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Big Al

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Beast

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Big Al
I read in the news about the ‘Kent’ variant. Is it only the U.K. press that are dubbing it that?

Probably yes, because Kent (where it is believed to have originated) means nothing to the rest of the world!

I've also heard the strain referred to by its "official" name, which is B.1.1.7.

Hi, Beast. Yes, that’s absolutely what I thought. I reside in Kent.

I'm originally from Kent, have been checking on family and friends compulsively these past few weeks.

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Aquamarine

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Big Al

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Beast

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Big Al
I read in the news about the ‘Kent’ variant. Is it only the U.K. press that are dubbing it that?

Probably yes, because Kent (where it is believed to have originated) means nothing to the rest of the world!

I've also heard the strain referred to by its "official" name, which is B.1.1.7.

Hi, Beast. Yes, that’s absolutely what I thought. I reside in Kent.

I'm originally from Kent, have been checking on family and friends compulsively these past few weeks.

Yes. You’re from Sittingbourne

The Thanet region of Kent was hit particularly hardly; other parts of the county, less so.

Test, trace, quarantine was one of the main tools fighting the pandemic, still are.

Now sequencing the virus, and finding out what variant is around, where it is coming from, and how fast it is spreading, is just as important. UK and Denmark are champions in sequencing, while many countries does not sequence much at all. USA is sequencing 0.3% of cases. Norway are ramping up sequencing rapidly, from approx 1% to now 5% of all cases, trying to understand every cluster, where it came from, what variant it is. The UK variant is the reason for the need of sequencing. We need to know our enemy - the virus.

Denmark is sequencing all coronavirus samples and has an alarming view of the U.K. variant (Seattle Times Jan 23, 2021)

Like a speeding car whose brake lines have been cut, the coronavirus variant first spotted in Britain is spreading at an alarming rate and isn’t responding to established ways of slowing the pandemic, according to Danish scientists who have one of the world’s best views into the new, more contagious strain.

Cases involving the variant are increasing 70% a week in Denmark, despite a strict lockdown, according to Denmark’s State Serum Institute, a government agency that tracks diseases and advises health policy.

“We’re losing some of the tools that we have to control the epidemic,” said Tyra Grove Krause, scientific director of the institute, which this past week began sequencing every positive coronavirus test to check for mutations. By contrast, the United States is sequencing 0.3% of cases, ranking it 43rd in the world and leaving it largely blind to the variant’s spread.

Danish public health officials say that if it weren’t for their extensive monitoring, they would be feeling a false sense of confidence right now. Overall, new daily confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Denmark have been dropping for a month.

“Without this variant, we would be in really good shape,” said Camilla Holten Moller, the co-leader of the State Serum Institute group modeling the spread of the virus.

Bjornulf



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2021-01-24 11:31 by bv.

I also think, bv, that we're currently in an alarming state. Such intense research, like in Danmark, and not being listened to.
Very recently one of the expert members of the expert advisery board in the Netherlands which reports to the government (and who has correctly predicted what was going to happen if certain measures would not be taken by the government over the past 8-9 months) has announced that he is going to quit his membership due to heavy political manipulation of the board. Idiots in our country have threatened individual members of the board (!), who's only job is to help create the most safe situation possible in our country.
The head of the Government Institute of Public Health (a virologist) has publically said things on TV which were utterly disgusting (and, off course, politically influenced) and manipulative, like wearing masks was not needed, because they wouldn't help. How "funny" to see him more recently on TV wearing .... a mask. Sad, sad, sad.

Masks and 2m i.e. 6ft distance will stop the virus regardless of variant. Unfortunately many do still not wear masks, and unfortunately still many talk face to face, and the virus spread through normal talking.

Bjornulf

Yes, there are still too many covidiots around. Police broke up an illegal rave last night only 10 minutes' walk from my house. The door was padlocked from the inside and dozens were fined £200 each - not enough, IMHO. Higher fines for the organizers.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2021-01-24 15:21 by Beast.

The news in London is full of a 400-guest illegal wedding reception broken up by the police.

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Green Lady
The news in London is full of a 400-guest illegal wedding reception broken up by the police.

