online today!zmountainman Blog Comments (7,852)

New Normal...Old Normal.

Red, sorry to hear you've had problems, but glad you actually got see a doctor, I hear that's been hard to do there?
I saw the Loch Ness monster made an appearance recently, you went looking for the wrong monster

New Normal...Old Normal.

Riz, yes the El Pais article does reflect the current situation on numbers, however El Pais is known to look at Spain through rose tinted glasses, and tends to post articles like that on good days and ignore bad days, I've never bothered to look up who controls it as I don't use it as a main source of info, but I have my suspicions

New Normal...Old Normal.

Dan, "As for the 90% vaxxed people you mention - which are not official facts! - (far from it!) - most of the people I meet on casual basis are NOT vaxxed!"

On September 9th you wrote "I know some friends who won't invite a vaxxed person into their home, and I'm doing the same too."
So hardly surprising you findings on the numbers vaccinated disagree with virtually everyone else in Spain, you're by your own admission avoiding vaccinated people, but yet you accuse every health authority in Spain of fiddling the numbers

New Normal...Old Normal.

Merc, as you'll doubtless be asking over the door entry/intercom it shouldn't have that much effect on the moment you might also ask him to shove his SDI free certificate toward the camera

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Merc, go for it

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Merc

As to whether we'll all get it eventually surely that largely depends on whether the vaccine does cut down on the time the infected are infectious and also whether it stops mutations, will be a few months I think before we can say with any certainty

New Normal...Old Normal.

Dan, charisma, is that the right word for someone who can stand there talking for over an hour and say exactly nothing so we agree there.

On your other points, not sure how you can say none of his mob are vaccinated when quite a few (politicians) have been prosecuted for jumping the queue in the early days

The 90% is easy to verify, all you need to do is ask everyone you meet and see if it's 90% plus, at the party I mentioned in the OP far as I know it was 100%, certainly everyone I spoke to was keen to stress they'd been jabbed.

"Wait another couple of months" , what a cheerful soul you've become Ok so nobody knows what the future holds but even having a break due to the vaccine is worthwhile is it not? Or would you sooner we were in lockdown?

RE: Unique Holiday Gifts

New Normal...Old Normal.

cryptorchid, I was pretty careful in the OP, it's not a new "Normal", it's very much the old normal far as I can see, well almost, there are still some here wearing a mask whilst driving their car alone...... you can't please everybody

New Normal...Old Normal.

Jim, well yes, we got Delta quite early, and no doubt why we still have masks in public places, but there hasn't been massive infections in schools so I would think the general feeling is that with most vaccinated and children unlikely to be badly affected we've basically covered all the ground you can with current technology, therefore time to become more relaxed about it.

New Normal...Old Normal.

cryptorchid, well quite which was the reason for this blog, I used my eyes and ears and natural instinct to look at what's happening around me, nobody is dying in the streets, the hospital is operating normally and carrying out routine work, restrictions have been lifted and life is pretty much back to what it was, you're entitled to believe what you like but we here saw how hard this virus can hit, the only plausible explanation of how we came out of it is the vaccine, we don't use horse medicine here. By all means carry on your crusade with your comrades here, it's just that it's starting to look pretty silly from where I sit

New Normal...Old Normal.

Jim, no that's adults, child jabs haven't yet been approved here far as I know, I'll look into that later.

New Normal...Old Normal.

cryptorchid, I thought for a moment there you were going to say you don't read blogs

Imo it isn't only the Russians, most large organisations seem to have teams spreading their message on the net and in media in one shape or form, it has a way of filtering down, one just has to read the blogs to see that.

New Normal...Old Normal.

Jim, yes there was a fair amount of resistance in the end to lockdowns here, especially when it was clear they didn't halt the virus as expected, but in general the population seemed quite happy to have the vaccine and I haven't as yet met any dissenters here.

New Normal...Old Normal.

cryptorchid, I take it that comment was aimed at Jim, but I'll stick in my two pennyworth anyway

Over the years I've been here we've seen increased Russian activity spreading dis-information I think you'd agree? Would be odd if they weren't taking advantage of the current situation don't you think?

New Normal...Old Normal.

Chesney, perhaps you could elaborate on your comments about Pfizer, I'm now aware of any problems with them, indeed many here had their vaccine and consider it the best alternative.

New Normal...Old Normal.

Witchy, not sure who you're referring to I see Ireland has reached over 90% vaccinated, is there some problem?

New Normal...Old Normal.

Viking, well I suppose I don't see it that way, ok yes the virus will be around till they find a total cure maybe, but for me I'm not going to be living with it any more on a daily basis, we can largely go back to the way things were, all be it with a few precautions

New Normal...Old Normal.

Bloody, quite so, if we hadn't all been vaccinated the party wouldn't have happened so I wouldn't have been able to say that

RE: Is it ignorance to say the covid vaccine is not an actual vaccine?

Riz, " Is it ignorance to say the covid vaccine is not an actual vaccine?"

