Very sad. Her case sounds like an outlier. Normally considered a safe vaccine, although we don’t yet know why it hasn’t been approved for use in the US.

Between Norway and Sweden, two countries proud of their freedom of movement, a closed border separates families

Adrian Øhrn JohansenMay 28 at 6:00 AM County Road 206 in Asnes municipality, Norway, on April 21. (Adrian Øhrn Johansen)

Signs point in the direction of each country. (Adrian Øhrn Johansen)

The road barriers might look almost charmingly simple and provisional, but they have completely changed the daily lives of tens of thousands of Norwegians and Swedes.

The agreement that gives citizens of the Nordic countries the right to move freely within the region is among the oldest of its kind in the world, dating to the 1950s. The border itself has remained unchanged since 1751, and it is the oldest and one of the longest consecutive borders between two countries in Europe. Some crossings, on old and narrow dirt roads, weren’t even marked by proper signs. No signs were needed. Until March of last year, that is.

Until last year, people hardly noticed as they crossed between the two nations. It has often been hard to tell exactly when you were leaving one country for the other. More often than not, a small blue sign reading “Sverige” was the only indication Norwegians had that they were leaving their home country for Sweden.

But with Sweden’s approach to fighting the coronavirus pandemic being significantly more relaxed than Norway’s, the old borderless way of life is just a memory, at least for now.

Today, the few drivers approaching the border between Norway and Sweden are met either by military personnel, police patrols, physical barricades or all of the above. Fourteen months after the pandemic was declared, strict Norwegian travel restrictions are still enforced along the more than 1,000-mile-long border, and only those who are willing to go through a 10-day quarantine may pass, with a few exceptions.

It may ease soon. Sweden plans to reopen border crossings with neighbors, including Norway, beginning Monday.

Over the past few months, driving along the Norwegian side of the border, from the southern town of Halden to the northern one of Narvik, I’ve met people who’ve had their daily lives turned upside down. People are prohibited from having coffee with their next-door neighbors or celebrating birthdays in person. For a while, they were even barred from simply going to work. Close relatives haven’t seen one another in more than a year, married couples cannot meet and people are prevented from attending weddings and funerals — all because of these seemingly harmless barricades.

Washington Post, 28 May, 2021

“Peru this week adjusted its official pandemic death toll to include more than 100,000 additional fatalities it says can now be attributed directly to covid-19. The revision means that the nation of about 33 million people now has the worst coronavirus mortality rate per capita in the world.

Peru’s government broadened the criteria for classifying virus-related deaths at the recommendation of an expert panel, which found that the official toll, based solely on positive test results, probably was a vast undercount.”

Read the entire article, which is not paywalled, in today’s Washington Post.

https://www.washingtonpost.com…F60b605279d2fdae302699f28

This article has shown the effects of what lockdown, in particularly in India, has done to pollution levels

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-57149747

I was happy when the first lockdown came around when pollution levels drastically dropped with the lack of vehicles

I’m all for cleaner air, so hurrah for a silver lining. While we’re at it, could people dispose of disposable masks somewhere besides city streets and local waterways?

Quote from Rice

I’m all for cleaner air, so hurrah for a silver lining. While we’re at it, could people dispose of disposable masks somewhere besides city streets and local waterways?

Couldn't agree with you more on that statement

Quote from Rice

I’m all for cleaner air, so hurrah for a silver lining. While we’re at it, could people dispose of disposable masks somewhere besides city streets and local waterways?

Not seen many here...too ruddy expensive pobably.

New variants coming from Portugal? This appeared in The Telegraph today:

Portugal is set to be axed from the UK’s green list, forcing thousands of British holidaymakers to cancel their trips or cut short their breaks to avoid quarantine. Ministers are understood to have decided on Thursday morning to add Portugal to the amber list from next Tuesday at 4am after tests revealed what are believed to be previously-unknown variants of Covid.

Quote from Rice

New variants coming from Portugal? This appeared in The Telegraph today:

Portugal is set to be axed from the UK’s green list, forcing thousands of British holidaymakers to cancel their trips or cut short their breaks to avoid quarantine. Ministers are understood to have decided on Thursday morning to add Portugal to the amber list from next Tuesday at 4am after tests revealed what are believed to be previously-unknown variants of Covid.

No surprise...according to the experts this virus is here to stay in some shape or form for years to come. I suspect the countries who rely a lot on tourism have been telling porkies.

https://www.nytimes.com/video/world/europe/100000007800976/britain-portugal-travelers-quarantine.html?campaign_id=2&emc=edit_th_20210607&instance_id=32417&nl=todaysheadlines&regi_id=35167394&segment_id=60059&user_id=a2fb33817777ac551a264ffa642c8bd4

British Tourists Rush Home From Portugal Ahead of New Quarantine

By The Associated Press •June 6, 2021

Thousands of Britons scrambled to leave over the weekend, even paying extra to rebook flights, in an effort to beat the Tuesday deadline for a new quarantine order Britain imposed on those returning from Portugal.

Here are a couple of photos from Sint Maarten airport in the Caribbean

Social distancing?

A tadge difficult as part of the building hasn't been repaired since the 2017 Hurricane.

Boris Johnson will appeal to the nation to be patient today as he announces that the June 21easing of lockdown restrictions will be delayed by up to four weeks.

The Times, 14 June, 2021.

Germany will attempt today to ban British travellers from the EU regardless of whether or not they have had a vaccine.

Officials in Mallorca are investigating how 850 Spanish students on holiday to celebrate the end of exams caught Covid-19 at beach parties and a concert.

The Times, 28 June 2021

It now seems that children are getting the virus in greater numbers than before.

the Telegraph, 29 June, 2021:

Covid-related pupil absence soars

Bursting point: bubble measures to limit the spread of Covid have forced hundreds of thousands of children out of classrooms CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES

More than 375,000 pupils are off school as a result of Covid, up from 239,000 the previous week. This includes 275,000 children who have been forced to self-isolate because of a case at school, a 60 per cent increase in the space of a week, according to the latest official data.

The Times, 30 June, 2021:

“Overweight men do not face a higher risk of dying from Covid-19, research has indicated, contradicting other studies. Analysis of 44,305 intensive care unit patients found that smoking, diabetes, high blood pressure and respiratory disease raised the risk by 40, 41, 54, and 75 per cent, respectively.”

And these interesting approaches to encouraging vaccinations in India and Pakistan:

“Pakistan is threatening to stop the pay of civil servants and suspend the driving licences of people who are not vaccinated as it tries to boost its immunisation programme, which is facing accusations of elitism over the distribution of American versus Chinese jabs. In Punjab province, home to more than 100 million people, there was a surge in jabs after officials threatened to block mobile phone signals.“

Australia's coronavirus strategy is in growing disarray with almost half the population locked down and a vaccination programme beset by severe shortages and conflicting advice. The remote city of Alice Springs has been ordered to join Sydney, Perth, Darwin and much of populous southern Queensland in lockdown, totalling about 12 million people, as cases of the highly infectious Delta variant continue to spread.

The Times, 1 July, 2021

Just shows this virus was going to spread everywhere save for shutting down all international travel for the last year. Every country has its day it seems. But hey, no reported cases in North Korea.

North Korea hasn’t reported any cases yet, but Kim last week excoriated his minister of health for “causing a crisis….”