To think people shouldn't travel if they aren't willing to face the consequences?

[Lycidas]

Coronavirus related. Don't read if you've had enough of it, I guess .

There's a strong culture of entitlement to 'travel' the world as long as people can afford it, which is now being questioned. I've seen so many stubborn people here and offline saying things like 'I've booked flights to such and such place and I'm not cancelling'. We now know more about the virus than we did a few weeks ago - places like Italy and Iran have exploded, and who knows where else in a few weeks.

AIBU to think these determined travellers should face the potential consequences of their actions, e.g. being quarantined in a foreign country for a weeks at least, or having to self-isolate themselves and their children when they return? Instead I can see them whinging to the UK government to be flown back...

to be fair, such extreme things as coronavirus are pretty rare and unlikely. otherwise, just get insurance, get vaccinations if relevant, etc.

Totally agree, my booked holiday in May is something we are reconsidering. It'll cost us approx £900 to not go and we're not sure if our travel insurance will cover us. So far the government won't say do not go to where we're planning...just self isolate after we've been.
I'm hoping the government will say dont travel so I get something back, but am prepared not to go if needs be.
Luckily we can cancel up to 48hrs before and still only lose the £900 which is less than half of the overall cost as some of our hotels are reserved and not paid for. This is still lots of money for us but needs must.
At the moment people, who have booked are having to choose cost vs risk which is difficult as their is no definitive advice, for flying out, just coming back, and case numbers are changing worldwide rapidly.
My thoughts are with the poor airline staff that are flying people home too.

It’s gonna be here sooner or later anyway. We can’t stop it.

I think people are massively overreacting about the coronavirus, in all honesty. I think if everyone cancelled all their plans and stayed home every time there was some scare story in the papers we'd never leave our own street.

I have to travel regularly to see my elderly DF who relies on me for support.

Should I abandon him to his own devices?

I just talked to my travel agent. She said its business as usual.

I don't quite get what you mean by 'if they aren't willing to face the consequences'. Surely if the consequences happen, they will have no choice but to face them?

We've got a week's holiday in Spain booked for the Easter holidays. Tbh it hadn't really occurred to me yet that we might need to cancel it. Your OP sounds quite angry at people who have holidays. 'Entitled to travel the world', 'stubborn', 'determined travellers' etc. Why would people be cancelling their travel plans when there are no indications that they need to for the vast majority of destinations?

This was an entirely unpredictable event so YABU.

And how far do you take it anyway? Should people only ever have sex when they want to procreate?

Long haul holiday booked for March
Not cancelling
There are always lots of diseases circulating everywhere
I had flu in December last year

You realize it's a 150,000 people infected out of 7 billion people right? You realize almost 3 million people fly everyday? YABU.

@Lycidas

YABU, and you do sound a little bit jealous of people who travel a lot tbh. Some people do work hard and actually deserve a nice holiday abroad every year you know.....

But you are right that they do it at their own risk, and shouldn't complain when they get shoved in quarantine for a month.

I suppose you think people who put several 10s of 1000s of £££ into a make money-quick-scheme (like stocks and shares,) deserve to lose it too, as it serves them right for having so much surplus cash?

There's always someone ready to kick people when they're down... Especially if it's someone who is wealthier than them, and they're losing some of their money.

I think we may want to reconsider our modern lifestyles. We have left ourselves vulnerable to pandemics.

Not everyone travels for fun. My DH travels abroad to a wide variety of places, everything from Uzbekistan to Amsterdam, very regularly. He doesn’t have a choice unless he wants to look for another job.

I think we may want to reconsider our modern lifestyles. We have left ourselves vulnerable to pandemics.

Some pretty appalling pandemics managed to occur well before 'our modern lifestyle' though.

True lazylinguist, but that was before infection was understood. In those times, had quarantine, contagion, infection been understood, and antibiotics been available, much could have been stopped in its tracks.

Now we have the knowledge, but not quickly enough to act before we scatter across all four corners of the earth.