News COVID-19 pandemic

[Urwumpe]

Well, I won't tell the people who have lost their jobs that they are free to choose a new one, anyway. That's pretty cynical if they lost their jobs due to the measures, especially if they can't get a new one due to the pandemic still going on. Just as you have your anecdotes about people being lucky to get new jobs, I have my own about people being not so lucky, and having enormous problems now.

Lets start with the obvious: How can you prove, that the jobs where lost due to the pandemic?

And not, for example, of more mundane issues, like for example the business simply being ineffective and so crusted that its impossible to adapt to changing markets?

And why are those jobs lost then - because of the measures to stop it or the uncertainty that the pandemic causes if not stopped? For example: Have people stopped buying cars because the pandemic measures prevent them from buying new cars? Or because they are more careful with such investments as long as they don't know how things turn out? Are automobile subcontractors suffering trouble from the pandemic measures, or rather because the big OEMs are both reducing their investments in times of uncertainty AND go on with the strategy that already started in 2017, which meant that they are developing more components and software in-house?

You know, this ain't socialism here. Even though politicians try their best to turn this into one, if enough corruption flows back to them (See the CDU here as example now, as one politician managed to exceed the tolerable level of corruption for German standards...)...

I had studied some business administration in the past years and enjoy reading the mandatory annual reports of companies, which is a great fun if you like new creative ways of how to mention business risks as optimistic as you can still conform to the laws

And you sadly, avoid the most critical ethic question: Let us assume, there would be no rules. No laws. No politicians you can blame. Just you and the rest of humanity. A real anarchic utopia. How would you act, considering the facts, that we have after 14 months of pandemic? Which kind of actions and principles would you consider important enough that everybody could act this way? Lets enjoy some game theory: Would you go full egoism, like many already do, assuming that those who care and those who have something more to lose than their habits, will change their behaviour enough that you can profit from them? Will you go to the opposite extreme, of people panicing and restricting themselves heavily because they have to assume that others will let them die, because they are considered less important as some play money?

 

[TheShuttleExperience]

@Face, the problem with a pandemic is that one can not compare and apply measures from different regions and countries. Sweden for example has a signifcantly lower population density (ten times less) than Germany or Austria (four times).

Merkels "alternativlos" has often been misused by populists. Most if not all critics and populists lack a rational solution. Until we are able to vaccinate everyone who wants to, there is no effective way to prevent spreading other than distancing, masks and hygiene.

People will always lose jobs, and get new ones. Before a crisis, during, and after. This is also one topic that always gets captured by populists. I understand that people are very afraid. But I prefer rational thinking over emotions and rumors. And as soon as a movement or arguments are captured by populists and extremists, my warning bells are ringing. We already saw it during the refugee crisis. And it's partly the same people and mindset shouting again now. They jump from one event to another, driven by fear.

 

[Azul Quinton]

In January my friends and I were going to visit the North Pole but due to the lockdown we had to put off the trip till mid-April. To see the Northern Lights is my childhood dream. Hope that all these circumstances will not prevent this from happening fingers crossed Also dream to visit Franz Josef Land. There say it is awesome!

 

[N_Molson]

If you look how many people are employed in Germany, and how many lost their jobs in 2020, it turns out that 98% did not lose their job. And of the 2% not everyone lost the job due to the pandemic.

Just sayin', but I worked in Morocco last year, they lived a lot from tourism. Not only, there is some chemical industry, but still a lot. And in one year that whole part of their economy simply... vanished... like that. Lot of countries are going to have the same issues at various levels, also in Southern Europe and France. In Asia too. Mexico, Brazil, mostly the same fight. Of course there are few beach managers and attendants in Germany. Y'know, Baltic Sea coolness is good for your health and the sunset on the industrial harbor of Hamburg is a glorious thing, but still...

 

[Urwumpe]

Just sayin', but I worked in Morocco last year, they lived a lot from tourism. Not only, there is some chemical industry, but still a lot. And in one year that whole part of their economy simply... vanished... like that. Lot of countries are going to have the same issues at various levels, also in Southern Europe and France. In Asia too. Mexico, Brazil, mostly the same fight. Of course there are few beach managers and attendants in Germany. Y'know, Baltic Sea coolness is good for your health and the sunset on the industrial harbor of Hamburg is a glorious thing, but still...

