Malibuflyer wrote:
Whoever in Germany is “jealous” of the freedoms they would have in the US also need to admit that they would rather let double the people die over here – you can’t have the chicken and the egg!
You forget that in many parts of the US the 7-day incidence is now in single digits and most halfway clever people are vaccinated. I’m in Europe right now, but before I left the scene in my area (SoCal) was about what @Silvaire describes here.
172driver wrote:
You forget that in many parts of the US the 7-day incidence is now in single digits
Incidence over here is falling rapidly, approaching 40 in Germany and further falling. Obviously we’re later than the U.S. due to the lack in vaccine we’ve encountered. But things are opening up, seems to be only a matter of weeks now.
However, according to what I read, incidence rates (per 100k people) is around 24 per yesterday’s numbers for the U.S.A. as a whole, and there are states which still have high incidence rates. So it’s not that big leap in between.
UdoR wrote:
However, according to what I read, incidence rates (per 100k people) is around 24 per yesterday’s numbers for the U.S.A. as a whole
That’s a very common mistake Europeans make. The US is a vast and diverse country and while it may look somewhat monolithic from abroad it’s anything but. In California the 7-day incidence is somewhere between 3 and 4. Source.
At some point you can’t just keep society closed. There’s a lot of handwringing in the UK at the moment about the next opening up date, but despite the rate of infections stubbornly going up a little (to around 3000 per day), with a total of around 35,000 active cases – serious cases only number 128 and the 7 day moving average deaths is now basically in single digits.
Vaccination is working, and it is working well.
By contrast, a normal flu year will kill 60 people a day on average.
Vaccination is working extremely well.
Sadly, the UK is still refusing to adopt any form of vaccination based rules for anything. The political opposition is smelling blood, via the “disadvantaged unvaccinated” concept but actually the massive bill for supporting the tourism and travel business, not to mention the rest of the economy, will be borne not by us “old codgers” who are vaccinated (because long before it is paid off we will be drawing our pensions, and will be dead soon after that) but by the younger generations which are supposedly demanding “equal treatment” i.e. no travel for anybody. Quite frustrating…
Just bought up some kits. Croatia accepts you with 2xvacc plus 2 weeks, no test, but the UK doesn’t, and wants the tricky pre-departure test (which I would never risk if travelling by airline). My Italian gliding thing needed a test before going there but it has been postponed. I will drop into Caen on the way back, to collect something, but if the plane doesn’t start, or their pump is broken, I will get a few weeks at some French govt operated solitary confinement establishment 
I will probably fill up on the way so if the Caen pump is broken or i can’t make it work, I can fly on home. £200 spent on tests.
Peter wrote:
Croatia accepts you with 2xvacc plus 2 weeks, no test, but the UK doesn’t.
Switzerland has just changed to 2x vacc plus 2 weeks and no test as well, or rather they will from next week on. This will become the standard I think.
Malibuflyer wrote:
As discussed so many times before: There is a reason why this virus killed almost twice as many people in the US (relative to population) as in Germany. There is a choice between freedom and deaths and the US took a different choice than Germany.
Whatever that reason might be it has nothing to do with the current very successful vaccination strategy in the US and its reopening. The pubs on the river Thames look much like picture that silvaire posted, maybe a bit more cloudy. No tests, no masks, no passports.
In Austria, where I find myself right now, you have to fulfill one of three criteria to enter any restaurant (AFAICT bars are still closed). They call it the 3G approach:
- geimpft (vaccinated; 2nd dose plus 2 weeks or something like that; only EMA-approved vaccines accepted)
- getestet (negative test, various tests accepted with varying validity)
- genesen (recovered from a Covid-19 infection)
All of the above get checked at the door and then there is a registration process once inside for contact tracing. The former is enforced, the latter not really. Luckily so far my US vaccination card has been accepted everywhere.
172driver wrote:
In Austria, where I find myself right now, you have to fulfill one of three criteria to enter any restaurant (AFAICT bars are still closed). They call it the 3G approach:
- geimpft (vaccinated; 2nd dose plus 2 weeks or something like that; only EMA-approved vaccines accepted)
- getestet (negative test, various tests accepted with varying validity)
- genesen (recovered from a Covid-19 infection)
This would never be accepted in the UK. Basic cultural differences.
Sadly that is spot on, especially the 2 x vacc part. Politically very hard, even just for travel (which was the big hope).
Why not for travel? Well, apart from the “equality” debate, there is no international crypto-based certificate, and there isn’t likely to be one anytime soon for countries like India, and any other type of certificate will just get forged. I spoke to an airline pilot the other day (BA) and he said India is one of his busiest routes (they travel constantly for family occassions) so the incentive to forge, and the “ecosystem” to create forgeries, will be huge.
