Boosters and travel

[Hatsuma]

My understanding that boosters are only being offered to certain sections of society, and the immunity from vaccinations only lasts for 6 months (in terms of a vaccine passport). Which means for the vast majority of people, they will soon be classed as unvaccinated again, even if they had both jabs earlier this year.

What will this mean for travel? The numbers of people able to travel freely will surely dwindle to relatively few, which will be catastrophic for an industry already on its knees.

Apologies if this has been covered in the news and I missed it.

Do the vaccine passports expire then? Are other countries saying they only last 6 months? I haven't seen this anywhere.

I thought I had read that but maybe I had read that some vaccine producers are claiming immunity only lasts 6 months, and put two and two together in my head and assumed they couldn’t make covid passes last longer than that, particularly as boosters are now being given to some.

I read about a month or so ago that a couple of countries were putting 270 days expiry on them, Austria was one of them, though that may have change now.

Here it is,
www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/austria-travel-covid-vaccine-expiry-b1904529.html

@Hatsuma

I thought I had read that but maybe I had read that some vaccine producers are claiming immunity only lasts 6 months, and put two and two together in my head and assumed they couldn’t make covid passes last longer than that, particularly as boosters are now being given to some.

They kept that quiet at the start of the vaccine rollout, didn't they?

@Hatsuma @IncredulousOne

Link to where any vaccine "producers" are claiming immunity only lasts 6 months?

They kept that quiet at the start of the vaccine rollout, didn't they?
Firstly I haven't seen any quotes from them suggesting this, and secondly, you understand this is a situation with a novel virus and novel vaccines, no one could possible know for sure about the robustness and duration of immunity from infection or vaccination back in 2020. We still don't fully understand it now.

@hepatocyte

On one level, I can accept that we still don't fully understand it and that there are a lot of unknowns.

But that excuse rather grates when on the other hand we've been bombarded with propaganda that unequivocally says "the vaccines are safe and effective, get your jabs".

And when expressing any concerns sees you labelled as an "anti-vaxxer", a "conspiracy theorist" or worse.

And when any new health problems after the jabs are dismissed as "coincidence". Well, at least until the collective evidence becomes so overwhelming that it can no longer be denied ... and then they wheel out the excuse "no-one knew; we're still learning".

Well maybe they should have been a bit more equivocal in their advice rather than enacting knee jerk policies that discriminate against a significant proportion of the population with no sound scientific basis.

[quote IncredulousOne]@hepatocyte

On one level, I can accept that we still don't fully understand it and that there are a lot of unknowns.

But that excuse rather grates when on the other hand we've been bombarded with propaganda that unequivocally says "the vaccines are safe and effective, get your jabs".

And when expressing any concerns sees you labelled as an "anti-vaxxer", a "conspiracy theorist" or worse.

And when any new health problems after the jabs are dismissed as "coincidence". Well, at least until the collective evidence becomes so overwhelming that it can no longer be denied ... and then they wheel out the excuse "no-one knew; we're still learning".

Well maybe they should have been a bit more equivocal in their advice rather than enacting knee jerk policies that discriminate against a significant proportion of the population with no sound scientific basis.[/quote]
Not really sure how your previous post links to this, or on what basis you're saying the vaccines are not "safe and effective"?

Scientists and vaccine developers have been careful in how they communicated their guidance to government and policy makers, it's the fault of the government for trying to make sweeping statements that is the problem.

However all your posts seem to directly lead back to minimising COVID and that the vaccines aren't safe or don't work, so it's hard to enter into a conversation about it.

@Cookerhood

Do the vaccine passports expire then? Are other countries saying they only last 6 months? I haven't seen this anywhere.

Ours (EU) is valid for 6-9 mths after second dose. Boosters are now being rolled out to the CEV and over 80s, who of course were vaccinated in January.

@hepatocyte
Pp is a vocal poster against the vaccine.

[quote hepatocyte]**@Hatsuma* @IncredulousOne*

Link to where any vaccine "producers" are claiming immunity only lasts 6 months?

They kept that quiet at the start of the vaccine rollout, didn't they?
Firstly I haven't seen any quotes from them suggesting this, and secondly, you understand this is a situation with a novel virus and novel vaccines, no one could possible know for sure about the robustness and duration of immunity from infection or vaccination back in 2020. We still don't fully understand it now. [/quote]
I don't have the link to hand, but at the recent FDA advisory committee meeting to review boosters, Pfizer presented data showing waning immunity.

There is a briefing book and you can watch the whole 8 hour (!) meeting on the FDA website.

Thank you for this thread. I had my booster a week ago.
My second of the vaccinations was 3 January
My NHS app says that my travel barcode expires 22 10 21
So I can't use it for travel after then??
No update to NHS app since booster

Sorry - expires 30 10 21 not 22 10 21

@withiceplease

Thank you for this thread. I had my booster a week ago. My second of the vaccinations was 3 January My NHS app says that my travel barcode expires 22 10 21 So I can't use it for travel after then?? No update to NHS app since booster

The NHS app generates a new barcode each time you go in to it. It has an expiry date because if you test positive your certificate is put on hold until your isolation period ends I believe.

I only got the jab for travel purposes and will be seriously pissed if we have to keep on getting boosters, which are likely completely unnecessary for most healthy people.

There has to be an off-ramp somewhere that doesn’t involve half yearly boosters fuck

GotLittUp - thank you 😊

@hepatocyte here’s a link re waning immunity

www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/covid-jab-protection-wanes-within-six-months-uk-researchers-2021-08-25/

If AZ immunity is only 67% after 4-5 months, and presumably continues to drop after that, that’s not brilliant. And a bit of a gamble to take when travelling with the nightmare that getting covid whilst abroad would be. Many people are way beyond 4-5 months since they had their last jab now.

Waning immunity doesn't mean ineffective. The effect is more pronounced in the immunocompromised and older population because their immune systems don't work as well as others.

Also the efficacy for the flu vaccine is typically 40% to 60%, so for the covid vaccines to be as effective as they originally were was amazing.