That was a mile up the road from my home, which is in a borough with very high infection rates and no wonder with things like these parties and illegal raves still going on. The organizers of the wedding party are supposedly subject to a £10,000 fine, but only five guests were fined the £200 fixed penalty notice. Not sure why only five should have been fined - they should have fined the lot of them! It was later said that there were 150 guests, which is quite a lot less than 400 but still way out of order.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2021-01-24 15:24 by Beast.

The threat of a £200 fine is pathetic it should be at least £10,000 per person they should also be made to serve one year of community service picking up litter from the streets.I would suspect these are the types of people who believe the vaccines have microchips in from Bill Gates and probably don’t want it but they should be placed to the very back of any vaccine queue.

Nate

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Nate
The threat of a £200 fine is pathetic it should be at least £10,000 per person they should also be made to serve one year of community service picking up litter from the streets.I would suspect these are the types of people who believe the vaccines have microchips in from Bill Gates and probably don’t want it but they should be placed to the very back of any vaccine queue.

Nate

Agree. Without much more draconian fines, there are plenty who'll continue to flout the rules.

Reports are that Israel is set to ban all passenger flights into and out of the country for two weeks as from tomorrow night.

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Nate
The threat of a £200 fine is pathetic it should be at least £10,000 per person they should also be made to serve one year of community service picking up litter from the streets.I would suspect these are the types of people who believe the vaccines have microchips in from Bill Gates and probably don’t want it but they should be placed to the very back of any vaccine queue.

Nate

Agreed. These people should also get forced vaccination or 90 days in jail. Until the Covidiots learn, there really isn't a path forward to a normal life as we knew it.

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daspyknows

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Nate
The threat of a £200 fine is pathetic it should be at least £10,000 per person they should also be made to serve one year of community service picking up litter from the streets.I would suspect these are the types of people who believe the vaccines have microchips in from Bill Gates and probably don’t want it but they should be placed to the very back of any vaccine queue.

Nate

Agreed. These people should also get forced vaccination or 90 days in jail. Until the Covidiots learn, there really isn't a path forward to a normal life as we knew it.

Penalty or fine .... I recently learned from Belgium relations that during the curfew in that country, both during the day and evening many people walked on the streets with a mask hanging under the chin with a cup of coffee (empty or not) in the hand (!) as an excuse not to wear the mask. Others were happy to pay a fine (for rich people it's merely pocket money), sometimes several times in a row, for not sticking to the rules, because the felt that their freedom was more important. €10.000 should work, but frequent rule breakers should get a jail sentence instead of fines. As you say, a Covidiots law. But I don't think this is going to happen.
We'll see what brilliant (read: stupid) ideas the current Dutch curfew will be created by the Covidiots ...

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georgie48

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daspyknows

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Nate
The threat of a £200 fine is pathetic it should be at least £10,000 per person they should also be made to serve one year of community service picking up litter from the streets.I would suspect these are the types of people who believe the vaccines have microchips in from Bill Gates and probably don’t want it but they should be placed to the very back of any vaccine queue.

Nate

Agreed. These people should also get forced vaccination or 90 days in jail. Until the Covidiots learn, there really isn't a path forward to a normal life as we knew it.

Penalty or fine .... I recently learned from Belgium relations that during the curfew in that country, both during the day and evening many people walked on the streets with a mask hanging under the chin with a cup of coffee (empty or not) in the hand (!) as an excuse not to wear the mask. Others were happy to pay a fine (for rich people it's merely pocket money), sometimes several times in a row, for not sticking to the rules, because the felt that their freedom was more important. €10.000 should work, but frequent rule breakers should get a jail sentence instead of fines. As you say, a Covidiots law. But I don't think this is going to happen.
We'll see what brilliant (read: stupid) ideas the current Dutch curfew will be created by the Covidiots ...

Maybe it's time for drastic action

That would stop 'em...

[youtu.be]

hahaha yes the brilliant Mel Smith a great talent.
I heard the government is looking for covid volunteers I’m willing to perform this task for them ><

Nate

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Nate
hahaha yes the brilliant Mel Smith a great talent.
I heard the government is looking for covid volunteers I’m willing to perform this task for them ><

Nate

The one course of action the authorities MUST take, is CUT OFF THEIR GOOLIES!!!

