Pen's News at Eleven

Out of memory

Some public local (mostly Germany) news items as remembered when entering the same day or later.

• If done regularily it might be fun to browse through this list like at the end of the year.
• Sorry for bad English in places. Feels quite rusty, so, mh, good way to practice just a bit?

2021-Q1

2021-01-01

• New Year's Eve was mostly quiet, some people had explosives to play with, though. Also my friend's child in town couldn't sleep through due to mid-night parties.

2021-01-02

• Complaints get louder that Germany did not order enough Covid vaccine of BioNTech.
• Viola Priesemann warns of the new B117 mutation (sequenced in UK first) putting the R value up between 0.3 and 0.8.
• Hardly any hope that the German politicions listen now to such warnings.
• Why did UK also end Erasmus with Brexit?

2021-01-03

• Christian Drosten states that enough was ordered at the time of the order, as nobody was sure of its effectiveness.

2021-01-04

• Julian Assange remains in the UK as he might be suicidal in the US. Pray he's still alive and in ok shape regarding the solitary confinement.

2021-01-05

• Germany prolonged its lockdown until end of January, will meet again a week before that, mmh, to prolong again, as no major changes foreseeable.

2021-01-06

• Julian Assange to remain in prison.
• How far is 15km to fight Covid? Why are business only asked not ordered to establish homeoffice where possible.
• Run into the US capitol.

2021-01-07

• Trump banned from social media.
• Whatsapp to share data with Facebook, Elon Musk suggests Signal, Signal has to upgrade servers. (Other suggestions include GetSession, Quicksy, and Threema.)

2021-01-08

• Germany with over 1.100 deaths re. Covid.

2021-01-10

• Endless discussions about not buying/ordering enough vaccines in summer, although a full take would still be much cheaper than current non-pharmaceutical counter-measures.

2021-01-13

• Bavaria to mandate FFP2-masks, but how would low income people get those?
• Trump impeached with like ten Republican votes.

2021-01-14

• Germany again new death toll record re. Covid.
• Bavaria to supply some help for low-income re FFP2.

2021-01-16

• German major political party voting for its leader (usually designated chancelor), Laschet won with elaborated speech, Merz to disappear soon again? Commentators give Söder (CSU) good chances for chancelor in disputes within CDU, though.

2021-01-19

• Long awaited press conference by Merkel (and Müller and Söder) to prolong "lockdown" until mid of February, and some specifications on which masks to use where.

2021-01-20

• Biden inauguration, moving poem The Hill We Climb, see https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hill_We_Climb

2021-01-25

• Germany ordered like 2.000 doses of one expensive medication that is to be applied quite early in the course of an infection to try to thus avoid a probably fatal outcome.
• Numbers of infection in Germany drop slowly, let's hope politicians are more clever this time to keep pressure on maintaining lockdown longer. Still it seems they do not get that also the economy can function better with very low tracable infections …

2021-02-25

• Reading thru my points of January, I kinda dislike I missed to note down anything for February.
• Did not listen/watch/read much to news the last couple of days.
• Overall, it seems we passed the minimum in Covid infection numbers, weather is good, people meet outside in small to too large crowds, mutation B117 seems to be spreading, still slowly but steady.

2021-02-27

• Discussions start about how to react to rising Covid infection numbers when there are already openings planned and published to go live soonish.
• AstraZeneca soon to be also applicaple to 65+, good. Also, Karl Lauterbach again proposes to postpone 2nd shot and give saved doses to next patients.

2021-03-05

Covid infection numbers on the rise in Germany, with B117 making half of infections. Yet, openings supposed to happen after the weekend. Also test kits to be available in supermarkets but waiting for supplies by government to schools etc.

2021-03-14

Germany/EU allows AstraZeneca now for people over the age of 65, Germany to give out appointments for people of the age group 70 plus, which is good.

Numbers on the rise, schools, Kindergartens to open and then close after some days again according to the nifty plan?

Election in two German federal states (BW, RP) turn out with some losses of €DU/€SU as they are often written these days due to "Maskenaffäre" (actually corruption) and "Ehrenerklärung" (formal apology/stating of honesty).

2021-03-15

AstraZeneca just started to be given out this morning for age group 70+, but stopped completely to get more data about possible side effects.

2021-03-18

The B117 variant found to be not only more contagious but also more damaging, deadly. Infection numbers going up, medics demand counter-measures otherwise intensive care units getting over their capacity.

2021-03-19

AstraZeneca back in business. Uni Greifswald even found the reason and a remedy for its issues.

Some more politicians resigning, Bavarian prime minister Söder thus less apt for chancelor, but also Laschet not too popular.

Health minister Spahn in dispute about financing his expensive living?

2021-03-20

Politicians seem to be not couragous enough to establish new restrictions, install a strict lockdown; they seem to wait until it's basically to late, and lockdowns need to be stricter, longer, and more devastating for all, even grand national income. Or do they just not konw? How should they know? They should know. Not just Karl Lauterbach tells them in direct words, well grounded in scientific publications. Do they listen equally to the other crowd of people who are not in this 'know'? »Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.«

2021-03-21

Anti-Corona-demonstrations in Kassel and elsewhere. Some posts on Twitter make the impression that police was unaware of its scale, and forces installed were partly quite pro protestors although hardly any masks were worn. One picture captured a police lady showing heart signs towards the demo crowd, a video shows "left" antiantiprotesters pulled harshly away. A study about last years' protests was mentioned concluding that many new infections and thus deaths arise from such crowded protests that do not adhere to restrictions.

2021-03-23

Weak lockdown prolonged until 18th of April, with last working day before Easter as "quiet day" (what does it mean?) and some other pleas and appeals. Projections of Covid infections in the 500 to 2000 ballpark range.

2021-03-28

• Different approaches to address (or not) rising case numbers across all German states, with Söder of Bavaria pushing for the agreed-upon emergency break, whereas others seem to think that they could establish little secure islands by allowing pre-covid-kind-of contacts for people showing a negative test result of a quick test of the current day. This is critiqued to possibly flourish escape variants.
• Discussions whether the guys shud meet earlier than agreed upon 12th of April

2021-Q2

2021-04-13

So new version of German infection law. Case numbers.

Curfew, in summer!

Scientists stress the aerosol issues indoors vs outdoors.

2021-Q3

2021-07-27

Towards a "Winterwelle". What's the meaning of the numbers with 50% vaccinated? Can we go higher with the same risk – or maybe lower as it is only a part of population that creates the figures that high?

2021-Q4

2021-09-29

Prof. Drosten warns of rising case numbers ("exponential") starting mid of October, especially in the eastern part of Germany where vaccination rate is low.

2021-10-04

Germany allows a "borchester shot".

2021-10-30

Numbers on the rise, déjà-vu of like last fall. Third shot basically allowed for anyone after six months of last shot. I'd wish my parents could get their booster sooner, but well, still just in time for visiting around xmas, I guess.