Do you disapprove of people who are planning an overseas holiday this summer?

[Dr. Furface]

Also there is to be a trial of fast track immigration from a few places, Athens being one, where your vaccination status etc. is accounted for at the check in desk upon departure rather than at the border control desk on arrival.

Ooh that's good news as I'm booked to go to Athens in October. This looks like the way forward to me.

 

[metalguru]

At some point we have to trust the vaccines and get back to normal, sure it is not 100% effective, neither is the flu vaccine, we seem to be happy with thousands of flu deaths each year, surely at some point we need to accept the same with Covid??

At some point? The Covid vaccines are incredibly new....When development was started last year, it wasn't even certain they would be viable. With the 19th July approach, we're gambling a lot on their effectiveness

 

[weltweit]

If a new variant occurs which escapes our vaccines, you can be sure that relaxed rules on international travel will bring it here. And then we will be back to square one.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

If a new variant occurs which escapes our vaccines, you can be sure that relaxed rules on international travel will bring it here. And then we will be back to square one.

Science says that they are certain that any mutant strain can be dealt with via the vaccines, in their current state or with a tiny tweak, so we wont be back at square one at all.

 

[cupid_stunt]

Science says that they are certain that any mutant strain can be dealt with via the vaccines, in their current state or with a tiny tweak, so we wont be back at square one at all.

Yep, and the mRNA vaccines can be tweaked very quickly.

 

[MickiQ]

Science says that they are certain that any mutant strain can be dealt with via the vaccines, in their current state or with a tiny tweak, so we wont be back at square one at all.

Screw the science, I'm still waiting for my superpowers, stick some radioactive spider venom in it next time

 

[Johnny Vodka]

I may or may not go to Ibiza in September. Depends on whether it's still allowed and looks like 'fun', which I guess itself will be determined by the threat level of the virus. I will have had 2 doses of vaccine by then.

 

[weltweit]

Science says that they are certain that any mutant strain can be dealt with via the vaccines, in their current state or with a tiny tweak, so we wont be back at square one at all.

If a new variant emerges that escapes our current vaccines our population will be defenceless until it is once again fully vaccinated with a new vaccine. That is what I mean about square 1.

Yep, and the mRNA vaccines can be tweaked very quickly.

They still have to be put in arms, a process that takes some time.

 

[weltweit]

eta: To a new variant that escapes our current vaccines, Britain will look like a land with 66,600,000 people ready to infect. It would be a race between the virus and any new vaccines. I wonder what the hospitalisation rates would be then?

 

[cupid_stunt]

eta: To a new variant that escapes our current vaccines, Britain will look like a land with 66,600,000 people ready to infect. It would be a race between the virus and any new vaccines. I wonder what the hospitalisation rates would be then?

There's been dozens of variants of SARS-Cov2 so far, with only about 4 causing some concern, resulting in slight reductions in the efficacy of vaccines towards serious illness & death.

If you seriously think a new variant is likely to totally overcome the vaccines, and send us back to square one, you are suffering from a very special level of paranoia.

 

[tommers]

I didn't care and then I saw the news and people were talking about travel sites being 50% more busy then before and it just depressed me. Nothing against people who are doing it, just that everybody thinks of themselves, "well, we deserve a holiday" or whatever. And if everybody does that then we end up with loads of people flying, spreading covid and fucking up the planet. Nobody is individually to blame for that but collectively, as a species, we're fucking doomed.

I mean, I'm the same, I drive the kids to school if it's raining, I drive to the supermarket which is a 10 minute walk away etc etc. We're all the fucking same.

 

[Johnny Vodka]

I didn't care and then I saw the news and people were talking about travel sites being 50% more busy then before and it just depressed me. Nothing against people who are doing it, just that everybody thinks of themselves, "well, we deserve a holiday" or whatever. And if everybody does that then we end up with loads of people flying, spreading covid and fucking up the planet. Nobody is individually to blame for that but collectively, as a species, we're fucking doomed.

I mean, I'm the same, I drive the kids to school if it's raining, I drive to the supermarket which is a 10 minute walk away etc etc. We're all the fucking same.

Bear in mind many of us haven't flown for 2 years. I would like to go abroad this year, but even pre-covid I cut the number of times I would fly a year (due to climate change). Whether it's by enough, I don't know, but I've changed my lifestyle in other ways too to hopefully reduce my carbon footprint.

 

[ElizabethofYork]

Well I'm in Ibiza. All smooth and straightforward.

 

[Johnny Vodka]

Well I'm in Ibiza. All smooth and straightforward.

From what I've read elsewhere, the bar scene there now seems pretty good. How were flights? I'm assuming no drinking on the plane.

 

[weltweit]

If you seriously think a new variant is likely to totally overcome the vaccines, and send us back to square one, you are suffering from a very special level of paranoia.

Let's hope that is the case.

 

[Johnny Vodka]

Let's hope that is the case.

New variants of covid (or many other diseases) will always be a threat, though. How long can you reasonably shut down foreign travel for?