If this all happened in medieval times, said action could well have been taken

I saw the original broadcast way back. Mel Smith was the star of that sketch. His timing and delivery were so spot on.

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grzegorz67

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Nate
hahaha yes the brilliant Mel Smith a great talent.
I heard the government is looking for covid volunteers I’m willing to perform this task for them ><

Nate

The one course of action the authorities MUST take, is CUT OFF THEIR GOOLIES!!!

If this all happened in medieval times, said action could well have been taken

I saw the original broadcast way back. Mel Smith was the star of that sketch. His timing and delivery were so spot on.

Very drastic indeed
But .... do women also have "goolies"? If not (and I think they don't ), what suggestion do you have in that case?

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georgie48

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grzegorz67

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Nate
hahaha yes the brilliant Mel Smith a great talent.
I heard the government is looking for covid volunteers I’m willing to perform this task for them ><

Nate

The one course of action the authorities MUST take, is CUT OFF THEIR GOOLIES!!!

If this all happened in medieval times, said action could well have been taken

I saw the original broadcast way back. Mel Smith was the star of that sketch. His timing and delivery were so spot on.

Very drastic indeed
But .... do women also have "goolies"? If not (and I think they don't ), what suggestion do you have in that case?

They can be served a very exotic meal ><

Nate

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Nate

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georgie48

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grzegorz67

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Nate
hahaha yes the brilliant Mel Smith a great talent.
I heard the government is looking for covid volunteers I’m willing to perform this task for them ><

Nate

The one course of action the authorities MUST take, is CUT OFF THEIR GOOLIES!!!

If this all happened in medieval times, said action could well have been taken

I saw the original broadcast way back. Mel Smith was the star of that sketch. His timing and delivery were so spot on.

Very drastic indeed
But .... do women also have "goolies"? If not (and I think they don't ), what suggestion do you have in that case?

They can be served a very exotic meal ><

Nate

...Involving cannibalism? Oh grim...

Off with their tits!

Or at least be forced to expose them and photos taken. And then post here please.

Thank you
jb

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Nate
The threat of a £200 fine is pathetic it should be at least £10,000 per person they should also be made to serve one year of community service picking up litter from the streets.I would suspect these are the types of people who believe the vaccines have microchips in from Bill Gates and probably don’t want it but they should be placed to the very back of any vaccine queue.

Nate

Agreed.

A better form of Community Service may be as cleaners in a COVID hospital? That would really show them the true horror of what they are not facing up to.

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Captain Corella
60 Years a Fan

^ There you go. Let them decide if they want to take the vaccines beforehand.

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CaptainCorella

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Nate
The threat of a £200 fine is pathetic it should be at least £10,000 per person they should also be made to serve one year of community service picking up litter from the streets.I would suspect these are the types of people who believe the vaccines have microchips in from Bill Gates and probably don’t want it but they should be placed to the very back of any vaccine queue.

Nate

Agreed.

A better form of Community Service may be as cleaners in a COVID hospital? That would really show them the true horror of what they are not facing up to.

THAT would indeed be a very good way for Covidiots to wake up! But some people will never learn, I'm afraid. The other day idiots threw stones through hospital windows in the Netherlands!

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georgie48

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CaptainCorella

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Nate
The threat of a £200 fine is pathetic it should be at least £10,000 per person they should also be made to serve one year of community service picking up litter from the streets.I would suspect these are the types of people who believe the vaccines have microchips in from Bill Gates and probably don’t want it but they should be placed to the very back of any vaccine queue.

Nate

Agreed.

A better form of Community Service may be as cleaners in a COVID hospital? That would really show them the true horror of what they are not facing up to.

THAT would indeed be a very good way for Covidiots to wake up! But some people will never learn, I'm afraid. The other day idiots threw stones through hospital windows in the Netherlands!

Noted. The degree to which some people are off-scale stupid is something my partner frequently reminds me about when we see reports.

I live in Victoria Australia, and for 3+ Months we had a really HARD lockdown, and non-essential travel between Melbourne and all surrounding regional areas was forbidden. We even had roadblocks on the main roads, and they were staffed by army & police. There was no secret about these roadblocks.

