The day 16+ and 5+ year Olds Could Get Boosters And Vaccinate

The day 16+ and 5+ year Olds Could Get Boosters And Vaccinate

Byrichard

This is the day 16+ and 5+ year olds could get boosters and Vaccinate in Switzerland. For 16+ year olds, at least in Vaud, we are now eligible for vaccination, as long as we’re in the country. I am not. I have to wait until I get back. This is a big step forward. Being able to get a booster is good. 5+ year old children should be able to get their first vaccine shortly, although the details are not clear yet.


I wish I was in Switzerland to enjoy the weather. For once, it is snowing, so for once it would be interesting to look at the landscape. I was bored with seeing sunshine every day for years in a row. By the time I get back, the landscape will be boring again. If it wasn’t for the growing number of new cases, I would be driving from CH to Spain on Sunday, not two weeks ago.


Reading


I am still reading every day. I am currently reading a book about the Camino De Santiago. The journey describes quite a few days of rain, and the thoughts of a single woman, on a long hike, for a change. Plenty of books have been written by men. Fewer have been written by women. It is nice to get that perspective for a change.


I usually read until I can’t keep my eyes open, and sometimes I read during the night if I wake up. For two weeks I haven’t listened to audiobooks as I haven’t had moments of solitude. Usually I listen when I walk alone. I still ignore podcasts, I get my news from tweets and news websites. I also get news from sources where I am not forced to spend a specific amount of time. Text is easy to skim quickly.


That’s it for today. I had no daily walk so there is no news on that front.

Views Of The Sea
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Views Of The Sea

Byrichard

The pandemic is alive and well at the moment and life in pandemic mode continues. We dream of opportunities to flirt and we walk by people while wearing masks even if they do not, to remain safe. I would like for people to do what they can to end the pandemic but that is an empty dream


View of El Portet


A concrete dream is that shops in Switzerland are once again asking for one person per household to shop at a time and this is positive because despite the government failing to do something at least the shops do. It shows both that the situation is getting worse, but also that people are taking things more seriously.


I am in a safer part of Spain so I feel safe. I am still masked anytime I am near other people and I still observe the wind.


Garmin Solar Instinct with Calpe in the background.


I am still wearing the Garmin Instinct solar but I find it hard to charge. Most of the time it is hidden under layers of clothing and when I took it off and left it by a pool it was back in the shade by the time I went back to it. I can see such a watch being in its element in summer, rather than winter, even in Spain.


I find myself considering emigrating from Europe to escape its defeatist pandemic attitude. I am tired of people making excuses to empower the virus, rather than to block its progress. I want soft lockdowns and self isolation. I want masking to be done properly and I want boosters to be more easily accessible.


I have been studying Bootstrap and so far it looks like a great tool. I will write more shortly. For now, I leave you.

Exponential Pandemic Growth And A Lack of Accountability

Exponential Pandemic Growth And A Lack of Accountability

Byrichard

In theory I should remain neutral and not comment about current affairs but what is happening in Europe and the US merits comment. The runaway growth of the pandemic warrants comment. We are in week 98 of the pandemic, just two away from 100 weeks and people are still debating whether to wear masks, sing in choirs and more. People are still meeting in large crowds and doing more irrational things.


I was looking at the statistics for the last few days in Switzerland and the situation is nuts. Almost all canton are with rates of at least 1000 per 100,000 but some are as high as 2000 or more. What is nuts is that there are no soft lockdowns, no self-isolate at home, no “please avoid events”. It feels as if the guarde fous have been removed and the nutcases are running the asylum. Governments are not being held to account for their incompetence, and in cities like Geneva people are protesting against masks for children, during what we know is an airborne pandemic. That’s nuts. It shows that people are not as knowledgeable about this pandemic as they should be, but also that the fourth estate is not keeping governments honest. Look at England and Switzerland as two examples.


A few months ago Japan had the olympics, and the number of cases went up, but within days they got the situation under control and within weeks it was back to normal life. In Europe countries like Switzerland have been through five ways, and no lessons have been learned.