Exactly, it isn't helpful to look at such indicators, especially if the performance indicator is also used as goal.

Germany for example has an established system of reduced work hours with the government paying part of the wages for supporting the industry. And it was used a lot in the past year. That is why many jobs won't be lost before April 2021, when the maximum duration of this help ends. Maybe they will extend the period. I doubt it.

 

[MaxBuzz]

In January my friends and I were going to visit the North Pole but due to the lockdown we had to put off the trip till mid-April. To see the Northern Lights is my childhood dream. Hope that all these circumstances will not prevent this from happening fingers crossed

do not forget to wear sunglasses, otherwise the whitish snow can deprive you of your ability to distinguish colors, as my friend did while in Murmansk (very southern guy)

 

[N_Molson]

Murmansk (very southern guy)

True, only in the Northern Polar Circle by 2° of latitude ?

 

[ChrisRowland]

Had a trip to Northen Finland (Nellim) in March a few years ago. Glorious northern lights, the sky went green. We had an expedition to a site about a km from Russia and my phone woke up and gave me a cheery mesage saying welcome to Russia and telling me about the eye watering roaming chanrges.

Must go again some time.

 

[TheShuttleExperience]

Just sayin', but I worked in Morocco last year, they lived a lot from tourism. Not only, there is some chemical industry, but still a lot. And in one year that whole part of their economy simply... vanished... like that. Lot of countries are going to have the same issues at various levels, also in Southern Europe and France. In Asia too. Mexico, Brazil, mostly the same fight. Of course there are few beach managers and attendants in Germany. Y'know, Baltic Sea coolness is good for your health and the sunset on the industrial harbor of Hamburg is a glorious thing, but still...

Tourism is a big issue in some countries. But the good news is that it will boom again once the pandemic is over. Thanks to the wealth we got. Same for the aviation industries, which is always fragile and effected even by the tiniest financial crisis. That's why I stopped my ATPL pilot training a few years ago when Air Berlin went out of business. Now it turns out it was a good decision to take a different path before wasting a lot of money.

But my point was that complaining about measures in a country like Germany is actually inappropiate. There are a lot of individuals in this world that got no job, no food, no running and clean water, no electricity, no roof over their head and a very short life expectation. And then you have such strange individuals in Germany complaining about civil rights, repression and dictatorship because they have to wear a simple mask in the supermarket and are currently not allowed to party...

 

[N_Molson]

Same for the aviation industries, which is always fragile and effected even by the tiniest financial crisis.

Speaking of which, I lived in Toulouse for 10 years and plan to return there ASAP. Home of Airbus, they had to fire 33% of their employees and managers. Its a social disaster. Right now nobody wants to buy airliners. Luckily Toulouse is also home of the CNES design offices, mission control and headquarters, and Ariane Espace should not be too much affected. Also some defense industries (Thales, Dassault Systems)... But Airbus was the economic engine of the whole region. Good thing for me is that flats are getting cheaper...

 

[Kyle]

I'm upset. I literally just graduated college with my BA in Physics after 7 years of absolute grinding. I got a job at a planetarium presenting the night sky to the general public. I moved away from Florida to Illinois. It's every orbitnaut's dream. But we've closed to the public indefinitely and my job doesn't really have any online aspects to it, so I'm facing layoff. Worse, it appears the stock market is crashing full-on 2008 style and I'm a thousand miles away from all of my friends and family while a global pandemic is going on.

Replying to a comment I made on this thread exactly a year ago today. I was pretty upset when I made this post and didn't have many channels to vent my stress, so thanks to all who listened.

FYI: I ended up being laid off in October, exactly as I feared. I ended up getting another job, full-time, so it ended up working out decently.

It didn't end up so well for many people who I graduated college with though.

 

[TheShuttleExperience]

@Kyle, nice to hear

It's always good to try to remain optimistic, even if it's hard. The pandemic is certainly not the end of the world. There are only two things one can do: give up and complain once overcome by fear, or try to do the very best. Of course for a lot of people it is very hard - they even have to leave their country or at least have to move. You know, there are no problems - there are only challenges. Some easy, some very hard. The only question is: am I willing and able to take them? And my answer always is: yes, at least I'll try as long as I am healthy, intelligent and capable of working in a team.

