The Washington Post - USA (2021-12-25)

A14 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.SATURDAY, DECEMBER 25 , 2021

the Netherlands sighing,” Prime

Minister Mark Rutte said when

announcing the lockdown. “An-

other Christmas that is complete-

ly different from what we would

like.”

But he emphasized the move

was necessary to avoid “an un-

manageable situation in hospi-

tals.”

In Amsterdam, the canalboats

are docked. Dam Square is empty.

Stores that were counting on

strong Christmas sales are in-

stead sending products back to

their wholesalers, knowing they

stand no chance of selling them

now.

“We didn’t expect this lock-

down,” said Oscar Karstens, man-

ager of Catwalk Junkie, a wom-

en’s clothing store that relies on

foot traffic.

Some tourists, stuck with non-

refundable tickets, arrived in the

city anyway this week but were

disappointed they could no lon-

ger go to museums, restaurants or

the famed Christmas markets.

“It sounded like a good idea to

stop in the Netherlands and Eu-

rope before Christmas,” said Julz

Shevko, 35, who months ago

planned a layover in Amsterdam

to see the Christmas markets on

her way home to Ukraine from a

vacation in South America. “It’s

so bizarre.”

The restrictions across Europe

have ruined yet another much-

needed tourism season, said

French travel agency operator

Marie Vendroux-Deppe, who

works with U.S. travelers. Most of

her clients canceled their trips in

the past few days, and now she

doesn’t expect a return to normal

until 2023.

“Every three or four months, I

finally feel confident again,” Ven-

droux-Deppe said. “But then new

bad news arrives and destroys

everything.”

The posh Pulitzer Amsterdam

hotel had planned to mark the

holidays with parties in its court-

yard. It commissioned a Danish

fashion designer to decorate a

30-foot Christmas tree. Now,

though, the courtyard is closed,

and guests can’t get near the

Christmas tree and its pink, over-

size bows. The hotel set up tables

in guests’ rooms so they can do

room service instead.

There will be no midnight

masses in the Netherlands. Dutch

bishops said they worried about

crowds and ventilation and the

impact of having “multiple cele-

brations in one evening.”

In neighboring Britain, by con-

trast, the archbishop of Canter-

bury, Justin Welby, encouraged

people to go to Christmas Mass.

“The worship of God is a necessi-

ty,” Welby said, adding that “An-

glican churches tend to be large,

cold, and drafty; they’re not great

places for spreading infections.”

He also said getting vaccines and

BY PERRY STEIN

AND RICK NOACK

amsterdam — The medieval
castle outside Amsterdam had
planned a cheeky holiday celebra-
tion, marking the end of a terrible
year with “the worst tour you’ve
ever had” and encouraging peo-
ple to realize there’s “stuff we can
laugh about together.”
But with the Netherlands in a
national lockdown once more,
organizers at Muiderslot Castle
didn’t find much to laugh about
this week. They had to refund
tickets, give away a dozen Christ-
mas trees and melt a skating rink
they don’t expect anyone to use
anytime soon.
“This castle has seen pandem-
ics before,” said Annemarie den
Dekker, director of programming
at the castle. “But my first reac-
tion was disbelief because we
were all expecting a Christmas
this year.”
The mood in much of Europe
reflects hopes briefly glimpsed —
and then dashed. As in the United
States, new cases of the omicron
variant are quickly overtaking
previously dominant delta vari-
ant. But many European govern-
ments have gone further than the
United States in reimposing cur-
fews, closures and travel restric-
tions. Ireland is shutting pubs at 8
p.m. Greece, Italy and Spain have
reintroduced outdoor mask man-
dates. In Austria, people without
proof of vaccination or covid-
recovery can leave home only for
essential reasons.
Europeans are being urged —
in some places required — to keep
holiday gatherings small.
There is some relief that early
evidence out of Britain and South
Africa suggests omicron doesn’t
make as many people as seriously
sick as delta. But based on how
fast it has been spreading, health
officials are still warning about
overwhelmed hospitals and a
breakdown of public services.
Britain’s National Health Serv-
ice reported Thursday that staff
absences due to covid were up 50

percent from the previous week.

