Aibu to feel a little miffed (re 'vaccine passports')

[NotPennysBoat]

I'm a healthy 40yo with young children. Elderly but otherwise healthy parents, no otherwise vulnerable close family members. We've spent the last 11 months following all the guidelines and putting our lives on hold, my kids have lost many months of education and we have struggled financially. All for the greater good and happy to do that (mostly).

Now the vulnerable groups are being vaccinated (yay!), and I'm reading about vaccine passports to enable them more freedoms and the ability to travel abroad.

AIBU to be feeling miffed that for all the sacrifices the non-vulnerable have made for others, we are now being penalised again while the elderly and vulnerable we've been protecting are booking their summer holidays??

Those who are vulnerable and in the shielding category are still being told to shield. They will not be jetting off on holiday as they are still being told that they can still get covid it just makes it less chance of them dying.
You followed the rules to protect your family too, so that if you child was in a car accident, the ambulance wasn’t a little longer getting to you and the doctors weren’t slightly slower in providing care in hospital, you know because they are fucking overwhelmed with really scary sick dying people in front of them.

Yanbu, now that the vaccine is rolling out for the vulnerable, the rest of us should have our freedom back and the economy allowed to recover.

@NotPennysBoat

I'm a healthy 40yo with young children. Elderly but otherwise healthy parents, no otherwise vulnerable close family members. We've spent the last 11 months following all the guidelines and putting our lives on hold, my kids have lost many months of education and we have struggled financially. All for the greater good and happy to do that (mostly).

Now the vulnerable groups are being vaccinated (yay!), and I'm reading about vaccine passports to enable them more freedoms and the ability to travel abroad.

AIBU to be feeling miffed that for all the sacrifices the non-vulnerable have made for others, we are now being penalised again while the elderly and vulnerable we've been protecting are booking their summer holidays??

This "vaccination passport" thing has been debunked as fake news on the lengthy thread in the Coronavirus section. The OP of the other thread changed her thread title to reflect this as the ageist frothers were obviously salivating at another opportunity to put the boot in to the elderly.

The only talk of vaccine passports I've heard is certain people wondering if this might become a thing.

There are a number of counties that you can only visit if you have had certain inoculations, it's not unusual so yes, it's a possibility that at some time in the future a lot of counties will only allow people to visit who have had covid jabs, or if they can't for medical reason, will need to get an all clear.

How is that penalising people like you OP? The government is planning to offer covid jabs to all adults eventually. If you don't take up that offer because you are a healthy 40 year old, or for any other reason then that's your prerogative.

I've recently had my jab because of my age at no point has anyone suggested to me I'm clear to start booking holidays to exotic places. Me, people like me and vulnerable people of all ages are still being told to continue to follow the rules they been following for what amounts to almost a year.

And no, you and your children have not sacrificed everything to protect the elderly and vulnerable. The lockdowns and all the other measures were put in place to stop the NHS from collapsing under the onslaught of sick and dying people.

And yes, that has included a great many elderly and vulnerable people but increasingly it's including more and more, otherwise healthy people under 50.

Clearly, and not just on MN, there seems to be a strong body of opinion that as people are old or vulnerable their lives matter less than younger people, mainly those under 50.

Perhaps now covid seem to be affecting a lot more younger people, perhaps those younger people who feel they're being hard done by will start to take it more seriously and realise that this affects everyone.

I can't get worked up about this (Mainly because I haven't been able to afford a holiday abroad or in this country for almost ten years now and probably won't ever again to be honest).

Although my PIL in their 70s will be off on a plane as soon as they can.

Just have to wait another year for a holiday.

They never shielded though. We off all around the U.K. as soon as they could last summer. We stayed in though.

YANBU OP and I feel the same. There was a member of the public on the broadcast the other night asking why he can't socialise with others who've had the vaccine and I felt very resentful. I'm probably last on the list to get the bloody thing and I don't think it's fair that we will have to continue sitting in fearing death whilst all those who've had it can do as they please potentially making us ill doing it.

@pigsDOfly and also you can be young and extremely vulnerable..

The other way to look at it, @NotPennysBoat, to be kind is that those elderly people you're so quick to lambast don't have as many years left to travel as you do. Do you really begrudge them? They have also lost out by staying at home and following the rules.

You are not better or more deserving than them.

Also stupid and ageist

@RonObvious

Erm...we didn't make the sacrifices for the vulnerable, we made them to ensure that we had a (relatively) functional NHS.

Don’t be obtuse. They go hand in hand!

We didn’t want the vulnerable to catch covid, because they would be the ones that would be at a significantly higher risk of needing admitted to hospital.

I am in the ‘older’ age group described by the op. Why shouldn’t we be able to go on holiday if we have been vaccinated? I am sure that many children have suffered terribly from missing school and socialising. I have missed my family and friends too, and I have fewer years left to ‘enjoy life’. I certainly won’t feel guilty about a holiday, should it be allowed, because I too have worked hard all my life, and brought up a family.
This virus isn’t our fault, fgs!!!

