Updated 🚦 maps are online!

These maps aim to support the @EUCouncil recommendation on travel measures in the EU during #COVID19 pandemic.

Color-blind friendly map in next tweet.
Disclaimers in following tweets.[_link] pic.twitter.com/A5QvE4YYOI

— ECDC (@ECDC_EU) July 8, 2021

Netherlands could hear about new coronavirus measures tomorrow | NL Times |

Thus far, nearly 17.3 million vaccine doses have been given, with 78.1 percent of the adult public having received at least one vaccine shot, and at least 46.8 percent considered fully vaccinated.

In the UK vaccinations are provided based on a percentage of the adult population. This is about 2/3 of the total population. The Delta variant spreads in the groups of non-vaxxers and young people. Thus the "let her rip" mentality has now taken hold. Either you get a jab, preferably two for max protection, or you will get it through herd spread.

The Dutch are the laboratory or Petri dish for the Delta variant and a few weeks ahead of Boris Johnson and his set date in stone of July 19th. Boris and Mark as the sciences of Oxford have been in step with one another from early March 2020.

Soon the Netherlands will have switched from green to amber to red in a matter of 14 days. Not participating in this madness are the owners of nightclubs and multiple day festivals ... to protect their own and employees who have been infected as well when the regulations were lifted end of June.

Clubs choosing to close after Covid outbreaks in nightlife [_link]

— NL Times (@NL_Times) July 8, 2021

Six in ten Dutch think Covid-19 measures were abolished too soon

'Sapere aude'

Euros may be behind rise in Covid infections in men [_link] #Euro2020

— The Independent (@Independent) July 9, 2021

Appears SARS CoV-2 is beating them all!


'Sapere aude'

What is really unconscionable is dropping the mask mandate for schools and then dropping all mandates altogether, thereby letting delta rip through the younger population while they're not sufficiently vaccinated. Which means the envisioned long covid centers won't be enough to handle all the people who will be potentially incapacitated for life.

The people in charge are irresponsible gamblers.

Also, the Dutch government issuing vaccination certificates that are valid immediately after one shot of J&J is another forceful show of incompetence. Allowing indoor night clubbing to resume, well, who would've thought there would be superspreader events again?! Keep it outside, no problem. Flipping idiots.

_{Schengen is toast!}

[UK] ... Ministers argue that the vaccination programme, under which 87.8% of the adult population has had one vaccine and 67.8% have been double vaccinated, has largely broken the link between cases and mortality. [1]

But what hasn't been broken is the link between cases and long term sequelae.  

The acute clinical manifestations of COVID-19 have been well characterized but the post-acute sequelae of this disease have not been comprehensively described. Here we use the national healthcare databases of the US Department of Veterans Affairs to systematically and comprehensively identify 6-month incident sequelae--including diagnoses, medication use and laboratory abnormalities--in patients with COVID-19 who survived for at least 30 days after diagnosis. We show that beyond the first 30 days of illness, people with COVID-19 exhibit a higher risk of death and use of health resources. Our high-dimensional approach identifies incident sequelae in the respiratory system, as well as several other sequelae that include nervous system and neurocognitive disorders, mental health disorders, metabolic disorders, cardiovascular disorders, gastrointestinal disorders, malaise, fatigue, musculoskeletal pain and anaemia. We show increased incident use of several therapeutic agents--including pain medications (opioids and non-opioids) as well as antidepressant, anxiolytic, antihypertensive and oral hypoglycaemic agents--as well as evidence of laboratory abnormalities in several organ systems. Our analysis of an array of prespecified outcomes reveals a risk gradient that increases according to the severity of the acute COVID-19 infection (that is, whether patients were not hospitalized, hospitalized or admitted to intensive care). Our findings show that a substantial burden of health loss that spans pulmonary and several extrapulmonary organ systems is experienced by patients who survive after the acute phase of COVID-19. These results will help to inform health system planning and the development of multidisciplinary care strategies to reduce chronic health loss among individuals with COVID-19. [2]

[emphasis added]

The UK is hopeless.  (So is the US for that matter, a different discussion.)

Unless the imposes strict quarantine measures on the UK (and US) NOW to prevent avoidable Covid-19 cases on the continent.  The Northern Ireland/UK border is of particular concern.  If Covid carriers are not stopped at ports of entry they will infect the island with the Delta variant (B.1.617.2.) If Unionists and the Brits aren't willing to take proper care the the question the Republic needs to answer is, "how many Irish do they want to kill or have Covid sequelae to keep the Northern Ireland border open?"

[1]  UK PM Johnson reverses plan to skip quarantine after COVID exposure

[2]  High-dimensional characterization of post-acute sequelae of COVID-19

She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre

M&S said the number of workers being notified by the NHS app is rising exponentially, and it may have to reduce hours if there are shortages.

A leading supermarket, which declined to be named, said it could lead to massive disruption of food supplies.

"And there's a risk that there won't be sufficient staff to open shops."

Last week, over 500,000 alerts were sent to users of the NHS Test and Trace app in England and Wales for the week to 7 July, a rise of 46% on the previous week.

M&S chief executive Steve Rowe told The Times that the number of people being forced to self-isolate is "a major issue across every industry at the moment".

He said: "Our Covid cases are roughly doubling every week and the pinging level is about three to one of Covid cases, so we're seeing that growing exponentially."

He said: "If there's shortages we'll have to manage it by changing hours of stores, reducing hours."

Exponential growth is not well understood.

Is it enough to hope Boris de Pfeffel Johnson will not just dismiss these concerns as piffle? Perhaps there is an alternative - taking the UK to court. Specifically, to the international courts that deal with matters of human rights.

For countries in the Council of Europe, this would be the European Court of Human Rights. Globally, there is the option of the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations.

How would this work? A court claim requires what lawyers call a "cause of action" - in this case, a breach of human rights, including the right to life and the right not to be subject to inhuman and degrading treatment.

Court cases are one option. but honestly, a country voluntarily turning itself into a petri-dish to breed better viruses is a direct threat to its neighbours, and to every country in the world. Which suggests that the matter should be put before the UN Security Council.