 

[weltweit]

New variants of covid (or many other diseases) will always be a threat, though. How long can you reasonably shut down foreign travel for?

I don't know the answer to that, I do know that international travel was how the delta variant got here though.

 

[Doctor Carrot]

No I don't begrudge people going on holiday if it's within the rules of both the UK and the country they want to visit.

I was very lucky to get to Greece last year in October for 10 days. I shouldn't have been able to go really, the rules should've prevented me but fuck it I was able to. Apart from the squeaky bum of whether we would actually be able to go or not, which sort of ruined the excitement pre holiday, it was all rather easy. Just filled out a passenger locator form and that was that. It's definitely much harder to travel this year, as it should be.

 

[Johnny Doe]

I don't know the answer to that, I do know that international travel was how the delta variant got here though.

Was all the testing to get in here now mandated then? Genuine question, I don't know and as noted by prunus up thread, testing reduces, not eliminates the risk, I know

 

[ElizabethofYork]

From what I've read elsewhere, the bar scene there now seems pretty good. How were flights? I'm assuming no drinking on the plane.

All fine. Yes, drinks were served on the flight.

 

[weltweit]

Was all the testing to get in here now mandated then? Genuine question, I don't know and as noted by prunus up thread, testing reduces, not eliminates the risk, I know

Testing probably less early on.

Allowing double jabbed people to avoid quarantine sounds to me like a fail, double jabbed people can be infected and spread it, if they are walking around between tests, spreading seems to me inevitable.

 

[Pickman's model]

Actually no it's not related to CoVID at all, If I was able to go somewhere without having to worry about all this testing or isolation nonsense then I'd do it. What I'm feeling smug about is not having to book a holiday, wonder if it will get cancelled at the last moment, sort out tests just before we go, run the risk of having to quarantiine at the other end, sort out another test on holiday in a foreign land, risk being stranded there and having to hunt for somewhere to stay (maybe not finding anywhere), sort out more foreign tests, rinse and repeat until (a lot poorer) I finally get on a plane home, risk being stuffed in some crappy airport hotel for a week. To add insult to injury I would be expected to pay for all this shit as well. I just can't be arsed with any of it I go on holiday to relax, get a break and catch some sunshine.
Set against all the potential aggro, the possibility of catching CoVID doesn't bother me at all, even the possibility of being patient zero for the super deadly Epsilon strain with a 50% death rate doesn't bother me as much as the thought of all the aggro I would have to go through to be able to sunbathe on a Spanish beach rather than my own patio.

if it's any comfort there's no chance of you being patient zero for the epsilon variant Epsilon variant of COVID-19 more resistant to vaccines, finds study: All you need to know-Health News , Firstpost

 

[2hats]

if it's any comfort there's no chance of you being patient zero for the epsilon variant Epsilon variant of COVID-19 more resistant to vaccines, finds study: All you need to know-Health News , Firstpost

The key point mutation in epsilon is L452R which it shares in common with delta and related lineages.

 

[Wilf]

I'm not going to criticise people going abroad, though I'm not very fond of those demanding the 'right' to go abroad in a pandemic. As a different question, I'm so sorry for those who haven't seen family in ages, particularly things like elderly parents. Really awful for them. Ultimately it should be seen as an issue of policy in a pandemic: is it a good idea to have, presumably, tens of thousands of people moving round Europe in the middle of a pandemic, most of them on flights breathing the same air?

It's not just about personal travel. Any government taking the pandemic seriously would have closed the borders other than for freight and essential travel. Working out what was essential travel, who got it and how to avoid people scamming it would have been difficult of course, but not a reason for leaving the borders open. If they'd done that, working out how to open up the holiday sector would be from a very different starting point than the one we are at now.

Edit: Short version - all the government's choices now are fucked up by their previous failures and fuck ups.

 

[Johnny Doe]

Friday's flight to Mallorca could be off! If The Balearics go red....

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Friday's flight to Mallorca could be off! If The Balearics go red....
View attachment 278475

Unforeseeable...

Every chance the Balearics will be amber again pretty soon, especially as our esteemed government has made it one of the very limited places you can go, cramming everyone in nice and tight...

 

[Johnny Doe]

Edit: Short version - all the government's choices now are fucked up by their previous failures and fuck ups.

Indeed. If Friday's trip is cancelled for us, due to the review tomorrow, the Government will have convinced me not to book anything else. It's the uncertainty that will kill the travel industry

 

[Spymaster]

Unforeseeable...

Is this going to cause ElizabethofYork a problem coming back?

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Is this going to cause ElizabethofYork a problem coming back?

If they make it red, then yes, massively. I get the feeling the Balearics will go to amber though, there would be outrage if they did move it to red having basically told everyone that there and Malta are the only safe places to go.

 

[Johnny Doe]

If they make it red, then yes, massively. I get the feeling the Balearics will go to amber though, there would be outrage if they did move it to red having basically told everyone that there and Malta are the only safe places to go.

Red = managed quarantine hotel, what ever you vax status, I think?