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

[CatNewBee]

Originally Posted by sv_pelagia

Would that be the meat with microchips?

I don't know if it will serve with a tiny portion of fried potatoes, it would be speculation.

[AKA-None]

Remember when the conversation was about when the shirt hit the fan and people were all we’ll go somewhere sigh

[UFO]

Originally Posted by Wotname

I suppose once the masses have run out of 'wealth', they will be given credit so they have something to transfer to the few. The masses can then live in increasing servitude - wasn't this considered a bad thing once upon a time.

Depends on which side of the fence you sit

[UFO]

Originally Posted by CatNewBee

Soylent green is not too far away.

Good movie in its day - For those who have not seen it, here is the trailer

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

[UFO]

Interesting video of a Holocaust survivor giving a speech at the UK anti-Lockdown rally - Skip forward to 1.40.


FYI this is about the speech nothing else in the video


https://www.instagram.com/tv/CNC59FR...suX38uzSviACGM

[Montanan]

[QUOTE=capn_billl;3378760]We are STILL fighting with plaque (are you talking about high cholesterol? Or bad teeth? Heart disease? )

And smallpox was cured by deliberately infecting people with a related natural virus called cowpox. No GMO or pharma needed.

And by the way smallpox has had several recent outbreaks that were caused by either the vaccine (live virus, and you are contagious several days after getting it), or leaks from labs experimenting on it.[/QUOTE]


FYI

The last natural outbreak of smallpox in the United States happened in 1949. The last naturally spread case in the entire world happened in 1977. The World Health Assembly declared smallpox eradicated in 1980. Even a single confirmed case of smallpox today would be considered an emergency.

If the virus that causes smallpox were used in a bioterrorist attack, people who come into contact with the virus would be at risk of getting sick. By 1972, the smallpox vaccine was no longer given routinely in the United States. As a result, most people born in the United States after 1972 have not been vaccinated against the disease. Some people have been vaccinated through the military or because they were part of Smallpox Response Teams that were formed after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. These vaccination efforts are part of the larger plan to prepare for a bioterrorist attack. However, the vaccine does not give lifelong immunity, and people who have been vaccinated against smallpox before may still need to be revaccinated in a smallpox emergency.

The smallpox vaccine is made from a virus called vaccinia, which is a poxvirus similar to smallpox, but much less harmful. The smallpox vaccine contains live vaccinia virus, not a killed or weakened virus like many other vaccines. For that reason, people who are vaccinated must take precautions when caring for the place on their arm where they were vaccinated, so they can prevent the vaccinia virus from spreading.

The vaccine does not contain the smallpox virus and cannot give you smallpox.

For most people with healthy immune systems, live virus vaccines are effective and safe. Sometimes a person getting a live virus vaccine experiences mild symptoms such as rash, fever, and head and body aches. In certain groups of people, complications from the vaccinia virus can be severe.

Other live virus vaccines currently used include measles, mumps, rubella, and chickenpox.

Smallpox vaccination can protect you from smallpox for about 3 to 5 years. After that time, its ability to protect you decreases. If you need long-term protection, you may need to get a booster vaccination. Historically, the vaccine has been effective in preventing smallpox infection in 95% of those vaccinated. In addition, the vaccine was proven to prevent or substantially lessen infection when given within a few days after a person was exposed to the variola virus.

Routine smallpox vaccination among the American public stopped in 1972 after the disease was eradicated in the United States.

[Montanan]

Covid-19 in the EU not looking good.

https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/cases-2019-ncov-eueea

[Montanan]

European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control

ECDC report examines SARS-CoV-2 transmission risk from vaccinated/previously infected individuals

29 Mar 2021

In the Technical Report 'Risk for SARS-CoV-2 transmission from newly infected individuals with documented previous infection or vaccination', published today, ECDC examines the evidence on the extent previous SARS-CoV-2 infection or COVID-19 vaccination prevents onward transmission from infected individuals to susceptible contacts.

