For people interested in what’s going on here with the vaccine I found this article very helpful and succinct.
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From The NY Times:
It is the latest sign of the power of the Covid-19 vaccines: The number of new cases is declining, often sharply, in countries that have vaccinated a large share of residents.

That’s the situation in Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Britain. Cases are also declining in the U.S., which is not as far along as those three countries but is well ahead of most.

And on the other end of the spectrum is the European continent.
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Across most of the European Union, vaccine rollout has been slow, and new cases are surging. Europe — the first place where the coronavirus caused widespread death — is facing the prospect of being one of the last places to emerge from its grip. My colleague Jason Horowitz writes from Rome: “Governments are putting exhausted populations under lockdown. Street protests are turning violent. A year after the virus began spreading in Europe, things feel unnervingly the same.”

Why has Europe done so poorly? There are three main reasons.

1. Too much bureaucracy
While the U.S. and other countries rushed to sign agreements with vaccine makers, the E.U. first tried to make sure all 27 of its member countries agreed on how to approach the negotiations. Europe chose “to prioritize process over speed and to put solidarity between E.U. countries ahead of giving individual governments more room to maneuver,” Jillian Deutsch and Sarah Wheaton write for Politico Europe.

The result was slower regulatory approval of the vaccines and delayed agreements to buy doses, forcing Europe to wait in line behind countries that moved faster.

2. Penny-wise and pound-foolish
Europe put a big emphasis on negotiating a low price for vaccine doses. Israeli officials, by contrast, were willing to pay a premium to receive doses quickly. Israel has paid around $25 per Pfizer dose, and the U.S. pays about $20 per dose. The E.U. pays from $15 to $19.

The discounted price became another reason that Europe had to wait in line behind other countries. Even in purely economic terms, the trade-off will probably be a bad one: Each $1 saved per vaccine dose might ultimately add up to $1 billion — a rounding error in a trading bloc with a nearly $20 trillion annual economic output. A single additional lockdown, like the one Italy announced this week, could wipe out any savings.

“The price difference is macroeconomically irrelevant,” Münchau writes. The E.U. “tried to lock in a perceived short-term price advantage at the expense of everything else.”

3. Vaccine skepticism
“Europe is the world’s epicenter of vaccine skepticism,” Deutsch and Wheaton of Politico Europe write. That skepticism predated Covid, and now its consequences are becoming clear.

In a survey published in the journal Nature Medicine, residents of 19 countries were asked if they would take a Covid vaccine that had been “proven safe and effective.” In China, 89 percent of people said yes. In the U.S., 75 percent did. The shares were lower across most of Europe: 68 percent in Germany, 65 percent in Sweden, 59 percent in France and 56 percent in Poland.

The skepticism helps explain Europe’s latest vaccination problem. About a dozen countries, including France and Germany, have suspended the use of one of the continent’s primary vaccines, from AstraZeneca, citing concerns about blood clots.

But the evidence that the vaccine causes clots is thin. Europe’s main drug regulator still says the benefits outweigh the risks. And Ann Taylor, AstraZeneca’s chief medical officer, has pointed out that the rate of clotting among vaccinated Europeans is lower than “would be expected among the general population.”

Dr. Muge Cevik, a virus expert at the University of St. Andrews, told me yesterday that it was always important to scrutinize vaccines. But, she added, “I would say the benefits of the A.Z. vaccine in preventing Covid, hospitalization and death outweigh the risks of side effects, especially in the middle of the pandemic.”

The bottom line: Over the summer, the U.S. was struggling more than any other country to contain Covid. Today, Europe appears to be in much worse shape.
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So here we sit. It is OK. I will wait. Sooner or later we will get the vaccine. Meanwhile I enjoy the onset of spring. Each day is longer. Each day is greener. Each day has more blooming to see.

Italian for today — “bel tempo oggi” In English, “beautiful weather today” Pronounced — bell tem-po ohg-gee.
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Stay safe everyone! 🌈

Yesterday was the one year anniversary of our total lockdown in Italy. What a year it has been! Some of you may remember I blogged for 83 straight days from just before the lockdown to just after the loosening of it in Italy last year. We went through the lockdown. Then we went through the loosening. Summer and early Fall were a taste of freedom. Thinking of it now, it seems far away and somehow unreal. We did take advantage of that freedom and we went on four trips. All within Italy. We visited each coast, one twice, and we spent a wonderful six days in Positano and Napoli. We also went to wineries, and had lunch outside and just … well…we LIVED! Sigh.

I sometimes can’t help but focus on time ticking forward — and us with it — time which we can never recover. After a year in which that valuable, irreplaceable commodity has slipped away from us before our eyes, I want it to end. It is an enormous loss. I want to enjoy the time I have left. I want to enjoy the world again. It is the details of life that matter, all the little things we’ve lost and wept for.
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[shakes herself off and moves forward] 🙂 OK so now here we are a year later and headed for another near total lockdown. Umbria is for some obscure reason remaining Orange on Monday. Here’s the map.

This map will be in effect until the Saturday before Easter when every region will go Red and everything will close for the holiday weekend, to include Monday which is also a holiday here.

There is no news on the vaccine front. We still don’t have much of it to put in arms. It’s predicted that we won’t get anywhere near herd immunity this year.
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Today, being Saturday, I went out to do errands. I was meeting a friend to buy dog collars and harnesses for the Canile – rescue – that Books for Dogs supports. When people adopt they typically bring a leash but don’t realize none of the dogs have collars. I volunteered to buy a bunch for them to use. Before I met my friend I spent a little time sitting on a park bench. So here are my photos — I call them “musings from a park bench” 😁

Phrases for today. “buona giornata. buona domenica. buona sera.” in English – “have a good day. Have a nice Sunday. Have a nice afternoon/evening”. A little extra info. Buona giornata is similar to buongiorno. But it means more like have a great all day. Whereas buongiorno is more like a greeting, good day. It Italy we don’t have weekends in the sense that we do in the US. Most offices and schools etc. are open on Saturday. So what you wish people, even on a Friday is buona domenica. Which is the one day no one works and most things are closed. Even stores in small towns. Buona sera is said starting around one-ish PM. At least in our area of Italy. I had always thought it was just for the evening but here they start saying it right around lunchtime. Technically you could say buon pommerigio or good afternoon but no one does! Pronunciation… bu-oh-na gee-or-nah-ta. Bu-oh-na doe-men-ick-ah. Bu-oh-na sair-ah. They elide the buo part of buona. But they pronounce both the “u” and the “o” running them together.
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Stay safe all! Andrà tutto bene! 🌈