i had to change my plans from going to Brazil on the 18th of March to the 8th of April due to the tightening restrictions in São Paulo and Porto Alegre which will be from 2 weeks to a month depending on the governor.

I am so sad for Brazil.

On 3/5/2021 at 2:25 PM, Tomcal said:

i had to change my plans from going to Brazil on the 18th of March to the 8th of April due to the tightening restrictions in São Paulo and Porto Alegre which will be from 2 weeks to a month depending on the governor.

Hi Tomcal, 

Big fan, thanks for all the posts. I was thinking about going back to Brazil soon too. Do you have any suggestions for places with the new Covid restrictions? Porto Alegre, Bahia, ect.. Places that still have a "scene" still going on.

This pandemic keeps on messing up life. Unbelievable. Europe (I'm from Holland) still has a world wide negative travel warning till at least mid-april. This means non-essential traveling results in not having a travel/medical insurance. This keeps people at home. 

How are local regulations where you guys are at, outside of Europe? I still read reports of people traveling to the promised lands of Brasil, DR and Colombia. Uffff, I am sooo longing to visit those places again!

 

It’s virtually impossible to travel from Canada to anywhere, too many impediments to list.

I have been in isolation mode in Quebec for exactly one year, including in that full year the few days last March laying low in Brazil, cutting my trip short after a few weeks, ordered to leave by my government, and staying home-bound there while finding a business class seat out of São Paulo. It was so frustrating because I had just found some stride with a few unforgettable gems there. Trading in the budget for 20-30 top- drawer programas for the flight out. 

Spring is showing its face a bit today. I think travel will be possible in a few months, so there seems to be some light in sight.

However, I think almost two years will have elapsed before it is realistic to renew hopping back down to my preferred destination Brazil.

I think that Dominican Republic may emerge from the pandemic existential nadir sooner. [Eat your Wheaties, Manny, Claudio, or whoever.]

———

Oooh, but I see that Holland is in deep ... sorry, for some reason the attached photo not only blew up but it reverted to a pre-edit format on the first attachment try, and I cannot edit it out.

I thought 2021 would be the year I got to go back to Brazil but it seems unlikely for me this year. I do hope to make it next year.

i planned originally for january, like every year. then i postponed to march. it is actually very complicated to fly from europe nowadays to brazil. many countries ban entries from brazil to all, except their own citizents who must quarrantaine. and if you come from a small country who has no direct flights to brazil, it gets unpossible.

so lets dream for next year....

sorry to hear that! I have been vaccinated and am going in April, was last there in December.

The vaccination process is pretty lagging here in Canada. I highly doubt the govt will relax any travel measures in the first half of the year. Fingers crossed that I can go to Brazil in late Oct or early Nov. 

Its pretty slow in the first phase here too. Hopefully itll gain track once more vaccination center open up in the second and third phase. Estimated just over 20% of the population have registered for the vaccine though. Hopefully that does mean those who register early (aka. me) will get our shots early once we are qualified. 

I heard today that, due to the pandemic, Rio has closed its beaches.

23 hours ago, msclelovr said:

I heard today that, due to the pandemic, Rio has closed its beaches.

Yes, but it appears to be just for the weekend,; the state and municipality seem reluctant to close things for more than a few days at a time.

Porto Alegre’s city hall social media reported a week ago police deployed to enforce measures of establishments required to be closed 20:00-05:00; I assume those restrictions remain in place because case incidence is spiking, including the P1 variant migrating from RGdoS and hitting northern Uruguay. 

São Paulo is advancing five 2021/22 bank holidays to add to Easter weekend with the hope that citizens will lay low and relax in social bubbles. 

Vaccination goes terribly slowly in Europe. Well, in the EU that is. Exemptions in Europe are UK (50% got their first jab) and Serbia (wut??) which is using both Western and Eastern (Russia, China) vaccins. Israel is ready to open up again. All in all it is a very good example how the EU does NOT work. They opt for 'working together' en the result is fewer vaccins, slower vaccination rate and a shitload of bureaucracy. The EU sucks big time and if you want something to be fucked up, work ineffective and be unnecessary complicated: give those fuckers in Brussels a call. Damn...

They might open Europe for internal travel in June. We'll see. They probably fuck that up as well. 

Since we are on the topic of vaccinations. If you get one does that make your entry into places easier. If you show the paperwork that shows you got the both shots?

As many pointed out before, getting vaccinated protect you from severe cases, but might not protect you 100% from getting infected, which then also means does not stop you from spreading the virus to unvaccinated population. So, until the place you are visiting achieved herd immunity, safer to assume u can still spread the virus and thus observe the safety SOP. I do hope that one of the vaccines able to proof that they can prevent transmission 100% or close to it soon. Thats the dream.

I think that we will only ever be able to infer, not prove, prevention of secondary transmission of breakthrough infections of a vaccinated individuals. They would have to be isolated with other(s) without immunity, but that isolation itself would eliminate exposure of the vaccinated person(s) acquiring infection breaking through what level of immunity they possess. I don’t imagine we will get to a challenge study with deliberate but contained infection exposure. 

This also explains the opposite near impossibility: attributing the source of secondary infection to a vaccinated individual. The newly infected had usually not lived in a vacuum of any theoretically consecutive block of days in which contagion exists and is often under the radar anyway. And vaccination uptake is relatively recent with so many other variables to attend to; little energy to source all new infections. 

Still, one would think that an elderly CoV-infected person X, vaccinated or not but co-habiting in a ‘bubble’ with someone vaccinated yet broadly environmentally exposed, but the infection case X not having been recently exposed to the as yet unvaccinated, might protest while being hauled off to Emerg, “but dearie, my spouse had the shots”. Or in the medical file, a detail such as: “only human exposure a vaccinated individual”. 

———-
With every two vaccinated people combined a theoretical .1 X .1 = .01 factor applied to baseline infection probability, a one-hundred-fold risk reduction relative to background case prevalence. That will block infection and transmission. Hosting, shedding, and potential of spreading infection by the inoculated may become moot. 

That said, in the meantime, with escape strains naturally emerging in Brazil, given that vaccines only ever mirror the genetic makeup of virus to a point that predates viral mutation, if “CoV-21Variants” by the vaccinated is at all possible even if not measurable Brazil would likely be considered the location for that phenomenon to occur. 

Add to that the reality that many Brasileiros’ personal risk assessment leans on the political dynamics of an insane asylum. 

Any word on @tomcal's trip?