“It is very encouraging to see that SARS-CoV-2 reinfections are quite rare. We also welcome the positive early indications that the risk of onward transmission seems to be reduced in those who are vaccinated. Although the effect of new variants of concern on transmission patterns needs to be closely monitored, we still expect that the total number of infections will significantly decrease as vaccination coverage increases” said Andrea Ammon, ECDC Director.

Concerning transmission from previously infected individuals, the following key points were concluded:

No studies directly measured SARS-CoV-2 transmission from reinfected individuals to their contacts. However, there was evidence showing that reinfections are rare. Studies that have followed people for 5 to 7 months after recovery from a SARS-CoV-2 infection have estimated that the protective effect of previous SARS-CoV-2 infection is very high (81% – 100%) during that period. It should be noted however, that many of these studies were carried out before the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern and there is weak evidence that immunity induced against previously circulating SARS-CoV-2 strains may not have the same potency against variants of concern, in particular B.1.351 and P.1.
Among vaccinated individuals, ECDC’s review showed the following:

Evidence of the impact of vaccination on the risk of transmission is available from just one study, which suggests that vaccination of a household member reduces the risk of infection in susceptible household members by at least 30%.
There is evidence that vaccination significantly reduces symptomatic or asymptomatic infection in vaccinated individuals, although the vaccine efficacy varies by vaccine product and target group.
There is also some evidence of lower viral load and shorter duration of shedding in vaccinated individuals as compared to unvaccinated individuals, which could translate into reduced transmission.
Many of the studies on vaccine effectiveness were carried out before the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern, and there is some evidence that vaccine efficacy could be decreased for some of the variants, in particular for B.1.351 and possibly also P.1.
Follow up of cohorts with previous SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination is needed to better assess the magnitude and duration of protection from reinfection and symptomatic disease, as well as the effect of protection against transmission.

Complete technical report:

https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/public...ious-infection

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Montanan

European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control

ECDC report examines SARS-CoV-2 transmission risk from vaccinated/previously infected individuals

29 Mar 2021

In the Technical Report 'Risk for SARS-CoV-2 transmission from newly infected individuals with documented previous infection or vaccination', published today, ECDC examines the evidence on the extent previous SARS-CoV-2 infection or COVID-19 vaccination prevents onward transmission from infected individuals to susceptible contacts.

“It is very encouraging to see that SARS-CoV-2 reinfections are quite rare. We also welcome the positive early indications that the risk of onward transmission seems to be reduced in those who are vaccinated. Although the effect of new variants of concern on transmission patterns needs to be closely monitored, we still expect that the total number of infections will significantly decrease as vaccination coverage increases” said Andrea Ammon, ECDC Director.

Concerning transmission from previously infected individuals, the following key points were concluded:

No studies directly measured SARS-CoV-2 transmission from reinfected individuals to their contacts. However, there was evidence showing that reinfections are rare. Studies that have followed people for 5 to 7 months after recovery from a SARS-CoV-2 infection have estimated that the protective effect of previous SARS-CoV-2 infection is very high (81% – 100%) during that period. It should be noted however, that many of these studies were carried out before the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern and there is weak evidence that immunity induced against previously circulating SARS-CoV-2 strains may not have the same potency against variants of concern, in particular B.1.351 and P.1.
Among vaccinated individuals, ECDC’s review showed the following:

Evidence of the impact of vaccination on the risk of transmission is available from just one study, which suggests that vaccination of a household member reduces the risk of infection in susceptible household members by at least 30%.
There is evidence that vaccination significantly reduces symptomatic or asymptomatic infection in vaccinated individuals, although the vaccine efficacy varies by vaccine product and target group.
There is also some evidence of lower viral load and shorter duration of shedding in vaccinated individuals as compared to unvaccinated individuals, which could translate into reduced transmission.
Many of the studies on vaccine effectiveness were carried out before the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern, and there is some evidence that vaccine efficacy could be decreased for some of the variants, in particular for B.1.351 and possibly also P.1.
Follow up of cohorts with previous SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination is needed to better assess the magnitude and duration of protection from reinfection and symptomatic disease, as well as the effect of protection against transmission.