ODFOD!
I agree, these threads really do show up the (lack of) intelligence in some people.

I was just about to start a thread on the same thing! I am 30, 2 pre school kids, my family live in Ireland. Looks like all the pensioners will be heading to Greece on their holidays this year while I walk the same path to the same park and see nobody from one end of the week to the next. I stayed in, I followed the rules, all to keep vulnerable and old from dying. Now, off they go with their freedom passports, while my new 3 month old waits god knows how long to see her Grandparents. I shouldn't be angry, but I am fuming.

I hope they have a drink on the beach for me. I bloody deserve it.

I tend to agree OP. ITV News ran an 'And Finally' piece a couple of nights ago about the pensioners already booked for cruises this year and how much they are looking forward to them. I found it insensitive and crass given how many of us have lost jobs/businesses, our kids education and won't be able to book a cruise for this summer as we probably won't have had our vaccinations by then anyway! (And that's a pre-requisite of booking certain places) let alone be able to afford a holiday. I understand the lockdown measures weren't brought in to protect exactly that group of people - it was to protect the NHS, but let's not kid ourselves as to what group of people probably uses those services the most.

I kinda see your point op. There's been lots of propaganda about protecting the NHS and Save Lives which is primarily vulnerable / elderly. On a few months if feels like we, the unvaccinated dirty ones, will still be in lockdown whilst anyone who gets the vaccine can go ahead, maybe use certain services in The UK which only the Clean can use.

However it would only be unfair if the intention was to not vaccinate anyone under 50 who's healthy. As it is were talking about months difference and given they don't know how much it protects, lots of vulnerable people will still be rightly cautious until more people are covered

I can really see people in care homes, who were the highest priority in Scotland, rushing off to book holidays abroad. My MIL can’t walk and barely knows the day of the week. YABVVU she had the vaccine to reduce the chances of her dying, she has an advanced directive so if she gets COVID there will be no heroic measures to save her. You want yours so that you can go on holiday! Your attitude is disgusting.

What's the alternative OP? Nobody gets to do anything until everyone is vaccinated, just to make you feel better?
We just lock down until August so that it's 'fair'?
Thank goodness the hospitality industry is thriving and can afford the setback.

The vaccine passports aren't an exit permit arrangement.

They are a response to other countries' stated intent to require proof of vaccination.

Without that, no-one will be going to any other country that requires robust proof. And as reasons for travel are far more than just holidays (business, family inc compassionate) I think it would be very unfair to make it impossible for any UK resident to travel at all to certain countries, because there is no way to meet their entrt requiremts, on the idea that because not everyone currently meets the entry requirement, no-one should.

Other holiday destinations are available

@TwirpingBird

I was just about to start a thread on the same thing! I am 30, 2 pre school kids, my family live in Ireland. Looks like all the pensioners will be heading to Greece on their holidays this year while I walk the same path to the same park and see nobody from one end of the week to the next. I stayed in, I followed the rules, all to keep vulnerable and old from dying. Now, off they go with their freedom passports, while my new 3 month old waits god knows how long to see her Grandparents. I shouldn't be angry, but I am fuming.

I hope they have a drink on the beach for me. I bloody deserve it.

It's fake, clickbait news. Shame your ageism isn't fake.

You haven't sacrificed anything for cev people, t's the other way round, cev people are shielding as they are the ones likely to take up hospital beds and overwhelm the NHS.

You're welcome

So as a vulnerable group, we should be grateful for our prize of a vaccine??
The vaccine allows us not to fear every move we make. For simple things could kill us.
The shielded have stayed in alone for months on end watching others meet in parks over the summer, and have trips out/away.
So you haven’t really done anything for US. As others have said, this was to protect our wonderful nhs.
As for vaccine passports, by the time it’s all been authorised, I’m sure you can book your holiday abroad anyway!! Enjoy 🙄

@QueenPawPaws I'm not sure what you're trying to point out.

I've written 'elderly and vulnerable' - that's elderly people and vulnerable people a few times in my post.

I've also written 'vulnerable people of all ages', which surely covers extremely vulnerable young people and indeed vulnerable children.

It's all over sky news. It's not fake.

And its not ageism. I am jealous of anyone getting on a plane this year, old or young. I have no shame admitting I am jealous to my core. I miss my parents so much it hurts. They havent seen my children. I have been pregnant, gave birth, and managed a 2 year old and a newborn with my parents in a different country during a pandemic. I am so lonely I am a shell of a person. I want to go HOME.

So you can F off with your judgement. You clearly are lucky enough not to be in my position.

YANBU - it's not right for the rules should stop applying if you've been vaccinated, creating a 2-tier society. (I realise that isn't currently the case - but if that does happen.)