1. This new Covid-variant (Omikron) is apparently already in my German state of Hessen. Regional public TV (HR) reports this.
Some gal who passed the PCR test to leave South Africa...flew up....had a symptom or two within 24 hours. Confirmed by Germans, and now in home-quarantine.
If you go by Dutch news....several hundred folks flew back into the Netherlands, from South Africa, and out of this group....they were all forced for another test....confirming 60-odd people had the infection.
It'd make me wonder if they all (including the German lady) were infected within the airport....maybe they all hung out in the duty-free shop or something.
One Brit news group reports no loss of smell or taste associated with Omikron....just extreme exhaustion/run-down feeling. It does appear to transmit more easily.
2. 7-day incidence rate at 446.
3. Three-quarters of German hospitals now in some type of emergency management situation. Normal operations are suspended. N-TV reports this.
4. Lot of hostility brewing with the folks running Christmas market operations. Discussion started up among them....they want compensation by local governments. 2G mandate has torn up any profitability. Going to be lawsuits out of this, but I doubt if city governments can be held responsible. Will seriously threaten planning for 2022 Christmas period.
5. On the books....once vax'ed-up....your certificate by the Germans says it's 'good' for one year (365 days). Well....there is an EU agenda underway to reshape all of the 'good' chatter, and make it nine-months. If you gaze at Spahn (the Health Minister)....he's discussing an even lesser 'good' period. Why any of this matters? To get the bulk of German society vax'ed-up....it's like herding cattle and requires three to four months.
6. The 'security' at these Christmas markets? It's an amusing thing looking at how it works in Wiesbaden. Control is established at a entry point.....people wanting to see evidence of your vax or recovered status. Hire-up security? Yeah....would appear to be mostly all Turks/Syrians/Iraqis....in some private security organization contracted by the city. Would be a scene for a German version of Monty Python....'your papers, please'.
Once you stand there....making it past the entry check-in....you just feel like you might be in some infection zone, and whatever the Gluhwein appeal was.....your anxiousness is doubling every five minutes ('it ain't safe'). It reminds me of Alabama verbiage as a kid.....if it feels unsafe, maybe you ought not be there. So you guzzle the Gluhwein as quickly as possible and then escape.
With all these German Doctor 'Dooms'.....some in the past couple of days uttering comparisons to Ebola....you just start having 'flashes' of low intensity threats, chaos, calamity, and some potential threat. The only way to overcome this....sipping down more Gluhwein than normal (say six to ten cups), or just walking away.
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