#coronavirus free countries

[toursandjourneyworld]

Covid free country in the world

Covid Free Country In The World

There are few Covid free country in the world, do you planning a trip to a foreign country? Well, the coronavirus crash was a huge blow. In times like these, you cannot travel. As in the previous year, everyone entered the jail and was banned from leaving. Many COVID-free destinations are now opening up new locations and lifting the ban.

Thanks to the Covid-19 vaccines, we are finally able to complete our travel plans. So if your vacation was interrupted last year, you may be able to return it. But listen, you need to know if your destination is on the list of COVID-19-free destinations. In recent months, many citizens have received passes to travel to these places. Well, this is a great and fun experience.

Plan your trip to these covid free country in the world

The pandemic has affected not only all countries. Thanks to the regulations, several countries were saved, and if you really want to, you can go to these places.

Be sure to take the necessary precautions when traveling. Places like the United Arab Emirates, Nigeria, Bahrain attract tourists. While some countries previously restricted travel for primary purposes only, many have now excluded them as secondary. But, if you are traveling to one of these places, you must take the Covid-19 test.

Also, after passing the test, you will be quarantined. So, you may not be able to immediately see the beauty of this place, but you will definitely do it. WorldTripFinder.net has compiled a list of places you can go to. So let’s go.

Maldives

Who wouldn’t want to visit the Maldives? We all dream of visiting the Maldives. It is often referred to as a dream destination by many for the right reasons.

The Maldives was completely isolated for four months but reopened its borders in July to welcome tourists from all over the world. Thus, the Maldives became one of the first COVID-free destinations in the world where travel is allowed.

The Maldives is known for its luxurious beaches and white sand beaches. And we cannot simply deny the beauty of corals and the purest blue waters of the sea.

Unlike most COVID-free countries in the world, tourists are not required to undergo quarantine and testing. However, travelers must sign a health declaration. When roaming, the use of masks is mandatory.

In addition, tourists visiting the Maldives during this period must obtain confirmation from the Ministry of Tourism regarding their booking. While there are no strict travel laws in the Maldives, there are some rules you will need to follow when returning home.

Unless you are a tourist visiting the Maldives, you will need to isolate yourself and place yourself in quarantine for 14 days. In addition, they must also register on the Haalubelun portal to comply with the safety rules.

Oman

Oman, or Sultanate of Oman, on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, is one of the covid free country in the world.

While the country is gaining in importance, they are also taking steps to develop tourism. According to them, for this, citizens from 103 countries will not need to provide an entry visa to stay in the country for up to 10 days. However, tourists who visit this place must follow some rules and provide all the details of their trip.

Travelers must also provide proof of health insurance to the Sultanate of Oman in order to obtain an entry visa. Since there is no COVID here, you can plan your trip here.

But why go to Oman? Well, Oman does have some great places to visit. Some of these more popular ones include the following

Wahiba sands

nutmeg

Salalah

[prigorie]

For my non-Romanian followers, here's why you might see Romanians on social media losing their minds:

(Context: we have a semi-presidential state and a 2 round presidential election system. if nobody has above 50% in the first round, the two candidates with the most votes go in the second round, 2 weeks after the first. in a spectacularly stupid move, we also have the parliamentary elections on the 1st of december (the romanian national day) (right between the 2 rounds of the presidential elections))

until the counting of the votes was finished, literally every poll showed the current prime minister (marcel ciolacu) (a corrupt idiot) to be on the first place. the second place was being fought for by:

1. elena lasconi - leader of the usr party (centre-right liberal)

2. george simion - leader of the aur party (far-right nationalist populist)

surprise suprise! the first place was won with over 2M votes by călin georgescu, an independent candidate. he's an ultra-nationalist, anti-eu, anti-nato, pro-russia, openly supported the legionarists (romanian fascists), openly believes in bizarre conspiracy theories (water is not h2o, the moon landing was fake, coke and pepsi have microchips, coronavirus isn't and was never real). this is doubly insane because another candidacy (diana şoşoacă) was invalidated by ccr due to her statements that opposed constitutionary values

the second place was won by lasconi, at a difference of 2740 votes from ciolacu

since monday, there have been anti-fascist and pro-democracy protests all over the country

today/yesterday (thursday), the constitutional court (ccr) decided that the votes will have to be recounted until friday at 14:00. this is an insane deadline and everyone in the country except ccr thinks so. also, independent observers aren't allowed, and we still don't know what will happen if the order of the candidates will change. ciolacu announced that he will step down from the race even if it turns out that he got 2nd place. the options are: re-do the 1st round, go forward with georgescu vs lasconi, go forward with georgescu vs ciolacu. i sincerely hope that an automatic georgescu win isn't an option. this confusion also comes after one of the 14 (!!!) candidates stepped down days before the 1st round and announced his support for lasconi but the ballots were already printed and the votes for him counted.

I'm sure I'm missing a lot of things because this has been a frankly insane week. Romanians, feel free to add whatever you want

tl;dr: the romanian public institutes are profoundly undemocratic

[ares2945]

“The 15 (cases in the US) within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero."

