Surely a vaccination certificate for international travel should be implemented as soon as possible?

[wintertime6]

I don't understand why there is a debate on this? Surely it should be implemented as soon as possible (taking into consideration the availability of vaccines for all those who want to travel). The government need to step up and make some tough decisions and make sure that the fabulous work down with our vaccination programme isn't undone. It's done for yellow fever and that's a vaccine people have to pay for. If there's a valid reason people can't have the vaccine they can get an exemption certificate. And I've never heard anyone complaining about it?

And who should pay to set up this vaccine certificate scheme?

Should GPs be responsible for signing them off? What job do they put to one side to give them time to do this?

It could be a lot of cost just so the minority can go abroad on holiday.

While I feel for those who can't see family in other countries, nobody NEEDS to go on holiday. Indeed we wouldn't all be in the shit we're in, and there wouldn't have been so many deaths, if it weren't for people gaily flying around the world during a pandemic. Yes, governments should have been quicker to close borders, but the fact that people were still doing it, and finding ways to avoid restrictions by going via other countries ... hope the selfish bastards are proud of themselves. I wonder what tiny percentage of those trips were absolutely life-or-death necessary? Problem is that many people are so selfish and entitled that their 'right' to go wherever they want, whenever, apparently trumps the need for other people to stay alive.

I don't think that we should have international travel until next year now. Definitely not for non UK based people coming in.

@LakieLady, we stayed in Northumberland last July (2 adults and 6 young adults/ children - our own and friends’) It was amazing and empty and we all loved it. But can I find self catering accommodation for that many people at an affordable price this year? No.

I feel strongly that non essential travel abroad should be restricted this year. Everyone who wants the vaccine needs to have been offered it and what about children? Adults may be vaccinated but their children could still catch it and bring it back.

I think the rise in cases last autumn was more to do with travel abroad than schools opening.

I say this as someone who has planned to go abroad last year but couldnt. I wouldnt want to risk taking or catching a variant to the place I visited. I'm very much looking forward to the day that trip can be taken but next year is the earliest I believe it should be possible.

I haven't got an issue with vaccine certification for travel abroad. Maybe something can be stamped into a passport, for example. I do have a massive issue about restrictions domestically for not having a vaccination. For example, to go to a restaurant.

@Cupcakegirl13

I really don’t understand the obsession with the ‘need’ to holiday abroad ! It’s seriously down the priority list right now. It’s not just about you as an individual being vaccinated and therefore ‘safe’. It’s not safe until the majority of the world has been vaccinated.

I moved to the other side of the world knowing that my retired parents were a flight away. Now, they may as well be on Mars. None of us 'expats' imagined that this could ever be the case. I've got friends with children whose GP, Aunts and uncles they have never met and still don't know when that could happen.

I've got friends in the Us who have had to miss their fathers funeral despite being vaccinated

Now my and My DHS parents are fully vaccinated why can't they travel? This isn't a jolly, 1 week in Majorca. They come for several months to be part of our family!

It's coming. And will be via a phone app. Google Commonpass and IATA Travelpass. Both are already being trialled by airlines. They will be a globally recognised solution which saves every country doing their own thing and airlines and hotels having to be familiar with hundreds of different certificates issued by different countries.

@CannotShakeIt

There will be absolute uproar if the older and vulnerable get to go holiday because they have had the vaccine, but, the healthy (no underlying conditions) and younger people can’t because they are still waiting for the vaccine.

Why? Older people are more likely to not have much time left to travel. If you are younger you have your whole life

My parents are in their 70's. They visit me. Their only child. In NZ. I can't imagine they will be doing this trip much longer. Every 6 months that goes by, on their own, they are cutting into borrowed time.

there will always be other variants ... the vaccines have proof to reduce tve transmission in the last month so if do you want the country to be closed forever ? And do you want to have the country in lockdown every time there is a case ? Balance needs to be found. And vaccines bring that balance

I agree with this completely. We can't lockdown forever and it's already been acknowledged we need to learn to live with this virus. The longer we lockdown the more jobs will be lost and more people living in poverty. The problem is which vaccine because the AZ one has now been shown it doesn't work with the SA variant.

