Variant halts ahead in Europe? Thoughts?

My September trip to Poland is looking less and less likely... Our health ministry in Spain is already predicting 4th wave is incoming this Autumn. British tourists are being turned away/quarantined in some EU countries now due to the prevalence of the Delta variant, with a full EU ban being proposed by Germany. I'm still hopeful July/August will be alright for most American tourists this year, but now is looking like a shorter window of possibility for 2021 than it did a few weeks ago.

Singapore is suggesting a different way to look at/deal with Covid and travel (amongst other aspects of life)...

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/singapore-covid-plan-intl-hnk/index.html

Thanks for posting that article, Eric. It is my belief that we have to learn to live with this like other illnesses (as the article states) since we have an answer: vaccine! The science supports that if we are vaccinated we face little danger of serious illness or hospitalization. I am ever the optimist that travel will be OK as long as vaccination efforts in Europe and the UK (and the rest of the world) continue. That vaccination card should make it possible for us to move freely.

Laurel, I completely agree with you. The Covid virus in all its variants present and future is most likely here to stay. Waiting for it to be gone before allowing travel or opening other aspects of a country's economy will become impossible. Great Britain's current wave is quite demonstrative about the effect of the vaccine. Yes, cases are spiking, but hospital admissions and deaths (though increasing) are not spiking as they have in previous waves. The vaccine is doing it's job. (Sorry for the long link, but data linked below...)

https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&time=2020-03-01..latest&pickerSort=asc&pickerMetric=location&Metric=Hospital+admissions&Interval=7-day+rolling+average&Relative+to+Population=false&Align+outbreaks=false&country=USA~ITA~GBR~FRA~DEU~BRA~IND

I know a couple epidemiologists, and I birthed a child that became an immunologist. It's really quite simple. There are several vaccines that are quite good, quite effective against the Delta variant. Masks help. Get a vaccine and wear a mask when instructed to do so. Just my opinion, but I think surges will be more localized. Like maybe consistent with places with low vaccination rates. Duh! The more people that get vaccinated, the less of a problem that Delta will be and fewer variants will occur. But, I think I'm preaching to the choir. I just want to be on a plane flying over the Atlantic!

Thanks for the article, Eric. As noted by another post above, the virus that causes COVID-19 and its variants are going to be ubiquitous for some time to come (perhaps forever). Singapore has some smart people who realize that the future of managing COVID-19 is learning to live with it -- mitigating severe manifestations with aggressive vaccine programs while keeping economies (and travel!) open.

Most of the experts are predicting a winter Covid surge. This time last year in the U.K., with nobody vaccinated, new infections were running at about 500 a day. Now this is around 25,000 a day with 86% having had their first jab and 63% both. Hospitalisations and deaths are lower than last year. There is talk of the over 50s having a booster vaccine in September here.

Due to the rise in the Delta variant, we can no longer travel to Germany, vaccinated or not.

Sorry, no one knows what is going to happen, but we will have to learn to live with Covid.

What’s the latest latest in Great Britain?

The Delta variant is spreading. I can't find the source now but I saw yesterday that the UK now has more daily new cases than the entire EU.

As vaccinations move along in Europe, maybe surpassing soon our US
percentages of population?

In terms of percentage vaccinated, many European countries has surpassed the US. But it varies a lot between different countries. Iceland is doing the best and surpassed the US over a month ago and now have vaccinated around 76%. Estonia on the other hand is at around 42%. On average the EU is slightly behind the US at 52% vs 54%.

Will there be a more minor covid surge and if….when??? Any guesses or
leanings a direction….as very few of us are epidemiologists?

Who knows? Time will tell I assume. I actually studied a bit of epidemiology at university and it is a very complicated subject.