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

[dannc]

Originally Posted by Seaworthy Lass

Me either. Each additional week impacts even further.

Some of the long term consequences are hard to assess so they tend not to be factored in. Anxiety, stress, depression, the lack of human touch and personal interaction. Humans are very much social beings. We are designed to thrive in communities. There are currently around 6 million people in the UK on antidepressants. What effect are these lockdowns having on this vulnerable group?
...

I know some people who have been hit hard by the lock down. Other people, like us, it has been mostly a who cares. The biggest impact is that our planned trip to the Netherlands got canceled but that was counter balanced by local sailing. A big positive of the lock down has been working from home, which appears to be something that will continue after the pandemic is over.

The other group that has been hit hard, and I don't think we will know the impact for a few more years, is students from nursery school to college. They have been impacted, but how much, and what will it take to recover from that impact?

In my state, cases have been dropping since the first part of January. The spike started in early November for some reason. The January drop makes since but the November spike does not, so one has to wonder if the peak and drop had anything to do with the holidays. We have a pretty high level of vaccination in my county at the moment and I wonder if it has been enough to have entered the Herd Immunity Zone?

I wonder if the UK, with it's high rate of vaccination, has entered the Herd Immunity Zone?

Later,
Dan

[Anders]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

I don't know why the restrictions aren't coming off in the UK. Every week is another quantum of severe damage to society, to people, to the economy.

Boris is making sure that Sir Keir can't accuse him of lifting the lock down to early.
I dont agree with Boris but I can understand why he does it since he's timing been wrong most times and he does not want Sir Keir to be right again.

[GordMay]

Denmark suspends use of AstraZeneca vaccine over blood clot fears
The vaccine will not be used for 14 days, while investigators probe reports of possible ‘serious side-effects’.
➥ https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/...ood-clot-repor

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by dannc

I know some people who have been hit hard by the lock down. Other people, like us, it has been mostly a who cares. . . .

Impact of lockdown varies enormously by socio-economic and educational level.


For higher level white collar workers who can easily work from home, might not be a big deal, especially for those who don't have small children. For people with bachelor's degree and above, net job loss at the moment is 0.


But for blue collar workers who live from paycheck to paycheck and can't work from home, it can be an unholy nightmare, a life-destroying set of circumstances. Blue collar jobs are still down something like 20% from pre-pandemic levels -- that's something like 10 million disappeared jobs. May be even worse for small time entrepreneurs, especially restaurateurs, many of whom have been or who are being put out of business forever.


Lockdown does not affect all of us equally.

[dannc]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Impact of lockdown varies enormously by socio-economic and educational level.

For higher level white collar workers who can easily work from home, might not be a big deal, especially for those who don't have small children. For people with bachelor's degree and above, net job loss at the moment is 0.

But for blue collar workers who live from paycheck to paycheck and can't work from home, it can be an unholy nightmare, a life-destroying set of circumstances. Blue collar jobs are still down something like 20% from pre-pandemic levels -- that's something like 10 million disappeared jobs. May be even worse for small time entrepreneurs, especially restaurateurs, many of whom have been or who are being put out of business forever.

Lockdown does not affect all of us equally.

The Lock Down hits people based on job, location, age, children, PARENTS, etc. Lots of variables.

It has affected us in that we have not been able to visit family in hospital or be with family in court rooms. Which was not good but compared to many that has not been a horrible impact. The the loss of court room access might be. Too early to tell on that one.

We were lucky in that one kids not in college was home schooled so the shutting down of schools did not impact us that much. There was a bit of an impact but it is/was a nit. Or at least we hope it was/is. Again, too early to tell.

Blue color job impacts depends on the job of course. I know plenty of blue collar works and they have been ok. Certainly the restaurant, hotel, and travels business have been hard hit. But locally, we have been lucky and only lost two restaurants. I think one was going to shut down for other reasons. Not sure about the other place.

Flip side is that the some businesses hired a bunch more people, like Lowes and the grocery stores. There are help wanted signs at various businesses as well. We even had a new hardware store open up. Go figure. Can you imagine opening a store in the lock down?

I read a bunch of Irish papers, and they have had it worse over there with the lock down. I really worry that many of the restaurants and pubs will go out of business and never return.

Schools have been a nightmare for many that is for sure. Our county has kept the schools closed but counties next door have opened up. No matter what one does with the schools, one is wrong. Glad I don't have to make that decisions.

