River Cruisers: How Are Things Where YOU Are?

[sharkster77]

@Host Jazzbeau your area sounds like New England, pretty much vaccines are readily available now for anyone who wants them.  Sounds like your wife played the same Hunger Games we played in March, trying to get a vax slot.  We're following reports from our Canadian friends very closely---our September Canadian Rockies trip is pending on the border opening by then.

 

Looking forward to better days!

[gnome12]

54 minutes ago, sharkster77 said:

@Host Jazzbeau your area sounds like New England, pretty much vaccines are readily available now for anyone who wants them.  Sounds like your wife played the same Hunger Games we played in March, trying to get a vax slot.  We're following reports from our Canadian friends very closely---our September Canadian Rockies trip is pending on the border opening by then.

 

Looking forward to better days!

Alberta is currently the province with the highest level of infections.

[Coral]

We have been in walk up status for probably a week now. Anyone who has wanted a vaccine could have gotten one by now. Now, we are begging people to get vaccines and it seems like most pharmacies (Sam's Club, Costco, Walgreens, Walmart, CVS, Hyvee) all have walk up appointments available.

 

The county is also allowing walkup clinics. They have also had clinics at the local colleges and high schools. The county has moved from massive vaccine sites (5000 - 8000 people) to going to ethnic neighborhoods and churches to try to get these individuals vaccinated.

 

By our numbers, we are not even close to herd immunity. We were just able to take care of everyone who really wanted the vaccine - now, we are hoping to convince others to get vaccinated.

 

Our state did have a death today from someone who was in their 80's, with underlying health issues, who was fully vaccinated and did catch COVID-19 and die. On the flip side, we had a nursing home that had a COVID-19 outbreak with 23 testing positive and only a few had symptoms and they were very mild. So this is very promising.

[Host Jazzbeau]

Hey, if free Krispy Kremes for the rest of the year doesn't do it, nothing will!  [Sadly, my next trip into Krispy Kreme area isn't until January, so flashing my vax passport won't do me any good.  And I'm not driving into the Bronx for a free donut...]

[sharkster77]

5 hours ago, gnome12 said:

Alberta is currently the province with the highest level of infections.

@gnome12, ya breakin' my heart!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[djh1959]

I am now eligible for vaccination here in Australia as we are now doing the 50-70 group.  My doctor was going to call in a couple of weeks once an appointment was available and I was quite happy to have it.

 

Today though there are yet more reports of blood clots, another 7 cases, and these are older people in their 60s to70s.  We were told that AstraZenica was safe for over 50s, but it is starting to appear that that is not correct.

 

Now I am unsure whether to go ahead or not.  The problem is that Pfizer is only for under 50s here and will not be available until the end of the year.

 

Decisions, decisions.

[notamermaid]

Oh my, that is bad. The decision against AstraZeneca was kind off taken for me by our health people, but the recommendation says that under 60 you can choose to have it "at your own risk", so several thousand people have taken the risk. That wording actually has legal implications. In Europe there have been a few incidents over 60. It has been worrying and interesting how the British kept quiet and calm about the problem for a long time, perhaps I just have not enough access to the popular British press, but for the first time at the weekend I saw a headline in the Daily Express about the recommendations debate in Britain. The Financial Times has been covering it for some weeks now. It is a difficult decision when you have not much vaccine available, for sure, and I could sign up for AstraZeneca but no way am I going to do that. I hate the thought of being the one that is struck by VITT (that dreaded adverse effect) for my family's sake, I prefer to hide in my hole and wait till June till I can sign up for a different one. It will probably be Pfizer/BioNTech as they are now producing at a massive rate. Johnson & Johnson has been slow with delivery, that one is being administered to the homeless and other people that are unlikely to turn up for a second jab first.

 

The low point in this all came for me yesterday when I heard that doctors, dentists, policemen, etc. in their forties that I know have had a first jab and a very dear person over 60 still has not been sent an appointment date. It is understandable as regards exposure risk but not as regards individual risk. The waiting is a big patience test for nervous notamermaid.

 

By the way, several AstraZeneca victims' families have filed investigative law suits with the authorities in France.

 

Edit: I have just read that now 30 percent of the German population has had a first jab, with just over 1 million jabs administered yesterday.

