I have to wear this mask that it’s helpful for nothing.

P.S.: Ace, I guess many things that are told to the populations are with the aim to avoid panic. I wonder when they are gonna treat us as adults.

Did you already get the two shots?

You see how politicians don’t find another way than shirking.

You’re such a good person, thinking about us. Thank you.
Here, the Indian variant is something to take into account but it’s not associated with the UK.

Here, people are waiting for Britains. From
what I heard the vaccines are not so effective with the Indian variant but they seems to cover a high percentage of protection though.

I did get the two shots.

There we go. Providing Pfizer gets approval for under 18s, people from 12-18 will also be able to get vaccinated in Germany from 7 June onwards. So it really will be a free for all. There's not even enough available to vaccinate everyone 18 and over. Guess I will just stay in my effing cave for the rest of my life.

Just great. We are back over 8,000 new cases today - 8,117. 185 new deaths were announced, which is HIGHER than last Thursday (172). Positivity is 10.19% for the country and 13% in my region. How's that Suerovac working for you Mr. Minister? The number of new cases hasn't been so high since April 10th. We are down to 217 open ICU beds. That compares to 308 a week ago. I wonder if we are seeing the effect of the elections. Late May was the most recent estimate of when we'd see the effect of the vaccine on deaths and hospital admissions. We are in late May and it's not getting better.


They say that supposedly 90% of people that are in the ICU are not fully vaccinated. Still, with 3,014 people in the ICU, that's just over 300 people that were fully vaccinated but still got seriously ill. In theory, Sinovac has a high level of protection against ending up in the ICU, but seeing numbers like that makes me wonder. I'm wondering what the Sinovac/Pfizer distribution is among the vaccinated people in the ICU.


Many municipalities are heading back to lockdown, but we are spared for now.


They just introduced a "mobility pass" that you can obtaining by scanning a QR code indicating you are fully vaccinated on the Health Ministry vaccination website. Yesterday was two weeks past my second vaccine, but it didn't work until today. If you are in full lockdown (phase 1) or weekend lockdown (phase 2) you no longer are limited to the 2 hour permits to leave the house, which is nice. Although, since Sinovac isn't helping to contain transmission, I wonder if cases will continue to rise. Most medical associations in the country have come out to say they oppose the measure.


The Health Minister gave a weird, rambling press conference and then got pissy with reporters when they tried to ask serious questions. What a mess.

@BreakForTheLight are there any waiting lists you can get on? They made the vaccine a free-for-all in my area right when my age slot was about to be called up. Distribution was very messy so every place had it's own list and I signed up on all of them. We went from not having enough vaccines to have more than enough so quickly, like a tsunami, and I hope the same happens for you.

@rechu That 90% in the ICU statistic not being fully vaccinated sounds suspect when your vaccination rates are so high. Why did these high risk people slip through the cracks?

Had my second AZ jab yesterday. Today I'm lethargic, warm, cold. Taken two paracetamol and drinking plenty of water. Slept in this morning but still feel like going back to bed.

Here in UK can't believe what politicians have said. They now believe their plan for care homes was the best. So you don't make PPE available, what they got was sub-standard and it didn't matter that people were dying. As for not shutting the borders immediately, it could have helped, but no. Don't particularly like our Home Secretary, but in this case she was right. Complete shambles!

Can't believe how people are behaving. Not wearing masks or socially distancing. I believe there will be another lockdown here possibly as early as end June.

Thanks, I hope so too but so far we're getting less vaccines than promised in the next couple of weeks

Nationwide, the priority is still in place until June 7th, although my state has already lifted priority. The vaccination centres however are still only vaccinating people in priority groups. GPs are only vaccinating their registered patients because of the shortage of doses. My GP has stated they will be sending out invitations based on who they think is most at risk. Apparently they do not consider me in a priority group (despite high blood pressure being in priority 3 and serious mental health issues even higher priority) as I have not received an invitation yet.

Hopefully after June 7th when priority is lifted in the entire country, vaccination centres wil also be available for everyone so I can try to book an appointment there.

@hvert - the government is blaming it on people under 55 not being fully vaccinated yet and the Brazilian variant being more contagious and more serious for young people. However, as usual, they are not telling the whole truth. The vaccination calendar always had two components - age and other priority individuals. Last December they started with the frontline medical workers with the bit of Pfizer that was arriving. Then, in February when we started getting Sinovac and more Pfizer they started with the 80+ group plus health workers. Then they started going down to people in their 70s, 60s, plus other essential workers and people with chronic conditions regardless of age. So, a lot of younger people have been fully vaccinated. Most people I know that are younger than me have been vaccinated for a while either because of a health issue or their occupation while I just got my second dose a few weeks ago. I really don't know where they got that statistic 90% from or if they just pulled it out of their arses. I have no faith in anything the Health Minister or President says.