Complete technical report:

https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/public...ious-infection

Remember when certain noisy people on CF were insisting that there is no immunity from COVID and that people would get infected over and over again?

[Montanan]

Two doses of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine were found to have only a 10.4% efficacy against mild-to-moderate infections caused by the B.1.351 South Africa variant, according to a phase 1b-2 clinical trial.

It is important to note that there were still no cases of hospitalization for severe Covid-19 or deaths observed in the study. Yet the authors did caution that the relatively young median age of participants (30 years) likely influenced the lack of severe Covid-19 cases.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2102214

[Exile]

Despite all the publicity, I don't believe there's any research that may be considered conclusive as to the effectiveness of the different vaccines against the variants. But I do know that the selective citation of only negative information by non-experts can be misleading. Here's an example of a study from March 9th that is certainly more optimistic than what we often read and hear, but like any other of these early studies should not mislead people into believing they are conclusive.

As the article states,

"The Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE showed a high ability to neutralize coronavirus strains first detected in Brazil, the U.K. and South Africa, according to a new study."

But as the article also states,

"While the research needs to be validated with real-world data, it offers another reason for optimism that the Covid vaccines are generally performing well against variants of the virus."

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...-strain-in-lab

While there are valid concerns that infection rates are increasing in parts of the world that have been slow in producing a sufficient supply of vaccinations, cautioning people "not to let their guard down" is not the same as over-hyping the potential threat from CV-19 variants. In general, and looking objectively at where things stand now as opposed to only a few months ago, there is more cause for optimism than what is often fear-driven pessimism.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Remember when certain noisy people on CF were insisting that there is no immunity from COVID and that people would get infected over and over again?

No... I remember some of us saying, like the flu this is going to have to be an annual shot for the vulnerable..
As for getting infected over and over that was a pro Vax cry..
Us heathens figured catch it, recover, move on..

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Montanan

Covid-19 in the EU not looking good.

https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/cases-2019-ncov-eueea

Yes, it's awful! Rising cases PLUS fumbled vaccination program. The result is a cascade of bad things -- continued ruinous lockdowns in some countries, continued border restrictions, continued harmful restrictions even in countries without lockdown like the Nordic countries, even Sweden, continued economic contraction. It sucks.

https://www.economist.com/europe/202...ccine-problems

Fortunately, here in Northern Europe, or at least in the Nordic countries, it is somewhat better with all of these things -- daily cases, restrictions, and economy -- we are still by far the least affected region of Europe.



The really bad outbreak in Estonia has now dropped off significantly, back down to 753 daily cases per million. Sweden continues on a slow burn with fairly high daily case rates, at 469 as of today. Latvia has come down slowly to 263. Denmark had fallen below 100 per day but is not back up to 131. Norway is having the worst time it's had since the pandemic started, but cases fallen back below 150 after being near 200 -- not that bad. Finland was looking a bit worrying but has now fallen back down to around 100.

But our death rates are low:


-- only Estonia is above the European average of 5.32 per million, and even Estonia is not all that bad at 8 per million. Germany and Sweden are below 2, and the cumulative deaths in Sweden are now below the European average (so much for the mass death predicted last year for Sweden by noisy critics of the Nordic no-lockdown approach) and far below UK and U.S.

Economically we are doing better than the rest of Europe but we're not yet seeing the strong bounce-back which is being experienced in the U.S. and U.K.

As to restrictions -- we still don't have lockdown anywhere in the Nordic region, but we are laboring under the harshest restrictions we've ever had during this pandemic, with restaurants closed entirely in Finland, and with severe restrictions on opening hours and density in Sweden. Borders are shut tightest they've ever been, and I STILL can't get to my boat in Denmark -- thank God my friends from Copenhagen are taking good care of her.