“We’ve never closed down the country for the flu... So you say to yourself, what is this all about?” “This is a flu. This is like a flu.” “...it’s not the flu. It’s vicious.” “I see the disinfectant that knocks it [Coronavirus] out in a minute, one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning?” "I can't imagine why." [Trump’s response to the influx in poison control calls about disinfectant] "Many people every year, sometimes over 100,000, and despite the Vaccine, die from the Flu, Are we going to close down our Country? No, we have learned to live with it, just like we are learning to live with Covid, in most populations far less lethal!!!" “Joe Biden is promising to delay the vaccine and turn America into a prison state—locking you in your home while letting far-left rioters roam free. The Biden Lockdown will mean no school, no graduations, no weddings, no Thanksgiving, no Christmas, no Fourth of July.” -Donald J Trump's statements about Covid-19

[covid-safer-hotties]

Noah Lyles' collapse underscores our collective COVID denial - Published Aug 10, 2024

Read the full story at either link! (covidsafehotties archive is always free of pesky in-line ads!)

We keep pretending that the pandemic is done and over, but it keeps knocking us off our feet

The 2024 Olympic Games are serving up some less-than-subtle metaphors for how poorly we handle public health. Just after winning a bronze medal in the much-anticipated men's 200-meter race, U.S. sprinter Noah Lyles collapsed on the track in exhaustion — not just because he’d completed a brutal run in just 19.7 seconds, finishing third, but also because he was sick with COVID-19, a diagnosis that he’d concealed from others. He had been favored to take home gold, as he did in the 100-meter race a few days earlier.

But seeing an American Olympic star sprawled out and gasping on the track, and then taken away in a wheelchair, was more than a shocking image. It also represented the general “mission accomplished” attitude toward SARS-CoV-2: We think we’ve won against this virus and we haven’t.

COVID isn’t just spreading like wildfire through the Olympic Village in Paris — we are undergoing surges across the globe, with the World Health Organization tracking steep rises in infections in 84 countries. After more than four years fighting this thing, it is still knocking us out.

In some parts of the U.S., the amount of COVID is so high that experts are claiming this summer surge is on par with winter waves of the virus. But none of this should be unexpected at this point. This is no longer the “novel” coronavirus that once terrified people with its unpredictability. We know how it behaves, with surges in both summer and winter, and we know how to fight against it — yet our apparent strategy at the moment is to pretend it doesn’t exist at all, even when it swipes us off our feet.

It’s true that the pandemic is much different than it was in 2020. For one thing, in spite of this surge, deaths are relatively low, following trends since vaccines became available. In 2023, COVID dropped from the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S. to the 10th, according to recent provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That's not great, but it does indicate that widespread immunity (from vaccines, previous infections or both) is giving us some level of protection. Though let’s not forget that at least 1.2 million Americans have died to date from COVID. It’s nothing to sneeze at.

Deaths aren’t the only concerning metric, of course. Sometimes a COVID infection is asymptomatic, while at other times, the symptoms last for months or years or never fully go away. Patients call this long COVID and public health experts have described it as a mass disabling event. Lyles isn’t just lucky he won a bronze medal — he’ll be lucky if he doesn’t experience months of headaches, lung issues or extreme fatigue that never goes away.

Yet long COVID is rarely factored into discussions about this pandemic, even when kids get it. Instead, it’s treated as if infections are merely a mild cold at this point. Just shake it off, as Taylor Swift might say, while her summer tour dates become superspreading events.

Millions of patients can attest that COVID is anything but mild — and it's definitely not the flu. The SARS-CoV-2 virus can worm its way into nearly every part of our bodies, trashing our immune system and damaging our organs. We tend to think of the disease as a respiratory problem, given all the coughs and sniffles it produces, but it’s really more of a vascular disease, impacting any system that relies on blood vessels. That can include damage to the brain, which can manifest in symptoms like long-term cognitive impairment and Parkinson’s disease.

Yes, a virus that can literally cause brain damage is spreading at record levels and most people are acting like it’s just another wave. Just keep running.

But we’re not just paying the price with our bodies. The economy is also getting smacked by long COVID. A recent comprehensive review in the journal Nature Medicine found that the “cumulative global incidence of long COVID is around 400 million individuals, which is estimated to have an annual economic impact of approximately $1 trillion.” That's ignoring the long list of ways that long COVID wreaks havoc on the body, including, as the study notes, "viral persistence, immune dysregulation, mitochondrial dysfunction, complement dysregulation, endothelial inflammation and microbiome dysbiosis."

[maxknightley]

Hey I'm very stupid (like genuinely) and I kind of get confused when people describe Biden as all kind of horrible things and then mention Donald Trump offhandedly. Are you saying they are both the same old white men or am I misunderstanding. I've heard people say Trump is better than Biden but I don't understand why people say that especially since he would probably just be doing the same thing as Biden is doing if he won the election. I don't need an explanation of things both have done I'd just like to understand the tone since I just can't understand what you mean via text. Sorry if my question is frustrating.

to be clear I do not actually think Trump would be better than Biden. the best-case scenario of a Trump presidency is that a combination of 1. his incompetence, 2. his ego, and 3. the center-left again being galvanized into some form of action will inhibit his ability to ruin the world further.

the real problem is that both Biden and Trump will almost assuredly continue to support slaughter and religious/ethnic hatred throughout the world in service of imperial interests. this is nothing new, mind you, but I do think their presidencies represent a particularly intense and naked type of brutality, one in which the few lines that the American empire would even consider not crossing are completely ignored. whichever one of them wins, I expect this shit country to continue turning a blind eye to the nation-state of Israel's genocidal ambitions, to aid Ukraine only as long as it's convenient (and to continue pressuring them to submit to the whims of international capital), to continue pointlessly sabre-rattling against the PRC and Iran, etc. etc. etc.

moreover Biden's administration has been remarkably apathetic about the ongoing conservative push to censure any public form of transness or sexuality. the few beneficial things that arguably can be attributed to the Biden administration largely couldn't have happened without organized labor anyway, certainly don't outweigh the massacre of thousands overseas; moreover, the sheer extent to which they fucked up the coronavirus response in favor of saving an economy which is still completely fucked anyway cannot be overstated.

