@ Peter is there something missing in that quote about French ski resorts not needing a health pass for the lifts, it doesn’t quite make sense?
I don’t suppose it makes much difference as anyone coming from the UK would have to prove their Covid status before they got on the plane or train as would anyone coming from France by those modes of transport. Also booking into hotels and restaurants also needs the pass.
The only non vaccinated or non tested people who might “benefit” from this concession would therefore be people from EU member states, driving or using another form
of personal transport to the ski resort and staying in their own accommodation. I’m not sure whether or not you would be required to show a passe sanitaire if you and your family and friends booked a whole.chalet to yourselves.
The only non vaccinated or non tested people who might “benefit” from this concession would therefore be people from EU member states, driving or using another form of personal transport to the ski resort and staying in their own accommodation
That’s what I thought might have been the reasoning behind the very explicit statement that no vacc is needed. Apart from e.g. Russians at Courchevel 
the numbers of people who can actually get there, unvacced, will be relatively small. Especially if you have to rent the whole “house” or own (?) the apartment.
The number of Russians coming to France is well down this year:)
Another person I know well has now got COVID…
So far, out of the people who I know personally who have had symptomatic COVID:
1 died (mid 50s, some health complications, before vaccines were available)
4 are still suffering some kind of symptoms significantly after getting COVID:
– 3 of them in their 20s (2 colleagues at work, 1 of which was very fit, the other slightly overweight but otherwise in fine health, and the 3rd is my step brother who is a semi-professional athlete and extremely fit) caught COVID just after their first vaccination back in July and none of them have fully recovered to back to their pre-COVID state (no severe symptoms, but all 3 of them report getting out of breath much earlier than they did before COVID). They will probably make a complete recovery, I would imagine, but it’s taking a long time and for people who enjoy physical exercise, they are still feeling it.
– 1 of them about 40 years old, didn’t get vaxxed – not an anti-vaxxer, just never got around to getting it done – ended up in hospital and now can only do about 10 minutes physical exercise every 3 hours or so and is exhausted.
1 close friend (late 40s, fit, ideal weight) got symptomatic COVID a few weeks ago but is double vaxxed, described it as a bad head cold that lasted about 3 days, and was back running within 3 days of the symptoms passing and is fully recovered.
A colleague at work now has it (mid-50s), he’s double vaxxed but a type-1 diabetic. He only got it last week so I don’t know how he’s doing.
I’ve lost count really, by far too many. Those who still stick out for me:
- First one was a friend in Florida, was very fit before he got Covid, in his 70ties. Died after a 6 week battle with it. Still missing him, so is his community.
- Lost a friend in Switzerland in early 2020, retired airline captain, still on a class one and very fit. Died within a week of being sympthomatic.
- my kid’s kindergarten teacher got it over Easter 2020, her whole family did, so did the 2nd teacher. Both teachers are young women in their 30ties, fully recovered. One reports her boyfriend (who got it at the same time) still has restrictions to his fitness to this day. One family member got a 2nd bout of Covid in 2021, as recovered they were not egligible for vaccination then.
- A whole family of relatives in BG got it in spring 2020, they did recover fully. Their son died last week of Covid (was not vaxxed as he had a medical condition preventing it) and he caught it of his assympthomatic grand mother (who is in hospital for other reasons now and still does not know her grandkid is dead).
- A close friend’s family got it in summer. My friend was the only one vaccinated (on my insistence in spring) and got away with a head cold. The rest were sick for several weeks but have recovered, waiting for their 6 months to pass so they can get vaccinated.
Currently Bulgaria has a rampant 5 th wave (if my count is correct) which has to do with total distrust by 70% of the population towards their government and anything which comes from them or any other “superior power”. Talking to those guys is totally frustrating. It is not lack of information (some of them could exactly explain the differnece between the vaccines and the technology) but they still won’t take them because they fear the vaccines more than the illness, despite the fact that they end up on funerals several times a week. Calling them “idiots” or “primitive” does not do the situation justice. Those who have taken the vaccine mostly did so on the insistance of relatives living abroad or because they were made by their employers. The majority is convinced of a conspiracy and flatly refuse. Hence we will probably see a catastrohpe there, as well as in Romania and other Balkan states.
