I thought vaccines were our way out??

[user2021]

Why are we introducing travel restrictions now? And why are we being told things won't be back to normal by the summer/not to book any holidays abroad?

I thought the vaccines were our way out of this mess?

What needs to happen to get us back to normal? I thought once hospitalisation numbers are greatly reduce and the NHS can cope then that's that?!! We were never perusing a zero transmission policy, we were pursuing a don't-overwhelm-the-NHS-policy, or am I missing something?

Yes, you're totally missing dangerous variants from overseas for which the current vaccines may be less effective for but I think you know that really don't you

You're not missing anything. They're changing the goalposts.

If this is how they behave, I don't think things will EVER go back to normal. There will come a point where, even if they remove restrictions, the vast majority of the pubs, restaurants, shops, festival organisers, wedding businesses and so on will have gone bust. They won't be there to visit even if we're allowed to go.

Is this the Wednesday morning doom and gloom scaremongering post? 😂

You lot love it

@Followthelarch

Yes, you're totally missing dangerous variants from overseas for which the current vaccines may be less effective for but I think you know that really don't you

MAY reduce the effectiveness but so far all the vaccines have still proven to prevent against death and serious illness (hospitalisation).

If there's a new strain, and you get a mild illness after receiving your vaccine, then I don't see the issue? So long as you're not hospitalised and taking up a bed in a hospital.

So far there hasn't been any new strain or variant to seriously worry us, has there?

I think it's just a precaution. Things will be opened up when it can be shown the travel restrictions are not necessary. Why wouldn't they be? Travel is big business.

They have always, said that even with the vaccine rollout underway, we still need to adhere to social distancing rules. For the vaccine to have much of an effect on daily life we need around 50%(?) of the population to be vaccinated. We have already had mutations, we risk risk more that may not be covered by the vaccine. We, are, streets, ahead of many other nations in their vaccination programmes.

Do people honestly think that the government want to trash the economy? This is a Conservative government who have been paying people not to work - do people not realise how severe this situation must be for the Tories to do this? A strong economy is the bedrock of their polices and the reason why most of their voters vote for them, why would they sabotage that?!

Previously the government were slower off the mark than other countries in terms of tight restrictions and were criticised for it. I don't think they want to make the same mistake.

Oh goodness its like the repeated daily thread.

No the goalposts haven't moved.

Yes new variants are an issue and have forced a change in strategy (this has been the case since mid December but most people appear to have been half asleep and not noticed the significance of the new variants). This is not goal post changing. This is a response to our initial strategy being fatally flawed requiring us to readjust our course to get to the goal posts of reality that covid produces.

We have to restrict the possibility of new variants arising whilst we build a comprehensive long term vaccination strategy and infrastructure and complete our first course of vaccinations to build some level of community resistance to covid and reduce pressure on the health care system.

Nothing new. Same goals. Just different strategy to get to the end.

@pensivepigeon

I think it's just a precaution. Things will be opened up when it can be shown the travel restrictions are not necessary. Why wouldn't they be? Travel is big business.

This.

They don’t want to over promise and under deliver yet again.

Avocados, why would 'they' want pubs, restaurants, shops, festival organisers, wedding businesses and so on to go bust? What purpose would it serve?

I think we’ll open up everything here and it will be more like normal but the travel restrictions will stay a bit longer. People will be able to go on holiday abroad but will have to quarantine after.

They’re terrified that a new variant will be introduced that will evade vaccines and undo all the good work the vaccines are primed to do.

They’re being very cautious right now. I expect they’ll relax when the vaccines are doing their thing and more and more across the world have had them.

I don’t think it’s mad to focus on opening the country up and deprioritising foreign travel for the minute.

@AvocadosBeforeMortgages

You're not missing anything. They're changing the goalposts.

If this is how they behave, I don't think things will EVER go back to normal. There will come a point where, even if they remove restrictions, the vast majority of the pubs, restaurants, shops, festival organisers, wedding businesses and so on will have gone bust. They won't be there to visit even if we're allowed to go.

Well aren't you the cheery one

I mean, it's not like we live in a capitalist society or anything, where other businesses will spring up to replace ones that went bust. No, the government controls everything, and for some unfathomable reason want everyone to go bust

It’s the worry that a variant will emerge that evades the vaccine entirely and puts us back to square one. The more travel and mixing that takes place, the more opportunities the virus has to mutate. We really don’t want to sabotage the vaccination program by letting any as yet undetected variants of the virus in. It isn’t forever but we can’t move very quickly either. If we can get it under control here and have more domestic freedom it’s a trade off for international travel that could see us back in lockdown.

