Who thinks Australia and NZ have got it right ?

[marilenagrace]

What do you think ? Do you think that keeping everyone out of the country is the right approach long term to deal with covid ? Do you wish we did that here in the UK ?

@IceCreamAndCandyfloss

Yes, I wish we had done the same. No abroad holidays in return for pretty much everyday normal life sounds great. Cam travel again when safe to do so.

I assume you’re keen on turnips.

Aus every time.

I suppose there might be a lot of tension in the future between those in Aus/NZ who want to open up knowing it will lead to a certain amount of covid spread in the community and those who want to stay shut in the long term to avoid this.

I can see if you’re vulnerable to covid you might want closer borders, if your family live abroad you’d prefer a manageable amount of spread. We shall see.

Aus and NZ have it totally right in terms of health, death from Covid and maintaining normal life for citizens within their countries.
That also means their citizens are happier and healthier.
That also means their economies haven't been impacted by repeated lockdowns.

The only drawback if for a minority of people for whom international travel is of disproportionate importance compared to health/death etc.

And I do believe the UK could have done the same as Aus/NZ if the government had wanted to. Even last June when cases numbers were low and variants fewer, it would have been possible to implement (it was a wasted second chance imo).

lljkk: just under 50% of Australia's trade is with foreign countries. Hardly 'weak trade'.

Australia and NZ have done an excellent job. So have other countries who sensibly locked down hard and fast at the beginning- eg Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam. Life is pretty much back to normal in all of those countries. The UK delayed and delayed, never did a proper lockdown (all those bubbles!) and have only just implemented (leaky) quarantine. The rest of the world have been watching the complete shitshow that has been the UK's approach in despair.

NZ does also import much food and goods, they haven't had to eat turnips for 15 months.

It is possible to allow freight etc in, but not travellers who immediately mix without quarantine.

Aus/NZ do allow travellers in any case, but they just have strict quarantine (and so no mass outbreak of SA variant which the UK currently has with its useless quarantine system).

I don’t think we’ll be looking at Australia/ New Zealand with envy anymore. We’re opening up, we’ve achieved herd immunity ( according to some scientists) and we’re making excellent progress on vaccination.
I’d rather be here in Europe right now. The ball might swing the other way again in the next 6 months though.

The problem is a lot of Australia is uninhabitated and there are large distances between ‘areas’ so each district can sort of lockdown and there’s not as much travel between different parts of Australia as its not really drivable.
The U.K. is so small and so interconnected that it wouldn’t have quite the same effect here I don’t think.

I think they've got it right to the extent of protecting people on their islands.

However, leaving their own nationals stranded (in the case of Australia) is unacceptable, especially when I read today that Kylie has been at home with family for the past three months. It doesn't sit well with me that the rich and famous get to bend the rules.

The rest of the world have been watching the complete shitshow that has been the UK's approach in despair

The rest of the world couldn't give a monkeys about the UK - they are only worried about their own problems.

When all is said and done ( if it ever is ) only then can we really analyse who's response was ' best '. Not that it's a competition or anything like that. The daily fail treats it like a competition though. We should look at how each country did it and who came out in a better way ONLY to learn for the next pandemic.

@Norabuzz

lljkk: just under 50% of Australia's trade is with foreign countries. Hardly 'weak trade'.

Australia and NZ have done an excellent job. So have other countries who sensibly locked down hard and fast at the beginning- eg Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam. Life is pretty much back to normal in all of those countries. The UK delayed and delayed, never did a proper lockdown (all those bubbles!) and have only just implemented (leaky) quarantine. The rest of the world have been watching the complete shitshow that has been the UK's approach in despair.

Gotta say I don’t think the rest of the world is looking at the U.K. “shitshow” well not since last April anyway. Covid comes to everyone eventually. Countries we were singing the praises of last year, like Croatia and Poland and Ireland did less “well” later on. Every country has its own version of shitshow. It’ll be interesting to see what happens next!

NZ does also import much food and goods, they haven't had to eat turnips for 15 months.

And how does their food arrive? How does it get from the border to the warehouse?

Our trade system creates a porous border. It’s possible to limit incoming and outgoing travel but a great deal more difficult for the UK to stop it altogether with eg the kind of rules for maritime workers that Australia has.

If all our food imports came in by ship or plane it would be a very different question.

AUS and NZ have isolated and self-protected.

But it can't go on forever. The virus does not respect borders. A few months? Yes. Years? Pull the other one, it's got bells on.

The virus is going to be endemic, and we all need to get used to it, make sure the most at risk are vaccinated, and then get on with (gasp!) living life.

My family in Australia both think the UK response (apart from vaccination) has been a bit of a shitshow/nightmare and they are very worried about the lack of an exit strategy from their own government and fear they are storing up problems for later.

It is possible to hold both positions at once.

i think there are things UK seemed to do well with and Australia didn't and vice versa. UK obviously has done well with vaccine rollout but then the death toll from covid has been big and now we also have the huge NHS backlog etc. Does Australia have the same issues? What about economic impact? That won't be so apparent yet I guess but will be interesting to see how that will develop this year or next year.

I'm envious of life there at the moment but their covid approach isn't problem free. There's a lot of panic every time they have an 'escaped' quarantine case and I was reading on here recently about how upsetting the state borders have been for people separated from family . The suffering in Europe and the UK would be awful if you had an entire year where you couldn't travel within Europe, there are so many people sides who live between both places. We then would also have the problem with the rest of the world and variants. Its even difficult with having a border with Ireland.

If your measurement of "doing it right" is a zero transmission rate then yes, Australia has done a great job. I live in Perth WA and the increasing opinion is that our Premier is using border and international controls as a political tool. There was an excellent article in the Australian today, the headline was "Prisoners of mother Australia" . And we are. The vaccination rollout has been woeful. The health minister said this week that even when the entire population had been vaccinated that was no guarantee that international borders would reopen. It's been 15 months since I've seen my parents who are in their 70s, my kids cry for their grandparents and there is no knowing when we will be allowed to leave this island.

On the face of it maybe, however they are a self sustained island so was much easier...you saw the issues at Dover last year after a couple of days of issues imagine that over a year...

I think their travel industry will be dead come the end of all this

We all know that zero covid is not possible as no vaccine is 100% effective... there has to come a time where they accept the spread of it even against the vaccinated.

Australia and New Zealand have possibly got it right for Australia and New Zealand. It doesn’t necessarily follow that the same things would work in the UK, or anywhere else.

@Ohwhatbliss it’s so grim being separated for this long, isn’t it? It would be a little easier if we knew what we were aiming and planning for.

If we’d known at the outset it would be 3 years, sat, we’d have bitten the bullet and got my husband’s spouse visa.

But as you say this now looks like descending into a drawn out battle between the Feds and the states and all the politics that comes with it - particularly with another federal election due in the first half of next year which will be crunch time for border restrictions/vaccination rollout.

Well if we are being told that despite vaccination we will face a big surge so will they surely. They can’t keep their borders shut forever.

They’ve definitely done better than most other places but I think their geography has also helped.

@AlecTrevelyan006 this is my view too. I do think they've done amazingly just not sure if it would have worked or been agreed with in UK and Europe. I have a family member in Oz and I am really happy for them living normal life. On the flip side I'm happy to be vaxed and to have had mild covid. Don't feel I have to worry about it so much.

@JassyRadlett That's what scares me, my Mum thinks we will be together for Christmas. With the election looming I can't see the border re opening before mid 2022 at the earliest. I'm sorry this is affecting you too 😔