tl;dr they're both shitheads and I expect that this country will continue to get worse until, god willing, it balkanizes entirely and ceases to exist as a superpower. you can still feel free to vote - and in the case of local elections, where your vote can have considerably more impact, I would actually encourage this - but the presidential election in particular is going to be a shitshow from start to finish

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

At-Large Marge. http://Newsday.com/matt :: Matt Davies

* * * *

The lesson of Covid

June 4, 2024

ROBERT B. HUBBELL

The United States suffered more deaths from Covid than any other nation in the world (1.13 million) and the highest death rate (341 per 100,000) of any large, high-income country. Those shocking facts suggest that a congressional inquiry is urgently needed to understand why the US fared so poorly compared to other industrialized nations.

On Monday, the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic held a hearing ostensibly designed to understand why the US response to Covid paled in comparison to the responses and outcomes by countries like the UK, Spain, Italy, France, Sweden, Australia, Canada, and Netherlands.

You will not be surprised to learn that the hearing did not devote time to understanding what the US could do better in response to the next pandemic. Instead, Republicans converted the hearing into an evidence-free attack on Dr. Fauci’s selfless, expert guidance through a pandemic that killed approximately 1 out of every 300 Americans. See, e.g., Newsweek, Dr. Fauci Testifies: Unvaccinated Americans Caused Additional "200-300k Deaths".

Led by Marjorie Taylor Greene and Jim Jordan, Republicans peddled baseless conspiracy theories that will kill tens or hundreds of thousands of Americans in the next pandemic—just as vaccine hesitancy and disinformation killed hundreds of thousands of Americans in the last epidemic.

Convicted Felon Donald Trump broke the Republican Party when he elevated loyalty to him above belief in the truth. The disgraceful conduct by Republicans in today’s Select Committee hearing is the direct product of Trump's assault on the truth.

A nation cannot govern itself if it creates policy and passes legislation based on fever dreams and mass delusion. Truth matters. Lies matter. That may be the most important lesson of the coronavirus pandemic. It came at a dear cost: The deaths of 1.1 million Americans. We should never forget that lesson or the losses suffered by tens of millions of family members—or we may be condemned to repeat the tragedy in the next pandemic.

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

[theyknowthatweknow]

I didn't see anyone talk about this, but Sam's storyline in Ted Lasso was heavily based on things that actually happened involving the British government and Marcus Rashford and eventually, since this episode was written before it happened, was a foreshadowing of what would happen with former player and current pundit Gary Lineker (who did make an appearance as himself in S2).

Some may remember this, but during lockdown Rashford raised a lot of money for children in poverty and campaigned for free school meals for poor children whose families couldn't afford proper meals and have free school meals provided due to having to do home schooling according to coronavirus lockdown procedures. This led to a lot of right wing politicians and people telling him to 'stick to football' and like Sam did on twitter on the show, Rashford also got into a heated exchange on twitter with a right wing politician regarding this. Thankfully, because of support for him and ordinary people and small businesses supporting him and choosing to help these families with meals, the government eventually had to give what he campaigned for, which was basically just to save face. Because of this, a murial was painted in honour of Rashford.

Something that was also happening at the time was the Black Lives Matters moment - every single club had their players start to take the knee before the match. And it wasn't just because of this movement, but because of the growing number of racism black players were receiving both social media and in the stadiums. Rashford himself was subjected to a lot of it. A lot of football fans even were booing players taking the knee, especially when English players were playing against opposition from other European countries like Poland and Ukraine, such as in the Euros. But tumblr with the fake workery were more offended by English fans booing national anthems of European countries, than actual ignorance to racism. Many other international teams in the Euros like Italy who tumblr was frothing over because they had some weird fetish for Italian men even refused to take the knee, despite Italian football having far worse racism than England and also being notorious in football for the horrific racism from Italian fans. On club level, it was already bad from football fans, but what happened after the Euros final was something else.

The final went to penalties and Rashford, along with other black players who took the penalties missed them. Almost any of us who are people of colour knew what was gonna happen - which was the horrific racism they all endured not just England, but internationally. Remember the line from Sam about how he is supported till he misses a penalty kick? That was based on this and also Rashford and other black players experiences of racism when missing penalties. I remember as well tumblr and especially Italian fans here and on other social media doing their fake wokery and laughing at these players, all whilst we were trying to ask them not to, when they were getting a lot of racism. But this was probably because Italians subjected Mario Balotelli to the same racism when they lost a final years ago and have been subjecting him to many years, to the point he's been reduced to tears and severely affected his mental health. The next day, it was discovered that the murial painted for Rashford was graffitied with racism. Remember how Sam's restaurant was also graffitied? A lot of people covered them up with messages of support for Rashford, but the man who painted it went back to get it back to normal - what made this more heartbreaking is that he was also black and saw the racism on it which he said made it very hard for him to do. Remember how the players helped fix Sam's restaurant?

As this happened, a right wing politician tweeted that if Rashford 'sticked to football' this wouldn't have happened - she received a barrage of criticism so had to delete the tweet. Also remember how Sam's exchange was with the home secretary of Britain? Well the then home secretary, priti Patel - who is a brown British Indian woman of immigrant background - was criticising the players taking the knee. When the racism happened, she decided to tweet in support which led to a black English player Tyrone Mings furiously (and correctly) responding that her words like her right wing peers has enabled this to happen and that she doesn't get to be a hypocrite and now decide to support them. Because not only did she criticise them, she was also using dangerous rhetoric against refugees - much like the home secretary in Ted lasso.

