Thoughts from Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain: 11.3.21

Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.  

- Christopher Howse: 'A Pilgrim in Spain'

  

Covid 

Spain: Chafing under the sluggish vaccination rollout, regional health authorities and doctors are urging the central government to widen the categories of people who can receive the AZ coronavirus vaccine. While countries like Germany, France and Italy have expanded the use of vaccine to include more elderly patients, Spain has stuck with administering it to those 55 and under. Critics say Spain’s reluctance to use it  - combined with shipment delays of all 3 vaccines authorized for use in the EU  - is threatening to leave vulnerable people exposed.  Not good news at all.

Cosas de España  

Good to read of the government's insistence it'll be banning the grant of university qualifications in ‘pseudoscience’.

Talking of the government . . . It seems it's finally heeded my regular moans of how I subsidise large families via the high fixed-cost element of my utility bills. A new statute will compel reduction of this from 75% to 60%. Still ridiculously high by Anglo-world standards but a step in the right  direction.

Cousas de Galiza

HT to  Lenox Napier of Business Over Tapas for for this video of Galicia almost 100 years ago.

Germany

The demise of Mrs M's CDU? Click here for analysis of its election prospects, local and national.

The UK and the EU

All very sad . .  . A 3rd wave is sweeping across large areas of Europe and threatens to engulf many countries quicker than they can hope to vaccinate their citizens. In Italy, infections have risen by 50% in a fortnight, and there are now 300 deaths a day. In Hungary, infections have more than doubled in 14 days. In the Czech Republic, they are now so high local immunologists say the country could achieve herd immunity without the help of vaccines. Fear has turned into anger and exhaustion,” Italy's La Repubblica has said: “We’re waiting for the vaccines like pioneers in a Western movie, surrounded by Indians, scanning the horizon and waiting for the 7th Cavalry.” This is the backdrop to the escalating war of words between Britain and the EU over vaccine exports. The UK, until recently one of the worst affected countries in the world, now has little to fear from a 3rd wave because of its successful vaccine roll-out. See the full article below, with better stats for other countries.

The British view of current spats . .  . It’s the EU that’s making trouble, not Britain. Opinions might well differ across the channel.

Finally 

I wrote an article a while ago, comparing the Irish and Spanish processes for gaining (non-British) nationality. Back then, I said the former usually took 6 months, while the latter could take more than 3 years. That was pre-Covid. I've just been told by the Irish  embassy in Madrid that - after 18 months - they've checked my application and sent it to Dublin for processing. I don't know what this will involve but have been warned that nothing will happen until Dublin moves from Level 5 to Level 3. So, a piece of string. It could be another 18 months, at least. But I guess the Spanish process, for the same reason, has also got a lot longer. Ironically, as a Brit resident here before the end of 2020, I don't really  need to change nationality to preserve my rights. But I paid upfront, so I might as well just wait.

THE ARTICLE    

Europe faces third wave as it lags behind with vaccinations: War of words between Brussels and Britain is fuelled by race against the virus: James Badcock. The Telegraph

A 3rd wave of the coronavirus is sweeping across large areas of Europe and threatens to engulf many countries quicker than they can hope to vaccinate their citizens.

In Italy, infections have risen by 50 per cent in a fortnight, and there are now 300 deaths a day. In Hungary, infections have more than doubled in 14 days. In the Czech Republic, they are now so high local immunologists say the country could achieve herd immunity without the help of vaccines. “Fear has turned into anger and exhaustion,” Italy's influential La Repubblica newspaper said on Wednesday. “We’re waiting for the vaccines like pioneers in a Western movie, surrounded by Indians, scanning the horizon and waiting for the Seventh Cavalry.”

This is the backdrop to the escalating war of words between Britain and the European Union over vaccine exports. The UK, until recently one of the worst affected countries in the world, now has little to fear from a third wave because of its successful vaccine roll-out. But in much of the rest of Europe, where vaccination rates lag far behind, governments face a race not with Britain but with the virus itself. Ironically, much of the recent rise in European infections has been fuelled by the new “British variant” of the virus that was first detected in Kent.

“We’ve learnt nothing,” was the weary front-page headline in Italy’s L’Espresso news magazine this week. The first European country to go into lockdown last year, Italy is facing calls for new restrictions after it crossed the grim milestone of 100,000 deaths this week. “It is clear that it is necessary to take exceptional measures,” said Vincenzo De Luca, the governor of the region of Campania. “Just as it is clear that we are in the third wave all over Italy.”

Yet the picture is far from uniform across the continent. While Italy and much of Central Europe have seen a steep rise in infections over the past two weeks, in Germany and France they have largely plateaued. 

Germany, which Angela Merkel declared was in the grip of a third wave  a week ago, has not seen a sharp rise in cases, so far at least. Infections have only risen slightly — and deaths and hospitalisations have fallen, despite the country’s low rate of vaccination.  France has been in a third wave since the start of the year but the infection rate has flattened since late January and remains steady, if high. Spain and Portugal appear to be past the third wave, with infections dropping steeply in both countries. In Spain there are at their lowest level since August last year, and authorities are trying to strike a balance between maintaining social distancing and reopening the vital tourist sector. Even in the Czech Republic, which is arguably in its fourth wave and has seen the most cases in the world per capita, infections have finally started to fall.

But vaccination rates remain poor across much of Europe, leaving the continent at the mercy of fresh waves of the virus. While the UK has already given a first jab to a third of the population, Germany, the world’s fourth biggest economy, has managed less than 7%, and France less than 6%. 

Yet despite the acrimony over vaccine exports, there is little evidence of shortages in most of Europe. On the contrary, many countries are struggling to administer what they have to their citizens. According to the latest EU figures, Germany and France have each used less than three-quarters of their vaccine stocks, while Belgium has used less than a third. That is partly down to public reluctance to take the AstraZeneca jab after European governments cast doubt on its efficacy — a recent poll found nearly a quarter of Italians said they would refuse it and demand one of the rival vaccines. But that is not the whole story. In many European countries, the vaccine roll-out appears to have been hampered as much by bureaucracy and incompetence as any controversy over AstraZeneca.

Germany has used  less than half its stocks of the AstraZeneca vaccine — but only a third of its supply of the more popular Moderna jab.

More than 3m people from the most at-risk group — over-80s and those with serious health conditions — have still not had their first jab and there are reports of people in their 90s unable to get an appointment because of overloaded telephone hotlines.