 

notamermaid

 

Edited May 6, 2021 by notamermaid
Added info

[Canal archive]

I won’t go into numbers but as far as I can tell things are going on quite well, we’ve just been told we will most probably be offered a third booster jab along with our flue jab in the autumn. Our main concern is the number of people refusing to be vaccinated at all. The south west and West Country where I live seem to have a pretty good record of very very low incidences and no deaths. The percentage of take up is 98 to 99%, not to bad. I’ve also heard that in some areas there is a choice of vaccination how true that is I don’t know. Once we get making more then we can send more to where it’s needed along with the oxygen etc that’s now on its way to India. The bottom line is to vaccinate the world and to do that you need a lot of already vaccinated humanity. CA

[notamermaid]

I know that Britain as a whole has less vaccine hesitancy than much of the EU countries. Surveys show that here in Germany willingness to get vaccinated against Covid is high, about 80 per cent. AstraZeneca is problematic in uptake over 60, many want it many don't. The big divide between the political aisles, i.e. their supporters, as in the US does not exist in Germany. It is a more mixed picture.

 

You will have probably read (some of you) that thrombosis happens after all vaccines, the media I have noticed cuts that message very short sometimes. It is correct to say that thrombotic events happen after all vaccines, but VITT so far has not been seen after mRNA vaccines in Germany. I cannot speak for other EMA countries as I have not read enough material on that.

 

notamermaid

 

Edited May 6, 2021 by notamermaid
Word corrected

[Canal archive]

I have just been discussing the vaccine situation with my sister and found out that my nephew has been working for AstraZeneca, which I hadn’t realised, (he was always a bit of a nerd). Evidently they’ve been working and sleeping at their place of work for some time and taking it in turn to go home. The works have been running 24/7. CA

[notamermaid]

Encouraging news and cautiously optimistic words from our health minister: https://www.dw.com/en/jens-spahn-germanys-third-covid-wave-appears-to-be-broken/a-57457605

 

6 of our 16 states have fallen below the 7 day incidence rate of 100, none of those where river cruises mostly are.

 

The boss of the Robert Koch Institute apparently has said in the press conference this morning that over 80 percent of all adults need be vaccinated to reach herd immunity.

 

With another good day yesterday, 94 percent of all vaccine (delivered by May 3) doses have been used up.

 

21 hours ago, Canal archive said:

The works have been running 24/7.

Hard work for man and machine. Unfortunately, not much arrived in Germany last week (again). Figures of this week's supply will be released on Monday. Still, AstraZeneca is needed badly elsewhere, not the EU.

 

I read that some US stock may go to Brazil soon.

 

I will not be back at work in May, project extended and working from home extended.

 

Still planning to go to Würzburg in Summer or Autumn.

 

notamermaid

 

[Canal archive]

It’s been confirmed all under 40s in England can choose a different vaccine to AstraZeneca. CA

[Coral]

"Looks like we made it"........ Barry Manilow song....

 

I work in HigherEd. We have had our entire academic year in person which has been quite the challenge. Tomorrow is graduation. In the beginning, I didn't think we would make it past September in person with out being sent home. Tonight was baccalaureate and I attended. I was so impressed with our students and how they adapted to a very unusual senior year. Even with social distancing and being spaced out - you could just see them beaming with joy that they were able to have a somewhat normal graduation tradition. Tomorrow is their big day.

 

I sure hope things return to normal in the fall.

 

 

[Second seating]

Sunset and daffy in New Hampshire on Thursday.  New England is doing a good job on vaccines!

Second seating

[Host Jazzbeau]

1 hour ago, Coral said:

"Looks like we made it"........ Barry Manilow song....

 

I work in HigherEd. We have had our entire academic year in person which has been quite the challenge. Tomorrow is graduation. In the beginning, I didn't think we would make it past September in person with out being sent home. Tonight was baccalaureate and I attended. I was so impressed with our students and how they adapted to a very unusual senior year. Even with social distancing and being spaced out - you could just see them beaming with joy that they were able to have a somewhat normal graduation tradition. Tomorrow is their big day.

 

I sure hope things return to normal in the fall.

I am impressed with your school!  The teachers I know are working twice as hard to adapt to zoom teaching, and still admit the kids aren't learning.

[Canal archive]

Coral, congratulations to all what an achievement against the odds.

My nine year old grandson has been back at school for a bit and he loves it (he has loved school from the first day) but his teachers are wondering if it’s the pandemic or if it would have occurred anyway. He and his quite wide group of friends are what they would say in normal times completely the wrong no, strangest mixture, but it works. This is a school in north east London, the group is a mini United Nations and they’ve gelled through zooming etc. I say it’s the spectacular teachers but long may it continue. CA

[Coral]

9 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

I am impressed with your school!  The teachers I know are working twice as hard to adapt to zoom teaching, and still admit the kids aren't learning.

