In 2021, the International Livelihood Observation was once again disrupted by Omi Keron
On December 25, local time, London, England, on Christmas Day, there were few pedestrians on the streets.Visual ChinaFor picture
As 2021 draws to a close, the Greek letters naming the new crown virus have been placed in the second half of the alphabet. On November 26, the World Health Organization named the 14th of the 24 Greek letters-Omi Keron (Ο) as a mutant strain that “needs attention”. Subsequently, the strain spread rapidly at an alarming rate and became the main strain in many countries in just over a month, casting a shadow over the Christmas season and the upcoming New Year in Western countries.
Omi Kerong came fiercely, and continued to attack the city. In the United States, Omi Keron infected only 1% of the number of new cases in the United States in the first week of December; by December 18, Omi Keron infected more than 73% of the new cases. At this time, only 20 days have passed since the first Omi Keron case was discovered in the United States. In the United Kingdom, only 3 days before Christmas, there were more than 320,000 newly diagnosed cases, and the number of people infected with Ome Keron in London exceeded 90% of the total number of people infected with the new crown. In France, there were more than 100,000 new cases of new crowns on December 25, the highest record since the outbreak; the number of newly diagnosed cases doubled every two days, vaguely showing the harbinger of an “epidemic tsunami”.
According to statistics from Johns Hopkins University in the United States, there are currently about 280 million confirmed cases of new coronary pneumonia worldwide, and about 5.4 million people have died of new coronary pneumonia. As the country most severely affected by the epidemic, the number of deaths in the United States due to the epidemic in 2021 has exceeded the total number of deaths in 2020, and the total number of deaths during the entire epidemic was nearly 800,000. Although current studies believe that Omi Keron has relatively mild toxicity, and that the chance of being admitted to the hospital for infected persons is 30% to 70% lower than that of Delta-infected patients, health experts still warn that Omi Keron is spreading faster and may cause The medical system is overwhelmed and public services are paralyzed.
Another bleak christmas
The 2021 Christmas season in Europe and the United States begins with the cancellation of multiple flights. According to statistics from the FlightAware website, more than 4,000 flights were cancelled on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day alone.
Many airlines, including United Airlines and Delta Airlines, said that the main reason for the large-scale cancellation of the flight was the shortage of manpower caused by the new round of the epidemic. A United Airlines spokesperson revealed that due to the rapid increase in the number of infected people in Omi Keron, it has a direct impact on the crew and operations personnel, and many employees who have been in contact with the infected are self-isolating. Therefore, the airline had to “regrettably cancel some flights.”
Labor shortage has been a common problem faced by European and American countries for some time, and the new round of epidemic has exacerbated the severity of the problem. Apple recently closed a number of physical stores around the world, including the flagship store on Fifth Avenue in New York, which is the company’s “golden brand”. British National Health Service (NHS) officials said that the number of medical staff absent from work due to fear of the epidemic has increased by half from last week. Unable to recruit drivers, London closed a subway line and may not reopen until the end of the year. The Department of Education in the UK urges teachers to return to the classroom, otherwise many students will only be faced with an empty podium after returning to school.
Holidays are supposed to be the golden season for the service industry, but the restrictive measures adopted by some countries and the general fear of the new COVID-19 mutation strains have made long-silent merchants take this opportunity to rejuvenate their desires to vanish. .
Marie Wendro-Depp is the owner of a French travel agency. In the past few days, most of her clients have cancelled their travel plans. It is expected that her business will not return to normal until 2023. She said: “Every three or four months, I will rekindle my confidence (that the epidemic is over), but bad news will always follow.”
Windberg, 79, ordered tickets for the opera “La Traviata” to be played in Amsterdam on Christmas weekend, but suddenly Omi Keron let the plan go to waste. She also plans to go skiing in Austria in January 2022, but the resort there told her that they don’t know what will happen to the situation. “This frustrating Christmas makes me completely unable to make any plans.” She said.
British Chancellor of the Exchequer Sunak announced on December 21 that it will provide 1 billion pounds to enterprises such as the leisure industry and the hotel industry, because these industries are most affected by the epidemic during the Christmas period. But industries that are not covered by government subsidies are also complaining. New West Company CEO Jess Tyrrell said that retailers and entertainment businesses have already invested a lot of costs for the arrival of Christmas. The sudden Ome Keron will cost them heavy losses and they also need financial support.
Responding to Omi Keron, two-pronged management and vaccination
With the spread of Ome Keron in Europe and the surge in new cases, European countries have adopted various levels of epidemic control measures to reduce crowd gathering.
Belgium has closed down the country’s theaters, nightclubs and other leisure and entertainment venues, Brussels has cancelled New Year’s fireworks and other celebrations, and Ireland stipulates that bars and other places must be closed before 8 pm. Austria stipulates that people without a “health pass” can only go out of their homes “when necessary.” From January 3, France will require that “people who are able to work remotely must work remotely”, control the number of people gathered indoors and outdoors, and prohibit eating and drinking on transportation. The French government is also preparing to introduce a bill requiring people to show a vaccination certificate when entering public places, not just a negative nucleic acid test.
