Coronavirus - International stories and thoughts

This is such a problem for the world. We need to share our vaccines with everyone because they work.

 

Austria is planning to lockdown all unvaccinated people in the country. Apparently, they had enough and they aren't going to take it anymore.

Austria to impose Covid lockdown for the unvaccinated aged 12 and older - CNN

Can you imagine if Biden tried that here? People would go ballistic, in more ways than one.

 

Hell, I say do it, won't be another dem elected for 50 years.

 

The latest from Germany is that all unvaccinated employees must be tested for Covid twice a day--once before they go to work, and once at the end of the day. That must get old day after day after day.

 

The latest from Taiwan is that there is a fear that the vaccines have caused more deaths than the virus. That's actually not the case, but appears to be so based on the reported deaths of people after getting vaccinated (865) versus the number who have died from Covid (845). Both numbers are about 0.004% of the population, which means that Taiwan has done an excellent job of containing the virus. (For comparison, Florida has had 0.28% of the population die from Covid, or 70 times as much as Taiwan. Remember that some parts of Taiwan do not have access to modern medicine.)

However, the comparison ignores the fact that most of the deaths from the vaccines were incidental--people happened to die of natural causes and pre-existing conditions shortly after being vaccinated. Autopsies found no indication that the vaccine was a cause of death in the majority of cases. The conclusion that some people in Taiwan are drawing from the two numbers above is that the vaccine is more deadly than the virus. This ignores the fact that 69% of the population has been exposed to the vaccine, while less than 0.1% of the population has been exposed to (or tested positive for) the virus. Even if all the incidental deaths were actually caused by Covid, the conclusion should be that Covid is 700 times more deadly than the vaccine. In all likelihood, it's thousands of times more deadly.

Vaccines Are Not More Deadly Than COVID-19 in Taiwan

 

REPORTS: Novak Djokovic denied entry into Australia after being held overnight for questioning regarding vaccine exemption documentation | Tennis.com

Melbourne has been under tough lockdowns forever, quite the uproar when Djokovic was given an initial medical exemption to play. Apparently after reviewing the paperwork, Aussie government is poised to kick the world #1 out of the Australia, he will not have a chance to participate in the first Grand Slam of the year.
I like the Joker, but Rafa summed it up well:

“I think if (Novak) wanted, he would be playing here in Australia without a problem. Everybody is free to take their own decisions, but then there are some consequences.”

Concluded Nadal, “Of course I don't like the situation that is happening. In some way I feel sorry for him. But at the same time, he knew the conditions since a lot of months ago.”

 

So correlation doesn’t equal causation ? Very good. Now do Covid deaths ...

 

I have no idea what you are asking. Sounds like you are trying to make a smart-ass comment to insult my discussion. I only talk to people who are willing to have intelligent conversations. And no, I don't take requests from the gallery.

 

Australia...

 

An interesting story about the Russian flu in the 1890's, which is now suspected to be a coronavirus that jumped from cows to humans. The epidemic was blamed on the installation of the telegraph, which brought news of the flu back from Russia very quickly and brought a panic into Europe, and the panic, combined with the northeast wind, was suspected of causing the flu (luckily, there was no vaccine to stir up the anti-vaxxers of the day). The scary part: the flu first showed up in 1889, and England was still having outbreaks in 1900!

Was the Russian flu a ‘coronavirus’? What the 1890s pandemic tells us about how Covid might end

 

FYI, Novak just lost his court appeal. Can’t see a way he plays now. This was a huge deal in both Serbia and Australia, but for the exact opposite reasons. Over 70 percent of Australia wanted him gone and Serbians around the world have overwhelmingly supported him, including marches, demonstrations etc.
He was a huge deal and symbol of resistance for those against vaccines as well.

so this decision is going to resonate world wide.

 

Bingo. When you catch up on the main Coronavirus thread, you will see that you figured this out very quickly.

 

Good. He didn’t follow their rules and lied on his application to enter the country. They have been very stringent in Australia about their rules.

 

What is really wild is that so many of the people who want others to follow the rules when they come into our country are applauding him not following the rules when entering another country. We live in interesting times.

 

That was a really interesting article. If you think about the last 2 years, how many times have we thought we were through the woods and another wave or variant comes up? Theres no reason to believe this churn is going to stop. The only saving grace is through vaccines and natural immunity we will start to be more resilient and generally less harmful variants prevail. But that could take years.

 

This is a huge deal from a tennis perspective. Nadal, Federer and Novak are tied with 20 majors each. And Novak has won the Aussie open 9 times, it’s easily his best tournament.

 

Hard to believe anyone would go through that much humiliation to play tennis in a country that vehemently doesn't want you there. Give them the middle finger and move on.