We have gone from a pandemic that affects old and vulnerable people, to one that affects young adults and older, to, one year later, i.e. this summer, where the Delta and the Omicron waves work their way through child populations where masks, safe distancing, vaccinations and other measures are not taken. Governments are behaving in a manner that could be labelled as Eugenics, and they are getting away with it. We are in a pandemic and the emergency brakes have been disabled.


In the grand scheme of things I am frustrated that children’s lives and well-beings are being endangered by health ministers with economics backgrounds, rather than health or humanities, and by the prospect that this could go on for decades, not weeks, months or years. Every wave is getting to be worse and people are failing to learn from their mistakes over and over. We are living through an irrational time.


We know how to end the pandemic. We see that Australia, New Zealand, Japan and other nations have little flare ups but they deal with them immediately. Switzerland and other countries are just watching a pandemic, without doing everything to stop it. If Australia, New Zealand, Japan and other nations can control the pandemic then so can other countries. Europe, the US and other continents are failing. This pandemic could have been over a year ago. It is irrational that it isn’t.


I keep this post because I think it is important to log the absurdity of the situation we are in today.

Speaking Of The Next Pandemic

Speaking Of The Next Pandemic

Byrichard

Imagine that you break a leg, but instead of speaking about rehabilitating that leg, and getting back to doing fun things, you get distracted by the joy/misfortune of breaking your leg again. I see people worrying about the next pandemic today, but this is silly. Why would you start thinking about the next pandemic when the current one isn’t understood or declining? Instead of ignoring the current problem and focusing on the next, people should be addressing a number of key problems.


The first are disinformation and misinformation. How can you get people who are not enthusiastic about masks and vaccinations to be enthusiastic about vaccinations and masks. If you achieve this, then the pandemic takes a gigantic leap towards being finished.


The second challenge is to convince economists and businesses, that not making money for two or three months because of a lockdown to get to zero-covid is more interesting than living for two years in a pandemic. Zermatt, apparently, lost millions in reservations, due to insecurity around the Covid situation. In my opinion this should convince economists and businesses, that zero covid and soft lockdowns, in the short run, will bring big gains in the long run.


For now the dog is chasing after its tail, people are growing fatigued with half-thought out measures, and they want to see an end to the pandemic, but we are at wave five out of more. The vaccine for Beta was already not ideal for Delta, and now there is talk of another vaccine being needed for Omicron. At the current rate we will always be one variant behind, and in Europe and the US, governments are playing catch up, rather than neutralise. Covid-zero would shorten the pandemic by years, at this point. The status quo could last for years, and in that context, migration becomes interesting.


I am bored with the pandemic and I want it to be over, but I don’t see how this is possible, for as long as governments keep repeating the same mistakes over and over.

Pretending To Be The Invisible Man
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Pretending To Be The Invisible Man

Byrichard

If you’re wearing a mask, glasses, a hat, and have a fleece that covers your neck you look like the invisible man. I have been thinking about that recently, as I look at my reflection. Imagine if I was completely transparent. Pandemic times would be an excellent moment to hide that we’ve had an accident in a lab that made us invisible.


Of course we are not invisible. We are just dressed for the weather, and the risk of being contaminated by Delta or Omicron, or the next variant of interest, whenever that may be.


En pleine 5ème vague de Covid-19, comment contrôler la transmission du virus chez les plus petits? Genève prend un décision inédite en Suisse romande: masquer les élèves dès 8 ans. Une mesure qui suscite la colère chez les parents et le corps enseignant. Fribourg de son côté préfère le dépistage massif dans les écoles à chaque apparition de cas dans une classe.

RTS, today


If a canton decides to make children safe, by asking to wear masks from 8 years old then parents should be happy. If they are angry then the RTS has failed to inform and educate Swiss television viewers, and so has the government. I am currently in Spain and I see plenty of children wearing masks to go to school, but also to sit at tables, and to play. The idea that masks are uncomfortable is rubbish, especially after you wear them a few times.


I think something else is uncomfortable. The idea that the pandemic, in Switzerland could go on for years at the current rate. We are five waves in, five. By now you would think that people had read a few articles, watched a few documentaries, and had a few conversations that had informed them about how this virus has worked. They don’t seem to. They seem as clueless as during the first wave.


