Here’s how the European situation is developing. There are 2 anomalies: Portugal and Ireland. The 3 hardest hit countries (Spain Belgium and Switzerland) are still in decline. Medium hit countries like Germany Poland France Sweden the Netherlands and southern Italy have plateaued and plateaued at rates higher than summer. Places with not a whole lot of previous cases like Norway Finland Estonia and Hungary are at their highest peak. And then there’s the Czech Republic which despite early praise is in a second meltdown with their hospital system nearing collapse for a second time in a row. Basically all the eu nations with the possible except of portugal and Ireland are going to end up the same. And yeah I know Switzerland and Norway aren’t officially members but they are closely integrated into the travel zone.
here’s the other bad news coming out of Europe. Because the variants are more contagious, even though kids are less likely to get it, it’a nearly as contagious among them as pre variant covid was for adults. So even in areas where the adult population is near herd immunity in northern italy they are still getting outbreaks in the schools and are even considering shuttering them.
a. We really are in a race to vaccinate here in the us before the same thing happens here and
b. Given no under 12 vaccine is likely this year there will be outbreaks in the schools this fall. The question then is if the adults are vaccinated and the ifr is on the floor if we care