European media reporting on UK vaccine rule? (travel and nhs)

[ComfyQuilt]

I’m intrigued to know how the media in Europe is reporting the UK’s lessening of vaccine related rules.

We seem to be on the eve of cancelling the NHS staff vaccine mandate and from 11 February, unvaccinated travellers do not have to isolate on arrival in the UK (if they test negative).

This is at a time when most EU countries’ own rules are tightening ( France’s vaccine pass, Italy’s Super Green pass and mandates in Austria for instance),

It’d be very interesting to know how this is being reported overseas. Can any non UK based MNers, or those who speak other languages, give any information on this?

I’m delighted about the change in rules in the UK and feel pleasantly surprised that we seem to be an outlier with this.

@ComfyQuilt

The UK relaxations have been mentioned in passing on French TV.

“ This is at a time when most EU countries’ own rules are tightening ( France’s vaccine pass….”

Interesting you say that because it poses the question in return, of how accurately the UK MSM is covering events in Europe.

The reality is that in many EU countries, certainly France, many of the rules regarding mask wearing, social gatherings etc, are being relaxed.

www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-20/france-to-relax-covid-rules-in-bet-that-omicron-is-peaking

The BBC was reporting the reducing of restrictions in other EU countries the other day. I recall reading it, and it pointed it was happening despite rate increases is some places. I don't know what other parts of the media are reporting though, are they still suggesting we're an outlier?

Article summarizing some of the European changes here:

www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/26/as-omicron-fears-subside-europe-starts-to-reopen

Don't forget good news is never news.
Big news story about Austria having a lockdown / clamp down etc before Xmas. Virtually nothing about it being partly relaxed!

Europe isn’t tightening restrictions, it’s actually relaxing them. I’m in Germany and things are much better than they were 3 months ago.

Travel isolation - well, the UK has always been way more strict than the continent because we have the EU Digital Covid Cert which allows you to travel with either one of vaccines, recovery or a negative test.

I couldn’t comprehend why the UK waited until early 2021 to put in place any kind of restrictions for travel, and then suddenly imposed hotel quarantines and £££ on day 2/5/8 tests which nobody even checked. It all screamed of ‘let’s make some money off people travelling’ from here. So it’s good to see all that non-sense going.

All the ‘new’ European mandates aren’t new as such, they were announced months ago and are now simply being adopted, as per the announcements. Very rarely do they do a U turn when it comes to restrictions here.

I think it’s also worth keeping in mind that most of the continent is 3-4 weeks behind the UK in regards to the Omicron wave. If somebody in the UK had suggested around Christmas that all these restrictions should be lifted, people wouldn’t have been happy. Just one month later and the situation is different so these rules being relaxed makes more sense.

@bestbefore

Don't forget good news is never news. Big news story about Austria having a lockdown / clamp down etc before Xmas. Virtually nothing about it being partly relaxed!

This too. The media in the UK is quick to report when cases are rising in the EU, when new restrictions are imposed.

But it rarely mentions cases being lower than the UK’s, rarely mentions a wave coming down, rarely mentions lockdowns being lifted.

Italy - Not really talked about or much in the news. But our rules have always been stricter and enforced anyway. Think the party at No10 got more reports rather than what the Uk has / has not been doing . Says it all really !

Interesting responses, thanks. I suppose @EileenGC we have a very different perspective on what constitutes relaxing the rules. I would only regard rules as relaxing if they apply to all, regardless of vaccine status rather than a two tier society (I’ve had two vaccines btw).

This is why my OP focused on vaccine mandate and travel for the unvaccinated.

Sorry if my OP wasn’t clear enough.

Very valid points about selective reporting made above though!

I’m referring to things like the Interesting juxtaposition between the imminent nhs vaccine mandate U turn vs France’s four month booster rule for the vaccine pass (as of 15 Feb).

I would only regard rules as relaxing if they apply to all, regardless of vaccine status rather than a two tier society (I’ve had two vaccines btw)

You may well regard it that way, fair enough, but objectively in Europe many restrictions are or are shortly to be relaxed…

Oh, I understand. Yeah, ‘relaxing the rules’ means different things in the UK vs EU.

For me the main thing is, did anyone really believe the NHS vaccine mandate would come into place? From my outside perspective, I never thought it would actually happen, because the UK doesn’t enforce simple rules such as masks, or a ‘compulsory’ travel test. They were never going to make vaccines compulsory for XYZ groups because they just wouldn’t enforce it. I’m yet to meet somebody else who actually believed the vaccine mandate would happen. In Austria yes, because they actually do enforce their rules consistently. UK, no way.