But we'd still hear reports at regular intervals about people driving up to the roadbocks in stolen cars, unregistered cars, drunk, on drugs, carrying drugs, and even transporting huge quantities of drugs & money. Some people are simply stupid and in the end there's not a lot that can be done about it.

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Captain Corella
60 Years a Fan

From yesterday on FFP2 masks compulsory in Austria. No more surgical masks or selfmade masks.

Thanks BV for this thread. It is so good to hear from all over the world.....

Stay safe everyone - Hi Beast!

Everyone hang in there and let's manifest a 60th Anniversary tour in Europe in 2022

Sarah

From the Associated Press earlier today:

US virus numbers drop, but race against new strains heats up

coronavirus

Coronavirus deaths and cases per day in the U.S. dropped markedly over the past couple of weeks but are still running at alarmingly high levels, and the effort to snuff out COVID-19 is becoming an ever more urgent race between the vaccine and the mutating virus. The government’s top infectious-disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said the improvement in numbers around the country appears to reflect a “natural peaking and then plateauing” after a holiday surge, rather than the arrival of the vaccine in mid-December. The U.S. is recording just under 3,100 deaths a day on average, down from more than 3,350 less than two weeks ago. New cases are averaging about 170,000 a day after peaking at almost 250,000 on Jan. 11. The number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients has fallen to about 110,000 from a high of 132,000 on Jan. 7. States that have been hot spots in recent weeks such as California and Arizona have shown similar improvements during the same period.

On Monday, California lifted regional stay-at-home orders in favor of county-by-county restrictions and ended a 10 p.m. curfew. The shift will allow restaurants and churches to resume outdoor operations and hair and nail salons to reopen in many places, though local officials could maintain stricter rules. Elsewhere, Minnesota school districts have begun bringing elementary students back for in-person learning. Chicago’s school system, the nation’s third-largest district, had hoped to bring teachers back Monday to prepare for students to return next month, but the teachers union has refused. Illinois announced that more counties will be able to offer limited indoor dining.

“I don’t think the dynamics of what we’re seeing now with the plateauing is significantly influenced yet — it will be soon — but yet by the vaccine. I just think it’s the natural course of plateauing,” Fauci told NBC’s “Today.” Ali Mokdad, a professor of health metrics sciences at the University of Washington, said that a predicted holiday surge was reduced by people traveling less than expected, and an increase in mask-wearing in response to spikes in infections has since helped bring the numbers down. Caitlin Rivers, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said too few people have been vaccinated so far for that to have had a significant impact on virus trends. She said she can’t predict how long it will take for the vaccines’ effects to be reflected in the numbers. Rivers said she is concerned that the more contagious variants of the virus could lead to a deadly resurgence later this year. "I think we were on track to have a good — or a better, at least — spring and summer, and I’m worried that the variants might be throwing us a curveball,” she said.

Nationwide, about 19.3 million people, or less than 6% of the U.S. population, have received at least one dose of the vaccine, including about 3 million who have gotten the second shot, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 55% of the 41 million doses distributed to the states by the federal government have been injected into arms, by the CDC’s count. The virus has killed over 419,000 Americans and infected more than 25 million, with a widely cited University of Washington model projecting the death toll will reach about 569,000 by May 1. And health experts have warned that the more contagious and possibly more deadly variant sweeping through Britain will probably become the dominant source of infection in the U.S. by March. It has been reported in over 20 states so far. Other mutant versions are circulating in South Africa and Brazil. The variant from Brazil was detected for the first time in the U.S. in a Minnesota resident who recently traveled to the South American country, state health officials said Monday. The more the virus spreads, the more opportunities it has to mutate. The fear is that it will ultimately render the vaccines ineffective.

