Coronavirus: Better Call Sol - CORONAMANIA (8 Viewers)

[taubstumm]

that’s mad, I actually happened to be talking to a lithuanian friend about this recently too. she reckons that the country is just too inherently pagan. like they never really became christian back in the ninth century or whatever. so they’re basically a country of forest-worshipping yoga weirdos who think vaccines will do bad things to their precious bodily fluids

 

[Unicron]

I'm out in the Baltics for August. I was in Lithuania last week where life is 'normal'. Few masks to be seen, no restriction on numbers in shops. indoor dining unrestricted, etc. I have no clue how they're doing in terms of numbers, but its as if covid doesn't exist.

This week I'm back in Latvia. The vax hesitancy here is huge. The conspiracy theories have gotten huge traction, and they'll struggle to get past 50% vaccinated. Indoor dining is only allowed for fully-vaxxed people, but nowhere is allowing indoor dining, for fear of upsetting the anti-vaxxers. Outdoor dining is fine. There's lots of space everywhere, and the weather was great all summer. The weather is going tits-up now, so the outdoor dining is on its last legs. What will be interesting to see is if places start to allow indoor dining as per the rules, or if they close again (with no govt supports this time).

They are talking about further lockdowns here in the autumn due to the low vax rate. Again, it will be interesting to see if there is a shift in attitude if the choice is to get vaxxed, or to go back to everything being closed, and weekend curfews again.

Heading to Estonia at the weekend. They tend to be the more educated and cultured of the Baltics. I'll report back after.

What's inter baltic travel like? I have a friend who wants to go to some city in Latvia that isn't Riga and it finding it hard to arrange travel (flights???) to her final destination on the same day that a flight goes into Riga, I wonder if she could fly to Vilnius or Tallinn and hop forward from there.

 

[Cormcolash]

What's inter baltic travel like?

Cold

 

[rettucs]

What's inter baltic travel like? I have a friend who wants to go to some city in Latvia that isn't Riga and it finding it hard to arrange travel (flights???) to her final destination on the same day that a flight goes into Riga, I wonder if she could fly to Vilnius or Tallinn and hop forward from there.

We had to fill out the covid locator form crossing the border into Lithuania, and again coming back into Latvia. There were no checks at the border, but a friend came up from Lithuania the week before and said he was checked. Once you have the locator QR code and the Vax passport travel will be grand.

Where abouts does she want to go? Travel to cities outside of Riga can be a bit hit and miss. The roads in the south of the country are good, not so much the north. But you can get a bus pretty much anywhere from the bus station in Riga. Can grab a bus from the airport to there for 2 euro.

 

[rettucs]

Also, hotels are cheap as chips. The Ryanair flight to Riga arrives in very late so might be a good option to just stay there for the night and travel onwards the next day. The airbaltic flight arrives in early but is generally a lot more expensive.

 

[Unicron]

Also, hotels are cheap as chips. The Ryanair flight to Riga arrives in very late so might be a good option to just stay there for the night and travel onwards the next day. The airbaltic flight arrives in early but is generally a lot more expensive.

I actually got the countries wrong, its Estonia she's flying in to. And needs to get from Tallinn to Tartu.

 

[rettucs]

that’s mad, I actually happened to be talking to a lithuanian friend about this recently too. she reckons that the country is just too inherently pagan. like they never really became christian back in the ninth century or whatever. so they’re basically a country of forest-worshipping yoga weirdos who think vaccines will do bad things to their precious bodily fluids

That wasn't my experience of it. Old town Vilnius is like Lourdes with all the churches. It's very overtly Catholic. Google 'hill of crosses'. Fucking mental place. Maybe it's pagan in other parts of the country, but places I visited were extreme on the old religion.

 

[rettucs]

I actually got the countries wrong, its Estonia she's flying in to. And needs to get from Tallinn to Tartu.

When is she going ? There's a possibility we'll be doing that drive some day next week. Tartu is a big student town afaik, so I'd imagine the bus would be an option.