The 'goalposts' only change in response to how the virus mutates.

If it has been considerably slower to mutate, we could probably have stuck with the half-assed self-policed, taken on trust type of quarantine that is already in place.

@LegoPirateMonkey

It’s the worry that a variant will emerge that evades the vaccine entirely and puts us back to square one. The more travel and mixing that takes place, the more opportunities the virus has to mutate. We really don’t want to sabotage the vaccination program by letting any as yet undetected variants of the virus in. It isn’t forever but we can’t move very quickly either. If we can get it under control here and have more domestic freedom it’s a trade off for international travel that could see us back in lockdown.

That makes a lot of sense. Thank you!

You missed a bit:

"No, the evil anti-capitalist Tory government controls everything, and for some unfathomable reason want everyone to go bust"

It's just not plausible, is it?

There are only travel restrictions from Red List countries and that is understandable, as the data showing our vaccines will reduce the risk of serious symptoms from foreign covid variants
was only based on a very small sample of people. It's still an unknown until more people are tested.

Plus the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine only offers between 10-22% protection from the South African variant, and that's the vaccine the UK has the most of unfortunately.

I agree, travel restrictions a full 12 months too late! Completely laughable / depressing.

But as others have said, they are worried about vaccine resistant variants

@AuntieStella

You missed a bit:

"No, the evil anti-capitalist Tory government controls everything, and for some unfathomable reason want everyone to go bust"

It's just not plausible, is it?

Ha ha, yes! I mean, either it's "eeeeevil money-obsessed Tories run this country" or "the government are moving the goalposts to keep everyone at home and make businesses fail". Can't be both. Make your mind up!

@JanuaryJonez

There are only travel restrictions from Red List countries and that is understandable, as the data showing our vaccines will reduce the risk of serious symptoms from foreign covid variants was only based on a very small sample of people. It's still an unknown until more people are tested.

Plus the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine only offers between 10-22% protection from the South African variant, and that's the vaccine the UK has the most of unfortunately.

I haven't read that about the AZ vaccine against the SA variant yet. Do you have a link?

We have vaccines
Not everywhere does.
There in lies the issue

We won't all be back to normal until everywhere, worldwide, is vaccinated. So whilst the west for the most part have vaccines, other, poorer places don't, and are likely as a result of no Vaccine, limited access to healthcare, poor sanitation and living conditions, to generate ever more concerned variants, hence the South African and Brazilian variants.

If we want to get back to any form of normal, once we have vaccinated everyone here, we should also vaccinate or give countries less able to produce them, access to vaccines and the people to go and vaccinate and advise over there.

The travel ban is the only way forward, it's exactly what Australia and New Zealand have done. They still have that in place now. In Australia, for months now you've had no choice but to pay $3k (Aus) for a two week hotel quarentine. You can only leave after negative tests, you are literally deposited in a hotel of their choice, given 3 meals a day and healthcare.

Also all the vaccine companies have said they will have an updated vaccine to offer better protection to new variants.

This is normal. Its what we do for flu.

We just need a similar plan and infrastructure built to deal with this on an ongoing basis and for other countries to also do this, thus reducing the risk of mutations and frequency of new variants in the future.

All of this was anticipated as being a possibility.

Travel restrictions are part of allowing us to get to that position without causing greater problems before our infrastructure is complete.

ohh ffs this again

@RedToothBrush

Also all the vaccine companies have said they will have an updated vaccine to offer better protection to new variants.

This is normal. Its what we do for flu.

We just need a similar plan and infrastructure built to deal with this on an ongoing basis and for other countries to also do this, thus reducing the risk of mutations and frequency of new variants in the future.

All of this was anticipated as being a possibility.

Travel restrictions are part of allowing us to get to that position without causing greater problems before our infrastructure is complete.

I actually prefer the honesty.

When Boris got everyone excited about saving Christmas, I personally thought it was a daft comment to make. By half term in October, it was clear transmission was still a huge local issue in most places. So promising a normal Christmas was so irresponsible and I think because of that, people did ignore the restrictions.

I prefer them to be cautious, because then, if we can safely unlock and at least have a UK holiday, it will feel great. If not, they've not promised it so I hope most people will be sensible.