What's Gay Life Where You Live?

[BiBottomBoy]

For me in France in October they shut all the bars down

Then in November they shut down Grindr and Tindr

So I haven't gotten laid in months.

Is it different in other countries or are we all doomed to jerking off to BDSMLR.com?

[TotallyOz]

20 minutes ago, BiBottomBoy said:

For me in France in October they shut all the bars down

Then in November they shut down Grindr and Tindr

So I haven't gotten laid in months.

Is it different in other countries or are we all doomed to jerking off to BDSMLR.com?

They shut down the online apps? That is insane. I have not heard of that. I get the closing of bars and clubs. But, the apps. I am surprised that is allowed.

[BiBottomBoy]

They shut down the apps right away

The entire point of the lockdown/semi lockdown is that they don't want people meeting people.

So yeah if you log in with a French IP address you are fucked.

You can use a VPN to log into them but then you aren't ending up with someone in your area at all.

 

[vaughn]

Life in Asutralia is mostly back to normal, with the exception of no intl' travel. Bars are open, and large gatherings and events are starting again. Mardi Gras in Sydney this weekend went ahead, but in a more limited format and a little less of a party vibe.

We had a few outbreaks in 2020 where we went into lockdown with travel restricted between states/regions, people mostly followed the rules, and with quarantine for inbound travelers we managed to avoid widespread issues that a lot of other countries had.

Our issue is now that countries supplying the vaccine are withholding our supply because we are not in as dire a need, kind of understandable but still a bit frustrating to be penalized for doing things right.

[TotallyOz]

52 minutes ago, vaughn said:

Life in Asutralia is mostly back to normal, with the exception of no intl' travel. Bars are open, and large gatherings and events are starting again. Mardi Gras in Sydney this weekend went ahead, but in a more limited format and a little less of a party vibe.

We had a few outbreaks in 2020 where we went into lockdown with travel restricted between states/regions, people mostly followed the rules, and with quarantine for inbound travelers we managed to avoid widespread issues that a lot of other countries had.

Our issue is now that countries supplying the vaccine are withholding our supply because we are not in as dire a need, kind of understandable but still a bit frustrating to be penalized for doing things right.

Thanks for sharing about Australia. I had read about some of the EU countries not shipping vaccines there but did not fully understand the rationale.

[vaughn]

11 minutes ago, TotallyOz said:

Thanks for sharing about Australia. I had read about some of the EU countries not shipping vaccines there but did not fully understand the rationale.

I think there is some contractual issues with AstraZeneca that France and Italy are using to keep the vaccines that were destined for Australia, i'm not really sure of the specifics to be honest.

Australia are going to be locally producing the Astra vaccine at our own production facilities so i don't think it will  significantly impact us, but it might add some delays to our vaccine roll out.

[BiBottomBoy]

France and Italy don't have enough vaccines for their own populations so they are not sending any to Australia.

France is in really bad shape. They've only given out 3.3 million vacccines while the UK with a population of a similar size has given out well over 20 million

[Guest]

The EU has a worse supply of vaccines because the EU commission was slow in signing contracts and production lines need time to set up.

The EU commission then tried to bully the UK over vaccine supply.  However the UK has more vaccines because the UK signed contracts months earlier than the EU commission.  The UK also facilitated various vaccine trials in the UK.   So the UK both took the risks and signed the contracts to get vaccines.   Thankfully some of the EU national governments have more integrity than the commission, so the commission had to wind their neck in fairly quickly and adopt a more reasonable stance.

There is also an issue where in France, a high proportion of the Astra Zeneca vaccines are unused, possibly due to incorrectly doubting it's effectiveness.   If a country does not want to use the vaccines, it's immoral to retain them whilst other countries have a shortage.

Then both France and Germany did not initially authorize the vaccine for use in over 65s, due to insufficient trial data in this age group.   If I remember correctly, the AZN vaccine trials started off in the 18~65 age range last year and it was a surprisingly long time before this was extended to older age groups.   However, there's been evidence of antibody development in older people for some time.   France and Germany recently corrected their decisions.

Ultimately, if Australia has signed a contract with AZN and AZN is unable to fulfil that due to the Italian government, then in the long term Australia is simply going to make sure it has vaccine capacity at home, rather than relying on unreliable EU suppliers.

In the UK, 55~59 year olds can now register for vaccination. 

 

Getting back to the topic, the phone apps are operating in the UK, but very few people are on them. 

I doubt there is much other gay life, since all the bars etc have to close at present.   

Unlike Thailand, where almost everything is permitted to open now and demand is the main constraint.

[BiBottomBoy]

France also set up these special centers to give out t he vaccinne which was a mistake.