We are in a pandemic, but people are not being given an accurate image of the situation. They are being massaged into thinking one thing, rather than another. They are being kept malleable. This malleability makes it hard to get everyone vaccinated, but also makes it hard to get people to mask up.


That is why Spain is so nice. You see that not everyone is wearing a mask, but whereas in Switzerland, you are an eccentric lunatic for wearing a mask in the street, in Spain you are almost normal. That feels pleasant. You see people walking alone, speaking on their phone, young people, not so young people, and others. You even see children playing while wearing a masks.


These are the images that Switzerland should show Swiss people. “Look, people do like wearing masks” or at least “look, life, with a mask, is almost normal.” I don’t understand the hatred of masks.


That is why emigrating from Switzerland might be worthwhile, to move to a nation where there is a hope of the pandemic ending sooner, rather than never.

A Walk In Spain
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A Walk In Spain

Byrichard

A yellow flower


We cannot always walk around in circles during a pandemic around where we live. I spent over a year walking around in circles near home in Switzerland but this Christmas I travelled.


I didn’t travel because I wanted to. I travelled because sometimes we need to see family. I also travelled to escape all of the Christmas rubbish in Switzerland.


We are in a pandemic. I haven’t socialised in over two years. If you want me to value Christmas give me a reason to celebrate it. Spending two years in pandemic solitude does nothing to enhance my indifference to Christmas.


I am safer in Spain than I would be in Switzerland. People wear masks in the street, and ffp2 masks at other times. The rate of vaccination is higher and the government stood up to populists. Children, at a young age wear masks. Switzerland saying that children do not want to wear masks is wrong, and shows cultural bias. England has the same problem.


I didn’t wear a mask as I passed people on the walk today but there was plenty of air around. The image you see as a thumbnail has Ibiza in the background. I think that on top of a cliff, in the afternoon, there is enough air to keep virus concentrations to a minimum, not that people on this walk, would make it if they felt bad.


I am demoralised by Switzerland and their indifference to the pandemic, the lack of effort to end it. With the current Swiss attitude the pandemic will last for decades. Migration could still be worthwhile. To a nation where health is valued rather than capital.


If I thought the pandemic had a chance of ending in Switzerland I wouldn’t have left. I would have stayed put. I stopped being like Rieux this year, by travelling twice. Why wait? Nothing will change until those in power are booted out by moral people.

Omicron – Ecolint Quarantined

Omicron – Ecolint Quarantined

Byrichard

So far we have read a lot of articles saying that Omicron could be mild but as of this evening it is being treated as highly contagious. 2000 people, 1600 children and 400 staff are quarantined by decision of Vaud and Geneva.


It would see that the newest variant is serious enough to quarantine an entire school with multiple campuses. We have to see whether this attitude lasts or whether it is short lived.


Playing With Google Maps And Apple Maps

Playing With Google Maps And Apple Maps

Byrichard

A few days ago I was driving from Switzerland to Spain via France when Google Maps told me to get off the motorway and drive on normal roads. When it made this mistake I switched to Apple maps, and was not led astray again.


Google Maps leading me astray was a surprise. Google Maps and Waze are the same, and yet Google Maps behaved differently. I don’t understand why it led me astray.


On short trips I wouldn’t hesitate to trust Waze, google maps, TomTom and Apple maps. On long distances Waze and TomTom have been good. It is just Google Maps that I question.


When I looked at the price of Citroën onboard maps the cost is 99chf per region and 205chf for Europe. I didn’t expect it to be so high. TomTom go is 12 chf per year. I don’t understand how onboard map software can be priced so differently. I see the value in it being on the onboard system but with mobile phones and CarPlay etc we are justified in going for the better priced option.


Over the years navigating when driving has become really easy. I now find that I never get lost. You hardly need to study a map. Set the destination and the gps does the rest. I know the route I drove well but I still like a gps as a backup, and as a way of keeping track of progress.


Apple maps has resolved the teething problems that people discussed. Now it is a good driving option, and it adjusts the display to day or not, making it less of a distraction when driving before sunrise or after sunset. I would use it again, on the way back later in the year.


With its errors in navigation google maps might have lost me as a user.