But there is now a plan for lifting the restrictions in Denmark during April. Hoping we will get the same in Finland. Sports facilities in one building I own in Helsinki are closed for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, and tenants are asking for rent abatement

Vaccination:


is going slowly as the EU continues to fumble and various health authorities, including all the Nordic countries paused distribution of the AZ vaccine, for what seem to me to be insane reasons. But Finland and Sweden started giving AZ to over 65's, at least, last week, and the vaccination rate has ramped up again considerably in those countries. However Denmark and Norway continue the pause for three more weeks. But other than Latvia and Norway, vaccination is nevertheless going better with us here than in the rest of Europe.

The vaccination rate has accelerated and with production of vaccines really ramping up I think it will get better soon in Europe, with enough people vaccinated to largely snuff out the pandemic before the autumn flu season starts. I am hopeful that even the few people vaccinated so far will soon make a big dent in death rates which will give confidence to life restrictions so we will have a more or less normal summer. I hope so, anyway.

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

.......But other than Latvia and Norway, vaccination is nevertheless going better with us here than in the rest of Europe.

The vaccination rate has accelerated and with production of vaccines really ramping up I think it will get better soon in Europe, with enough people vaccinated to largely snuff out the pandemic before the autumn flu season starts. I am hopeful that even the few people vaccinated so far will soon make a big dent in death rates which will give confidence to life restrictions so we will have a more or less normal summer. I hope so, anyway.

If the UK is anything to go by (and if variants do not result in any nasty surprises), the death rate should drop dramatically as vaccinations progress. The speed in which hospitalisations and deaths have dropped in the UK is hugely encouraging for the rest of the world. 47% of the total population has now received at least one dose of vaccine (just 1% short of the target originally set for the 15th April). This should cover those accounting for 99% of deaths. The daily 7 day running average for deaths has now dropped to around 40, from a peak of around 1200 in January. Just 10 COVID deaths were registered today and not all these were recent.

Restrictions have been agonisingly slow to ease here though, particularly in Scotland, where barely anything has changed despite the negligible COVID deaths now occuring. From today we are now permitted out of home for more than just vital reasons such as grocery shopping, medical needs, grocery shopping etc, but must still stay local. All hospitality (other than takeaway) is still closed, as are all “non essential” stores. This will probably improve on the 26th, but that is still over 3 weeks away.

So life restrictions are not mirroring the improved situation here yet. At least spring has well and truly arrived, another reason spirits are lifting despite the ongoing harsh restrictions.

On a seperate issue, excess deaths average for the 27 countries (mainly European) that Euromomo is collecting data for is now around zero, but I have not been reporting data in detail, as I think this figure no longer means much. This is because now that a year has passed, I think figures for the pandemic are now included in the 5 year average that comprises the baseline, skewing the data. Also so many deaths have already occurred amongst the elderly this past year that excess deaths should be well below the baseline if the situation has settled, not merely zero.

—————

UK COVID-19 deaths per day:

[Montanan]

Germany appears to be headed toward Vaccine Passports and implement a nationwide lockdown, [similar to what the "passport scheme" the UK is likely to implement].

https://www.yahoo.com/news/germany-p...173808797.html

Germany has announced plans to allow people vaccinated against Covid-19 certain privileges over their unvaccinated peers, in a significant step towards introducing so-called "vaccine passports." Jens Spahn, the country's health minister, said on Sunday that vaccinated people would be allowed to travel without quarantine, visit hairdressers and go shopping with minimal restrictions after new research indicated vaccinated people only pose a minimal risk of transmitting the virus. “Anyone who is vaccinated can go to the shop or the hairdresser without further testing. In addition, according to the Robert Koch Institute (Germany’s peak health research agency), completely vaccinated people no longer have to be in quarantine,”

He did not give an exact date upon which the rules would come into effect, although German media reported the measure would be introduced in the coming weeks.

. . .

Germany is expected to put in place a stricter, nationwide lockdown after the Easter break, which could include some of the toughest measures since the outbreak of the pandemic. Measures on the table include nationwide stay at home orders imposed either at night or for a 24-hour period. It would be the first time such a measure has been put in place in Germany. Schools would close, while companies would be required to regularly test their employees or force them to work from home.