To guard against the new variants, President Joe Biden on Monday added South Africa to the list of more than two dozen countries whose residents are subject to coronavirus-related limits on entering the U.S. Most non-U.S. citizens who have been to Brazil, Ireland, Britain and other European nations will be barred from entering the U.S. under the rules re-imposed by Biden after President Donald Trump had moved to relax them. Fauci said scientists are already preparing to adjust COVID-19 vaccines to fight the mutated versions. He said there is “a very slight, modest diminution” of the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines against those variants, but “there’s enough cushion with the vaccines that we have that we still consider them to be effective” against both. Moderna, the maker of one of the two vaccines being used in the U.S., announced on Monday that it is beginning to test a possible booster dose against the South African variant. Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said the move was out of “an abundance of caution” after preliminary lab tests suggested its shot produced a weaker immune response to that variant.

The vaccine rollout in the U.S. has been marked by disarray and confusion, with states complaining in recent days about shortages and inadequate deliveries that have forced them to cancel mass vaccination events and tens of thousands of appointments. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said shortages are preventing the city from opening more large-scale vaccination sites. “Here you have New York City ready to vaccinate at the rate of a half-million New Yorkers a week, but we don’t have the vaccine to go with it,” de Blasio said. “A lot of other places in the country are ready to do so much more.”

___

Associated Press writers around the U.S. contributed to this report.

_____________________________________________________________
Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2021-01-26 07:45 by Hairball.

I guess this is the next thing...rich and/or entitled people jumping the queue for vaccines.

[www.thestar.com]

Couple who chartered plane to get COVID vaccine in Yukon misled about jobs, locals say. Now they face charges — and fury
By Alex BoydCalgary Bureau
Douglas QuanVancouver Bureau
Mon., Jan. 25, 2021

Clad in winter jackets against the northern winter weather, the couple disembarked the small chartered plane and assured the airport manager they would only be there temporarily while they waited out the weather.

They were travelling to Dawson City, Yukon, they told Caulene May, who runs the Beaver Creek airport, but the so-called home of the Klondike Gold Rush was fogged in. So they’d touched down while they waited for the clouds to lift.

The pandemic had slowed traffic at May’s facility — which serves a tiny, remote town of about 100 people next to the Alaskan border — to a trickle. Furthermore, she had no reason to doubt the story, so she settled them into the pilots’ lounge and went back upstairs to her office.

She was still working at her desk when they allegedly set out from the airport for the temporary COVID vaccination clinic about a mile away, reportedly telling the staff there that they worked at a local motel. A motel which, incidentally, May owns.

“They had all sorts of stories ready, that’s for sure,” she says. “I don’t think they realized the place was so small that everybody knows everybody.”

The former head of a casino chain and a woman reported to be an aspiring actor are now facing tickets and fines after travelling to the remote town in Northern Canada allegedly to get a COVID-19 vaccine, in a ballooning controversy that has forced the CEO to step down from his job and infuriated a tight-knit community that had so far mostly kept the pandemic at bay.

According to copies of the citations issued to Rodney Baker, 55, and Ekaterina Baker, 32, at the local courthouse, the pair were each charged with one count of failing to isolate for 14 days and one count of failing to adhere to the declaration form they signed when they entered the community in violation of Yukon’s Civil Emergency Measures Act.

Each count carries a fine of $500, plus a $75 surcharge. According to the ticket, they can either pay the fine or contest the charges and appear in court.

According to the records, the couple live in a suite at a posh hotel and condo highrise in downtown Vancouver.

The Star buzzed the unit Monday afternoon but nobody answered. Other efforts to reach Rod and Ekaterina Baker for comment Monday were unsuccessful.

“They’re just a bunch of rich people that have extra money to spend that want to jump the line,” said Rita Luxton, manager of the 1202 Motor Inn, one of the few businesses in Beaver Creek that has remained open during the pandemic.

On Thursday, one of her staff answered the phone — it was someone from the vaccine clinic asking to confirm that a couple of people who’d come in for shots worked at the motel.

They did not.

“Plain and simple, it was rich pride,” she says, her frustration evident. “People that are privileged, thinking that they’re better off than somebody else and that they were somehow entitled to come here.”

The motel Luxton manages also has a gas station, and she says she also hears from drivers who aren’t supposed to be in the territory but say they were able to get over the border by misleading officials.

The prospect of southerners coming north for non-essential reasons is one that scares her, given the lack of medical capacity in one of the most remote parts of the country.

