The new NORMAL...

Where many countries around the world are still struggling to get the virus under control, many other countries with a high % of vaccinated people are ready to open again. But what will the new "normal" look like? If countries only keep looking at the infection rates from themselves and their neighbours, not much will change.

Let's take the Netherlands as an example. With over 80% of people who got a first shot and over 50% that got 2 shots, you would think we could open again. And that's what we did. The result was an enormous spike in cases. Europe gave us the dark red status and with that, we became the pariah of Europe.

If we keep measuring by these standards going forward there will be no end in sight. I never thought I would make this statement, but Trump was right. More testing means more cases. Obviously, he was an idiot about it, but in the case of the Netherlands, it made sense.

What do you get when 300.000 teens and tweens are getting tested over a weekend to gain entrance into a bar or club? Positief cases! That's what happened in the Netherlands. But hardly any to no deaths and a very slight uptake in hospitalizations.

When we then decided to implement certain restrictions again, it was clear that the cases would drop very hard. you can see that all this happened within a span of a couple of weeks.

http://i.prntscr.com/yKR6aS8US__aM7wOsGmtSA.png

In one week we should be back in GREEN territory but then what? How are things going to be different next time we open those places frequented by younger people? True, many more young people will be vaccinated but I still foresee a rise in cases when those venues open again. If we keep using the "cases" metric, things will not change. At some point, we are going to have to accept that people will get infected for whatever reason and live with it.

I'm obviously referring to countries where everyone willing was able to get a shot.

1st shot doesn't matter much, and 50% with the second shot isn't anywhere near enough.
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Originally Posted by cdnmatt

1st shot doesn't matter much, and 50% with the second shot isn't anywhere near enough.
aa

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It is when you look at the demographic. All (lockdown) measures were taken to protect the elderly and other people at high risk. They have all been vaccinated.

(Edit)

In a country with a population of 17.2 million people, 20.5 million vaccinations have been given. 22% of the population is under 20 years of age.

I'm suggesting reopening those venues for the younger generation under the same condition. Test for entrance and don't panic when you see a rise in cases.

I'm of the opposite mindset. For example, just in the past week an extra 5.4% of Canada's population got a second shot. Keep this going for another simple 6 weeks, and 85% of the population will have two shots and be fully vaccinated. From surveys Health Canada has done, it sounds like 80 - 90% of the population are intending or willing to get the shot, so cool.

The vaccines quite obviously work and work well, and you only need to compare Canada and US numbers to see that. Before this delta variant hit, Canada was sitting at only ~400 cases per-day, and that's now jumped up to around 750 per-day due to delta. So it's going up a bit, but not too bad.

Then you look at the US. Before delta they were sitting at maybe 4000 cases per-day, and now they've skyrocketed to over 100,000 per-day. Quite obviously, the vaccines work, so let's just keep going at that.

We've come this far, why stop at the last mile of the marathon?

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Originally Posted by cdnmatt

We've come this far, why stop at the last mile of the marathon?

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It's black Saturday today. The day of human migration from north to south Europe, where France gets the most traffic. By your logic, we should all stay put until we reach those magic percentages. I'm not saying that your mindset is wrong, but it's not one collectively shared.

You bring up the difference between Canada and the US. If we wait to pass that last mile, there will never be traffic between the US and Canada again given the amount of Americans not willing to get the shot.

Something's gotta give and I don't see why half our country can go on a holiday but so many businesses here have to stay shut. That same test that people take before they are allowed to travel should be good enough to visit a club.

freedom day ithing n the UK seems to be going very well....death rates/infections/hospitilisation rates have not risen, in fact are dropping...as usual the UK has the foresight to lead, lets hope the the useless lot of impotent EU bureaucrats are looking and learning or will political pride over ride that...