But just when we thought the worst had happened... Along came suella braverman, another racist brown woman with an immigrant background. She is actually way worse than priti Patel which we never would have imagined and is trying to pass laws that go against international law along with the current right wing government of jailing or deporting people seeking asylum who didn't come from 'legal routes.' Even though they've made it so difficult for them to gain asylum. A Jewish woman actually asked her to stop using the language she has because it reminds her of how Jewish refugees were treated during the holocaust, but she refused to listen and was very offensive. So very similar to the home secretary on Ted lasso talking about sending boats back. Just recently this year Gary Lineker, who himself has housed an immigrant, asked right wing government officials like her to stop using such dangerous language and have empathy which led to him being suspended by the BBC who he does football punditry for, to keep politics out. All of his colleagues then walked out on strike in support of him, along with other people in the country supporting him, which thankfully led to him being reinstated. However sadly, the current right wing government are still using dangerous language against immigrants and refugees and trying to push legislation against them which breaches human rights and international law. Just today, the current prime minister rush sunak - who is also a brown Indian person of immigrant background that has used his immigrant story to help him reach where he is - said legal migration is TOO HIGH - the same things which let him become the British prime minister.

An episode after this one, Ted was reading a story to his son Henry about a character called Marcus - that was a book from Marcus Rashford as he is trying to help improve reading literacy amongst children. Whilst these books were being released he was doing poorly but this season he has been doing AMAZING whilst seemingly taking a step back from the activism he's done. A lot of people, many of whom supported him have said he did badly because he was doing 'too much' off the field when they are ignoring the very obvious psychological effects of continuously being racially abused just before that season, had on him. There have been some changes such as football fans in England since the Euros being overwhelmingly supportive of the taking of the knee and being more supportive of anti racism messages. But support doesn't mean the problems have gone away.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Lula government ends daily COVID-19 tracking in Brazil

Facing the clear threat of a worsening pandemic in Brazil, driven by the Omicron XBB.1.5 subvariant, the Workers Party (PT) government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has signaled its intention to declare the pandemic over and get the Brazilian population used to “living” with the coronavirus.

On February 16, the Health Ministry announced that it will start releasing COVID-19 data of cases, deaths and vaccination rates weekly and no longer daily, starting March 3. Trying to justify what in practice means a further departure from monitoring the pandemic in the country, the Health Ministry’s director of immunization, Eder Gatti, stated that only nine of the 27 Brazilian states update the data daily, which supposedly does not “allow an epidemiological analysis.” Still, he claimed,“We are not restricting data. ... What we want here is to facilitate the work with the data and send weekly data that is more accurate.”

This claim is patently false. If the Lula government had a genuine concern about the pandemic, the least it could do is coordinate a national effort and assist the states in implementing a system to monitor the pandemic on a daily basis, with a mass testing program, genetic sequencing of the variants in circulation, among other measures completely ignored by the “herd immunity” policy of the former fascistic President Jair Bolsonaro.

However, almost two months after taking office, the Lula government has not reversed the Bolsonaro government’s measures to prioritize corporate interests over human lives, including its ending of the National Public Health Emergency due to COVID-19 as early as April 2022. The Lula government has also failed to implement awareness campaigns about the airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the importance of wearing quality masks and distributing them for free, as well as other basic public health measures that would have an almost immediate impact and could prevent cases and deaths.

Continue reading.

[beardedmrbean]

It has been reported that a Defence Cooperation Agreement (DCA) between Finland and the United States could be ready for signing at the civil servant level as early as this week. Under its terms, it would, for example, allow for the construction of US military infrastructure in Finland, advance storage of materials, and for US soldiers to arrive at shorter notice for training and exercises in Finland.

Helsingin Sanomat reported that Jussi Saramo, the chair of the parliamentary group of the Left Alliance, and a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, says his party is not yet ready to support the agreement on the basis of the information it currently has.

"We don't know anything about it, as far as what is being concretely agreed upon," Saramo said, referring, for example, to the areas that will be made available for use by US troops in Finland.

According to Saramo, the Left Alliance is also interested in information about the weapon systems that could be placed in Finland. He told the paper that weapons of mass destruction and nuclear weapons should be banned in the text, even though Finnish law already prohibits bringing nuclear weapons into the country.

"I am most pessimistic about legal jurisdiction on Finnish soil. In any case, we are going to give up some of our sovereignty regarding US [military] people who are here," Saramo stated.

The Left Alliance was in government when the DCA agreement negotiations began last year.

Saramo added that he does not oppose or support the agreement.

"Of course, since we're in Nato it's good that we created structures with which Nato's undisputed largest military power can more smoothly help us if necessary, and we can train together here," Saramo said.

It has been speculated that many of the US forces that will train in Finland under the terms of the DCA will be stationed in the far north of the country.

Helsingin Sanomat interviewed locals in Rovaniemi to find out how they feel about the prospect of a regular American military presence in the area.

The paper summed up the responses by writing, "US soldiers are welcome in the north just like other foreigners. Local businesses will get more customers at the same time, but they'll have to know how to behave themselves when enjoying the nightlife."

Covid risks

The Finnish Institute of Health and Welfare (THL) has recommended a new coronavirus booster for anyone over the age of 65, people 18 and over who belong to medical risk groups, and anyone over the age of 12 who is severely immunocompromised.

