Summer Travel 2021: The Latest?

[+ tassojunior]

I know few are thinking of Iceland right now, but they just started admission with a vaccine BUT they won't accept US CDC cards.

 

https://viewfromthewing.com/iceland-opens-to-vaccinated-americans-tomorrow-but-cdc-vaccine-cards-wont-be-accepted/

[Luv2play]

A bit? Quite an understatement. Any country, including Canada, would be wise to let anyone in with proof of immunization. There have been no reports still of any transmissions from vaccinated people.

[/quote/

 

I fail to see the "wisdom" of such a move. It may happen at some point but it's premature to decide that now.

[+ Reisr30]

I think Philippe is from Montreal and got his start at Le Stock stripper bar.

Pretty sure Philippe is from Spain

[Luv2play]

Pretty sure Philippe is from Spain

Maybe I'm confusing him with someone else. he spells his name in the French way tho, not Spanish.

[+ Reisr30]

Maybe I'm confusing him with someone else. he spells his name in the French way tho, not Spanish.

I think he’s from the region of Spain that borders France. His IG posts are in both French and Spanish

 

[MEDIA=instagram]BvAKBLKneGn[/MEDIA]

[harlow]

I’ve only been traveling when required for work over the past year. Got my second shot today actually but I plan on traveling domestically only for the foreseeable future personally.

[SirBillybob]

A model shoot magazine recently stated Philippe Soulier was Paris-borne, but anything goes regarding this kind of info. It seems that he likely had some connection to Spain as well.

 

Stock Bar Philippe is Québecois. Tall, pretty, blue eyes but not ruddy/blonde. He really did a number on himself. He was back at Stock a bit about 15 months ago but ‘roided out, barely recognizable compared to his earlier perfect (my opinion) self. Lately he hinted on his new sparse social media at being sick (metabolically?). He is advertising commercial sex work on a typical site but looks a mess.

[SirBillybob]

A recent Scottish study of a large cohort of healthcare workers has found that vaccination reduces transmission to household members, but that secondary prevention cannot be considered totalistic. Naturally, household members may be infected elsewhere, but there are data that quantify the relative risk of infection among household members of healthcare workers compared to households without healthcare workers.

 

When adjusting the analysis for this confounder, that is, doubling the hazards ratio reduction by the approximately same magnitude two-fold degree to which household members of health workers exceed the comparator infection rates, the overall rate of infection among household members suggested a residual degree of infection cases that would not easily be exclusively attributable to contracting CoV from somebody other than the co-habiting healthcare worker. Of course another point not lost here is the occurrence of breakthrough infection among fully vaccinated healthcare workers.

 

We need our healthcare workers and cannot quarantine them in bubbles with household members for weeks at a time in large enough numbers for inferential statistics sample power to truly tease out transmission vector directionality and exclusivity. This holds true for all strata. The vaccinated person has to be exposed to infection in order to transmit it, preventing the bubble. While that is happening, their close contacts are similarly exposed to the caprice of other sources of infection unless also solo-quarantined.

 

The authors stressed the optimistic aspects of the results. More research is needed to advance knowledge about transmission potential by the vaccinated. Ironically, with inoculation uptake eventually as complete as possible, the answer becomes progressively more elusive, and that is a good thing.

 

I believe that the erring on side of caution is a driver for investigating complementary mucosal (ie, nasal) vaccines to add to the armamentarium of systemic inoculation.

 

At the very least, I won’t be canoodling without all parties IM-vaccinated, in a context of rolling case incidence that further diminishes exposure probability adjusted for contagion period and ascertainment bias corrected for estimated true prevalence.

Edited March 18, 2021 by SirBIllybob

[+ IronMaus]

I had to cancel my Madrid/Morocco/Lisbon trip in May - same one I cancelled last May

To be safe and see all my loved ones in the US, I'll do a 2 month road trip this summer. If Canada will have me, I might drive to Toronto. If I love the road enough, I'll end up in Mexico ?

