-
I could have submitted it today but it won’t be seen until they lift the border closure
First review is in a month by which time the Embassy will be closed for Christmas
First sign of opening the borders is 15 January
If I put my application in today they would have my passport until then
And even on 15th there’s no guarantee it will open
Window was too small from 08 - 29 November to get all the paperwork to me and get it processed before shutdown
Silver lining is none of my customers can get in either
They’re rescheduling their trips to Feb
So if we can all get in at least I’ll have work thenBeacons here I come
-
Unlike.
-
@gt12 said in Coronavirus - Overall:
@mikethesnow said in Coronavirus - Overall:
@gt12 said in Coronavirus - Overall:
@taniwharugby said in Coronavirus - Overall:
@gt12 said in Coronavirus - Overall:
On the streets, life is essentially back to normal
small sacrifices really...?
Sorry, by entry/exit I meant international travel (the '3 day' thing turns out to be a bust, as even business travelers can hardly use it).
Daily stuff is second nature now.
I’m on the 5.30 am bus to the Japanese Embassy in London to put my visa application in
Just heard they might close the borders again
We’ll see
If I can get the visa I’ll be heading over ASAP
If not, it’ll be the deep powder of Wales
Fucking politicians losing their shit
No new entries was the info I heard released today, but I hope you might make it in mate!
If you do, I'll ask the wife if I can go up to Hokkaido for a lesson.
I just got this today for my 3 year old, so he'll be having his first snowboard fun this year.
https://www.burton.com/blogs/the-burton-blog/burton-handlebar/
Do you drive an Audi:
? -
@pakman said in Coronavirus - Overall:
@gt12 said in Coronavirus - Overall:
@mikethesnow said in Coronavirus - Overall:
@gt12 said in Coronavirus - Overall:
@taniwharugby said in Coronavirus - Overall:
@gt12 said in Coronavirus - Overall:
On the streets, life is essentially back to normal
small sacrifices really...?
Sorry, by entry/exit I meant international travel (the '3 day' thing turns out to be a bust, as even business travelers can hardly use it).
Daily stuff is second nature now.
I’m on the 5.30 am bus to the Japanese Embassy in London to put my visa application in
Just heard they might close the borders again
We’ll see
If I can get the visa I’ll be heading over ASAP
If not, it’ll be the deep powder of Wales
Fucking politicians losing their shit
No new entries was the info I heard released today, but I hope you might make it in mate!
If you do, I'll ask the wife if I can go up to Hokkaido for a lesson.
I just got this today for my 3 year old, so he'll be having his first snowboard fun this year.
https://www.burton.com/blogs/the-burton-blog/burton-handlebar/
Do you drive an Audi:
?I wish
Trabant
-
@majorrage said in Coronavirus - Overall:
@machpants said in Coronavirus - Overall:
There's a lot of articles about how rich countries are failing, as not providing vaccines to poorer Nations which allows new variants to appear. I know NZ has given away half a million to various Pacific Islands, even sent the navy in to do the vax in some. But how much of the lack of vaccination in some poorer countries is to do with not been given Vax, versus resistance/apathy about being vaccinated? South Africa, the probable birthplace of
NuXiOmicron:"I do think that the decision that South Africa is going to have to make is probably around mandatory vaccination," said Mosa Moshabela, professor of public health at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban.
Demand for the vaccine has been so sluggish that the government recently requested slower deliveries to allow it time to use up its current stock of 19 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson shots.
Won't apply everywhere, but that's pretty damning
I'm really bored of the rich countries have failed the poor/developing narrative being pedalled out on the back of this variant.
It has nothing to do with wealth and everything to do with vaccine take up. And lumping SA in with this is completely absurd.
You might be right mate.
One consideration though is the liability waivers the pharma companies insist governments provide.
It's believed that part of the vaccine deal is that governments take on the costs and responsibilities for adverse effects.
Pfizer changed tack in South Africa in the article below, and the demands for what you have to put up as insurance to a foreign company are not trivial:
This means that if Pfizer were to be sued by someone who had suffered a rare adverse effect from the vaccine, then the government, not the company, would have to pay for legal costs and compensation. This would apply even if the case were brought due to the company’s own acts of negligence, fraud or malice.
In other negotiations, Pfizer went further. The company required some Latin American governments to put up sovereign assets, including federal bank reserves, embassy buildings or military bases — as a guarantee against indemnifying the cost of future legal cases. This was reported by the Bureau in February and picked up by more than 25 media organisations worldwide.
Pfizer told the Bureau: “Pfizer and BioNTech seek the same kind of indemnity and liability protections they have in the US in all of the countries that have asked to purchase our vaccine, consistent with the applicable local laws.
“In markets that do not have the legal or legislative protections that are available in the US, we work with governments to find mutually agreeable solutions, including contractual indemnity clauses.”
Yousuf Vawda, a professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s law school, said: “While Pfizer appears to have dropped its demand on sovereign assets, it has still insisted on the indemnity and no-fault compensation commitments … Such conduct must be condemned in the strongest terms, as they are holding governments to ransom and delaying the rollout of vaccination.”
https://www.google.com/amp/s/mg.co.za/news/2021-04-19-pfizer-backs-down-over-unreasonable-terms-in-south-africa-vaccine-deal/%3Famp
(Quite an interesting article)As everyone grapples the realities of the vaccine intervention and the world we're about to live in, I've been curious as to what's in the contracts that our governments have so eagerly signed on our behalf to get free vaccination.
The Australian ones are not available to the public or even politicians who request it, is my knowledge.