“We’re not like a normal city where you people come from,” she says. “People like us that live out here? We’re five hours from a hospital. I mean, it's a pretty big deal for those people that want the vaccine.”

The clinic had been set up for the day in the community centre — the medical staff themselves had flown in shortly before the couple from Vancouver — to serve residents of Beaver Creek and members of the neighbouring White River First Nation.

Chief Angela Demit said she was shocked by the news that two people had managed to get in line. She applauds local health officials for their COVID response, noting that the local area has stayed relatively safe — and it’s critical that the virus doesn’t get a foothold now.

“We have many elders, and we have a high-risk population that needed these vaccinations, for their protection and for their health,” she said.

“There was quite a few people that are parents, who have children, who have aging parents, and they were shocked, angry; and some were afraid.”

According to an emailed statement from Yukon Community Services Minister John Streicker, two people showed up to a vaccine clinic in Beaver Creek on Jan. 21. One presented a British Columbia health card and the other, an Ontario one.

Although having an out-of-province card wouldn’t disqualify a resident from getting a vaccine, officials were given a tip that the couple had violated the territory’s self-isolation requirements and followed up, which led to charges. RCMP have also been alerted.

“Reports allege these individuals were deceptive and violated emergency measures for their own advantage, which is completely unacceptable at any time, but especially during a public health crisis,” the statement reads.

“I am outraged by this selfish behaviour, and find it disturbing that people would choose put fellow Canadians at risk in this manner.”

A LinkedIn profile for an Ekaterina Baker describers her as an actor.

Her recent film credits include roles in “Chick Fight” and “Fatman,” according to her IMDB profile.

According to the Yukon News, which was one of the first to report the story, along with CBC, Ekaterina posted an Instagram message March 23, explaining why she was staying home during the pandemic.

“During this unique and tender time I stay home for: all the kids so they don’t have to say goodbye to their parents and grandparents too soon,” she reportedly wrote.

“I stay home to be part of the solution. Everyone, stay home. It’s the right thing to do.”

Her account is no longer public.

That same day in March, the Great Canadian Gaming Corp., which owns 25 casinos and other properties across the country, put out a news release that said in part:

“Under the strong leadership of Rod Baker, the Company’s CEO, our caring, diligent and experienced management team is working with our Board to actively monitor the implications that COVID-19 has had — and may have — on the future of our business.”

In an email Monday, a company spokesperson declined to comment on “personnel matters relating to former employees,” but confirmed that Baker is no longer affiliated with the company “in any way.”

“Great Canadian’s board of directors has no tolerance for actions that run counter to the company’s objectives and values,” the statement reads.

“Since the onset of the pandemic our overriding focus as a company has been on doing everything we can to keep our people healthy, and to enable our communities to combat the spread of COVID-19.”

May, the manager of the airport, says the couple seemed pretty normal when she saw them at the airport; their story would not have been unusual at all during a normal tourism season. But when they ventured into town, residents were almost immediately suspicious of strangers in their midst.

The duo stood out in a place where most people know each other and where, during the pandemic, visitors have been almost nonexistent.

While an official response took longer, she says there was one sign that, to her, suggested the tight-knit town had already passed judgment.

“Nobody gave them a ride back to the airport. They had to walk.”

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SomeTorontoGirl
I guess this is the next thing...rich and/or entitled people jumping the queue for vaccines.

[www.thestar.com]

Couple who chartered plane to get COVID vaccine in Yukon misled about jobs, locals say. Now they face charges — and fury
By Alex BoydCalgary Bureau
Douglas QuanVancouver Bureau
Mon., Jan. 25, 2021

While an official response took longer, she says there was one sign that, to her, suggested the tight-knit town had already passed judgment.

“Nobody gave them a ride back to the airport. They had to walk.”

Thanks for posting this story.
It is hard to understand it is real, but sadly so many people are so selfish.
Now they have to live with the shame.

Bjornulf

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sarahunwin
Thanks BV for this thread. It is so good to hear from all over the world.....

Stay safe everyone - Hi Beast!

Everyone hang in there and let's manifest a 60th Anniversary tour in Europe in 2022

Sarah

Hi back, sparkly top, and I'll second that tour hope!