Aamulehti writes that the latest booster became available in the Pirkanmaa region on Monday. Tero Harjuntausta, the assistant chief physician of the Pirkanmaa welfare county, told the paper that hundreds of shots are being given daily, but that there may be a wait of several weeks to get an appointment, and in some locales the next free slots for a booking are not until December.

Harjuntausta, said that everyone in recommended groups should now book an appointment for a booster vaccination. "Now we are at the point where the number of coronavirus infections has started to rise," he pointed out.

On Monday, there were 39 patients with Covid in specialised hospital care in the Pirkanmaa region, with some in intensive care.

Harjuntausta noted that for the average person, a coronavirus infection is much like a regular bout of flu. Vaccinations are primarily intended to protect risk groups.

Migri hiring more staff

The Finnish Immigration Service Migri will be expanding staff by about 150 next year, the Uutissuomalainen news group reported.

According to Migri Director General Ilkka Haahtela, the additional resources will be allocated to speeding up permit processing, primarily for international protection, students and employees.

In addition to that, more resources are to be channelled into supervision and removal from the country.

Haahtela also said that Migri is undertaking an efficiency programme and organizational reform.

"We definitely need to make our own operations more efficient. The permits that are granted should be handled quickly, reliably and securely. If a person receives a negative permit decision or a permit is revoked, then the return from Finland should take place quickly," he said.

Waste and pay

Ilta-Sanomat tells readers that Suan Aahaan, a Thai restaurant in Sipoo, is battling food waste with a nearly 12-euro surcharge levied on customers who throw away food they take from the buffet table.

"I have signs everywhere in the restaurant that I show them before they pay. If they don't like it, they can leave," says restaurant owner and chef Vaw Myllynen.

Regular customers are already familiar with the practice, and Myllynen makes sure the policy is quite clear to first-time diners in the restaurant, as well.

"In addition, I explain the problem very loudly to those who look intent on wasting food. When I talk to them loudly, they start to feel embarrassed when the other customers look at them," Myllynen explained.

Myllynen said that the amount of waste from the buffet has clearly decreased and in practice the extra charge has only been imposed two or three times.

Ilta-Sanomat added that a few other restaurants in Helsinki have started the same practice, as has at least one in Tampere where diners may end up paying as much as 30 euros extra for a meal if they waste food from the buffet.

Myllynen thinks that many buffet restaurants may be afraid of bad reviews or comments online if they start charging customers for wasted food.

"It doesn't worry me. I would say that 95 percent of our customers have been satisfied and understand it."

[quirky-witshere]

Why did I do that?!

Hey!

When I say I do dumb stuff. I MEAN IT.

Well yes... as from the title, it's quite understood that it's again going to be this teenager ramble about how busted her life has been... and stuff.

But yes man! This is basically how our teenage life has been... Even if you are reading this as a person who has crossed this phase, then I feel you can surely relate to this feeling of you know, how stressful this teenage phase is....

So rather than being too philosophical... I would rather jump onto this wild ride of embarrassing incidents and nightmares... That I know for sure that 'THIS' specific incident is surely gonna live rent-free in my mind and life.

So this incident just dates a year back... So we all remember that stupid protein and DNA particle named grandly as the Novel Coronavirus which was causing a lot of havoc (dude that shit mutated faster than a chameleon) made me go and take the vaccine for its prevention. Our country's government had just begun its campaign for teenagers that month, so me being an ideal citizen [🙃] had decided to fix my appointment on the very first day of the campaign.

So when I went there, miraculously I met one of my best friends. So after I had my vaccination done and was waiting in the waiting room just to see if there were any side effects of the dosage.

But my fellow readers might wonder, hey miss what is so embarrassing about this incident... Things are just so normal... But my dear readers when things are normal in a teenager's life, it's just the signal that things are actually gonna get twisted... [😈]

So drifting back to where was I... Oh yes, so to just kill time, I was just scrolling through my Instagram feed, that's When I spotted another friend of mine whom I used to despise a lot let's say for my whole primary year at school but my nostalgic side just made me wonder, "Oh wow, she is also here... and I have not met her for the past 9years so it's time to go and check on her... Maybe a small hi will not hurt...'' 

So like a machine, I stood up and went and sat next to her and that was when I was like, "hey girl! how are you doing? I was that girl from our third grade with whom you made a deal over the tricolor pasta for the answer during the class test because of which you and I had to broom away the class at the end of the day... hey dude, you still can't recognize me....?! " 

So this was me fooling myself in front of someone, who didn't even remember me even a bit even after me narrating out our weird incident for a whole 5 MINUTES. That's when she gave me that annoyed look that clearly stated that she didn't remember me even a bit and I was that bothersome person who was just disturbing her out of blue!

So it ended up with me trying to convince her for the next 5 minutes that she did bring the tricolor pasta and it was HER ingenious offering to me for the answers in the test. This became even more awkward when her friend asked her what was she talking about with me.... the only reply that my so-called acquaintance gave her, (that to mouthing it to her) that she herself couldn't make a head or tail out of the conversation she was having with me. 

So that's how it was me getting embarrassed even at an incident where I could have just avoided being a bummer.

Friend issue, anyways...(ー_ー゛)

Well, see you guys next time...Till then 

Fighting!💜

lots of luv, quirky-witshere🫰🏻

[mariacallous]

BAUTZEN, Germany—Ever since the populist far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party came onto the country’s political scene, there has been an explicit taboo among the other parties against collaborating with it. Leaders of the five main other parties in Germany’s Bundestag—the center-left Social Democratic Party, the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union bloc, the Greens, the pro-business Free Democratic Party, and the Left party—have vowed not to work with the AfD in any form, erecting what they refer to as a Brandmauer (or “firewall”) between them and the far-right party.