I do know young, single adults who have been impacted by the lock down. Being locked up, and not be able to socialize, has been major problem for them. Not sure long of an impact that will be on them.... The impact of the school shutdown is going to be "interesting."

Later,
Dan

[Seaworthy Lass]

I have a “feel good” story to share .

There has been a lot of criticism directed at the UK regarding its handling of the pandemic, but one thing that is being done in a superbly organised way is the vaccination program. This is “the NHS at its best”:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...ntre-a-reality

134 mass vaccinations centres have now been set up in England, the latest “capable of hosting 2500-3000 jabs daily”.

“The deployment of the vaccines across England has been impressive so far but should move up another gear next week when the number of jabs delivered daily is planned to double from about 400,000 to 800,000.”

Volunteers have been recruited not just to shepherd the arrivals, but also trained to give the vaccinations, dramatically increasing the numbers possible.

In small communities larger premises such as village halls with high air volume have tended to be used rather than GP surgeries, enabling safe distancing.

Everyone registered with the NHS is contacted with appointment times as each group progressively reaches its turn. No need to spend hours trying to get an appointment.

Well done UK .

[El Pinguino]

I wish I had a 'feel good' story to share...
In Australia in the three weeks since starting to vaccinate about 100,000 people have had their first jab.... less than 5000 a day nationwide.... and all we get from 'Slomo' aka 'Scotty from marketing' is wiffle waffle.

No mention of opening our borders later in the year to inbound travellers beyond our current few thousand returning 'Australians' a week who go into 14 day quarantine...

Which means the tourism and the education industries are going to suffer for a long time yet...

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

I wish I had a 'feel good' story to share...
In Australia in the three weeks since starting to vaccinate about 100,000 people have had their first jab.... less than 5000 a day nationwide.... and all we get from 'Slomo' aka 'Scotty from marketing' is wiffle waffle.

No mention of opening our borders later in the year to inbound travellers beyond our current few thousand returning 'Australians' a week who go into 14 day quarantine...

Which means the tourism and the education industries are going to suffer for a long time yet...

I think lack of vaccines has been the main issue so far. There are repeated tales of nursing homes still waiting day upon day for promised batches to arrive.

The doses of AstraZeneca being manufactured 24/7 by CSL in Broadmeadows, Melbourne should be available later this month, which will help tremendously.

The logistics have not been well planned though. Now that quarantine and border workers and their families (along with politicians) have been jabbed, apart from a handful of hospital “hubs”, private GP surgeries will apparently be administering the bulk of doses after nursing homes have been completed. This sounds fraught with problems, particularly initially when the vulnerable who are shielding need to be visiting confined public premises. It has been suggested pharmacies would be recruited, but the same issues apply.

4500 medical practices have agreed to participate, which means on average each may need to deal with roughly 8000 visits. What happens to their usual patient care while this is being done?

I am just keeping fingers crossed the program will go smoothly.

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by Seaworthy Lass

I think lack of vaccines has been the main issue so far. There are repeated tales of nursing homes still waiting day upon day for promised batches to arrive.

The doses of AstraZeneca being manufactured 24/7 by CSL in Broadmeadows, Melbourne should be available later this month, which will help tremendously.

The logistics have not been well planned though. Now that quarantine and border workers and their families (along with politicians) have been jabbed, apart from a handful of hospital “hubs”, private GP surgeries will apparently be administering the bulk of doses after nursing homes have been completed. This sounds fraught with problems, particularly initially when the vulnerable who are shielding need to be visiting confined public premises. It has been suggested pharmacies would be recruited, but the same issues apply.

4500 medical practices have agreed to participate, which means on average each may need to deal with roughly 8000 visits. What happens to their usual patient care while this is being done?

I am just keeping fingers crossed the program will go smoothly.

In other words .. a shambles..brought to us by shambler in chief Scotty 'nothing to do with me' Morrison...

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

In other words .. a shambles..brought to us by shambler in chief Scotty 'nothing to do with me' Morrison...

Hey steady on, the marketing division has done their job i.e. get the rollout announced and photo op done - problem is solved. Now pray for a miracle...

(tongue firmly in cheek).

[El Pinguino]

Some may find this of interest..

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by Seaworthy Lass

I think lack of vaccines has been the main issue so far. There are repeated tales of nursing homes still waiting day upon day for promised batches to arrive.