 

[nuke terrorist]

got a text from a friend in his 20's last night with a video about anti vaccine people being discriminated against.

after a polite exchange of opinions in texts. I accidentally phoned him this morning when picking up my phone.

he's an intelligent guy with a science degree. but he's (a bit like me) he finds it very hard deal with hypocrisy and injustice and has mental health issues.

when mentioned activists he was talking about hard right people who emerged in modern times.

their standing up for the small person angle was really appealing to him.
it was his first interaction with activism.

anti corruption (government, police), housing crisis and protest against: evictions, banks, multinationals not paying tax were important to him but he didn't know about their stances on Irish nationalism, identity, immigration, religion and so on.
we did agree Gemma O'Doherty and Dolores Cahill were unwell people who had lost the plot completely.
but one person he posted me an vaccine video by I quickly found has supported someone for making a racist comment about the origin of the virus in China and pointed that out to him.
I said these people's views on many other issues are probably not in line with his.

he had major reservations about the vaccines being developed and tested so quickly.
I said 'but if they work they work, even if hated big pharma makes them'.

I asked why they people were so concerned about vaccination in the face of climate change, capitalism collapsing and had been absent from getting abortion legalised, indentity issues and or trying to remove religion from schools/hospitals etc
My friend hadn't done enough research into where these folks stand on other issues.

he's very polite and has high standards about how he treats people. so anyone standing up for the small person is likely to impress him.

the phone call ended completely amicably. I know he's a decent guy who if exposed to proper activism would probably find that far more in line with his view on life.

But it was a very interesting insight in how the anti vaccine, conspiracy theory folks are winning people over. they trigger feelings of injustice in people that cover up the dark side of their ideology.

 

[nuke terrorist]

That wasn't my experience of it. Old town Vilnius is like Lourdes with all the churches. It's very overtly Catholic. Google 'hill of crosses'. Fucking mental place. Maybe it's pagan in other parts of the country, but places I visited were extreme on the old religion.

christians and pagans are much of a muchness anti vaccine wise.

 

[pete]

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[Cormcolash]

When is she going ? There's a possibility we'll be doing that drive some day next week.

She probably wants to get there alive

 

[magicbastarder]

*sad trombone*

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[Lili Marlene]

Had a busy social week there this past week, lost of relations and friends around. Everyone has a story of at least one friend/acquaintance who went off the deep end conspiracy wise the past 18 months.

 

[therealjohnny]

My girlfriend's brother's family has all been tested positive, and so have her aunt and cousins. This thing isn't going away.

 

[sleepy]

Had a busy social week there this past week, lost of relations and friends around. Everyone has a story of at least one friend/acquaintance who went off the deep end conspiracy wise the past 18 months.

My Covid conspiracy mate started texting me again last week about how big pharma are suppressing a drug called ivermectin because it was generic medicine and they wouldn’t make enough profits off it.
I asked did it really matter if they were suppressing it seeing as how Covid could be treated with vitamin d (their words).
they texted back to say that vitamin d is only used for prevention.
I asked why figures were so high during the summer.
And also asked would they use ivermectin if big Pharma companies decided to package and sell it as they do with other generic brand medicines.

they stopped replying and I think they’ve blocked me.

 

[Unicron]

My Covid conspiracy mate started texting me again last week about how big pharma are suppressing a drug called ivermectin because it was generic medicine and they wouldn’t make enough profits off it.
I asked did it really matter if they were suppressing it seeing as how Covid could be treated with vitamin d (their words).
they texted back to say that vitamin d is only used for prevention.
I asked why figures were so high during the summer.
And also asked would they use ivermectin if big Pharma companies decided to package and sell it as they do with other generic brand medicines.

they stopped replying and I think they’ve blocked me.

There was a factcheck thing on that drug that the journal did today. They declared the stories to be "unfounded" I think.

 

[sleepy]

There was a factcheck thing on that drug that the journal did today. They declared the stories to be "unfounded" I think.

I think essentially there hasn’t been enough testing performed on it. But it somehow managed to fit into the big Pharma are trying to control you narrative that’s being pedalled. The cognitive dissonance is interesting to note. They don’t want to take vaccines because they think people are being used as guinea pigs by the big companies but they want everyone to trust in this unregulated and untested drug

 

[David Kronenbourg]

is that the horse paste thing?

 

[egg_]

Dunno about horses, but it's certainly used in cows - IIRC it's had a bad effect on insect populations because it makes cowshit toxic to them