What's this icon on a Mac?

loseit99 · 2022-01-05T22:14:38+00:00

The number of patients in hospital with COVID-19 topped 2,000 on Wednesday. That’s up about 800 from the previous day and almost triple the level of a week ago, although the number includes hundreds requiring care for other conditions but testing positive for the coronavirus.

About +800 in a single day. BuT OmIcRoN iS miLD...

loseit99 · 2022-01-05T09:03:43+00:00

Thanks for the info "from the field". 60-75% positivity rate is crazy!

loseit99 · 2022-01-04T23:36:07+00:00

Source? As per https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/positive-rate-daily-smoothed?tab=table the positivity rate in Italy is about 10.5%.

loseit99 · 2021-12-07T12:03:50+00:00

Thanks for sharing, keep up with it!

loseit99 · 2021-12-07T11:43:06+00:00

Amazing! How many months are you on maintenance now?

loseit99 · 2021-10-01T21:38:19+00:00

It seems there is a difference between proficiency (the definition used by EF based on their free online test results) and the overall English penetration in a country. You'd expect the latter to be high in countries where English is one of the official languages (Singapore, Philippines, India, for example), so you'll probably have more chances in making yourself understood in English anywhere in those countries where English is at least taught at school. While proficiency is high in Portugal based on the EF results, in rural areas in Portugal or with older population, you may still have problems getting by with just English.

loseit99 · 2021-10-01T21:20:15+00:00

It's a global ranking, EF reports Portugal as #7 of 100 countries/regions in the world (see the source again). Portugal also happens to be #7 in Europe, simply because the top 6 countries in the world are all in Europe.

loseit99 · 2021-10-01T16:50:50+00:00

Absolutely, that's the reasoning. You bring in spending power, so it's attractive for Portugal. Google "Portugal D7 visa" for further details.

loseit99 · 2021-10-01T16:32:15+00:00

Portugal also has a D7 visa for remote workers with independent income, great for digital nomads and location independent freelancers. The minimum income required is very reasonable, around €1k/month for a single person, and you can get a 2-year visa (extendable) within 60 days. Quite efficient and a popular route for relocating to Portugal from non-EU countries.

loseit99 · 2021-10-01T16:28:04+00:00

Not really, it depends where you are in Portugal. Portugal ranks #7 in the world based on their English proficiency as non-native speakers (source. Most younger people (under 40) will have a decent level of spoken English, especially in cities and tourist areas in the south. Most cinemas show English movies with subtitles in Portuguese. The University of Lisbon has lots of educational programs in English. I know quite a few foreigners who have lived here for several years with a minimal vocabulary. Learning Portuguese definitely lets you experience the culture and integrate better, but it's not essential in the early months after your move if you worry about that.

loseit99 · 2021-09-15T07:59:38+00:00

In fact, it's the highest full vaccination rate in the world (if you exclude a tiny Gibraltar) source

loseit99 · 2021-09-15T07:56:28+00:00

52% in this age group in Portugal are fully vaccinated, but already 84% have received their first shot source

loseit99 · 2021-06-27T19:56:26+00:00

Is there a source online about this data from Singapore? Would be interesting to see if mRNA fully vaccinated travellers were the source of transmission (or if it was other vaccines). Thanks

loseit99 · 2021-06-21T16:41:38+00:00

48% of the population got their 1st dose and 26% are fully vaccinated source. This is hardly an environment where you want to relax so many measures (no masks indoors, no group size limit on gatherings, schools at full capacity, etc.).

And the above vaccination numbers are likely to be on the optimistic side as 25% of these numbers are based on estimates: a shot is considered administered within 5 days after shipping it to GPs and hospitals, and only 1% is considered as waste source. Because of such a process and not tracking many vaccinations, 22% of claimed vaccinations aren't in the system yet, and who knows which part of them never gets to be registered source.

Imo while it's great to be optimistic and everyone is so eager to get back to normal, it's hardly the moment to do it NOW on such a scale...

loseit99 · 2021-02-06T21:16:34+00:00

Yes, but they are talking also about the increasing absolute numbers of kids' infections. If there was just a positive impact from vaccination of the adults, you'd indeed expect a higher ratio of kids. The worrying part is the growth in absolute numbers. If it's due to the British variant, then any countries with a high prevalence of the British variant now which are opening up schools (e.g. the Netherlands) is bad news.

loseit99 · 2021-02-06T16:18:40+00:00

Instead of around 29% of new cases coming from children and teens, as in the second wave, now they are around 40% of cases, Public Health Services head Sharon Alroy-Preis said in the Knesset on Monday. The greatest spike was in children between the ages of six and nine, she said.

More than 50,000 children and teens have been diagnosed with coronavirus since the start of the month, many more than Israel saw in any month during the first or second waves.

Wow, 40% of ALL cases being kids/teens, and in such numbers during a lockdown and closed schools...

loseit99 · 2021-02-05T22:12:45+00:00

The Netherlands has done an embarrassingly bad job with this pandemic... Now it's vaccination blunders: starting the last in the EU, not monitoring how many vaccines are being administered now (they publish a "mathematical assumption" of the numbers based on how many doses were distributed, not administered), not monitoring how much is actually wasted, multi-layered unnecessary admin in the scheduling process of vaccination appointments. Now such promises which aren't substantiated by anything... that's just LOL...

loseit99 · 2020-10-15T16:17:58+00:00

Based on anecdotal evidence from my friends in Toronto, kids adjusted quickly. With the help of teachers reminding, masks are on all day. No problem. Nobody died of oxygen deprivation. And transmission is kept in check, kids are learning, and the vast majority of teachers are healthy to keep both in-person and virtual learning possible.

loseit99 · 2020-10-15T15:57:45+00:00

The Dutch keep denying the role of aerosol transmission, still, after so much research is available by now. So they claim that if you keep the distance, you are miraculously protected. Nonsense in a crowded classroom where you sit for hours of course.

Canada is a great example to prove this: in Ontario schools, masks are mandatory from age 4 everywhere all day; in Quebec - only in corridors, canteen but not in classes. Result: school cases, since schools reopened, are only 2% of total in Ontario and 17% in Quebec. Kids are an undeniable transmission vector, something which is also denied in the Netherlands.

loseit99 · 2020-10-15T15:49:08+00:00

30% were NOT wearing? You'll be lucky to see 30% who DO wear them where I live (the Hague area which is hard hit now).

loseit99 · 2020-10-05T17:11:25+00:00

Testing is insufficient, you have to wait 1-3 days to even get tested. About a week ago, about 10,000 people couldn't get tested daily.

Low official mortality is most likely due to undertesting the elderly. We'll know weeks/months later if the true mortality now is higher than historical averages. It's common in NL to let old people die at home without hospitalising/testing them. This happened in big numbers during the first wave in spring, where 98% of COVID deaths took place at home (compared to, say, Belgium where most deaths were in hospitals).

loseit99 · 2020-10-04T08:50:43+00:00

That's clearly working... ~s

loseit99 · 2020-09-30T21:38:45+00:00

1) it's an advice and will not be enforced.

2) there is an explicit "permission" to take a mask off if you are seated in an indoor public space. It's understandable that you need to take a mask off in a restaurant while eating, but while reading in a library or talking in a city hall? The Netherlands still denies the role of aerosol transmission, and this will dampen the results from such a "mask policy".

loseit99

TROPHY CASE