I had no idea unvaccinated travellers had to isolate in the UK even if testing negative, so equally hadn’t heard of the relaxation! I thought unvaccinated travellers just had to have negative tests in most of Europe? I’m vaccinated though so don’t pay much attention to the rules for unvaccinated.

I think the big divide between U.K. and some other European countries is in the use of vaccine passports. There does seem to be a lot of protesting going on in Europe against them which we in U.K. have dodged as we have resisted the use of them ( outside of large scale events where you can do an lft anyway).
I saw a big protest in maybe Brussels the other day, Austria too, and the Netherlands seem unhappy with mandates generally.
I’m pleased England hasn’t gone down the mandatory route and has dropped the NHS mandate today too. And Scotland and Eales never had the NHS mandate anyway.
If that makes us an outlier then good!
Ireland is more similar to England than say Austria culturally and I think and has also avoided mandatory passports ( as far as I am aware)
I think come Easter all these things will be dropped everywhere in Europe in any case ( I hope so anyway)

There does seem to be a lot of protesting going on in Europe against them

There are weekly protests in the big cities that make the news, but on a daily basis you don’t see people protesting against Covid passes. People just show them where required, it’s normal, and the small minority that doesn’t want to have one simply doesn’t try to go anywhere. They don’t even entertain you trying to get in without all the correct documents here so protesting when you get to the restaurant or Primark won’t do much. People are being turned away for presenting a test that’s 25h old instead of

I suspect the NHS was serious when first proposed but they hoped to kick it into the very long grass as they gave such a long lead in time and made a few exceptions too. However the Trust management where I work took it very seriously. Anecdotally it did increase vaccine uptake by a good amount so you could argue it worked without having to actually go through with it.
Similar to the nightclub threat for young people back in September.
Now you can argue that is morally wrong but maybe a lesser evil than say Macron mandating vaccine passport to go to a cafe which is ridiculous!

@sashagabadon Ireland do have covid passports, introduced last summer. Their use was removed last week domestically (thus proving wrong those anti-Vaxxers who said they were a permanent removal of liberty). They’re being retained for travel, I have to say I did find them handy last summer for a holiday abroad without testing, restrictions etc unlike people I know in the UK who were too nervous to travel given the ever changing rules around testing, isolation etc.
Also the UK is not synonymous with England, there are covid passports in use in the UK.

Interesting how quickly this morphed from what seemed to be an open question on European MSM coverage of events in the UK into gripes about Europe/France/vaccine passports and it didn’t take long to get Macron dragged into this…axes to grind/hidden agendas? Surely not…

Yes, to reiterate, the European MSM is watchs and reports on the UK.The French PM actually said they would watch the evolution of events in the UK with interest with a view to further relaxations so congratulations UK, you are a European leader..

As for demos on just about anything , at a weekend, in the likes of France…not really “hold the front page” is it?

FWIW the recent demos locally have been much more about the increases in cost of living that vaccinations and passes.

england does have digital passports in the sense we have the NHS app and can create a vaccine passport QR code for travel. So we can travel with them like everyone else. Most people I know travelled successfully with them last summer for example. Even my elderly parents managed a trip to Lisbon once they had downloaded the app.
It’s just the general mandating that’s different not having the thing at all.

I agree protests in France are a regular occurrence, but Austria? Germany? Netherlands? I never got the impression these were countries that rioted / protested a lot but could be wrong about that

If it’s of any interest at all in a Q&A at the end of his last big press conference the French PM (Mr Castex) did hint that the government might let the requirements around the passé vaccinal lapse in the late summer if circumstances allowed.

Big demos / protests will always make the news, but it needs put into perspective. In my city we often have 50,000 people attending a protest. That’s seen as huge and frankly, it does look huge - they fill up a big square easily.

But there are 4 million people living in this city, over 6 million if you count the metropolitan area. I don’t think 50k out of 6m counts as ‘a lot of protesting’?

@notimagain

If it’s of any interest at all in a Q&A at the end of his last big press conference the French PM (Mr Castex) did hint that the government might let the requirements around the passé vaccinal lapse in the late summer if circumstances allowed.

I think this is what most countries are aiming for. At least in Germany, last summer we didn’t need passes for almost anything (had them in place March-June), they were reintroduced when numbers went up. If the cases are low, the passes are more likely to go.