Transport for London announced

it was closing a Tube line until the

end of the year over a lack of

drivers. And the education secre-

tary is calling for former teachers

to return to classrooms, in antici-

pation of omicron-related staff

shortages in January.

Britain and other European

nations that just a few months

ago were celebrating their world-

leading status in coronavirus vac-

cinations are now scrambling to

get boosters to as many people as

they can.

Covid health passes — docu-

menting vaccination, recovery or

a recent negative test — have

become routine in much of Eu-

rope and helped boost vaccina-

tion rates. Some countries are

now tightening the rules: adding

a booster requirement, dropping

testing as an alternative. Italy on

Thursday said unvaccinated peo-

ple would no longer be able to

partake in the ritual of having an

espresso at a cafe counter. An-

nouncing that the French govern-

ment intends to add more restric-

tions for the unvaccinated, Prime

Minister Jean Castex lamented

that hospital intensive care units

“are filled for the most part with

unvaccinated people.”

France has seen a problem with

fake vaccination cards, too. Car-

ole Ichai, a senior official at a

hospital in Nice in southern

France, said about 30 percent of

patients in her hospital’s inten-

sive care unit last week had coun-

terfeit vaccination certificates.

“Honestly, I didn’t expect that

we would [still] be in this situa-

tion,” she said, adding that the

constant scramble to respond to

spikes in case numbers has be-

come “very destructive for our

spirits.”

The Netherlands has the most

all-encompassing restrictions at

this point, with all but essential

shops shut until at least Jan. 14.

The sense that the worst of the

pandemic is back may be most

acute here.

“I can now hear the whole of

boosters should be considered a

moral obligation.

Britain has been more tenta-

tive than many other European

nations about reimposing coro-

navirus restrictions. Prime Minis-

ter Boris Johnson said his govern-

ment was watching the data

“hour by hour” but didn’t want to

issue new guidance before Christ-

mas. That has set up something of

a real-world experiment, with

people watching how omicron

behaves in light-touch Britain vs.

lockdown Netherlands.

Nearing the anniversary of its

full break with the European

Union, Britain now finds itself

subject to an array of travel re-

strictions on the continent.

Malcolm Sullivan had already

packed his bags, ready to travel

from Berlin to visit family in

England, when Germany an-

nounced a 14-day quarantine for

people entering from Britain. Sul-

livan canceled his trip, with his

partner and 3-year-old. The two-

day quarantine on the British side

was one thing. But he figured it

would be too difficult to quaran-

tine for two weeks with a toddler

on their return.

“That was pretty much the

most depressing thing I’ve done

this year,” he said.

This frustrating Christmas

makes it hard to know how to

plan anything in the coming

months, said Anna-Marie Vend-

erburg. The Dutch 79-year-old

had tickets to see the opera “La

Traviata” over Christmas week-

end in Amsterdam, but that got

canceled. She’s still hopeful her

ski trip to Austria in late January

will go on. She keeps calling the

resort, but they are also not sure

what the new year will hold.

“They are very nervous, too. It’s

just not possible to know,” Vend-

erburg said. “It’s a big disaster.”

[email protected]

[email protected]

Noack reported from Paris. Karla

Adam in London, William Noah

Glucroft in Berlin and Chico Harlan in

Rome contributed to this report.

European mood is dour with a second covid Christmas of lockdowns

PETER BOER/BLOOMBERG NEWS

Tourist boats float idly Tuesday in Amsterdam following the Dutch’s government adoption of a stricter

lockdown to stem a surge in coronavirus infections caused by the spread of the omicron variant.

BY ISABELLE KHURSHUDYAN

moscow — A Russian court
fined Google nearly $100 million
Friday for “systematic failure to
remove banned content” — the
largest such penalty yet in the
country as Moscow attempts to
rein in Western tech giants.
The fine was calculated based
on Google’s annual revenue, the
court said. Roskomnadzor, Rus-
sia’s Internet regulator, told the
court that Google’s 2020 turn-
over in the country exceeded
85 billion rubles, or about
$1.15 billion.
Meta Platforms, the parent
company of Facebook and Insta-
gram, was fined approximately
$27 million, also for declining to
remove banned content, several
hours after the Google decision.