But 10 years after the AfD’s founding, that so-called firewall is beginning to show cracks. The AfD has become both more successful and more radicalized in recent years. It has capitalized on a mix of anti-refugee sentiment, coronavirus skepticism, and economic insecurity to become the strongest party in two of five eastern German states and win double-digit support nationally. And it’s in places like Bautzen, this AfD stronghold of around 40,000 people in eastern Saxony, that the national parties’ commitment to isolating the AfD is breaking down.

In December 2022, when the AfD proposed cutting benefits for refugees in the area to Bautzen’s district-level council, 19 members of the CDU voted in favor of the plan. Udo Witschas, one of the CDU representatives who backed the proposal, said he thought it was “completely fine” to vote with the AfD—and in a video published on his Facebook page, he echoed the kind of anti-refugee rhetoric common among the AfD. Speaking about the possibility of housing refugees in a nearby gym, Witschas said, “It is not our intention to let sports, whether school or leisure sports, bleed for this asylum policy.”

The move made headlines and put national-level leaders of the CDU under pressure to condemn Witschas and others who voted with the AfD. But CDU chief Friedrich Merz, who had previously declared that any CDU politician working with the AfD would face expulsion from the party, notably remained silent. Since then, the members of the Bautzen CDU who voted for the proposal have not faced consequences within the party.

The French came up with the idea of a cordon sanitaire in Central and Eastern Europe just after World War I to contain the spread of Bolshevism; in domestic politics, it came into vogue in Belgium in the 1980s to contain the contagion of extremist parties. It’s only gained importance in recent years as populist far-right parties make electoral gains across the continent. Germany, given its history, has stronger built-in protections against extremist political forces; in general, its politicians have taken a stricter approach than some of its neighbors.

But as the vote in Bautzen shows, situations at the local and state level are starting to chip away at this cordon sanitaire. Whether on refugee issues, covered bus stops for school children, gender neutral language, or personnel decisions, members of Germany’s mainstream parties (particularly the CDU) have voted with the AfD on numerous local-level propositions and even a few state-level ones. These votes—while they may not get so much attention at the national level—work to normalize the party at the local level and, the AfD hopes, help lay the groundwork for them to govern.

“It’s easier for the AfD to get normalized on these questions like a swimming pool or a soccer field or traffic jams because local politics is less about ideology and identity than is national politics,” said Johannes Hillje, a political consultant who has tracked extreme-right rhetoric in Germany. “And there, it’s a very good normalizing strategy for the AfD to show that they work on solving normal people’s problems—and it’s more difficult for other parties to argue why they resist the cooperation.”

Discussion about Germany’s firewall comes as similar taboos have been broken across Europe, also largely by conservative parties. Last fall, Sweden’s center-right Moderate Party agreed to work informally with the populist far-right Sweden Democrats after the Sweden Democrats came in second in the country’s September 2022 parliamentary elections. Other countries, like Austria, have been including far-right parties in government for decades: The far-right Freedom Party first entered government with the conservative Austrian People’s Party in 2000—and again from 2017 to 2019. In Spain, the conservative People’s Party has been happy to team up with far-right Vox to secure power in a handful of regions.

In Germany, the cordon sanitaire has held longer and is backed up by constitutional and legal protections against extremist forces put in place because of Germany’s Nazi past. Germany’s domestic intelligence service, for example, has the power to surveil and even ban political parties for extremist or anti-democratic behavior (which it is doing to the AfD), and the country has strict laws prohibiting hate speech. As a result, any party cooperating with the AfD, even informally or unintentionally, can face swift backlash. Three years ago, the CDU’s decision to vote with the AfD to oust the state of Thuringia’s left-wing premier caused a huge national controversy and led to the resignation of then-CDU leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer.

“There are, of course, policy incentives for the Christian Democrats to cooperate with the AfD,” said Marc Debus, a political scientist at the University of Mannheim who focuses on voter demographics. “That then creates some problems for the Christian Democrats in western Germany and on the national level.”

But once a taboo has been broken at a certain level, future breaches of that taboo garner less attention. In Thuringia, the CDU proposed a law to end gender neutral language in November 2022, which the AfD supported. (The state-level CDU leader, Mario Voigt, justified it by saying his party can’t back down from its policy priorities “simply because we’re afraid of applause from the wrong side.”) That, and other instances of voting together in Thuringia’s state parliament, have made headlines but not brought a full-out scandal to the national level.

Part of the calculation for voting with or cooperating with the AfD, local-level politicians say, is a sheer numbers game. By now, the AfD has certainly become an established part of the political landscape in Bautzen: In the 2021 federal election, the AfD won a significant portion of the district that includes Bautzen, ahead of any other party.

In the Bautzen City Council, the AfD holds 7 out of the 30 seats; when you include an AfD-leaning independent member and a local-level party that’s ideologically similar to the AfD, there are an additional eight members who often vote with them—half the council. Shutting the AfD out entirely makes it nearly impossible to get any work done.

Strong support for the AfD in the east “increases the pressure on the CDU because the CDU might end up asking, in Saxony or especially in Thuringia, do we govern with the AfD, do we govern not at all, or do we govern with the Left party. This will create a huge conflict within the CDU,” Hillje said. “The CDU in that sense is sort of the gatekeeper for the whole democratic spectrum. It comes down to that in the end.”

