Cav's Place

Even if the number of confirmed cases is dropping significantly, there’s still room for grim records over here, the new one for daily deaths being 586 as of this Tuesday, and that for patients in intensive care becoming 1902 two days later, though of course that’s mainly a question of how many beds are available, the patients needing them being far more. In addition, the official total number of deaths exceeded 50000 yesterday. And there’s a crisis with the oxygen supply, of course, and the necessary medicines are also missing in many places, on top of the usual problems of our health system, which are made a whole lot worse by being under such immense strain. At least there was a surge in the number of people getting vaccinated, even if probably grudgingly, more in order to avoid the restrictions, but that’s slowing down significantly as well, though we did hit the milestone of 6.5 million fully vaccinated people today. Many are going for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, however, since it requires a single dose and they get a valid certificate much sooner, and that one is so much less effective than the mRNA ones, so the overall benefits will most likely be lower than the numbers themselves would indicate.
And, of course, there are still so many voices spreading doubt or, directly, fear of the vaccines and even of medical personnel, and plenty who still refuse to believe that the disease even exists, accusing doctors of making up the data, lashing out when told that they or their relatives have it. Among the many who regret not getting vaccinated after they end up in hospital, there are still plenty who refuse to believe they have the disease even as they’re dying from it, insisting that it’s just a cold or flu or even that they’re being experimented on and that’s why they’re getting worse. Now that some other countries are accepting a small number of the patients who would need intensive care but can’t receive it here because of the lack of beds, there have even been situations where the relatives of such patients have refused the transfer, convinced that they will be experimented on and killed if they’ll go. And there are still some who are even afraid of being given oxygen, after falling for some other conspiracy theories that appeared some time ago.
And you also have the “industry” of fake vaccines, the number of people paying around €100, or even €150, according to reports, to get a fake certificate being at least in the thousands, a fair number of them later ending up in hospital and possibly admitting that they’re not really vaccinated when the doctors start to wonder about the severity of their symptoms. Efforts are being made to find those who supply these certificates, usually also throwing away the doses which should have been given to those people, but there are quite clearly more of them than the authorities can track down and, as long as the demand will continue to exist, more will appear. And another problem is that these fake certificates tend to be created by replacing the information of people who actually are vaccinated, and who then end up being unable to obtain or use their certificate.

After failing to catch up on the runs, thought I’d get back earlier and at least manage to write a quick post about something this evening, but it was almost 8:20 PM when I walked in and only had a quince, albeit a large one, to eat since then, and after showering I found that it’s almost midnight, so this pointless post is just here so I’ll keep having two per week… And to get rid of that one saying that I’m likely dead or in hospital, which had in fact showed up an hour earlier because the hour changed last night and I forgot to change it here as well. So, details at some later point, but the time was good, better than the first time, and I’m obviously neither dead nor in hospital.