I think we should all holiday in the UK, limit those coming in and out until the vast majority of regions we’ve opened up to are vaccinated and the virus is under control. We’ve heard how great New Zealand has been doing (geography makes it much easier) we should stay cut off. Nobody needs to go to the med. holidays at home will also help our economy.

@notdaddycool

I think we should all holiday in the UK, limit those coming in and out until the vast majority of regions we’ve opened up to are vaccinated and the virus is under control. We’ve heard how great New Zealand has been doing (geography makes it much easier) we should stay cut off. Nobody needs to go to the med. holidays at home will also help our economy.

Exactly.

Plenty of ways to keep in touch if family are abroad as we have more technology now than ever.

Seriously, how on earth is this going to work? It's easy to say 'it'll be an app' but that app would have to have access to your personal details and link up to your NHS records. That is bloody difficult to start with. How is the vaccination recorded? Typically it's an entry in your GP records - is it being coded in some way? Can that data be pulled through automatically? Different GPs use different computer systems! An app would have to work with all of them - I work in a hospital & I can't access GP records.
I really can't see how this will work in practice. GPs do not have time to issue a paper certificate, which they could quite rightly charge for, and would be very easy to forge. I had my vaccination via work, which is in a different region to my GP - I have no idea if my GP has been informed, and honestly I'd be surprised if they had. I seriously can't see this working in practice. If the government can't get Track and Trace to work there's no way in hell they'll get a system which only benefits people travelling internationally or going to festivals to work. Plus there is the small problem of new virus mutations arising abroad that the vaccine doesn't work against! International travel is a really bad idea right now & I can't see that changing this year - not with Europe going back into lockdown.

Vaccination register is held centrally as well as on your GP records and is attached to your NHS number. It’s a more or less trivial problem to attach the information to your passport for overseas travel.

There will be some genuine business travel (probably only a fraction of those that business people consider essential but still some). So even if visiting relatives abroad is not for a while, let's get it planned and started, as then there will not be some rush whereby those with what all of us would probably agree are good reasons are not able to travel because of processing delays.

We could already have ‘proof of immunity’ certificates. There are millions of people that are currently immune after recovering from infection - including children and pregnant/breastfeeding women.

Why not let anyone who can prove that they are immune travel freely?

Older people are more likely to not have much time left to travel. If you are younger you have your whole life

Nobody knows how much of their life they have left.

Have you had the vaccine OP?

@Malin52

“I moved to the other side of the world knowing that my retired parents were a flight away. Now, they may as well be on Mars.”

That’s really tough. We’ve been away from our parents/family at various stages in our lives but yes, they were always just a flight away which was very comforting.

The EU are proposing a three pronged internal passport bumbleymummy, which will record vaccine status, recent negative test results and recent recovery from infection and hence presumed temporary immunity. Much trickier to implement than a vaccine-only record, but not impossible if you attach test results to your NHS record, and then tie it into passport number.

If you think about the US ESTA system I’m pretty confident this is all doable for overseas travel. For pubs and clubs, not so much.

more or less trivial problem to attach the information to your passport for overseas travel

Do British passports have microchips in them with memory & data storage?

Must admit I'm sick of hearing MNers talk so much about holidays. Are many people normally deeply obsessed with planning holidays? I know people who never go on hols, they never can afford it. Or they might have one week away probably near family for a visit not on top of their relatives. Which is what I have often done. Is that so unusual? I have family overseas I'd like to see. I can call it a holiday, but I wouldn't go "there" but for desire to see them.

You wouldn’t need to put the information physically in the passport Trout, just give permission for the airlines/immigration to check your status on a centrally available and secured list, like they do when you fly to the US. There are much cleverer ways to do it though.

Why? Older people are more likely to not have much time left to travel. If you are younger you have your whole life

Wow, so tired of this 'argument'. You can reverse it and say that the old people have lived their life already, now it's time for younger to have their chance.

These threads always seem to sink to 'old v young'. Either of these stances is a shit way to think IMO.

I can't afford holidays in UK. I can, however, afford all inclusive week in Greece, Spain, Turkey or other like 10 countries😂
Frustrating

@PankhurstTastic Google the Commonpass. Org website. You'll see how it works. 6 airlines globally are already testing it.