You're a man familiar with business and contracts, you ever wondered about these pharma/govt contracts? - Just for fun
-
@siam Pharma contracts are certainly not my forte, and I'm even more sure they aren't the forte of left wing journalists! It's easier to promote baseless outrage than it is to research facts in depth.
Reality is that if you give away a billion vaccines, there is no way that you'll also pass on the indemnity rights. I.e if you give to Eritrea, and an Eritrean gets ill/ dies from the vaccine, is any legal proceedings against the donating country? Or Eritrea.
It doesn't how much is given away, it will never be enough. Ever.
-
@siam if I was offering a potentially lifesaving vaccine, damn straight I'd be demanding a liability waiver as part of the deal. If I was negotiating for the government and that was part of the deal, and it was take it or leave it, I'd take it.
Arguably in NZ it's covered by ACC as a treatment injury anyway.
-
I'm normally a bit schadenfreude about anti vaxxers that die of covid, but this really got me for some reason. My question is who starts there lies, and for what reason? I mean people get taken in once the lies and crap is established, which is psychology and predisposition to anti govt/rules etc, but some piston wristed gibbons have to start it. Why would you do that? Trolls that just get picked up and reach critical mass, or are there people that want more to die? That's something I've never read, why people start the bullshit stories, for no benefit to the bullshitter.
-
Interesting about the genetic predisposition.
It doesn't even have to be lies. I have a guy working for me very similar in some ways. He's intelligent and thoughtful. Not anti-vax at all but he read the Pharmac reports on Pfizer and is worried about the myocarditis risk as both his parents developed heart conditions.
I have talked to him about how low the risk is and how yes he is unlikely to be badly affected but to think of his Mum - elderly lives with him lots of medical conditions.
He wants to wait until the end of next year when reports will come out about the longer term risks of the jab. Its quite sad to see. He will wear a mask etc, thinks Covid is real but is getting depressed about living in a mandated world without being vaccinated but sees the risk for him as being too high.
The really sad thing is why he is so fearful. Turns out he was born significantly premature with under-developed organs and spent the first three years of his life in hospital.
He has a fatalistic belief that he should never have been born and the universe will do what it can to right that wrong. He sees getting jabbed as too risky because even though he accepts the risk is incredibly low he sees it as an opportunity for fate to kill him off as he never should have been born.
How the fuck do you argue with that?
-
@dogmeat whoa.
I don't suppose you do argue with it because there's no logic to his argument, so you can't logic him out of it.
I suppose you go deeper and help him feel better about himself. Hell, he's grown to be an adult and The Universe has had plenty of opportunity to remove him prior to now, so perhaps it doesn't really want to do that?
-
Not directly relevant, more about the anti-vax “research “. I was speaking to a doctor a month or so back and he was telling me of an incident. He was giving a child a vaccination, not covid but I can’t remember which one. The kid started fitting and convulsing. The thing is though that this occurred just before the vaccine was administered. If he’d been five minutes quicker, this would have been further “evidence”. Small margins.
-
Been an interesting week with the Omicron thingy casting a shadow over everyone.
It's been interesting seeing Governments falling in to the "just do something" trap despite having any evidence
It's been interesting seeing the media jumping to as many conclusions as possible despite having absolutely no information except a name.
And this morning i read an article that this variant was in Europe well before it was discovered by scientists in SA. So shutting down all those African travellers seems a fucking real smart move now aye? But shit, we had to do something!
No one has learned a goddam thing over the past 2 years.
-
@mariner4life said in Coronavirus - Overall:
Been an interesting week with the Omicron thingy casting a shadow over everyone.
It's been interesting seeing Governments falling in to the "just do something" trap despite having any evidence
It's been interesting seeing the media jumping to as many conclusions as possible despite having absolutely no information except a name.
And this morning i read an article that this variant was in Europe well before it was discovered by scientists in SA. So shutting down all those African travellers seems a fucking real smart move now aye? But shit, we had to do something!
No one has learned a goddam thing over the past 2 years.
It’s a fucking embarrassment
They should all be shitcanned
-
@mariner4life said in Coronavirus - Overall:
Been an interesting week with the Omicron thingy casting a shadow over everyone.
It's been interesting seeing Governments falling in to the "just do something" trap despite having any evidence
It's been interesting seeing the media jumping to as many conclusions as possible despite having absolutely no information except a name.
And this morning i read an article that this variant was in Europe well before it was discovered by scientists in SA. So shutting down all those African travellers seems a fucking real smart move now aye? But shit, we had to do something!
No one has learned a goddam thing over the past 2 years.
And in VIC the government takes the "do something" workstream to a whole new level passing laws that wouldn't be out of place in mainland China - quite extraordinary.
-
@mariner4life im focusing more on all the medias rather than the government when it comes to omicron, they were grilled for not taking the original outbreak seriously enough...then for going too hard for beta...too casual for delta and then too hard...i think there are just too many people that dont even want the government to get it right because when they fuck up they sell more papers/gets clicks/get likes
@dogmeat that actually starts off with some of the more sound reasoning to be concerned, family medical history. Have they sort support from doctors? either re the vaccine or wider potential mental issues, not a doc obvious but having that kind of fear the universe is after you is worrying
-
media wants clicks
Governments want re-election
Covid is a useful tool for both
And i definitely take your point about wanting Governments to fail, depending on what colour tie you/your editor wears.
-
@chimoaus said in Coronavirus - Overall:
Looks like Omni might be a good thing if it is more virulent but less harmful, good way to top up our immune systems and will help the antivaxers get some immunity to more harmful variants.
https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/993/875/084.png
Coronavirus - Overall