The doses of AstraZeneca being manufactured 24/7 by CSL in Broadmeadows, Melbourne should be available later this month, which will help tremendously.

The logistics have not been well planned though. Now that quarantine and border workers and their families (along with politicians) have been jabbed, apart from a handful of hospital “hubs”, private GP surgeries will apparently be administering the bulk of doses after nursing homes have been completed. This sounds fraught with problems, particularly initially when the vulnerable who are shielding need to be visiting confined public premises. It has been suggested pharmacies would be recruited, but the same issues apply.

4500 medical practices have agreed to participate, which means on average each may need to deal with roughly 8000 visits. What happens to their usual patient care while this is being done?

I am just keeping fingers crossed the program will go smoothly.

Not sure where you are getting your info from but locally we are getting this https://www.wodonga.vic.gov.au/Newsr..._campaign=news

A thirty six booth facility for an urban population of 90,000 with maybe the same again in the rural catchment.
Good info is hard to come by locally ... last I heard was the GP's were saying the $ rate per jab wasn't good enough.

As they say here .. https://www.theage.com.au/national/v...12-p57a3c.html ..

'If anything, the government looks disappointingly unambitious. It risks committing perhaps the greatest public policy bungle in Australian history if it cannot rise to the procurement, logistics and planning challenges to guarantee rapid mass vaccination as soon as possible. '.

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

Not sure where you are getting your info from but locally we are getting this https://www.wodonga.vic.gov.au/Newsr..._campaign=news

A thirty six booth facility for an urban population of 90,000 with maybe the same again in the rural catchment.
Good info is hard to come by locally ... last I heard was the GP's were saying the $ rate per jab wasn't good enough.

As they say here .. https://www.theage.com.au/national/v...12-p57a3c.html ..

'If anything, the government looks disappointingly unambitious. It risks committing perhaps the greatest public policy bungle in Australian history if it cannot rise to the procurement, logistics and planning challenges to guarantee rapid mass vaccination as soon as possible. '.

Thanks Ping. Any in larger cities you have heard about? That’s good news for Wodonga, although it is still in the process of being set up: ”We are excited to commence operations from the High Street location in the coming weeks.”
Weeks? What have they been doing for the last 12 months since the border restrictions came into place?

With two unvaccinated nonagenarians on the family (one shielding independently at home) I am scouring government releases and the news for updates. Several hospitals acting as Pfizer hubs were the only larger distribution centres that I understood were currently set up, although state run clinics had been mentioned.

[dannc]

Originally Posted by Seaworthy Lass

I have a “feel good” story to share .

There has been a lot of criticism directed at the UK regarding its handling of the pandemic, but one thing that is being done in a superbly organised way is the vaccination program. ...

Volunteers have been recruited not just to shepherd the arrivals, but also trained to give the vaccinations, dramatically increasing the numbers possible.

In small communities larger premises such as village halls with high air volume have tended to be used rather than GP surgeries, enabling safe distancing.
...

Well done UK .

Yes, the UK does seem to be getting the jabs out effectively. Having said that, I now have this visual of Mohammad Ali in a white coat, giving out jabs...

There is a rural county near us that is having a jab day today. My words, not theirs. Jabs are shots in the US. I think if you told most Americans that they you were going to give them a jab, it might lead to a fight. Anywho, The jabs, errr, shots, were for anyone in Groups 1 to 4, first come first served for Group 4 people. Not sure how they are figuring how who is in what group...

The shots would be given at 2:00pm and the number of people lined up in cars exceeded the number of available jabs well before opening time. The county was using the parking lot at the Community College to handle the crowd. I guess some will complain about running out of shots, but to me, that is good news.

My county has been using one of the large county facilities to handle the crowds and I think has done a great job in organizing and getting things done. They are spinning up for another jab day soon.

Much of this work is being done by volunteers. Don't think they are being given enough credit for what they have been doing.

I don't think we can get the jab from our doctors. Not sure they should due to the distance needed and crowd management.

Later,
Dan

[dannc]

Just noticed that in the Netherlands, the excess death rate is down 9% from early/mid Feb. 2021 compared to a normal year. So less overall deaths even with the pandemic.

At the end of Mar 2020, 68% MORE people died than usual.

However, the number of people testing positive has gone up a bit though number of hospitalizations is down. Hopefully, the former does not lead to more of the later...

The much lower excess deaths is good news.

Later,
Dan