With Alexandru Rafila now calling for a national lockdown for one month, announced some time in advance, so people and businesses will have time to prepare, I wonder if it can be said that leading politicians are finally echoing the calls which have been coming from the medical field ever since this fourth wave started. He was PSD’s proposal for Prime Minister and may well be again if it’ll come to it, but he is in fact a leading representative of the medical field and was Romania’s representative at the World Health Organization, joining PSD to enter Parliament and have more of a say, though I doubt that worked out as well as he hoped, since they’re in the opposition. Still, they do listen to what he says when it comes to medical matters, so let’s see what PSD’s position will be from now on… One problem being that if they call for something, USR is likely to go against that idea, so the voices from USR that call for more restrictions and may well also call for a lockdown may in fact be silenced by PSD adopting that position. Not that what USR asks for matters too much anymore, with PNL determined to keep them out of a new Government and try to form a minority one, only with UDMR. And, not that PNL wouldn’t be firmly against another lockdown or even some more effective restrictions anyway, but PSD asking for something would quite clearly make them be firmly against that thing. And there’s also the fact that this is the first week since the start of this fourth wave without a new record of cases or deaths, but with records of vaccinations, people finally flooding to the centers again, albeit mainly to avoid the restrictions.
Speaking of those restrictions, those who aren’t vaccinated and also didn’t go through the disease within the past 180 days can’t go outside between 10 PM and 5 AM except for work, medical matters and a few other specific purposes; attend protests or similar events, which are limited to a maximum of 100 participants even if they are immunized; take part in group sports or recreational activities, which are limited to a maximum of ten participants who don’t live together even if they are immunized; take part in any other activities or events, with the exception of religious ones; or enter stores or other businesses, with the exception of stores that sell food or drinks, without serving it, and pharmacies. Also, a certificate of any kind, so including the one obtained after a negative test, is required for visitors to enter public institutions, other public buildings, or private office buildings where more than 50 people work at the same time, again with exceptions for places that only sell food or drinks and religious and some legal activities, and with the institutions and businesses being urged to find ways to allow everyone to take care of some urgent matters, for example on-line or outdoors. However, the part about entering malls or other commercial spaces only with the certificate was somehow “forgotten” and not listed in the original decision, an issue which was corrected on Monday, so it came into effect on Tuesday… And some hypermarkets located inside malls or shopping centers already tried to get around it by creating special corridors for those without a certificate, which would be allowed to enter hypermarkets but not shopping centers. They were fined for it, as it was stated from the beginning that this won’t be allowed, but now they’re putting an increasing amount of pressure to have that decision changed.
Another proposal would extend the certificate requirement to workers as well, in the health field, public and private, also authorities and public and public interest institutions, and also companies where more than 50 people work at the same time, so those who refuse the vaccine and didn’t go through the disease within the past 180 days would have to get an antigen test every 48 hours or a PCR one every 72 hours. After quite a scandal, it fell two votes shy of being passed in the Senate, three USR Senators, USR having announced their support for the measure, being unable to attend, and two PNL Senators, PNL having put the proposal forward, abstaining. But the Chamber of Deputies has the actual decision.
Either way, other restrictions apply to everyone, and include the requirement to wear masks everywhere, with exceptions for sports or other physically demanding activities, those who are alone in the office, TV show hosts and guests who are at least three meters apart, or religious representatives during religious activities as long as, again, they are three meters apart; a school holiday for two weeks, starting with kindergartens, though this was also messed up at first and private educational institutions were not included in the initial form, the matter also being corrected on Monday; businesses and institutions needing to close between 9 PM and 5 AM, with the exception of delivery activities; bars and clubs being closed; private events, like weddings, baptisms, workshops or concerts, being banned; spectators not being allowed at sports events; places that serve food or drinks needing to operate at 50% capacity; cultural institutions, entertainment venues, gyms, gambling places, indoor pools, playgrounds and fairs being limited to 30% capacity; institutions and businesses being urged to have at least 50% of employees work from home or, if not possible, to have their employees work in shifts. Exceptions are for pharmacies, gas stations, delivery businesses and those in the transport sector, which can all continue to operate normally, and for religious activities, the only requirements there being to have two square meters for each participant, whether indoors or outdoors, supposedly because religious activities were also considered “essential”.
I might have missed or mixed up a few things, writing this in a hurry, but the fact remains that these measures are far from enough. They’d have been far from enough even at the start of this fourth wave, and they’re even more insufficient now, if I may use that term, the price for not enacting the necessary ones continuing to be paid in illness and death, plus the collapse of the medical system, the extreme burden placed on health workers, as well as all sorts of financial and economic costs, direct and indirect, for those who are interested in that sort of thing. But when the necessary measures would be highly unpopular and also go against some very short-term, and terribly nearsighted, economic interests, and the politicians continue to be focused on their current battle for power, there isn’t much hope for things to move in that direction even from now on.

Just finished this new series of long walks to “pay” with PET bottles, and I sure am messed up. More mentally than physically though, since the walks themselves were less long than last year. Or at least most of them were. But the details will come whenever, or if I’ll ever, get around to writing about this week, since now it’s close to midnight, I need to post this to have a second post this week, and I’m going to make myself mamaliga again. And next week I’ll need to start with a non-personal post, since I’m out of slots again, and doubt the review for The Purring Quest will be it. And I still have four runs to write about, which should become five in a few days, so if the marathon actually will take place, next week’s personal post will need to be about that, to catch up on the runs before it. And otherwise, I have personal things not included in posts going way back to that first visit to Coltea, on August 9. Had a plan to go through those from August ever since the end of September, and another to have a post taking care of the medical matters with the exception of the hospitalization ever since at least October 5, when I received the MRI result, but that’s obviously not happening either and I wonder if I should just give up on everything, as in even on the idea of this blog being little more than an embarrassingly detailed personal diary, since I long gave up on the original idea of it being much more. But I guess we’ll see what will happen. Right now, I just know I need a fair bit of time to recover and I really need to do so over the following week, in case the marathon really will still take place.

Some measures were finally approved here this afternoon and will come into effect Monday, so I’d have wanted to follow up on the previous post and write at least a few brief comments about them, but this week I’m taking long walks again, albeit not quite as long as last year, and can’t find the time or the mental capacity for anything of the sort… And that mental capacity is in particularly short supply tonight, after getting really messed up when I was at the pharmacy this afternoon. But that’s something I’ll write about when, or if, I’ll get to write about these days. Right now I have to finish dinner and get to bed, so I’ll just say that these measures are nowhere near even what’d be required, not to mention recommended, at the moment and leave it at that. At least it’s a good thing I had two non-personal posts last week, so I can get away with two personal ones this week, the second likely being another similar one written Sunday evening.