Among all European countries, the most stringent control is the Netherlands. Except for “necessary businesses”, all stores are closed and will not be able to reopen until at least January 14. Amsterdam’s Dam Square was bustling in the past, but now it’s empty. The cargo ship was docked at the canal pier, and its light hull shook with the waves. The retailer, who was expecting to make a fortune on Christmas, returned the purchased goods to the wholesaler. Some foreign tourists are trapped here because of “non-refundable tickets”, but they are only facing the outer shell of the city and cannot go to the famous museums, markets and restaurants to check in.
“I can hear that the entire Netherlands is sighing.” Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said when announcing the lockdown. “This is another Christmas that is completely different from our expectations.” But he emphasized that to avoid the appearance of hospitals. The situation is out of control and blockade is necessary.
When the ability of new mutant strains to break through the vaccine barrier becomes stronger and stronger, many countries place their hopes of curbing the spread of the new coronavirus on strengthening needles. Dr. Peter Hotz of Baylor University School of Medicine said that if you plan to travel during the holidays, it is necessary to improve vaccination and increase the dose of vaccination. He said: “If you only get two doses of the vaccine, even if it is officially recognized that you have been fully vaccinated, its (vaccine) impact on the breakthrough strain is almost zero.” British Prime Minister Johnson called on people to use “vaccination” as “Christmas gifts” for visiting relatives and friends during the holidays. France proposes to shorten the interval between booster injections from 5 months to 3 months, in a race against the virus that spreads and mutates faster and faster. Some countries even started trials of the fourth dose of vaccine. On December 27, the Israeli Sheba Medical Center vaccinated 150 hospital personnel with the fourth dose. This trial was supported by Israeli Prime Minister Bennett.
American infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci believes that from Christmas to New Year’s Day, the number of Omi Kejon infected people will continue to increase. He said: “I don’t think the epidemic will get better in a few days or weeks. It may take longer, but this is unpredictable.”
Where will the epidemic go in 2022?
If you type the word “when” in the blank search bar of Google, the first question automatically prompted by the system based on search popularity is: “When will the new crown epidemic end?”
On March 27, 2020, shortly after the start of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the British National Bureau of Statistics conducted the first survey of the people and asked them if they thought “when will their lives return to normal”. The results showed that 15% of people expressed uncertainty, 11% thought it might take more than a year, and the remaining 74% believed that life would return to normal within one year after the outbreak started. At the time, no British believed that life might never return to “normal”.
By the 77th same-question survey on November 14, 2021, the number of people who are not sure when their lives will return to normal has risen from 15% to 31%, and the number of people who think it will take at least one year to return to normal has risen from 11% to 35%. , The number of people who think their lives will return to normal within a year has dropped from 74% to 25%. Another 14% believe that “life will never return to normal”.
A survey conducted by Monmouth University in the United States in December found that the epidemic has exhausted most Americans. Nearly half of them are angry with the status quo. Anxiety and depression have increased compared with last year. “The Americans are fed up.” said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Poll Institute. Stir our nerves at once.”
As 2022 is about to enter, what direction will the epidemic develop? People paint various pictures about the future, some are pessimistic and some are optimistic.
A nightmare scenario is that as the international political situation is turbulent and false information is rampant, people lose their trust in government and science. The mutant strain triggered another “parallel” pandemic, and the epidemic was completely out of control. Michael Ryan, head of the WHO’s health emergency project, said that this is one of several situations that may emerge next year, and that “this kind of’double pandemic’ is particularly worrying.”
Another scenario that is closer to reality is that the overall situation of the epidemic in 2022 will not undergo major changes, but people’s mentality will tend to calm down. The new crown pneumonia epidemic may become a “seasonal” disease like ordinary flu; when you are sick, you will be isolated in accordance with regulations; virus testing may be cheaper and more convenient; more vaccines for children will be developed; once a year Or several strengthening needles may also become a reality.
Others are optimistic that the epidemic may begin to subside from next year. Some experts said that thanks to the increase in global vaccination rates and the development and promotion of antiviral drugs, the new crown pneumonia epidemic may be downgraded from a “global pandemic” to a “endemic epidemic.” From the global pandemic in 1918 to the H1N1 flu in 2009, the development of various influenza viruses has followed a similar pattern for more than a century, and the new coronavirus may be no exception.
“This year, we have another very difficult winter; in 2022, the new crown pandemic must end.” World Health Organization Director-General Tan Desai said at the last briefing this year that he was confident because of The epidemic is about to enter its third year. “We already know this virus very well and have all the means (to fight it).”
At present, about 8.5 billion doses of vaccine have been vaccinated globally. By June 2022, the world will produce approximately 24 billion doses of vaccine, enough to provide vaccinations for everyone on the planet. However, the WHO also emphasized that the top priority for ending the new crown pandemic is still to provide people in developing countries with the first dose of vaccine they urgently need, rather than promoting booster injections in developed countries. If the new coronavirus is allowed to “spread out of control” in certain areas, the chance of more dangerous mutant strains will be greatly increased. Unless everyone has a certain degree of immunity, there will be no peace in the world.
“No country can (alone) get rid of the new crown pandemic.” Tedros said.
Our newspaper, Beijing, December 29th, by wire
China Youth Daily · China Youth Daily reporter Hu Wenli Source: China Youth Daily
Version 09 on December 30, 2021
Massive information, accurate interpretation, all in Sina Finance APP
Editor in charge: Liang Bin SF055
.