https://www.thenational.ae/uae/healt...cine-1.1081429

Interesting, let's wait and see what happens.

Odd how it's not really been picked up by the international press.

Well yes, almost nothing about the UAE and covid has been picked up. You might think the international press would have found a story in things like: apparently incredibly high testing per capita, use of DPI to screen commuters, very low death rates, advanced trials and approval of Chinese vaccines. Probably there's only so much covid19 news people can take and close to home matters more.

all of the non vaccine stuff you mentioned isn’t really interesting or newsworthy. The Russian vaccine made headlines, we get constant updates on the U.K./US ones ... and yet nothing about the Chinese one and the fact it’s being rolled out in some countries. I just find that interesting.

I was able to get into this covid vaccine trial program with the Russian vaccine. I got my first shot Friday and I wanted to let you know that it’s completely safe, with иo side effects whatsoeveя, and that I’m feelshκι χoρoshό я чувствую себя немного странно и я думаю, что вытащил ослиные уши.

1) Is a hyperactive testing regime of any added value? How much of this testing is pretty much confined to the same people over and over and over again (mall workers biweekly, law enforcement, positive patients every few days till they test negative and so on)

2) Could it be because other countries do not consider DPI to be accurate, and neither do they have a view that pricking daily commuters is something useful

3) I am sure you know what % of expats are in the 65+ cohort and also how there are hardly any retirement homes which were the worst hit in places with high death rates

Well there's at least one article there: why is a Gulf country with very low death rates from covid doing all these things which are apparently (according to Maxima) of zero value? What's the underlying point?

To make the hypochondriacs happy?

Yep - i doubt that there is any efficacy in this 'vaccine' . Its just to keep a population from facing/accepting the real problems.

Tourist visas now being issued for all Emirates, announcement this morning, no doubt several ‘clarification’ announcements to follow.

Yeah - as far as I know non-Dubai tourists still have to quarantine for 14 days on arrival, so it's not like this is going to open the floodgates.

Sharjah is the same as Dubai now.

Just spoke to a friend in Dubai. She had a friend fly in from Egypt the other day. Only needed 24-hr quarantine to be compliant, apparently. Took the covid text both before and after flight.

Yes, Dubai (and now Sharjah) is fully open. AUH is nominally open, but only if you're prepared to quarantine for 14 days with a watch tracker first. Which is basically nobody apart from people who want to ship the grandparents in for a few months as cheap child support and hopefully not kill them with covid.