My international travel wishes: China, Myanmar, Australia

[Guest]

A recent Scottish study of a large cohort of healthcare workers has found that vaccination reduces transmission to household members, but that secondary prevention cannot be considered totalistic....

Next time, it would be nice if you would provide a link to the study. I did find it, and the study simply compared Covid-19 transmission in households with vaccinated vs unvaccinated healthcare workers. Not surprisingly, family members in households with vaccinated healthcare workers were less likely to get Covid-19. Some family members of vaccinated individuals did, of course, get Covid-19, but there was no indication that the infection was acquired from the vaccinated family member. Obviously one can still get the virus elsewhere. The study was only designed to show that vaccination reduces infection rates in family members, which it did. The fact that some unvaccinated family members still became ill does not in any way imply that any of the ill family members contracted it from the vaccinated individual. There has still not been a documented case of transmission from someone who's received the vaccine.

https://www.gla.ac.uk/news/headline_780689_en.html

"Dr Diane Stockton, PHS Lead for COVID-19 Vaccination Surveillance Programme, said:

"The results from this study as part of our vaccine effectiveness work, are very encouraging because it suggests that the vaccine helps prevent people from passing on the virus to others - something that has been suspected but hasn't previously been shown. "

[+ tassojunior]

Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands have opened to travel: LINK

 

 

We really need to figure out how to "prove vaccination". I'm pretty sure these CDC cards alone aren't enough.

 

 

Countries open now to US tourists (including UK): LINK

Edited March 18, 2021 by tassojunior

[SirBillybob]

It is incontrovertible that vaccination reduces the probability of transmission to another person. That is good news. The study design could not realistically stratify the source of infection. The reduction was about 30% and was theoretically doubled to 60% in favour of the 2:1 ratio of cases pre-vaccination among household members of healthcare workers against households without healthcare workers.

 

The results are encouraging but leave a margin to infer less than 100% secondary protection. Such a supposition is no more a breach of rigour than the study’s extrapolation of breadth of estimated risk reduction adjusted for extant findings not integrated into the methodology. It also coheres with the admonishment to exercise caution regarding a pronunciation of finality in transmission impossibility.

 

Presence of evidence is presence of evidence. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. The important thing is to try to acquire an impression of personal risk and behave accordingly with self-determination ... you know, that important prong of bioethics that values autonomy over ‘me doctor, you lesser life form posturing’?

 

I want nothing more than that those that assert transmission post-vaxx impossibility have an opinion consistent with what unfolds, to the extent we can ever know with certainty. I am open to whatever direction. But no prediction will directly determine the outcome unless your head lives in a magical world. “We just don’t know” is better aligned with the ‘do no harm’ value.

Edited March 18, 2021 by SirBIllybob

[Guest]

It is incontrovertible that vaccination reduces the probability of transmission to another person. That is good news. The study design could not realistically stratify the source of infection.....

The results are encouraging but leave a margin to infer less than 100% secondary protection. ...

Presence of evidence is presence of evidence. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. The important thing is to try to acquire an impression of personal risk and behave accordingly with self-determination ...

Yes, if the researchers doing the Scottish study wanted to find out if the source might have been the vaccinated person, they could have taken the simple step of testing the person vaccinated for Covid-19 at the same time as the infected family member to see if that was even a possibility, then test the genetic variant of the two strains in the event both tested positive around the same time (although that still wouldn't settle who got it first). Science is NEVER about proving something "100%," although it is quite possible to prove something 99.99%. The statement "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" is on the face of it true, but at the same time a rather asinine statement. Just because there is no evidence of absence of a monster in Loch Ness, do you still think there's a reasonable chance of there being a Loch Ness monster (or fairies in the Loch, since there's no "evidence" of absence of them, either)?? Despite there being no such "evidence" of absence, I think most people wouldn't feel too worried about taking a boat on the Loch, worrying about being eaten up by a monster.