People don't trust Paris. They trust their local doctor.

If they'd distributed the vaccines to local doctors a lot more people would be vaccinated today

[paulsf]

I’m in Ft.Lauderdale.  Close to normal here now.   Everything open.  We have 3 strip clubs that are full on weekends. This month is spring break for colleges and beaches are packed.  Aps are working .   Tourism has been down for past year but is starting to pick up now . I got both my shots in January so did a couple of trips. All flights full .  

[BiBottomBoy]

Wow. That is the total opposite of what life is like where I'm living.

[Riobard]

Interesting, Ft Lauderdale and Miami still pose a similar or higher exposure risk level than Paris (France, not TX). Relaxation of measures seems to be a combination of greater risk tolerance, descending new case incidence, and vaccine optimism supporting the tradeoff between economy/freedom and additional preventable deaths.

Florida’s CoV average rolling mortality is currently about 50% higher than France’s, in spite of much higher proportional vaccination. The costs of Spring Break Madness, and perhaps a population age pyramid with proportionally more older folks. One saving grace aspect is a current R = .92 metric. 

The images depict the probability of at least one contagious CoV carrier within any random group of 50 persons, rolling case incidence 5 times the official reported tallies. But the similarities hold for various group numbers and irrespective of adjusting the case count. 

[BiBottomBoy]

I'm far from paris. I'm in Montpellier. Our numbers have been greatly lower than those in Paris since this started but because Paris keeps fucking things up we remain in semi-lockdown.

 

[Riobard]

1 hour ago, BiBottomBoy said:

I'm far from paris. I'm in Montpellier. Our numbers have been greatly lower than those in Paris since this started but because Paris keeps fucking things up we remain in semi-lockdown.

 

Bien sur. Still, if you attend a series of ten 10-person events, chances are you will encounter minimally one infected person. I would not risk it without CoV immunity. The risk differential relative to Paris is far less than Toronto and Montreal compared to, respectively, northern Ontario and Quebec. 

Alpes-Maritimes seems to be the most fucked up in France right now. 
 

[Riobard]

Hôpital Saint-Eloi (is that where the soup I am slurping today is made?) seems to be still recruiting for the Janssen (J&J) vaccine efficacy study but the protocol is blinded for one to two years and you may get placebo. It’s a two-dose regimen to try to improve on the one-dose format currently approved in some places.

[caeron]

 

With the rise of more dangerous and virulent strains, I'm not taking risks. I'm waiting until I get my full immunity from vaccination before I venture out and risk mingling. While we're close to end, I hope, with the new strains it isn't worth the risk to me. I've blown a year isolating already, another month or two I can survive.

But man am I ready to be out and about.

[BiBottomBoy]

yeah caeron I'm itching for dick

[Riobard]

My ‘gay life’ consists of trade. At this point, I think the phased order of renewal this late Summer and Fall will be Montreal’s Stock and Campus; Barcelona’s Thermas  and Zürich’s Paragonya; and lastly Brazil because I think COVID will be a shit show there much longer. 

[BiBottomBoy]

yeah brazil is more fucked than Florida is.

[10tazione]

20 hours ago, z909 said:

The EU commission then tried to bully the UK over vaccine supply.  However the UK has more vaccines because the UK signed contracts months earlier than the EU commission.

CNN claims that the EU signed the contract with Astra Zeneca one day before the UK ...
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/17/europe/uk-astrazeneca-vaccine-contract-details-intl/index.html
"Soriot confirmed to La Repubblica that his company had agreed to supply the UK before other markets, saying it was "fair enough" because the UK had reached an agreement with AstraZeneca earlier than the EU. But the UK's official contract is actually dated August 28, one day after the EU's contract."

[BiBottomBoy]

Yeah it's hard to say whose right in that one. The UK has pulled some shady shit over the last two years but I know the EU wasn't as hopeful about the Astra Zeneca vaccine as the UK was.

[dubdavie]

 In Ireland we are still in lockdown since just before Christmas. No bars, clubs, restaurants and restricted to 5km from your house for exercise or shopping. There are some exemptions for work, essential services, or emergency's. Some activity on the apps but not many meeting up, hopefully things will improve after Easter. Another dry St Patrick's Day this year  

[BiBottomBoy]

DubDavie, sounds just like France. It sucks. So many months of just wanting to do something.

Even if they just let us out for a week it would cheer me up.

[BiBottomBoy]

Our absolute curfew is from 6 p.m to 7 a.m. What's yours?

[Riobard]

Imma break my curfew any day now if it keeps up ... go ahead and cuff me  ;>P