I had the same conversation with a guy I used to respect here in Switzerland yesterday. Totally convinced that Covid is a scam by “world government forces” to enslave the population and to force an untested (groan) vaccine onto them, which he believes has hidden properties. About 1/3rd of the population here thinks that way, so not as bad as in the Balkans, but still about half of them. The stronger the measures, the stronger the resistance.
It is totally frustrating and frightening at the same time that these people refuse to get vaccinated DESPITE knowing what kind of illness we are talking about: Severe sympthoms, a feeling of drowning over weeks, possible intubation and death by suffocation, possible long term effects. But thes STILL fear the evil government’s vaccines MORE! This has nothing to do anymore with rational behaviour.
Fact is: The scientific communitiy and governments have lost a significant amount of trust which existed pre-Covid to the point where a concentrated effort against pandemics or epidemics are no longer possible. Personally I find this situaiton extremely dangerous, not only from the pandemic side of things but for society as a whole. We are seeing a very pronounced split and radicalisation within the population of far too many countries based on fake news and conspiracy lies. Maybe it is time to re-think the concept of how information and disinformation is spread these days.
I know somebody who got a bad enough illness despite being vacced. Surprisingly, his wife didn’t catch it, despite the current variant being pretty infectious.
I don’t “mix” with anybody who isn’t vacced but do know some hard core new-age-anti-vaccers who run a cafe (!!).
Ski trips will be interesting. Certainly my plan is to wear an FFP3 mask in any enclosed lifts, and on any airline/bus journey. Italy should be safer than most with only vacced people allowed.
My wife had Covid for a day along with her coworkers (all six recovered 100% within a week or so), a women in our neighborhood had it apparently although she doesn’t seem the worse for wear, and a guy at work (a former boss) got it. He was the only one I know personally who had bad symptoms – his problem is that despite having been vaccinated, now three times, he has no measurable antibodies. After a period of illness he still has some lung capacity issues but is back at work by his own choice. I spent half an hour chatting with him yesterday about that and other things… how do you recover if you have no measurable antibodies? As an MIT graduate scientist he’s as perplexed by that as anybody.
Also now that I think about it the owners of the German hotel where I once stayed regularly (a couple) had it last month but recovered in three days.
There are lots of things to worry about it in life, but Covid is not one that stands up above the others for me. I’ve resigned myself to staying/traveling to areas where the hysteria is largely minimized, happily including my local area, and waiting out the politics elsewhere.
Re skiing, understanding that this is a ‘hot button’ for some in Europe and might affect global marketing in some hard to predict way, it’ll be interesting to see whether ski areas here will choose to make any changes to their rules, or not.
The problem with Covid is that 99% of people have moderate symptoms, and 1% (roughly) have it badly. So, rather like smoking in the old days, the world is full of examples for people who want to be convinced it is no big deal (“My grandma smoked 30 a day and she died at 101 from falling out of bed” – sure, but lots of people died of lung cancer in their 60s).
My own recent anecdotes:
- my grandson (10, hence unvaxxed) got it last week, at a Scout weekend. He has anosmia, which will hopefully pass, but no other symptoms
- my daughter (his mother), 2-vaxxed, did not get it (tested negative)
- a family member of a friend here (59) just died of it, in Brazil
- my brother (60, and obese) had it quite badly a few months back – a few nights in hospital. Fully recovered now.
- my son (36) had it early on. A few rough days but nothing serious
- I’m 99% sure I had it in December 2019, when (despite claims otherwise) it was already rampant in China, not just Wuhan. A week like having a strange form of flu.
- my nephew (~30) had it last summer. A couple of rough days and anosmia for a week or so
- a good friend in the US (Sacramento) came close to death in spring 2020, saved by some good doctoring
Most people die early from smoking, not less than 1%, and most have related health issues before they die (regardless of their cause of death) so I don’t see that analogy.
As the old saying goes: the proof of the pudding is in the eating so how many people here want to do a fly to ski meet-up in the Alps?
I would predict the figure to be close to zero.