Meta’s fine, like the one levied on

Google, was tied to yearly rev-

enue in Russia.

The fines represent an escala-

tion in Russia’s push to pressure

foreign tech firms to comply with

its increasingly strict rules on

what it deems illegal content —

particularly apps, websites, posts

and videos related to jailed oppo-

sition leader Alexei Navalny’s

network, which has been labeled

as extremist in the country.

Navalny’s popular videos on

corruption in President Vladimir

Putin’s inner circle can still be

accessed on YouTube, which is

owned by Google, in Russia. Na-

valny’s “Putin Palace” investiga-

tion, about a lavish Black Sea

residence Navalny claimed was

built for Putin by use of a slush

fund, has been viewed more than

120 million times.

Google’s press service said it

would study the court documents

then decide on next steps, such as

if it will appeal the decision. The

company has 10 days to appeal.

Google, Meta and other tech

companies are regularly fined in

Russia. But those penalties have

rarely exceeded $1 million. Be-

fore Friday’s court decision,

Google had been fined a total of

about $500,000 for failing to

remove some 2,600 items of con-

tent that Russia considers illegal,

according to Roskomnadzor.

Alexander Plushev, a journal-

ist for the popular Echo of Mos-

cow radio, said on his Telegram

channel that the Google ruling

“may indicate that the political

decision to expel Western ser-

vices from Russia has been

made.”

During his end-of-year news

conference Thursday, Putin said

Russia “will continue insisting

that our joint work with global

network platforms will be in line

with the Russian laws.”

He added that Moscow would

rather not resort to a traffic

slowdown or all-out block of a

certain Internet company or so-

cial network, but “if we are forced

into it, we will be forced to up our

demands in regard to everyone

who works with such issues and

ignores interests of the Russian

society.”

Digital rights activists have

blasted a decision by Russian

authorities to mandate foreign

tech firms open local offices

starting Jan. 1, fearing that those

subsidiaries can be used to pres-

sure companies into Internet

censorship.

Such a situation occurred in

September, when Navalny’s

Smart Voting app, which directed

Russians how to vote in opposi-

tion of Putin during parliamenta-

ry elections, disappeared from

Apple and Google’s online stores.

A person with knowledge of the

situation, who spoke on the con-

dition of anonymity for fear of

angering the Russian govern-

ment, told The Washington Post

at the time that Google received

direct threats against staff locat-

ed in the country from Russian

authorities.

Moscow also ramped up the

pressure on Twitter earlier this

year, slowing down the speed of

the network in March in retalia-

tion for what Russia said were

content violations.

In 2018, Russia blocked the

Telegram messaging app, one of

the country’s most popular, for

not providing Russia’s domestic

intelligence agency, the FSB, the

encryption keys for all Russian

users’ correspondence. But the

app continued to work in the

country and was widely used.

The ban was lifted last year.

Anton Gorelkin, the deputy

chairman of the Russian State

Duma Information Policy Com-

mittee, said on his Telegram

channel that “highly unpleasant

measures will follow if the turn-

over-based fine does not bring

Google to its senses. We will

continue to defend the right of

Russian citizens to a safe online

environment.”

[email protected]

Russia fines Google $100 million for not removing banned content

virus itself, or rather a sign of

population-level immunity stem-

ming from vaccinations and past

infections.

Compared with delta, omicron

is far better at evading vaccines

and causing infections in those

who have been inoculated. But

Denmark’s experience shows that

a rapid booster rollout might be

able to help cut down rising infec-

tion numbers. A team of scientists

at the State Serum Institute said

in a research paper this week that

Pfizer-BioNTech booster shots ap-

peared to provide a 55 percent

protection against infections,

compared with cases in those who

had received two doses.

Even if that level of protection

dips over time, boosters “can help

us through the next months,”

Grove Krause said.

According to Our World in

Data, Denmark has issued the

most per capita booster shots of

any European Union country.

Denmark said in its latest moni-

toring report, released Thursday,

that 36.8 percent of its population

had received a booster, more than

double the level from two weeks

earlier. Overall, 77.2 percent of the

country’s population has received

at least two doses.

