Covid capers!

[MR]

Which I think shows what we all know, ie that UK and USA govt's are by far the worst offenders in terms of doing their job, ie looking after the safety of their citizens. Australia is marginally below Vietnam in case numbers per capita, but there are many other factors including, in VN's case, the majority of the population living with several families in the same house (in the highlands it's often in the same room!) so the 'inability to socially isolate' factor is enormous. And VN's economy is a fraction of Australia's so, while Australia's gov't was following the orange retard's lead and decrying the need to safeguard against Covid hence not buying vaccines, Vietnam could only appeal to "friendly" countries to donate the vaccines that VN couldn't afford (Australia could, but didn't think they needed them - duh!). As it turned out, it was the UK, US and Australian chambers of commerce, ie "big business interests", that helped get much needed vaccines into VN by reminding US, UK and Aust gov'ts that their supply of cheap goods from VN was at risk of drying up if all the cheap labour was dead or dying! Even then, despite pledging millions of vaccines and dollars to VN, the Aust gov't wouldn't support its own citizens in VN, saying only that "VN's vaccine rollout program is a matter for the VN gov't". Finally, after hordes of desperate Oz expats (including yours truly) had been hammering away on the Oz embassy facebook page for weeks, it was the Aust Chamber of Commerce president who stepped in and did the govt's job for them by reminding the VN gov't how much Australia was donating - and that the money came from Oz citizens, many of whom are living in VN but still paying taxes in Oz (we'll take a bow for that one, too!).  It was an absolute shambles and I was not a proud citizen while that was all going on in full view of the facebook public!  And have I mentioned VN's almost complete lack of health care facilities compared to any developed country? They've redeployed thousands of soldiers in Saigon alone to cremate the Covid dead and 'dispose' of their remains. And there are many more reasons why self-entitled anti-vax protestors in so-called educated countries should not be given the time of day, to put it mildly, but I'll stop now before the steam peels paint off our ceiling!

[LeeB6430]

Food for thought or silent commentary on 'you can't tell me what to do' economies/cultures -
Source: WHO - worldmeters.info/coronavirus/

USA 51 million cases in a population of 330 million
Japan 1.7 million cases in a population of 125 million
UK 11.5 million cases in a population of 68 million
Australia 250K cases in a population of 26 million
VN 1.5 million cases in a population of 98 million

I don't mean to be depressing, but .......

[MR]

The world's full of nutters! If a deadly virus is being spread via airborne particles and face masks present a barrier to those same particles, surely plain old common sense says you should wear one!
And it doesn't take a genius to work it out - people in Vietnam wear facemasks without a second thought, and a helluva lot of them weren't fortunate enough to go to school but they can still see the sense in it. There's no excuse for so-called educated people not to wear a mask - none whatsoever.............

[PamMcD]

I am sick of these people who march about, mainly in London, protesting that their liberties are being curtailed and that it is like being in a fascist state.   We don't know much about the latest variant, just that it spreads quicker.  According to what I have read the South Africans aren't talking and obsessing over it like we do in UK.  But I suppose the governments want to be sure.  I have also heard that it does not make people extremely ill but it may fill our hospitals - we just don't know.  I am going to be careful anyway, visiting Manchester daughter tomorrow then Tesco supermarket, maybe it is not legal to do so but masks will be worn.

[MR]

I shouldn't make a joke about Covid because it's devastated so many families around the world, but I used "capers" in the heading for this post to try and lighten things up a little so I can tell the story of how they're treating Covid in downtown Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), Vietnam's Covid epicentre.
We live in the coastal resort town of Vung Tau, about 2 hours by road or hydrofoil from Saigon (no longer the city's official name but still widely used by Vietnamese, especially in the south). The highway Vung Tau-Saigon has been closed for the past 6 months to stop people bringing the virus into our town and infecting us all - but it was finally re-opened a couple of days ago, despite infection rates still being much higher than last year (like other places in the world influenced by 'Big Business' - in VN's case that's foreign investors wanting everything done their way "or we'll take our money elsewhere" - we're being told that after locking ourselves away for more than a year (literally - only allowed to open the front door to collect the day's meals that have been left outside!), we're now suddenly having to learn to "live with Covid"! Amazing...
But the best bit is in Saigon. If you leave home, best take plenty of money and spare clothes because you will be rapid antigen tested before entry to any gov't agency, business, shopping centre or other venue where large crowds gather, and anyone who shows positive is immediately carted off by ambulance to one of the "field hospitals" (tent cities) with siren blaring - and never seen again until they test negative (follow-up tests every 7 days!). So you might "pop down to the shops" but not be seen or heard from again for weeks - or ever!
I can't help wondering how such treatment would go down in western countries where the snowflakes complain about 'infringement of civil liberties', 'loss of freedom', etc even when just being told to wear a facemask!!!