Seems to me the word should be desperate, having no actual facts to back up what they're saying they resort to using either numbers that don't add up, try to cast doubt on authenticity/safety of the vaccine, try to infer countries with the highest vaccine rates are the worst off etc etc, when all that fails they resort to calling anyone who posts reality a smelly rodent, I've been called worse on here in the past

RE: Is it ignorance to say the covid vaccine is not an actual vaccine?

Mic, I can't for the life of me see why people are saying Israel is a new hotspot yesterday they had 15 deaths, times that by 33 (approx) to make it the size of the US comes to 495, the US yesterday had 2,228 deaths, so why is Israel a hotspot?

RE: Mustang MACH-E...

Chat, that opens a whole new argument from what I've read doesn't matter where in the world you look those out of town generators only just about manage with current load requirements, with a date of 2025 muted as the change point from gas to electric cars not quite sure where they plan on getting all this extra electric

RE: Mustang MACH-E...

I see you've moved a step ahead of us here, looking at the link it's advertised as "zero tailpipe emissions", here they're still called zero emissions, which is of course nonsense, European governments seem to think electricity grows on trees

RE: The truth about "The Daily Expose"

Riz, it would be quite funny if it weren't so serious, anyone who can look at the numbers in that article and see anything but a victory for the vaccine needs a trip to Specsavers

RE: New World Chaos and the challenges that face us

Chancer, that number assumes a death rate of 1% with everyone catching it, remember we were talking about decisions at the start of the outbreak, that would be the likely outcome had no action been taken, with the vaccine being between 70 and 90% effective against death that number should never be realised.
I would suggest the reason flu has subsided is more to do with the Covid precautions we've all taken, don't forget masks etc have been used for years in a lot of countries to stop outbreaks, this is first time we in Europe and the States have used them, to me it shows how effective they can be against flu etc.

RE: New World Chaos and the challenges that face us

Chancer, I don't disagree with a lot of what you said, however you didn't really answer the question of what you'd have done differently.
I can only talk with any knowledge about what's happening here, largely it is following what you're suggesting, now over 70% have been vaccinated the vast majority of measures have fallen away, just really masks left now, even though the law allows us to be without whilst outside if distance can be maintained most here are still wearing them out of choice.
I can't really see any comparison with Spanish flu, people's expectations of life these days is greatly different to back then, had Covid been allowed to spread to the entire world population it's true it wouldn't equal the number that died of Spanish flu, but to have 1% die from Covid (estimated 78 million) these days is unacceptable. I'm 69, in all my years I've never know anyone die from flu, yet I know several who've died from Covid in the last year.
Even at over 70% vaccination here in Spain people are still dying in numbers that would make Oz and NZ recoil in horror, however it's a balance between number of deaths verses a normal life, ever country seems to have a different figure they can live with.
It must be stated that in order to have a relatively normal life where you can be treated in a hospital that isn't overrun by Covid victims requires at least 70% of the population to be vaccinated, so whilst I'm quite happy you have a choice whether to have it or not it does mean the rest of the population has to take the risk of being vaccinated so those that choose not to can have that choice.

RE: New World Chaos and the challenges that face us

Chancer, I'm no fan of the way politicians have handled this crisis, some local mayors here installed machines to spray cars as they entered the town, sprayed the streets with something so strong it killed cats and dogs that walked on them afterwards, one even sprayed the beach with bleach and killed the entire eco structure, even though people were banned from going to the beach, however they could play the hand they were dealt.
Imagine if you will you're PM/Pres Chancer in control of a country of say 100 million, it's early 2020 and your medical advisors come to you with a new virus, you're told it will kill between 1 and 3% of the population, and leave many more sick for months/years, then other scientists say we can produce a "vaccine" that will prevent the death of between 50 and 90% of the population but it will take more than a year, what do you do

Nothing, 300k getting sick every day, hospitals overrun, country goes back to dark ages, no workers to run anything, neighbouring countries shut their borders so you run out of food/fuel, 3000 dying a day and the people are calling you Chancer the Terrible.

Take action, introduce lockdowns and try to stop the spread of the virus until "vaccine" is ready, around 50% of the population are calling you Chancer the Terrible. You have to stick with this plan as it needs 70% plus of the population to be "vaccinated" before you return to a more "normal" situation.

Come up with some other plan that stops people dying and enables the country to continue as normal, you'll need to tell us what that plan would have been

RE: Idaho doctor reports a ‘20 times increase’ of cancer in vaccinated patients

Are you serious?

“Since January 1, in the laboratory, I’m seeing a 20 times increase of endometrial cancers over what I see on an annual basis,”

The US started vacinations on 14th December, so you're saying cancer cases due to vaccine increased by 20 times in 17 days, one week of which was Christmas week, seems to me the more likely explanation would be that the cause was Covid, which had been around for a year.

RE: Does Donald Trump exhibit the dark triad of personality disorders?

I can't see why you'd write a blog about the mental health of an American golf course owner, is it that you hate golf or maybe you think Biden is making such a hash of it there'll be an election soon

RE: Best Message

Classic, you couldn't make it up, nobody would believe it