Tsunami 46 & 47. Holiday.

The European agency in charge of the vaccines has declared that the AstraZeneca vaccine is safe to use. That means that next week people will continue to be called up to receive it. Yes, the recent cases of thromboses were probably related to the vaccine. But the number that occurred, compared to the number of vaccines administered, is not worrying. Every vaccine, every medication, has some possible side effects, some very serious. It's a question of monitoring oneself, knowing when to go to the doctor, and just living. The probabilities of dying or suffering disabilities are much higher from Covid than from the vaccine. Everything we do in life has risk; the vaccine is less risky than the illness.

This holiday weekend (today is St. Joseph's Day - a holiday and Father's Day), and on Holy Week, we will be able to wander around our own region, but not between regions. So, in Galicia, we can go on holiday to Ourense, but not to Ponferrada, just over the border in Castilla-León. I don't mind. 

Not every regional government likes this regional lockdown. Some would have preferred it tighter, others none at all. Andalucía, for example, prohibits travel between its provinces. But Madrid wanted to open up the entire country, and is against any kind of lockdown. It's one of the regions with the most contagion, and the least restrictions. And that is why it is now receiving tourists from other European countries, especially locked down France, looking for a good time.

Hundreds and hundreds of illegal parties have been busted in the last few weeks by police in Madrid. If Magaluf in Mallorca once complained about the young tourists that frequented it only to get drunk, now it's Madrid's turn. Neighbors are getting sick of seeing young adults carousing in the streets, or watching trickles of people going in and out of supposedly closed discotheques and music bars. Neighbors are calling the police on neighbors giving parties, or parties in tourist flats in their block. Madrid is becoming the laughingstock of Europe in its laxness.

The new restrictions here, in Galicia, are a little bit non-comprehensible. We are not allowed to get together in each other's homes, but we are allowed to congregate six at a time at a café terrace, which will now be at 75% occupancy in most of the region. If we sit inside, we can only be four. Bars and cafés can now also stay open until nine in the evening. So, contagion spreads more easily in private homes, yet not in cafés where no one has their mask on properly? Ay, fourth wave, here we come.

Life continues.