We have had our share of Zoom meetings. We also had a small group of students who had exemptions from attending in class in person due to their medical situation so these Professors had to also Zoom their classes. The vast majority of students wanted to live on campus and attend classes in person and try to have a somewhat normal college experience. We did our own contact tracing and not one person got COVID-19 from the classroom environment. We obviously had COVID-19 cases but they were tied to non-classroom situations. For the most part - everyone abided by mask mandates and distancing......

 

Last night - it finally hit me that we got through it on the eve of graduation. I still work in the summer but it will be nice to have fewer people on campus.

[sharkster77]

Last April I filled in for a former colleague during her maternity leave at the school I retired from.  It was the last 8 weeks of the school year, all remote.  I dispute the contention that no kids are learning remotely.   The kids who tried did learn, I am sure of it.  Those who put in no effort certainly did not----same as in-person learning. I was impressed by the quality of the questions from many students.

 

One of the classes was an AP Science class.  Those kids worked their butts off, and when I touched bases with the teacher over the summer and asked about their AP exam scores, they did extremely well.  Granted, teachers needed to determine what were the essential topics and skills the kids needed to master, and concentrate on those.  But I was so impressed at how hard my ex-colleagues were working and the creativity and talent they displayed.

[dogs4fun]

@Second seating - what a gorgeous sunset! Is this the view from your home?

@Coral - congratulations to your school on a successful graduation. You must feel proud as you pulled off quite an achievement during these trying times. 🙂

@sharkster77 - I agree that remote learning occurs. Autodidacts and gifted students would do well, I am sure. The others, well..... probably not so much.

I also think that the socialization aspect is very important for students.

 

Edited May 8, 2021 by dogs4fun

[Lois R]

Coral, another congrats from me too on the graduation😀👍

[notamermaid]

On 5/6/2021 at 10:20 AM, djh1959 said:

Today though there are yet more reports of blood clots, another 7 cases, and these are older people in their 60s to70s.  We were told that AstraZenica was safe for over 50s, but it is starting to appear that that is not correct.

The problem is the word safe in "safe and effective". Unfortunately it is only "safer in older adults than in younger adults". I am glad that in Germany the age recommendation is over 60, 50 seems a bit low as there have been quite a few cases in women between 50 and 60. Other countries do 55. Denmark by the way has now also scrapped the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, not just AstraZeneca. They prefer the no risk from Adenovirus vector vaccines attitude. Which delays their vaccine programme, but is also understandable. It looks as if the Johnson & Johnson vaccine will be the same as the AstraZeneca vaccine in Germany: recommendation for the over 60's with warning and "take at your own risk" for the under 60's. Shall be confirmed next week by the authorities. More blood clots with AstraZeneca despite the fact that most of the doses administered have been in an older population now in the last few weeks. Latest tally is 67 by 30 April in Germany, with 14 people having died. That is still little, but too much to be at ease with the vaccine. Latest problem: Guillain-Barré-Syndrome. EMA is onto this: PRAC assessing reports of Guillain-Barre syndrome with AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine

 

Also being closely monitored are reports of myocarditis being potentially linked to the mRNA vaccines, but is just under investigation. There have been some reports from Israel in young men and one case has been reported to the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut here.

 

You can read the EMA report here: https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/news/meeting-highlights-pharmacovigilance-risk-assessment-committee-prac-3-6-may-2021

 

These side effect I have put in bold are also seen as reactions of the body in very ill Covid patients, of course. I have read an article of a local lady who has been treated for the syndrome at a nearby hospital.

 

18 hours ago, Canal archive said:

It’s been confirmed all under 40s in England can choose a different vaccine to AstraZeneca. CA

 

I am relieved to read that. The thought that one of my young and dear people in Kent might get a VITT from AstraZeneca was causing me some real discomfort.

 

 

Not long to go before the British can get back to the continent. 17 May is the date I read. If we can get our act together here in Germany and get the infection rate down soon, we can say to the British "meet you at the Algarve!". The place will be packed - actually it will not, I am sure the Portuguese will be very vigilant.

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

[Canal archive]

Portugal has a full green light already, fingers crossed for Germany and France. CA

[Second seating]

@Second seating - what a gorgeous sunset! Is this the view from your home?

 

dogs4fun,

 

Yes my back gardens (kitchen sink view)!

[dogs4fun]

4 minutes ago, Second seating said:

Yes my back gardens (kitchen sink view)!

All I can say is WOW!

[Canal archive]

That’s fabulous! CA