Topic: Mittens 2021?

[Snarky]

It just occurred to me… we are not doing Mittens this year either, or…?

If anybody feels so inclined, we could potentially pencil something in for this fall, when most people will most likely be vaccinated. (In Norway Week 40—from 4. October—is a school holiday, and many here take the week off.)

[cat]

Vaccinations are so slow here, I doubt I will be fully vaccinated by December (my partners parents will have their first shot end of the month, and they are ~70!)

However, I can't come to Mittens anyway because of other reasons.

[LimpingFish]

Vaccinations are just getting going here (in a significant way), but, similar to what cat says, we're doing it by age (oldest first). Hopefully we'll have a good chunk of the pop vaccinated come winter.

Any ideas on where Mittens could take place?

[FormosaFalanster]

Any ideas on where Mittens could take place?

Taiwan?

[AGA]

I didn't raise the issue of Mittens this year, since I didn't think there was any guarantee it'd be safe or even legal on whatever date we planned.  As we found last year, just because you have a booking somewhere, doesn't mean there won't be a lockdown in place when the booked date arrives!  The UK is gradually coming out of lockdown at the moment, but we do have a larger percentage of the population vaccinated than anywhere else except Israel (45%); most of the Europe is nowhere near that number.  That's no guarantee there won't be another wave, resulting in travel again being restricted.

Personally I think it'd be wiser to wait until next year, when almost everyone is likely to be vaccinated, and they've hopefully gotten it to be more like the flu vaccinations, where we get boosters for the new strains each time they arrive.

[Disco]

I am due for my second vaccine on 24 April, which should bring ~full immunity by the first week of May barring any variant resistance. With that in mind, if travel restrictions ease this year for the vaccinated I would welcome a Mittens or Mittens-like event in any form ahead of a full on return in 2022.

[Snarky]

Good on you, Disco!

The J&J vaccine issues, along with a vaccination strategy that could put me in the very last cohort, look like they might nix any 2021 Mittens for me anyway. See y'all next year!

(I can wait, as long as the next Mittens doesn't end up being a week-long Zoom meeting.)

[TheFrighter]

Serbia offers free vaccine (Pfizer, Sputnik o what else you choose) to the tourists in a couple of days, if someone is interested.

_