That’s true in Bautzen as well, where local politicians say there is a marked difference between the way the district-level party and the city-level party handle the AfD. At the district level, CDU politicians have no issue voting with the AfD and even sharing their rhetoric on certain issues; at the city level, Katja Gerhardi, leader of the CDU group in the city council, said she and her colleagues try to balance getting work done with not giving the party undue influence.

“For me, the firewall means that I exclude any kind of cooperation with the AfD—I would never discuss joint motions with the AfD or things like that,” Gerhardi said. That said, “if the AfD submits a proposal that’s factual and that makes sense, of course I’ll vote in favor of this motion if it serves the city and serves the people of this city.”

Still, Andrea Kubank, who sits on both the city and district council for the Left party, disagreed, saying on principle, she doesn’t vote for policies proposed by the AfD. “By pretending that they’re equal partners on the city council or the district council, by having that discourse with them, these private conversations—that has all led to this normalization [of the AfD],” Kubank said. “And that, I think, is very dangerous.”

On a recent chilly, sunny afternoon, members of the city council in Bautzen, including Gerhardi and Kubank, gathered for their monthly meeting. When it came time for member inquiries, one AfD council member raised the issue of a local event that had been refused rental space over concerns about the speakers’ reported antisemitic backgrounds. This refusal to rent to the group, the AfD member said, was a violation of those citizens’ Meinungsfreiheit (or “freedom of opinion”), a common refrain among AfD members in the face of criticism from other parties.

Council members from the mainstream parties—including the Left party, the Greens, and the CDU—presented a united front against the AfD, speaking out against the event and saying city hall was right not to give a platform to conspiracy theorists and openly antisemitic speakers.

“We know that Bautzen is often referred to as a ‘brown nest,’” Gerhardi said. (The color brown typically refers to neo-Nazis). “When we allow this, then we confirm this impression, and that’s not something we should do.” Members of the AfD, and some members of the public in the audience, shook their heads or tried to interrupt her.

With regional elections on the horizon in three eastern German states where the AfD is the strongest or second-strongest party in the polls—Saxony, Thuringia, and Brandenburg—these questions about how and whether to work with the AfD are only becoming more urgent. Some people in Saxony’s CDU, for example, have openly mused about forming a state-level government with the AfD.

In his speech commemorating the 10-year anniversary of the party’s founding this month, AfD co-leader Tino Chrupalla nodded to those dynamics, declaring the party would be in government in the near future “first in a state in the east, and then in the west, and then nationally.”

“There are some politicians who want to build firewalls,” he said. “We East Germans have experience with walls, and the last wall that was built in Germany [the Berlin Wall], … we East Germans tore it down.”

[fantasyfactorxx]

How might fake news and propaganda factor into the use of social media for activists and protesters (e.g. 5G technology causing Covid-19, US’s anti-lockdown protests, Trump using the term ‘Chinese virus’)?

Introduction

The arrival of social media in the digital era has completely altered how information is exchanged, consumed, and distributed. These platforms have given activists and protestors unheard-of tools for advocacy and mobilization, but they have also become a breeding ground for false knowledge and misinformation. This contradiction has given birth to nuanced and frequently tense interactions between knowledge sharing and how it is manipulated within the manipulated the context of activism. Social media may be used by activists and protestors to disseminate false information or conspiracy theories in an effort to support their cause. For instance, misleading statements attributing 5G technology to the Covid-19 pandemic’s spread disseminated rapidly on social media, causing confusion and concern.

Impact of fake news on the society

According to (Olan et. al 2022), the core principles in flowing news and private information are deeply rooted in truth notions and communication accuracy theories. As SM platforms, particularly Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, enable the widespread sharing of information and news, the influence of SM, particularly on political issues, has been drawing greater attention (Vosoughi et. al 2018). The main components of those social websites, according to (Hwang, Yuan & Weng 2007), include users creating or contributing material, users annotating content with tags, users evaluating content, and adding friends or contacts who have similar interests.

5G Technology causing Covid-19

When Covid-19 spread to cities in Europe and America, countervailing claims towards the accepted belief about the virus’s origins immediately surfaced (Flaherty, Sturm & Farries 2022). Covid-19 hasn’t led to any fresh conspiracy theories, but rather improvisations on many existing ones, which in this case, researchers relate Covid-19 to mobile electromagnetic frequencies and employ many of the faults in reasoning and methodology to “prove” its validity. Of the numerous Covid-related false information stories, this one has arguably had the biggest, most noticeable effects and as of early April 2020, followers of rumour attacked a number of mobile towers in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and other nations as well as some of the technicians who maintain them (Osborne 2020). The researchers noticed that for six of the nations, searches for the novel coronavirus and 5G surged in the same week of April 5 although beginning at separate times (Moreira 2021). A peak was seen the prior week in South Africa and the United Kingdom, and additionally, 5G searches increased in size more quickly than other search phrases (Moreira 2021). The trend of inquiries for hydroxychloroquine was distinctive and included three separate peaks which was probably a reflection of the months-long talks on the potential advantages of the medicine (Moreira 2021).

US’s anti-lockdown protests

According to (BBC News 2020), although there are indications that infection rates are reducing in some regions, the United States had over 761,000 infections and moreover 40,000 fatalities, and the numbers are gradually growing in April 2020. The stay-at-home restrictions enforced by state governments to stop the spread of Covid-19 are criticized by protesters as being excessive and since gun rights organizations were among the organizers and pointed to violations of civil freedoms, several attendees also arrived (BBC News 2020).  According to cell phone location data, protesters at anti-lockdown demonstrations, some of which have been linked to Covid-19 instances, frequently travel hundreds of kilometres to events, then return to all areas of their states and even pass into neighbouring ones (Wilson 2020).

