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 ?

I’d rather be vaccinated and through. Obviously no one can guarantee what’s next but I’d not want to be in U.K. closed off long term.

Aus is different in many ways.

When restrictions fall away here I think people will change as it’s really when we are locked down and it’s awful that no restrictions looks good.

I hope we’ll be doing most / all things freely soon.

14 months later, who thinks it matters any more? That boat has sailed, circumnavigated the earth, and is currently being refitted...

@poppycat10

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.

Exactly. For some reason the ROW is always watching the U.K. on here.

Also did people really watch NY and despair at shitshow? More likely they thought that looks hard, poor people going through a tough time.

Yes - I think their approach of going in quick and hard was helpful. I think their discipline and strictness of border control was good - at one point between states within the country. I think they can afford to take their time with the vaccine roll out due to low case numbers; and probably overall will suffer less economically (as at least the non-overseas tourist local economy will have been less affected than U.K. businesses). Obvious countries for them to start arrangements to open up to are other Places with low rates (eg Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Korea) - especially if travellers have had 2 vaccines plus covid test.

I think the U.K. quarantine scheme sounds v leaky and poorly enforced - I am not convinced they will prevent variants entering - but at least they have made a step forward to improve things. U.K. managed a lot of the pandemic poorly, but research into treatments (dexamethasone, Cpap) and vaccine acquisition and roll out have been good.

@Ohwhatbliss I have tickets booked for Christmas on the (very slim!) offchance. They’re fully transferable obviously.... reckon even Easter next year is optimistic now.

We have firm plans for the women’s World Cup in 2023 but that is FOREVER away, we usually have my parents here for at least a month every year and spend at least 3 weeks in Australia. This is already the longest me and my kids have ever gone without seeing my folks.

At my age it was common for graduates to leave for London or elsewhere. Parents are British and moved to Aus. For us and peers it was natural to leave Aus and try other countries.

Although many in Aus will appreciate being safe over that, reading this thread there seems some posts on those lines. Not much missed.

At my age it was common for graduates to leave for London or elsewhere. Parents are British and moved to Aus. For us and peers it was natural to leave Aus and try other countries.

Gosh yes. And much less of an attitude that you must stay close to where you grew up or you didn’t care enough about your family/were somehow rejecting your roots.

My husband has had more grief from his parents for living 3 hours away from where they live (and have lived for generations) than I have from mine for living on the other side of the world.

What's going on with vaccinating people in NZ, are they doing it, surely it won't take very long?

Yes for their countries , they can't be compared to europe as very different

At some point a political decision will have to be taken by both Oz and NZ around reopening.

They've done such a good job - especially NZ with the "team of 5 million" of creating understandable fear of covid and a sense of safety inside the closed country that there will need to be some behavioural scientist work done (like was done here) to convince people to accept covid deaths. Even with vaccination, there will be covid and there will be some very ill and some deaths.

It won't be easy to get the borders open again without anger at inevitable deaths.

@Mugginyouleftrightandcentre

What's going on with vaccinating people in NZ, are they doing it, surely it won't take very long?

There are economies of scale - fewer people to vaccinate, but correspondingly fewer vaccinators to vaccinate i.e. they won't ever be doing the same million a day we are.

The main issue however is supply. They are on Pfizer only.

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

Oh don't be so utterly ridiculous. Most countries have got their own massive concerns over it one way or another. My friend in Australia says she's watching us with envy now as we're doing so well with the vaccination programme and theirs is just stumbling along. There are good and bad aspects to every countries handling of it.

@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.

So every other country in the world got it right and the UK the only country who got it wrong? What a load of rubbish.

Also did people really watch NY and despair at shitshow? More likely they thought that looks hard, poor people going through a tough time.

Totally agree, and Italy, and Brazil, and India - no one is looking anywhere with anything but sorrow and compassion I would hope x

@Mugginyouleftrightandcentre yes they are vaccinating. Currently working through border, quarantine and medical staff.
SIL has just had first dose (dr), close friend (MIQ) has had both, various other friends who are across the different categories have either had one or two.

Yes definitely.
The Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Singapore, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands approach is very much the best way.

UK has more than 150,000 dead, over 1 million suffering long covid, NHS treatment backlog that might take 5 years to clear, and many failed businesses AND repeated long lockdowns.

They temporarily can't easily travel abroad and, if they do go, have real quarantine - but freedom within their borders. Offices, shops, bars, restaurants, sporting events all open. Hospitals and doctors providing care as normal.

The biggest problem with your question, @marilenagrace is trying to compare countries, that just aren’t the same for many different reasons.

It’s a pretty futile question to be honest.

Comparing figures is also pointless because it’s not known how each country collects numbers and turns them into data. Unless exactly the same methodology is used, it’s a worthless exercise. Plus of course every country has different demographics, resulting in fat too many variables.

Don't forget that it's not just vaccines that have been being worked on since last year, but also testing and treatment.

Better very fast testing, and better treatment, might both make any eventual spread of covid in countries like Australia much less painful than it would be if they had that spread right now (or even through a vaccinated population).

There's a lot to be said for being one of the last countries to have a new disease spread through it, even if you do think you'll have to open your borders eventually.

I know my family in New Zealand worry about us here since we are one of the few countries who have more deaths per million than Brazil or India.

They haven't spent a year living under restrictions, their economy is healthy...

The idea that the people can't hug their families and have to keep doing tests and isolating because the government didn't do their job and manage covid properly, just seems wrong to them.

And they wouldn't swap with us for the world.

And I suspect the same is true for people in Thailand, Taiwan, Singapore, Vietnam, Australia or any other country that regularly reports 0 weekly covid deaths.

Sturgeon wants better restrictions. Scotland already does but it's undermined by people flying in to London or Birmingham and driving up to Scotland.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/covid-variant-travel-restrictions-sturgeon-b1833342.html

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

Why do people spout such over dramatic shit like this. The rest of the world are dealing with the problems they have where they are. We're all affected by covid in different ways at different times. This almost gloating about 'shitshows' is pathetic .
The majority of the UK population has now either had covid or been vaccinated or both. That's a much better position than sitting in a country with closed borders and no immunity in the population just hoping that covid doesn't manage to take hold

[quote Tealightsandd]Sturgeon wants better restrictions. Scotland already does but it's undermined by people flying in to London or Birmingham and driving up to Scotland.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/covid-variant-travel-restrictions-sturgeon-b1833342.html[/quote]
Doesn't matter what she wants, it's not up to her.

I know mistakes etc have been made in the past however I think if things carry on the way they are Britain may be the envy of alot of countries in a few months time... just a hunch and I could be cemetery wrong... but having the whole adult populations vaccinated, most restrictions lifted and negligible levels of death and hospitalizations from covid is essentially where every cou try want to be and we are certainly leading the race in that.

I just don't get what Australia are thinking right now .. once there vaccine programme is done will the accept that there will be small clusters of covid due to no vacci e being 100% effective or will they close everything down at the first sight of an issue.

@XiCi

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

Why do people spout such over dramatic shit like this. The rest of the world are dealing with the problems they have where they are. We're all affected by covid in different ways at different times. This almost gloating about 'shitshows' is pathetic .
The majority of the UK population has now either had covid or been vaccinated or both. That's a much better position than sitting in a country with closed borders and no immunity in the population just hoping that covid doesn't manage to take hold

I think a lot of the world has been shocked that the country which was considered in the top 3 of exemplars of pandemic preparedness has had the worst 5 death toll for much of year 1 of the pandemic.

And been one of the hardest hit economically.

And still hasn't got it's act together on TTI.