 

[Quick_Nick]

Took a LOT of urging, and I'm sure many will ignore this part of their many conflicting instructions, but better late than never.

Trump tells Republican supporters to get vaccinated

Many pro-Trump Republicans have expressed reluctance to take up the offer of a Covid-19 jab.

www.bbc.com

 

[jgrillo2002]

Already got mine, which was the Pfizer vaccine. second dose coming in two weeks.

 

[steph]

Variant breton du Covid : symptômes, test PCR, indétectable

Identifié en mars 2021, le variant Breton du Covid-19 n'est plus classé comme "à suivre" car aucun nouveau cas n'a été détecté dans la zone où il a émergé. Que sait-on de ce variant ? Quels sont ses symptômes ? Est-il indétectable ou sa détection se ...

sante.journaldesfemmes.fr

Supposedly new variant, detected in Brittany. Apparently, it evades PCR testing. First 8 hospitalized patients are dead. Looks bad , but it could just be due to an overwhelmed local hospital. Not sure if fear-mongering or a real problem here.

Now, PCR tests are notoriously unreliable around here. I don't know if it's the prelevation method, the reactants or both, but many people come out negative despite having symptoms, some even get hospitalized, while others test positive more than a month after catching the virus. This is either a screw-up on the lab level, or we'll be hearing about this again soon

 

[TheShuttleExperience]

The PCR test actually is very reliable. At least here in Germany. If it‘s positive, they do another dual-gate test.

The flu causes very equal symptoms and hospital stays. It‘s less deadly but can turn equallly nasty.

 

[N_Molson]

France is resuming AstraZeneca injections tomorrow. Which is a relief.

Paris, the region around Paris ("Ile de France") and the North are going to be locked down for 4 weeks as hospitals there are reaching saturation. For the others regions, curfew will be delayed from 6PM to 7PM (to give some sense to the daylight saving switch we're going through the 28th).

 

[Thunder Chicken]

Our governor is saying April 19th will be the start of Phase III immunization eligibility for the general population and the state seem to have finally got an online appointment system up and working. I'm starting to have some hopes of seeing friends and family this summer.

 

[Sbb1413]

One year is passed, still COVID-19 is far from over. India will again declare a lockdown after the state elections in West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry (Pondicherry). These f**king elections are increasing the spread of COVID-19.

The European Union is currently out of the vaccination programs initiated by AstraZeneca. The EU may use Sputnik-V (Gam-COVID-Vac) or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, none of which I trust. British PM Boris J is asserting that Covishield is harmleess.

Also, most scientists agree that COVID-19 will never go away. It will live with us like a common cold virus. In order to see the world without COVID-19, you have to see the world without the human race (with some vaccinated persons, in case you are bored).

 

[jedidia]

Meanwhile, Swiss government seems to have shifted tactics to just announcing decisions and then leaving it to an unspecified somebody else to figure out how to make them work.
For example, it was announced that starting april, each citizen has a right to 5 free self-tests a month. That seemed one of the more sensible ideas recently, after all if people could test themselves at home with little hassle a lot could be done to reduce the spread.

However, apothecaries are highly confused, since they have not yet received neither instructions about the procedure to claim refunds for those tests from the government, nor which tests exactly would be covered by that policy, nor do they have any idea where on earth the tests are supposed to come from, because they don't have any and can't get any.

You can go to the government website for guidance about how to get tested if you suspect you might have been infected, but when you try to follow that advice, you very quickly come to the realisation that it's pretty much impossible to get tested unless you have symptoms, and even then you might have to wait a while. They managed to make a complete mess out of things over the last 6 months, and the weird thing is that they're screwing up the easy parts the most.

I mean, sure, there's complaints about policy decisions on social distancing, lockdown rules etc, but then again it's almost impossible to get those right. But this stuff you can get right, and so far it looks like the idea is that "somebody else will take care of that, and we don't care who".

There were some testing centres in population hotspots. The government has announced that they are changing their strategy to more closely involve local doctors. So the testing centers are being shut down next month. Local doctors have no idea yet how exactly they're going to be involved in any future strategy, though.

Vaccine rollout has been a joke too. Government is almost bragging about how "39% of the most vulenarable group has already been vaccinated". This is bloody switzerland! If you're lucky that number boils down to a 5-digit figure!