Yesterday, I mentioned that some cities here in the US were working to increase tourism by offering gift cards or money that could be spent locally. Extend that idea to countries, and you have what Malta is considering doing for foreign tourists. Those who stay at least three nights in a 5-star hotel would get 200 Euros. Half that amount would come from the Tourism Authority, and the other half, from the hotel. Staying at least three nights in a 4-star hotel would be rewarded with 150 Euros. You probably see where I'm going with this, but at least three nights in a 3-star hotel woould be rewarded with 100 Euros. If you're concerned about safety, Malta has the highest vaccination rate in the EU: At least 42 percent of adults have had at least one vaccine dose.
The European Medicines Agency, having looked into the possibility of a link between the AstraZeneca vaccine and a rare form of blood clotting, is now looking into a possible link between the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and blood clotting. I do not know whether the specifics of the clotting problems are the same for the two vaccines. Reports are that there have been four serious cases in the US, one of which was fatal. Three of the cases occurred during vaccine rollout, and one occurred during the clinical trial. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is not currently in use in Europe, though it has been approved for use there.
Michigan is now home to nine of the 10 metro areas with the country's highest recent case rates. The governor shut things down during previous surges, but has now asked people to take a two-week break from activities such as indoor dining, in-person high school, and youth sports. The change reflects the "shifting politics" of the pandemic. The public grows impatient with any answers that are not vaccines. Cases are rising even with one in three residents having gotten at least one vaccine dose. One in five is fully vaccinated.
Not that it might have any impact on national defense (yeah, right), but nearly 40 percent of Marines have declined to get vaccinated. Whether this is personal preference or a distrust growing out of previous military vaccination campaigns isn't clear. Vaccines cannot be deemed mandatory until they have full authorization from the FDA. Right now, they have only emergency use authorizations.
Possibly due to skies lacking much of the light pollution that is usually out there and more people home during the evenings, UFO reports have surged during the pandemic. Sightings doubled in New York to about 300 in 2020. Sightings rose by about 1,000 nationwide to over 7,200. There is evidently lots of UFO footage on TikTok, a claim I am not going to try to verify. I expect that there is more detail available from NUFORC, the National UFO Reporting Center. The article I read reported that one woman who had been "taken" by aliens says that she was not "abducted" but went willingly. As Dave Barry may still write, I am not making this up.
My trip down Memory Lane continues. Next to be scanned are slides from my summer study in Spain and travel in Europe in 1975. Franco was still in power in Spain then; he did not die until November 1975. I remember sitting in a garden with two other students, one of whom was Cuban-American and postulating what we would do should he die while we were still there. I'll consider it fortunate that we did not have to find out. One of the first nights I was there, I went for an evening stroll, alone, and was not prepared to see someone in uniform patrolling while carrying what appeared to be an uzi.
As I have scanned slides, I have marveled at the different places I had somewhat forgotten I have been. Last evening and this morning, I scanned slides ranging from the Great Smoky Mountains to the Bay of Fundy, from the mountains of Montana to the farmland of Nebraska. Besides Spain and Europe in general, tomorrow, I shall scan slides taken in Hong Kong. I am reminded just how fortunate I have been in terms of the paths on which my parents started me and then prepared me to continue on my own, and in the traveling companions I have met along the way.
2 comments:
Traveling is a wonderful thing that helps lead to a more open mind.
As for aliens, as someone said...bring something back if you're abducted, and people'd be more likely to believe you. :-)
At this stage in the pandemic I'd be off with the aliens just to have somewhere to go. It would be the only way out of the country for months.
I'm going to start with the bits of my island I haven't been to, Wales, Norfolk, the Cotswolds. A ten day quarentine on the way home makes overseas travel unappealing. We've already had cases where people have headed for winter sun and while they were away their safe destination was deemed unsafe and they were faced with unexpected quarentine on return.
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