Even Brazil, which has an agreement to produce Sinovac seems to be getting a clue. Bolsonario recently ordered 100 million Pfizer doses.


Here to the left, you can see vaccination by age group, but I am not sure if that is with both doses. It looks like it might be everyone who has gotten a dose when you compare those % to the % to the numbers on the right. Still, a lot of people under 55 have at least started the vaccination process.

Visor territorial COVID-19

So much doesn't make sense. I know another expat here that lives in a city on the coast. They had a long lockdown recently about 8 weeks, I think, and then transitioned out 3 or 4 weeks ago. It was similar to where I live, Health Ministry essentially gave up because it simply wasn't having any effect. Well, as of Monday they go back to lockdown. Hmm, did the government find a magic bullet in these last few weeks to make the lockdown work this time? What do they say about insanity is repeating the same thing over and over and expecting different results?

8,680 new cases announced today. The second highest ever. Positivity of over 10% and people are crowding the bus terminals to use their new mobility pass. Yeah, that's going to end well.

That is really discouraging, to have so many people vaccinated but still have such high infection rates. I don't think that ICU statistic can be right. And if even Bolsonaro is on the Pfizer bandwagon, that's a clear sign everyone needs to be on it.

I am curious to see what happens here in the next month. All mandates have been lifted but the majority of people are still following the mask mandate. Our vaccination rates are similar to yours but I'd guess 90% were given one of the mRNA vaccines. Cases were rising for a bit but now are falling. Younger people are going into the ICU which makes me think the Brazilian variant must be here. I think this is something we are just going to live with.

Sorry to read you felt unwell following your 2nd AZ vaccination, I'm getting mine in a few weeks and have to be in work next day so hoping I'll be okay (I was like you with my first).

I agree with you about care homes and borders, some of this stuff was so horribly glaringly obvious wasn't it.

Sorry to read about the lack of mask wearing and social distancing too, it's not bad where we are but we had a spike a few weeks back and so people seem to be careful still here. It feels very uncertain though.

The NY Times tracker calculates a bit differently than the government site. I think the government site is % of target population, which is about 80% of the population, leaving out out kids and assuming a certain % won't or can't get vaccinated. Anyways, we are right in synch with the US according to the NY Times data. Here it's 54% fully vaccinated and 41% with one dose. US is 50%/40%. If the difference is not the vaccine, then what is it?

Even medical experts here are now coming out to say that Sinovac is showing to be pretty crap as far as reducing transmission and that the government needs to look into getting more mRNA vaccines. I posted a link to an article about that on a forum for expats here. Some guy promptly bit my head off at me for daring to criticize Sinovac. Hehe, maybe that was all he could get, so he has to feel like it is going to work. Another formerly pro-Sinovac cheerleader on that site is now starting to question it, though.


There was an article in a local paper here saying that a study in Uruguay showed that Sinovac supposedly reduced deaths by 97%. Again, hard to believe. I was poking around on the Our World in Data site and daily deaths in Uruguay in recent days are second worst in the world, behind only Paraguay that has barely vaccinated anyone. Uruguay is behind only us in South America in number of vaccinated. Pfizer is for 70+ there and everyone else gets Sinovac. The numbers are even higher than Argentina and Colombia, which are vaccinating more slowly too. How can you have one of the world's worst death rates and say the vaccine prevented 97% of deaths. It does not add up.

I wish our Health Minister and President would resign to be replaced by a new administration that will focus on getting us better vaccines. Realistically, my only hope is that as supply increases, private clinics will be able to buy doses of better vaccines. I am sure there will be a lucrative market of people who got Sinovac but would be willing to pay to get Pfizer or Moderna if they could. I know my husband and several friends want to do that if/when it becomes possible. Unfortunately, not everyone will be able to pay.


Oh, and they have detected the black fungus in hospitalized patients here and we are over 8,000 new cases again in today's report. Just great.

Just read an article saying there are no more appointments available vaccination centres until the end of June in the entire city. Lovely. So probably no first shot until at least July - and then there's still the time before the 2nd shot and the 2 weeks wait until it counts as fully vaccinated......

I'm sure I've said it before but I am really f done with it.

The mask is really horrible in the heat. I had to walk 4 miles last fall on a warm day and I didn't wear it. I think I would have passed out if I did. The general mask mandate is gone near me but some stores still require them. At work only unvaccinated people have to wear masks.

That sucks!


Just a thought, because I don't know how the system works there. Would there be any way to try to find an appointment in the surrounding area? Maybe more rural areas where there is less demand? I read about people doing that in the US, but I guess it depends if you are required to go to a center in the area where you live or not.

You can only get an appointment at a centre in your own state. Since my city is the entire state, I can't go anywhere else.

By now I am almost considering going back home to get it. They're still going by age group so it should be easier to get an appointment than where it's free for all. My age group will be up in mid June. But 700 km is a long way yo travel to get a vaccination