About anti-vaxx: I know of several mothers, personally, that had their jabs as kids but they didn’t do any vaccines to their own kids. None. Additionaly, they keep doing their own jabs “to protect the child so that the child won’t have to do any vaccines and will grow up safe”. Also, not only they keep doing their own jabs and invent all sorts of paperwork for the kindergarden/primary school so that the kid won’t get any vaccines, they get additional vaccines for holiday destinations and they say that this is a necessary sacrifice of the parent to save their child’s life! In my books, this counts as anti-vaxx.
About the pandemic: if I had to go back to working from an office, I’d be in a litteral panic. They wouldn’t even allow us to bring paper tissues at work (because “security”). We had huge difficulties in getting them to allow us to wear masks and use hand disinfectants. Now that the measures are getting lifted, I know I would be very afraid to go back there. No matter what the media say, I don’t think we should lift the measures horizontally just because someone in high positions must honour their “contracts” to bring tourists and stuff to the country.
About the news coverage: in the beginning of 2020 we had some sources of information apart from the national news. For example, they were saying 0 cases but the univeristy labs were saying 10 cases based on data they gathered for other kinds of research and cross-checked by a couple of different entities worldwide. Now they are somehow unaccessible, especially some foreign schools webpages I’ve been visiting for years. It’s frustrating to say the least. At the same time, youtube is full of “holistic” bs and videos about angelic beings who clean toxins with music (no kidding, it appeared in my feed, I muted it) and nobody seems to care.
This image is very misleading: because of the way the y-axis is numbered, it’s very hard to see that the number of patients in hospitals has increased with 50% over the last 2,5 weeks (x-axis). And it’s still rising!
Ghandi once said that a civilisation can be qualified by the way it treats it’s vulnarable members. Well, they are doomed in The Netherlands.
How is it misleading? I have no problem seeing that it increased with 50%, although they could’ve set the maximum of the scale at 2500 perhaps. What’s the interesting thing, is that infections rose with 900% between 1 January and 1 Februari, while even if we include 2 weeks delay in hospitalisation, there is barely an effect on the hospitals, relatively speaking.
Some countries only report covid hospital admission and not hospital beds occupied by covid patients.
There is a difference in interpreting those numbers for the pressure on health care, because omicron patients tend to stay shorter in hospital. So an increase in admissions may not lead to an increase in hospital beds occupied, in a period where omicron patients are replacing delta patients.
And hospital beds occupied determine the pressure on health care.
Indeed, that’s how it’s done over here: we count beds. And if there are too many beds occupied we just send some patients which actually should stay hospitalised a bit longer home with a couple of bottles of oxygen. As long as the numbers are right we’re doing fine. Especialy compared to other countries. Just look at the graphs!
Indeed, during some waves in 2021, hundreds of less severe/recovering hospital patients were sent home with oxygen and distance monitoring to free up hospital beds. I cannot find any reported historical statistics about those and I don’t know the current situation. I feel that our National Public Health Institute (RIVM) should have done better in reporting those numbers.
Maybe ICU beds occupied by covid patients can uncover hidden severe covid patients?
I suppose it’s difficult to hide ICU patients. During waves in the past, some ICU patients were sent to neighbouring countries with a larger ICU capacity, but AFAIK that is not the case at the moment.
So also in this regard, things seem to be going well enough to ease restrictions. I don’t feel that our government is acting irresponsibly, given the decline of those health care pressure indicators.
I’ll definitely agree with that. They also sound quite insane (which is an extra) O_o
Alas that is what is actually going to happen I cannot find the video at the moment, but I had seen one official admit in a “wink wink nudge nudge” kind of way that there are things like “summer statistics”
At least the “holistic” cure from the “vaccine poisoning” with the potatoes was kind of fun … some of them are outright insane (coffee enema anyone? wikes. )
That is an extra covid worry here … previously that oxygen was at least provided or covered by the health insurance. Now you have to pay it full price and hope that you get some money back from the health insurance “some day” … as if there weren’t enough monetary problems at this time.
I tried to donate vaccinated blood. Antibodies level was sufficient but other numbers weren’t in acceptable range, I was turned back. No sacrifice to the blood gods.
I read in a local news article that, just as you would expect, many of the Ukrainian refugees arriving here currenty have Covid. But it was only a sidenote, they don’t blow it up, fortunately.
At the moment, everyone is eager to help (which includes offering free accommodation to refugees), so people care less about Covid.
My family and so many families around us got covid in the past 2 months, but none of them had severe symptoms.
With social distancing and masks gone, bars and clubs open, carnival and ski vacations going through almost as before corona, infection numbers are high and rising. But pandemic experts, health institutes and hospitals don’t seem very concerned that the number of ICU patients and deaths will disrupt the continued relaxation of corona measures.
One year ago, the number of ICU patients and deaths were 3 times higher, even while in a months long lockdown with a curfew.
Here we’re having a family suing public sector over Covid, and it kind of makes sense.
A public sector employer died of Covid and his family is suing the municipality he was working for, because they weren’t following Covid protocols.
Knowing what I know about how things work here, I can see how it could be the employer’s responsibility (not enforcing masks/ distance/ disinfecting/ cleaning/ isolating when sick, and of course not being allowed to stay home if needed).
I cannot find the video at the moment, but I had seen one official admit in a “wink wink nudge nudge” kind of way that there are things like “summer statistics”
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