I’m not trying to say that whatever applies in US applies in EU. I’m not really trying to argue, and I don’t want to go to the effort to find out all the niche EU only still to say I’ve no idea why the governments are acting the way they are.
I’m just saying it’s plausible.
Pandemic created a huge opportunity for some to make money.
The some are fighting within who will take the bigger sack of money. Agreements are based on the usual.
The some aren’t really looking into how to deliver what they sign and take the sacks for.
The focus is put on why people don’t get vaccinated so nobody will bother to ask why the doses are not available as advertised to begin with.
Some and around some don’t make decisions based on who might die.
Either it’s company wars or things are on paper and they are playing catch up.
It’s plausible.
The trick is maintaining the momentum hard enough to get to herd immunity - as an American, we have a shockingly large group of idiots living here, and I worry that the ramp up will taper off as the floodgates dry up and we only see like 50% of people get vaccinated. I’m hoping that “full” FDA approval will come soon, because that’s one of the big nonsensical arguments that still somehow resonates with people, but there’s >6 months of clinical data now, which is the minimum threshold for approval as I understand it.
I’m hoping that as the more vulnerable population groups get vaccinated, covid patient flow into hospitals and ICUs will be greatly diminished.
Things seem to be heading in that direction in the UK with 45% vaccinated (of which 15% fully vaccinated).
But I’m a bit surpised/worried that Israel is not doing clearly better than the UK in regard to daily infections, hospitalisations and ICU admissions, even with 60% vaccinated (of which 55% fully vaccinated). Or do the Israelian numbers represent what herd immunity without restrictions will be like?
If that’s what herd immunity looks like then there’ll be trouble when the herd stampedes to those sunny beaches. UK travel ban due to be lifted 17 May, Greece opening 14 May.
Basically our church government will declare we open for Easter.
Israel is doing well. Maybe people in ICU got infected a few weeks ago, but the number of patients in ICU should decrease soon.
The curve of new cases started to decrease on Jan 9 in UK and on Jan 15 in Israel. Moreover, the decrease was steeper in UK, presumably because of a stricter lockdown.
What is really funny is that the tourists will be able to go out, eat out at restaurants and swim in the sea and sunbathe on the beaches, but the locals will probably not be allowed to do so 
I think this past week the first “experimental” wave of tourists arrived and they were under some pretty strict measures. Why people pay money to go on such restricted trips is beyond me. I wouldn’t go on vacations this year even if you paid me money, let alone if I had to pay and risk the whole thing on pure happenstance.
P.S.
I just noticed that they named their site GTP … and they even brag about it in the “about” page … this country is just so funny 
(GTP in their case stands for “Greek Travel Pages”, but in Greece GTP is slang for a very obscene phrase that means “totally worthless” in the worst possible way - maybe they are trying to tell us something? ahahha)
Δεν ξέρω κανέναν που να μην το διαβάζει έτσι με το που το βλέπει
I guess I can’t really say when they were infected, but since the vaccines are a farily recent thing for most people, that seems like a plausible explanation. Then again, being so new, its hard to say anything about their effectiveness compared to natural immunity. Most of what I read is that it is safer to get the vaccine because of the more variables associated with covid along with a more measured immune response. But I have also read that a natural immunity can be just as effective immune response.
I was never going to get a vaccine in the first place. And having now had covid, I don’t really see a good reason to since it wasn’t that bad, and I now have antibodies.
of course if I did, I would probably get a greater immune response, but for how long? they don’t even know how long the vaccines last for, and on top of that it’s for something that really didn’t effect me that bad. (not to mention they have maybe 6 months of data on any long term effects of the vaccine or covid for that matter) but since I already got the later, don’t really want to be a guinea pig for the first one either.
I am not about to line up for something they will want to push on people twice a year for the foreseeable future. This is a huge money maker for the pharmaceuticals after all, and you can’t let a good pandemic go to waste.
So, that’s a biiiiig ol’ maybe on natural immunity. A bit of basic immunology:
At all times in our bodies, our cells are making proteins. It’s important. As they do so, they constantly sample tiny bits of the proteins they’re making and stick them on the outside of their cell walls - these are called epitopes. Now, part of our immune system - killer T cells - are floating around inspecting all our cells to make sure only authorized proteins are being made, as evidenced by the epitopes displayed.
If a cell has been hijacked to become a virus factory, then the killer T cell will see an unauthorized epitope, and, well, live up to its name. From there, it will go on a hunt for a B cell that makes an antibody which will respond to the antigen it just located. Once it does, it activates the B cell, which immediately makes just a ton of copies of itself. Usually, cell division is a very regulated process - doing this wrong is how cancers can form - however in this case, the B cells deliberately induce slight mutations to provide very slightly different antibodies. The goal is to cast a wider net, and catch any slight mutations in the virus, as well as potentially making a better antibody than the one based on what the killer T cell found.
Now, remember that the epitopes in question here are random samples - this means that everyone will have slightly different antibodies, some more or less effective than others. Vaccine manufacturers have an advantage insofar as they are able to try and figure out a strong, beefy antibody to induce our bodies to make. For Pfizer, as an example, they went through twenty-some candidate proteins to find the one that made the most robust antibodies. (It turned out to be the full spike protein, if I recall.) This means a few things, most good, but some concerning. First, it means that everyone getting the vaccine will get strong antibodies, so even if you’ve already had it, unless your body got lucky, the vaccine will deliver a stronger immune response. Second, it has the unfortunate effect of making it so that everyone has more homogenous antibodies, and thus the population as a whole is more susceptible to mutations that evade the vaccine. In the end, with “natural” antibodies seeming to be about as reliable as a shady used car salesman, this is a very positive tradeoff, even if it means boosters will be our reality for a bit. Fortunately, SARS-CoV-2 is actually comparatively slow at mutating, so this won’t be as big of an issue compared to, say, influenza.
Now, as for the relative safety of the vaccine? No. Question. The vaccine is hundreds, or even thousands of times safer than immunity through exposure. Yes, very few young, healthy people die from catching covid. What’s more common, however, is chronic effects in recovered patients, and we’re just scratching the surface of what this even means. Worried about clots from the adenovirus-vector vaccines? Well, you’re somewhere around 100 times more likely to get a clot from covid. (You’re also way more likely to get one from an airplane flight, and like 1000 times more likely to get one from hormonal birth control, so there’s that…) Beyond that, something like 8-12% of recovered patients under 60 have abnormal chest CTs, difficulty breathing, cardiovascular damage, and even neurological damage after “recovering”. If you want to risk that, so be it I guess, but considering even the potential severe adverse reactions from the vaccines per million can be counted on one hand, it’s very safe to say the vaccine is far and away the safest way to get immunity.
Whole Russia is concerned for Turkey, main tourist destination. Many tours were cancelled.
I guess this is why Greece is getting in there as an alternative:
"The tourism ministry official, who was accompanying the Greek tourism minister, Haris Theoharis, on a trip to Moscow, said Athens was also working on agreements with international tour operators. “We’re here to talk to them,” she said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "
The worry is still there, but at least a lot of countries are now coming up with various types of vaccines that would eventually end this thing. I just can’t for everything to back to normal as soon as possible.
Do any other countries have this thing where people have to self-administer a covid test (yes, that mega-qtpip-up-the-nose) to go to work? Or did we once again reach new lands of imagination?
As far as I know, there are plans here to use self-administered covid tests to allow university students to go to real life classes again for 1 day per week from the end of April.
I think these (obligatory self-administered tests) are also under discussion here for some fringe situations.
Based on what I know about humans and their ability to properly use other common stuff for their health on/in easier to access places, I expect many nasal injuries in the coming days.
