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??

Some of you should listen to yourselves! Of course, this means that some will sacrifice more than others. Did you expect the response to be 'means-tested'?

Some people are more likely to die from Covid. FACT. So they are getting vaccinated first. That way the hospitals will have space to treat all the non-covid people who need help.

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.

I think you'll find a lot of us who've been vaccinated due to our jobs can't afford holidays OP. And do you have any idea of the financial and physical impact of being in a vulnerable group, even before the pandemic started?

@AlternativePerspective it is a fair point but the tech with some of the vaccines is incredibly new. I am not an antivaxxer by any stretch but there are no longitudinal studies on any of them.

I also think it is a slippery slope to forced/mandatory vaccination. At this point many will scoff and say it would never happen. Hancock has said already that he 'couldn't rule it out'. As in, couldn't rule out someone being held down against their will and injected with a new drug, or denied public services like education and health. I just think there has been a swing over this pandemic towards complete authoritarianism.

What vulnerable people are booking holidays? It’s not a case of once vaccinated they are able to live their normal life. Vaccine passports haven’t happened and as vaccines don’t offer 100% protection lots of vulnerable people continue to shield

One thing I have noticed is how little sympathy those who have been vaccinated have for those who haven't or may not ever be.

Seriously? I've only heard gratitude. Remember, those who've been vaccinated are more likely to die of covid than you are. On the other hand, I've heard a lot of people less at risk brag about how they've been breaking the rules.

I can see your point. My in laws had the jab last week and are already making plans for what they’ll do a week from now once they’re “free” - meeting up with vaccinated friends indoors, going to stay with other friends for the weekend. They’re now wanting to book a family holiday abroad with us in May because they’re having their second vaccine in April - no thought for the fact that DH and I won’t even have had our first vaccination by then. If they get a vaccine passport they’ll be off as soon as they can, and you can bet your life they won’t bother quarantining when they get back.

given how long it's taken for the government to sort out sensible isolation precautions for people coming/returning to the UK, I wouldn't hold your breath for them to organise so called vaccine passports.
(if you had covid, holding your breath might not be an option)
Everyone will have been vaccinated before it happens.

I do 100% support restriction of services/entry to stuff, including the NHS, for anyone that chooses not to have the vaccine when there is no valid medical reason.

Let them go choke on coviddy 5g masks in the corner somewhere.

I am very low down on the list for vaccination. Best case July or August. But I have continued to work during lockdown, I can leave the house, go to the shop, go for a walk. I have had contact with people because of this. I don’t begrudge people who have been lonely and bored stuck in their houses constantly for almost a year a bit of joy and happiness when they can get it. One of my staff has not left her house except for hospital appointments or to go in the garden for over 10 months, the same for her partner. If they get the vaccination and have the opportunity to do something like go on holiday I will be very happy for her.

*5g masts

got masks on the brain!!

Many vulnerable people won’t ever go on holidays abroad- ever -because they are vulnerable or seriously ill or disabled, with all the physical and financial limitations that brings.

@2typesofjungle

I see your point OP. My parents and my MIL are all very healthy 60-70 year olds who have carried on regardless through lockdown and really lost very little. I find it hard not to be sightly irked that they are now planning round the world holidays while I still have no idea when my kids will go back to school.

I'm pretty sure your kids will be back at school before they go on round the world holidays.

Yes - after shielding for nearly a year now, I make plans for what it might be like to live by ‘normal person lockdown’ as that would be a massive increase in what’s OK

Yes I dream about a holiday too, maybe even talk about it. But that doesn’t mean it’s actually on the cards any time soon.

@ChalkDinosaur

Yanbu. Everyone should be offered the vaccine before they start rolling out special privileges for people who've had it.

Maybe those places you like to go abroad will need some money to keep things going until you can get there.

It is highly unlikely that vaccine passports will be adopted as permission to travel cross-border as at the moment we don't know enough about whether vaccination reduces transmission. Vaccine passports would effectively wipe out family travel for this year as children are unlikely to be vaccinated, and this is something the travel industry is lobbying hard to avoid. It's much more likely that a negative test will be your permission to travel, rather than a vaccine.

I am feeling a twinge of jealousy on this score. My dad and his cohort of well-off healthy 70 year olds will be off into the sunset with their index linked pensions asap. Meanwhile we, the workers, will be stuck at home shoring up our shell-shocked kids and generally picking up the pieces of society. However, the aim was to stop the NHS being overwhelmed and on that score it worked. It's both things, I guess.

Totally get where you are coming from OP. I've transferred mine twice, it was booked pre-pandemic, but if this is true I won't be transferring again I'll get a refund. I've kept my money in TUI's bank account to try and support the travel industry through all of this but there's only so many times I'm prepared to move it. I really feel for anyone working in the travel industry right now because this news isn't good for them either and I'm sure jobs will be lost if this is the case. Suddenly all the crazy conspiracy theories don't sound that crazy anymore because they said this was coming a long time ago.......

@tummyaches

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

This

@Lostinwinter

I am 100% pro vaccination, but I do feel uneasy. I think it is if people who are antivacc are forced to be vaccinated if they want to travel. Removes peoples choice. Should we ban alcohol?

Eh? I don’t understand your argument. Vaccination protects everyone, from something that is hard to avoid. Drinking alcohol is a choice that only affects one’s own health.

I'll be sure to tell my CEV husband, who has only left the house over the last 11 months for hospital appointments and the occasional walk when his health has been up to it, who hasn't seen his adult children (or indeed anyone but me and his medical team) for a year, who I effectively have to self-isolate from within the house if I have to go in to the office as it puts him at increased risk, that he'll have it lucky once he's had the vaccine, OP.

I'm sure he'd be willing to swap? He goes down the list of groups and you get his life-limiting disability. Sounds fair?

lol I think the vulnerable have sacrificed a LOT more than the non vulnerable. I don't think anyone will be going on holiday anytime soon and I don't think it'll have anything to do with vaccinations etc. Even if it does don't sweat it it's coming to us all soon

Obviously other countries can make whatever rules they like. But I think vaccine passports would be a fairly non-effective way to stimulate a tourist economy anyway, given that a lot of travel, happens with children or younger adults. Negtauve tests would surely be better as they'd open up a much bigger market?

Sorry that was a reply to @ancientgran

Yanbu the whole ‘vaccine’ passport idea is ridiculous

I’m one of those vulnerable you are talking about OP. But fear not, I have no intention of booking a holiday (UK or abroad). Instead, I’ll be carrying on looking after residents with dementia.
I hope that knowing this will make you sleep a bit better 🙄