Eastern European FUCKDOWN

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Looking at a table of deaths per million population around the globe reveals a quite startling fact than 10 of the top 18 worst hit countries (which itself includes negligible Gibraltar and San Marino) are Slavic Eastern European nations.

Hungary
Czechia
Bosnia
Montenegro
Bulgaria
North Macedonia
Slovakia
Slovenia
Poland
Croatia

Oddly, the more Russian-leaning states Serbia, Belarus and - heavily disrupted by Russia - Ukraine and Latvia haven't done anywhere near as badly.

I wonder what has combined to produce these outcomes. Poor underlying health, cold climates, disobedient/laissez-faire attitudes to distancing + compliance, health infrastructure?

[the science eel]

Hungary's an odd one because the right-wing Orban gov't has done everything it can to stop immigration over the last few years, so it's unlikely variants have come from outside the country - AND they were the least affected European country back at the start of the pandemic a year ago, so...I don't know what's going on. I'm in touch with a couple of mates back in Budapest and they say that non-essential shops are open again, and the situation doesn't look too bad.

The story with the Czechs is similar in that they didn't have many cases 12 months ago either, so maybe they just got lax and this has resulted - finally - in this serious situation now.

[BlodwynPig]

My Macedonia friend blames the government and lack of vaccines.

[good times]

Hungary's an odd one because the right-wing Orban gov't has done everything it can to stop immigration over the last few years, so it's unlikely variants have come from outside the country - AND they were the least affected European country back at the start of the pandemic a year ago, so...I don't know what's going on. I'm in touch with a couple of mates back in Budapest and they say that non-essential shops are open again, and the situation doesn't look too bad.

Interesting, I'm fairly certain I saw a stat yesterday which showed that Hungary is in the top 5 in terms of % of population vaccinated as well which was a bit puzzling considering the fairly high death rate there at the moment (which seems to have been happening for about 4/5 weeks)

It now tops the world in terms of deaths per million, even worse than countries with tiny populations like Gibraltar/San Marino which have been at the top of the list for ages.

What's weird is that the Hungary situation never seems to make it into the news (or the Eastern Europe situation in general)

[the science eel]

Interesting, I'm fairly certain I saw a stat yesterday which showed that Hungary is in the top 5 in terms of % of population vaccinated as well which was a bit puzzling considering the fairly high death rate there at the moment (which seems to have been happening for about 4/5 weeks)

Seemingly they're allocating vaccinations randomly and there are a lot of different types - I know people who've had the Russian Sputnik thing, others have had the Pfizer and others still the AstraZeneca. And they've recently allowed the Indian and the Chinese types too. It's unusual but I guess they're (or were) desperate.