Pfizer is a US company….
The way the small/large collaborations work in the pharma industry is the small outfits (BioNTech) are the specialists and innovators.
One a product has potential then big pharma strikes a licensing deal and pumps dollars into the clinical development programme (more than a biotech could realistically raise) as well as perhaps manufacturing and distribution, in return for a royalty on sales.
I know; I used to sell stuff to them. I was just surprised they got in before Moderna.
Anyway this was a possible big issue for European pilots with FAA medicals.
https://www.faa.gov/news/updates/?newsId=96258
To maintain the highest level of safety in the National Airspace System, the agency will require aviation professionals with medical certifications or medical clearances to observe a period of 48 hours following the administration of this vaccine before conducting safety-sensitive aviation duties, such as flying or controlling air traffic.
Quicker than light !
48 hours is two days from the injection. Ok, fine, plan it and be done with it.
If it’s anything like the flu shots or other vaccines of old, some of those also have initial reactions, which actually show they are working, which make it not too clever to plan much for the day after. Me, I limped for 2 days after my last tetanus shot… would not have wanted to go to work then either.
This UK ski site has some possibly interesting interpretation of current news:
The last bit is interesting. Croatia is diverging from the “party line” already.
The last bit is interesting. Croatia is diverging from the “party line” already
Either that, or the last four countries are not in Schengen therefore not subject to the party line.
I finally got a response from the UK police, re the “overflight of another country, without landing / entering it”:
The PLF (Personal Locator Form) requirement is triggered by arriving in England from outside the CTA. If a plane took off in England (or anywhere in the CTA), left the CTA and then landed in England, anyone onboard would need to complete a PLF unless exempt. Whether the plane flies over or refuels in a foreign country isn’t relevant to this requirement.
The position isn’t as strict with self-isolation as you must arrive in England from a non-exempt country or having departed from/transited through a non-exempt country in the past 10 days (as of the reduction from 14 days coming into force this morning) for the duty to apply. Flying over a non-exempt country is neither departing from nor transiting through it and, if refuelling only, “a person (”P") is not treated as departing from or transiting through a country or territory…if, at all times whilst in that country…P remains on a conveyance and no other passenger is permitted to be taken on board".
So you have to do the PHE form for a mere overflight of a foreign country, but you don’t need to self isolate.
EDIT: A GAR form is required for overflight of another country.
On the general topic, this, FWIW, is from today’s mailing from IAOPA:
From our AOPA colleagues in Europe we get notes on the impact of Covid-19 measures on General Aviation.
Austria is getting out of their “lockdown”, it seems, at the time of writing. Recreational flights are prohibited in Greece. In France, people are not allowed to fly their own private aircraft, even if the aircraft has to be serviced in another field. Training flights are allowed there, because that is an economic activity. In Belgium you can only fly solo or with loved ones. In Germany there are no restrictions on GA activities. The restrictions are only limiting stays in hotels, closures of restaurants and sport-locations, the number of people from different households that can still meet, number of customers in shops, etc. It could well be that the country goes into lockdown again. Some German flight-schools report though that they can hardly handle all their new students, avgas-sales are also growing.
The Isle of Man Government expects “border level 4” (only Manx residents and key workers allowed to enter the island, anyone entering must self-isolate on arrival including anyone else who shares the same household) to last until at least Easter. The TT races 2021 have already been cancelled (they would have taken place the last week of May/first week of June). The Southern 100 races are set to go ahead (mid-July), but the S100 road races could run reasonably well only with local riders. The Manx GP (late August) is still on at present.
GA arrivals from outside the island is still permitted, but at present you must be registered to be able to arrive (which is online and instant for Manx residents, I don’t know what the process would be for key workers, but presumably there would be a sponsoring company who would do that) and you must fill in a landing form and give 24 hrs notice, and land at Ronaldsway as your first landing site in the island (if your aircraft is based elsewhere, you can then fly to your home airfield so long as all you do is put your plane away and drive straight to your place of self isolation, which is probably your home).
The Isle of Man has had no COVID in the community since the first lockdown (which ended in late spring), and other than the border level 4, there are no COVID restrictions on the island. The border restrictions and self isolation is taken extremely seriously; several people have ended up in prison for breaking the self-isolation rules; one of them tested positive for COVID after having wandered around Tesco, and could quite easily have started another outbreak.
We did have someone jetski from Scotland (which made the New York Times!) apparently to see his girlfriend. He’s now in prison for violating our border laws.
alioth wrote:
We did have someone jetski from Scotland (which made the New York Times!) apparently to see his girlfriend. He’s now in prison for violating our border laws.
If other governments followed this approach we could have been out of this mess by now. In Ireland we’d virtually eliminated it during the summer. But we were reseeded with a new strain from Spain. Probably holiday makers not self isolating after returning, but that might just be my prejudices 
It is doable only on islands, which
So we see
and loads of virus on islands which are nice places to go to e.g. the Croatian ones, Greece, etc. and especially those which get “young tourism” from N Europe. They were fine in the summer – until the airlines restarted. I landed on Krk in July 1hr before the first Ryanair flight, and that was the beginning of the end of it for them.
Basically GA has lost many of the really top destinations, although to be fair not many are flying there in the winter.
I am keeping a close eye on the ski options. It’s getting really controversial and politically divisive. A lot of argument in Switzerland for example. The airports remain open but you need the ski destinations open too, and not crowded. Italy is shut until 31 Dec (airports are open ok) and then they will review it. They are losing billions…
