To think we shouldn't be bringing brits back from China

[MozzchopsThirty]

I see the US are rescuing their citizens.
How does this work?
Do they quarantine the plane, crew & passengers

Surely this just creates more risk

IMHO lockdown should mean lockdown

Canceling flights is an economic decision, and not related to the actual number of people potentially carrying the virus - with current FCO travel advice saying don’t visit China unless necessary, why would airlines continue to send empty planes to China? It doesn’t make business sense!
It’s one thing to stop future bookings, and there’s been no suggestion that current bookings are invalidated.

Yes, it’s an economic decision. I am booked on a flight out of China in Feb and now my departure airport has been changed as two routes have been cancelled.
Btw this was a flight booked last year, not an escape the virus flight.

Usual British bodge and fiasco. Not enough seats on the plane being sent to Wuhan to evacuate ex pats/visitors. Original advice to sort out onward travel themselves and self quarantine for 2 weeks. However, now apparently the evacuees may be held for 14 days at a military base. Much more sensible. The PE teacher with his granny visiting is going to give up his seat, how altruistic but should have been better planned given the lead time the FO has had on this.

@MozzshopsThirty, I would have naively thought that the point of citizenship is that a country protects their citizen in case of disasters and epidemics. It's also btw. what your passport would say, irrelevant of whether it's burgundy or blue (the person is under the protection blah blah).
Let's hope there's a quarantine but the main premise, that someone has no right to be protected by the country they are a citizen of because they moved out is, frankly, pretty asinine.

They should be brought back however proper (not self imposed and self administered) quarantine should happen.
When they get back of course family members will come into contact, who then will go to shopping/work/cinema and potentially spread it unbeknownst to themselves.

The flu virus is a bigger killer....

The virus will be in the UK already. 1000s of people have flown into the UK from Wuhan in recent weeks. With an incubation period of up to 14 days and the virus' apparent ability to infect prior to symptoms showing I suspect it's only a matter of time before cases start to be identified as symptoms begin to develop.

The problem with a mass quarantine is that with a long symptomless but infectious incubation period, if one person is ill with symptoms that emerge on day 10 post infection, the quarantine could go on until everyone is ill. They need to be isolated from others and each other. An aircraft hangar (read that somewhere) wouldn't work. You need everyone in separate rooms.

@EerieSilence
Agree.
we live in interesting times. observing the attitudes of some people is quite horrifying: from the ‘i’m Alright Jack mentality’ to those who are trying to make a financial gain from this situation eg buying hundreds of masks to resell...

I wasn't worried but the fact that BA have cancelled rather than cut back flights does worry me.

Airlines only generally cancel when a route is unprofitable / banned from flying

@malificent7 seasonal flu kills huge numbers of people because it affects massive numbers of people. It's comparing apples and oranges.

I don't think anyone knows what the true numbers are around Coronavirus but however you cut the available/projected data this really is a different kettle of fish.

Quarantining a city the size of London is an unprecedentedly huge step. Regardless of the figures, anyone who thinks this is 'just another flu' is seriously deluding themselves.

OP why don’t we shut up their houses and paint a big cross on their front doors while we are at it. Scratch the surface and some people’s moral compass is still hard wired to the thirteenth century.

Ive just seen on the news theyre now putting people into quarantine who comes back to the uk

These citizens likely aren't being repatriated due to the virus.

They're likely being repatriated due to expected civil unrest and breakdown in core services as a result of the spread of the virus.

While I agree a quarantine is pointless if people of certain nationalities can pass, there are multiple embassies in Wuhan and many of the people involved are government officials and their families, not people who've left the US entirely.

Also, unlike Brits, Americans who leave the US because we think it's shite and never return or work there again are still liable for filing and paying taxes until we die or renounce citizenship. How many of us do that is another question, but that's the reason when opening any account now they ask if you're a "US person". The rest of the world refuses to stand up to the US's threats and so allows it extraterritorial powers to monitor us even if we haven't been to the US as kids or at all and had it passed by a parent while it remains the country with the most complicated and extensive citizenship- as well as residency based taxation. There have accounts help by Americans or those believed to be Americans closed and frozen over this BS in the last year.

So any Americans that would leave are likely paying taxes (those who don't typically don't want to return to the US) and - if leaving - would pay for that at an exorbitant price as well. I think it was the Wall Street Journal that discussed how ridiculous the pricing ones, but I could be wrong. Both the US and UK charge and give out loans people when they do evacuations. Little has been more annoying in this last week than the how many news outlets have been misrepresenting this risky PR stunt as a 'rescue'. No one is being rescued, and the US will likely make money out of their own officials' fears and possibly put others at risk because that's flashier and more headline grabbing than giving China better support for this.

I'm off to stock up on anti bacterial hand wash, gel and paper masks today. Sounds hysterical but I lived in HK during SARS and this is spreading faster.

The government are saying that the UK flight (and other flights) can't leave as planned today - the Chinese authorities won't let them leave.

Antibacterial handwash won't add anything to soap and hot water

Antibac gel won't help against coronivirus, though is useful against bacteria when you can't get to soap and water

Jury seems to be out on the utility of masks. They do help restrict the distance that virus is shed by an infected person who is wearing one. If it becomes the done thing to wear one in your area, then you may are well.

Another thing to do is wear gloves. Not because warm hands protect you, but because it means you're not touching things when out and about with bare skin, and you're (probably) less likely to eat/rub eyes/pick nose whilst wearing them

Isn't there some issue with the Chinese not letting Chinese citizens leave on the plane which is causing issues as it splits families up ?

Yes. This fella and his family were visiting China and has been caught up in This. Horrific.
www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-51293855

They probably use an air force plane, carrying medics and everything they need to contain the virus if anyone is carrying it. And they'll use a military hospital for quarantine. They know what they're doing. They train for this

The Chinese wouldn't allow a uk military plane anywhere nr their air space.
The UK doesn't have military hospitals any more or capacity in the NHS for 100s of patients to just sit about.... and events happening now (across a wide range of issues) show that we don't know what we are doing at all....
Seemingly healthy people are not going to self quarantine themselves for two weeks and neither will their partners or children, a fucking ridiculous suggestion from that buffoon Hancock.

Coronavirus is now present in every single province in China, we need to be bring back all UK citizens but thats 1000s of people, where on earth will they all be quarantined or the med staff required to do so?

Bring back tourists yes.

Those that live and work there- no way! They chose to live there, it's their normal, why should they be brought back to a country they don't live in?!

How do you define 'living' somewhere? Which category wouid you put undergraduate on placement? gap year students? Short contract language teachers? Fixed length contract expatriate staff?

Or perhaps, when you only have a set time to get people out, you could just go by nationality rather than risk misjudgements on definitions of 'living', for there wouidn't be time for presentation and consideration I'd evidence is status

If her medication is starting to run out then is that because she didn't take enough with her?

How much extra time has she been there?

I’m on a controlled drug - I can only get prescribed four weeks worth at a time. If I went on holiday one week into my prescription for a fortnight they wouldn’t give me any more. I’d have a weeks worth of leeway or to protect against spillage. Then I’d be fucked.

@ammarry
How is this ‘their normal’?
You clearly have no idea what you are talking about. Lockdown of entire cities, compulsory wearing of masks, extension of the public holiday, schools closed - I have lived in China for 12 years and this is not anyone’s normal.