Originally Posted by
Foxxster
Europe slides further towards lockdowns and restrictions. Do not go and if you know anyone planning a trip there including the UK in the next few months, advise them against it.
Even if countries only lockdown the unvaccinated, in Germany that is 14 million people. Think of the effect that is going to have on the number of workers available to staff restaurants, shops, public transport, hotels etc etc. And major events like Christmas markets are already being cancelled. Things are only going to get worse and probably quite rapidly.
The hardest-hit region has been Upper Austria, where the governor today called for restrictions on the un-jabbed to be scrapped - but only so that a full nationwide lockdown can be imposed instead.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ief-warns.html
From the graph on the Daily Mail link we can see that France, Italy, Spain and Portugal are recording the slowest growth in new infections. They also happen to be the most vaccinated of all countries, with total vaccination rates of 75-80% (would equate to 90%+ of over 16s as used in Australia)
UK has a high vax rate too so their growth is in the middle, but they don’t have any other measures for the moment, vaccine passports plans were dropped. In Italy for instance they have a green pass system to enter a restaurant, bar or workplace and that combined with high vax is working to keep numbers down.
Places like Austria, Netherlands, Belgium and Germany have 65-70% total Vax numbers. They are the ones now debating imposing restrictions on the unvaccinated, and that alone has caused the vax rate to shoot up as the article states.
In Australia we have vaccine mandates, a greater will to implement vaccine passports plus will achieve a higher vax rate (95%+ of over 16s) before opening up and letting the virus fully circulate before next winter, so shouldn’t encounter the same problems.
The evidence from Europe is clear, very high vaccination rates plus use of a passport system and masks in high risk settings work well, along with restrictions on the unvaccinated. Moderate Vax rates and little or no restrictions on the unvaccinated is just not strong enough.