Denmark carefully tracks hos-

pitalization rates, comparing cas-

es for delta and omicron. Between

Nov. 22 and Dec. 17, the hospital-

ization rate was higher for delta

cases: 1 percent, compared with

0.6 percent. The hospitalization

numbers include those who test-

ed positive before arriving and

those who tested positive within

48 hours after admittance.

But for now, because the omi-

cron cases are skewed among the

young, scientists say an outright

comparison is premature.

[email protected]

BY CHICO HARLAN

Early benchmarks from Den-
mark on infections and hospital-
izations are providing grounds
for guarded optimism that highly
vaccinated countries might be
able to weather the omicron wave.
The developments, coupled
with Denmark’s speedy rollout of
booster shots, have raised hopes
the country can avoid the dire
surge for which it has been brac-
ing.
“It’s too early to relax, but it’s
encouraging that we are not fol-
lowing the worst-case scenario,”
said Tyra Grove Krause, the chief
epidemiologist at Denmark’s
State Serum Institute.
Denmark’s detailed, nation-
wide program for coronavirus
testing and analysis gives its sci-
entists a trove of real-time data
about the pandemic. Because of
that — and because it was one of
the first countries outside of Afri-
ca to witness omicron’s explosive
potential — it has turned into a
European bellwether for what to
expect with the omicron variant.
Over the past week, the country
has fared better than it was ex-
pecting. After surging to record-
breaking levels, the number of
daily cases has stabilized. Offi-
cials recorded 12,500 cases on
Thursday, compared with 11,
late last week.
More important, hospitaliza-

tions have come in — so far — on

the very low end of what was

projected. A week ago, Denmark’s

government science institute said

daily new coronavirus hospital

admissions could range between

120 and 250 patients by Christ-

mas Eve. In recent days, daily

admissions have hung around

125.

“That is quite promising,”

Grove Krause said.

The early signals from Den-

mark don’t provide any direct

measure on the severity of the

variant, one of the key questions

in this phase of the pandemic. But

they track with other emerging

data and studies from Britain and

South Africa that suggest omi-

cron is less likely to lead to hospi-

talization than the delta variant.

Scientists caution that there

are still many uncertainties, and

that even if omicron is less likely

to cause hospitalization, its in-

creased transmissibility means

countless sicknesses and disrup-

tions. The virus could also spread

so widely that it nonetheless leads

to an influx at hospitals.

Concerns remain about the

health system in Denmark, Grove

Krause said, because omicron in-

fections are disproportionately

concentrated among the young.

For now, Grove Krause said, tem-

porary school closures and social

precautions have helped slow the

spread — but the country could

Denmark sees early

signs that dire omicron

surge can be avoided

see a spike after holiday gather-

ings that bring together the young

and old.

Even as cases have slowed,

there are other signs of omicron’s

potential to cause chaos. Over the

past two weeks, the number of

cases among health-care workers

has more than doubled. A weekly

government monitoring report

said there had been two omicron

outbreaks in nursing homes.

Since omicron emerged in No-

vember, scientists have been rac-

ing to understand its implications

and make sense of a variant that’s

moving far more quickly than its

predecessors.

A few data points emerged this

week, with one Scottish study

suggesting the risk of hospitaliza-

tion was almost 60 percent less

with omicron than delta. Another

analysis, conducted by Imperial

College London, said people with

omicron cases were 20 percent

less likely to go to a hospital and

40 percent less likely to be hospi-

talized overnight. And South Afri-

ca, the epicenter of the first appar-

ent outbreak, has seen much low-

er hospitalization rates than in

other waves.

It remains unclear whether

trends from South Africa — where

demographics skew younger —

will play out in other parts of the

world. It’s also unclear whether

and to what extent omicron’s re-

duced severity is a feature of the

EPA-EFE/SHUTTERSTOCK

A long line for coronavirus tests Thursday in Aalborg, Denmark. The country was bracing for possibly

its worst stretch of the pandemic, but hospitalization rates are at the low end of what was predicted.

“It’s too early to relax,

but it’s encouraging that

we are not following the

worst-case scenario.”

Tyra Grove Krause,

chief epidemiologist at Denmark’s

State Serum Institute