Trump using the term ‘Chinese virus’

According to (Rogers, Jakes & Swanson 2020), President Trump defended dubbing the coronavirus the “Chinese Virus”, despite mounting accusations that he is doing so in a racist and anti-Chinese manner. The consequences of this made people in America to become Anti-Asian, which led to a series of assaults against Asian populations in the United States, including a serial of shootings in Georgia that claimed the lives of six women of Asian origins (Reja 2021). Trump’s intention in using the term “Chinese virus” is to to deflect wrath towards China and avoid accepting responsibility for the outbreak and politicians have long attempted to disavow responsibility (Moynihan & Porumbescu 2020). When politicians attempt to avoid responsibility, research frequently shows that they point the finger upon other politicians or public or commercial service providers (Moynihan & Porumbescu 2020).

Extra References

Moynihan & Porumbescu 2020, Trump’s ‘Chinese virus’ slur makes some people blame Chinese Americans. But others blame Trump., viewed 11 October 2023, <https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/09/16/trumps-chinese-virus-slur-makes-some-people-blame-chinese-americans-others-blame-trump/>

[covid-safer-hotties]

Utah could see a winter surge of COVID-19, health officials warn - Published Sept 19, 2024

By Shaylee Navarro

After an “active COVID-19 summer,” health officials in Utah are recommending people renew their booster vaccinations — amid concerns of a winter surge of the virus that may affect the state.

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show COVID-19 virus levels reached “very high” in Utah wastewaters since mid-July, with 10 sites reporting viral activity in the last 45 days. This time last year, Utah saw “moderate” levels.

“Many more people are having a milder illness when they get infected, but not everyone,” Dr. Andy Pavia, chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the University of Utah Health and Primary Children’s Hospital, said Wednesday in a remote briefing to media outlets. “We have seen severe disease and even several deaths.”

Upticks in cases across the country and Utah first appeared in the spring from the XP.1, XP.2, KP.3.1.1, KP.1 and KP.2 variants of the coronavirus. But even as Utah sees a “downswing” in cases, health officials anticipate another increase sometime this winter.

A new variant, called XEC, will likely fuel the late-year surge. So far this year, 95 XEC cases have appeared in 12 states, including in New York and California, according to Outbreak.info, a data project managed by Scripps Research.

Across the Salt Lake Valley, Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax boosters are available at most pharmacies and clinics, said Kavish Choudhary, chief of the University of Utah Health Pharmacy, in the briefing.

The Utah Department of Health and Human Services will continue to supply free vaccines for those without insurance, Choudhary added. The U will only carry the Pfizer vaccine.

According to Choudhary, all available coronavirus vaccines are 90% to 95% effective

“If you’re interacting with most folks, people on the outside on a regular basis, … that’s the push for getting a shot,” Choudhary said.

While officials encourage continued coronavirus precautions, they also suggest keeping up with other respiratory illnesses heading into flu season. For the 2022-23 season, the CDC estimates 31 million people experienced flu symptoms, with 21,000 deaths as a result.

“Flu is still out there,” Pavia said. “It’s time to think about not just COVID vaccines, but flu vaccines.”

For those who cannot get vaccinated or who are at high risk of severe disease, Pavia recommends masking as an effective way to prevent infection.

“Wearing a mask indoors and in crowded places is wise,” Pavia said. “It’s not popular. We’ve all worn masks too much, and we’re tired of it, but it still offers very good protection.”

[muttkat]

Critiquing Joe's State of the Union Address Part One

Ukraine Spending: 100 billion? Why? What does it serve to prolong a war on one of the most corrupt nations in the world? The US and NATO blocked peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. Joe says our debt is too high. He's helping with that. Maybe Joe's helping Ukraine for all that crooked money he and Hunter received.

China Threatening our Sovereignty: Joe says " We will protect our nation." Oh yeah, shooting down that balloon after it flew across the whole country over sensitive military installations? You go Joe, China is shaking in their boots. Tiktok should be banned he says...lol Buy manufactured items in USA? From now on all construction materials in govt infrastructure jobs need to be manufactured in the USA. In order to do that we would have to open 400 new copper and iron ore mines. A 100 new steel mills and aluminum refineries. Make America great again, Joe. Since 1995, our carbon emissions are down. Of course, all those manufacturing jobs went adios to other countries. Joe also says we need oil and gas to be around another 10 years. Gas stove guys.... sigh of relief.

Free Healthcare and College Education: Provided by the Soviet Constitution, not the US Constitution.

Taxes: Top taxpayers already pay 40% of the taxes. He wants to tax them more. Joe wants nonprofits to pay 15% of their income, not profit...Violating the 14th amendment.

Joe wants the govt to set prices on mdse. Communist Soviet Union did that too. The Border: Joe made the cartels lots of money. Besides using children for the sex slaves, they do organ harvesting of the children. Nice huh? The cartels say "Thank YOU Joe." In the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic, millions of illegals entered without being tested and let out into the general public. He doesn't mention all the Fentanyl deaths either. That worthless woman who calls herself the VP wouldn't even go to the Texas valley where all the illegals were. Instead she goes to El Paso and Guatemala. Businesses were shut down, people couldn't work, were stressed out, dying of other diseases because they couldn't go to the doctor. Did Joe care? Joe wants the govt to control everything. Joe took an oath to protect the Constitution, our freedom of speech and our liberties. He doesn't. He sucks! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCng7eBvcs4

[tonynl83]

Here is another page, I think this is directed at those of you in the U.S..