Search Result for 'romania'

by Niculina Florea Christmas tree made of empty vaccine bottles to encourage Romanian children to get vaccinated. Mihai Fagadaru is dead. Of course, nobody knows who Mihai Fagadaru was. Fagadaru was a medical doctor, father of two, fervent Christian and leader of protests against Covid measures in my home country of Romania. On October 30th he led a protest in our capital of Bucharest. The following week, after treating two patients sick with Covid, he himself fell ill. He went to hospital on November 18th, where his condition suddenly deteriorated. In his final hours he recorded himself saying that doctors were putting him under pressure to accept intubation. He was afraid the procedure would kill him. He asked that his lawyer record his refusal to give consent and that his friends care for his children should his fears be realised. Dr. Fagadaru had arrived at that hospital on his own two feet. The next day he was declared dead with Covid at the age of 43. The national press hastened to declare, in large type, the death of an infamous anti-vaxxer from the very disease he had denied and would not be vaccinated against. Perhaps, during his last moments on earth, he expressed regret at not taking the vaccine? But with the Fagadaru’s own video contradicting a deathbed conversion, the ...

by Niculina Florea A sign points the way to the vaccine clinic at Dracula's Castle I am in the lobby scribbling a few lines while my family observes rabbits in a park attached to the hotel. It’s called ‘Magic Land’ (i.e., a few trees carved with human faces or in imitation of characters from fairy tales). Sounds idyllic, doesn’t it? And yet I can’t quite manage a connection with those peaceful higher frequencies. Maybe for a few fleeting moments, as we do enjoy relative freedom here, but memories of that other world, just two and a half hours’ flight away, haunt me. What’s more – as our leaders have grown fond of reminding us – winter is coming. For now it’s summer and we are in Romania. After a spring of constant protest in the streets of our cities, the Government rid us of one health minister, only to replace him with another that, by and large, kept his policies. There is however a certain freshness in the air and, one way or the other, most measures have been relaxed. On the face of it, Romania’s much the same as elsewhere in Europe. Masks are compulsory inside, but not out. Vaccination clinics have popped up like mushrooms in a dark Transylvanian forest. Just yesterday we passed the famous clinic at ...

The EU is to approve a gas sharing plan should Russia cut supplies, under which member states will have to share gas as well as ration energy in a way that doesn’t favour those member states with alternative suppliers.