Only an abject fool would think he can go through life without taking even the tiniest of risks, secure in the knowledge that he's "100%" safe. Just before getting to work, you could slip in the shower and snap your neck. You could choke to death on breakfast. Or you could die in a horrific car crash on the way to work. Those risks are so small, however, that you don't spend an inordinate amount of emotional energy worrying about them, unless you're either crazy or a complete moron. Does the immunization provide 100% "secondary protection"? Obviously not 100%. However, with tens of millions of people vaccinated, and no reports so far of the vaccinated propagating the virus (though I'm sure it must have happened by now), we do know the risk is small enough to be negligible. And that is what's important.

The flu vaccine is far less effective than the Covid-19 vaccines now available. And Covid-19 is only about 2 to 5 times deadlier than the flu (the huge difference being the easy availability of the flu shot for anyone who wants it). Have you always stayed at home during the entire flu season because you're not 100% sure you couldn't transmit it to grandma, thereby killing her? Can you look me in the eye and honestly tell me you don't do anything unless you have 100% certainty it won't lead to someone being killed or seriously injured?

[Guest]

Pretty sure Philippe is from Spain

[+ Pensant]

Such true words!!! Breathtaking part of our planet! I hope to visit again someday...healthy and preferably without a mask!

 

In the meantime, I am traveling close to home and cherish each opportunity.

In August 2018 I spent a week on the coast of Montenegro and hiked up the mountain above the Bay of Kotor. Truly magnificent, although quite hot and humid. I struck up a relationship with a stunning young server at the resort and we had a great time. He showed me some of the mountain monasteries. We still keep in touch on WhatsApp. He wants me to come back this summer so he can take me to the mountains north of Podgorica.

[+ Pensant]

Just found a great business class fare on Air Canada from SEA to LIS via Toronto in September. Oddly, Portugal is one of the few Europeans countries that I haven’t visited. Thinking of spending a month there. Any suggestions?

[HotWhiteThirties]

In August 2018 I spent a week on the coast of Montenegro and hiked up the mountain above the Bay of Kotor. Truly magnificent, although quite hot and humid. I struck up a relationship with a stunning young server at the resort and we had a great time. He showed me some of the mountain monasteries. We still keep in touch on WhatsApp. He wants me to come back this summer so he can take me to the mountains north of Podgorica.

 

Sounds like a "hot" trip in more ways than one!

 

The Bay of Kotor is breathtaking. Sounds like an awesome trip with interesting and exciting "distractions!" ?

[Guest]

In August 2018 I spent a week on the coast of Montenegro and hiked up the mountain above the Bay of Kotor. Truly magnificent, although quite hot and humid. I struck up a relationship with a stunning young server at the resort and we had a great time. He showed me some of the mountain monasteries. We still keep in touch on WhatsApp. He wants me to come back this summer so he can take me to the mountains north of Podgorica.

Quite a sweaty climb for me even when I did it in early October 2019. I can't imagine doing it in August. Yikes!

http://images.summitmedia-digital.com/sap/resize/images/2019/08/08/blackwater-spin-main-767078800-1565251378.webp

[Guest]

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”

~Mark Twain~

[Guest]

Just found a great business class fare on Air Canada from SEA to LIS via Toronto in September. Oddly, Portugal is one of the few Europeans countries that I haven’t visited. Thinking of spending a month there. Any suggestions?

My biggest advice would be to allow at least one entire day to explore Sintra, and not to try to do it as a day trip from Lisbon unless you're a really early bird. There are two big palaces which need about 2 and 2.5 hours each, plus the park to explore, and the Castelo dos Mouros. In addition, there is the Quinta da Regaleira which needs a few hours as well (probably if you have more than one day), and some smaller museums if you have the time.

Quinta da Regaleira:

 

Palacio Nacional da Pena:

 

Palacio Nacional da Sintra:

 

Castelo dos Mouros:

 

Next page for other sites...

[Guest]

Other sites not to miss include Evora:

 

Porto:

[Guest]

Mateus:

 

Coimbra with it's university library and students:

[Guest]

Monsanto:

http://i1.wp.com/unusualplaces.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Monsanto1.jpg?resize=721%2C541

[Guest]

[+ Pensant]

Deepest thanks for these recommendations!