China opening up. Why isn't the UK being more wary?

[Fordian]

in China: Countries tighten rules as tourism set to resume www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-64111492

Why haven't we learned? If we'd shut down 10-14 days earlier than March 23rd 2020 this whole thing may not have been as hard for us.

China's neighbours, Italy and most probably the USA are not throwing their doors open to Chinese tourists, yet the UK sits on the 'let's see' fence.....

In Feb 2020 there was limited knowledge about the virus, no vaccines, and noone at all had immunity.

This is nothing like then.

Oh dear God, it's totally not like Feb 2020, get a grip

That is a positive point. I have seen reports that China isn’t fully sharing information, so it’s encouraging to know it’s the same strain.
Where did you find out information about the sequencing?

It's a strain that's already here and not causing us too much bother pretty much everyone has already had it and/or a vaccine. The number of Chinese people arriving at the UK with covid would be tiny compared with the number already here with covid, when if 1⁰0% on each flight were positive. A very, very different situation from when the delta strain got spreading in India in late 2020 just before we had vaccines into the elderly and it made a lot of sense to hold it back for a few weeks.

Plus there are also no direct flights from China to the UK at present so people will be arriving via other countries and would be hard to identify. By the time mass tourism and flights to China get going again, the Chinese will all have had covid anyway

According to China they have had 3 deaths and 5,400 new cases today. Patently untrue. 58% of passengers on a flight from China to Italy tested positive.
As always Chinese government is lying, UK government is sticking its fingers in its ears and covering its eyes to appease big business and the shit will hit the fan sooner here than in other places.

Watching this with interest….

It would, however, make sense for all other countries to test and sequence a proportion of people arriving from China in order to look out for new variants, as it doesn't look like the Chinese government is on top of that currently

Omg. Why are people so ignorant. Covid is still doing the rounds here. We’ve had so many vaccines/boosters etc. Stop being so (racist ??) to the Chinese. theycare not going to be bringing anything into the U.K. that we di t already have.

They don't give a shit about us. X

This.

Most have had covid or multiple injections.
I've had covid at least twice and the jabs. I was fine both times.

All my family members have had the jabs and covid ateast once.

I think actually having covid
Gives better immunity than any of the jabs anyway especially as they havent been updated.

I dont think locking down flight will do anything.

I dont think locking down flight will do anything.

Possibly not but that might not stop a bit of show boating by some politicians.

Point I've made in another thread but it might be worth repeating - Only testing those stepping off a flight arriving in the UK direct from China still leaves an opening for those who transfer via an intermediate airport ( in the Far east or Europe) to potentially arrive in the UK unchecked.

THANK YOU.

Me too…

It's the level of immunity though isn't it. We've all had covid for a second time recently, despite being vaccinated x4. I've been pretty ill really and I'm fit and well normally. Whilst vaccinations are of course helping, reducing deaths and hospitalisations, there are many people who will, despite being fully vaccinated, need hospital care.

I think testing is a no brainer really. The Italians have just tested a plane from China and 52% of travellers were positive. Who knows what variant they are infected with, and the level of protection offered by European vaccination. Whatever we can do to reduce any potential burden on the NHS seems entirely sensible, particularly during winter.

I don’t think that banning Chinese travelers or demanding more stuff from them (vaccine certificates, negative tests etc.) will make much difference considering that the virus is circulating anyway. That said…. Embarrassing and pissing off the Chinese Communist Party is always good fun and worth doing, so maybe we should do it on those grounds ;)

I also don’t think it will make much difference either way, but the basic principle of “having more restrictions from countries experiencing a wave” is not racist, for goodness’ sake.

I haven't seen threads demanding that any other nationalities be tested, but most countries have had multiple waves in the last year and travel has been happening freely. Why is China different if not racism?

Arguably we are looking at a thousand people a day coming in from China. 500 people a day coming in with covid, mainly into the major airports and remaining in the most popular tourist / business locations.

If you're not in London it's not really a big deal. If you are there's a good chance you've built up a bit of immunity given the number of people you interact with every day anyway.

I wouldn't fancy being a Burberry sales assistant at Bicester Village in the next few months but maybe the commission will make it easier.

For info...

www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2022/p1228-COVID-china.html

First bullet point:

"The requirement applies to these air passengers regardless of nationality and vaccination status".

There aren't 1000 people a day flying from China to the UK. There are zero because there are no direct flights currently. Have a look for yourself on flightscanner if you don't believe me. Anyone wanting to travel from China would have to go via another country so picking them out of all the possible flights they might be on would be extremely fiddly. They'd also still need an essential reason to travel - main group moving has been students but they're unlikely to be coming at this time of year - they won't have gone home for Christmas holidays as the indirect flights are crazy expensive and quarantine still required - and these factors put off most other travellers too. Numbers will start to rise in a few weeks when they open up, but the worst of the peak will be over by then. You can't have half the population infected at a time for very long!

Err because if it’s a new strain that we aren’t vaccinated against or that we have immunity against, we could end up back in a horrible situation, with lots more hospital admissions and potential deaths. 🙄

I have a Chinese person in my team. Travelling between China and UK is incredibly troublesome and very expensive so he hasn't seen his family for quite a while. There are no direct flights. The number of people travelling from China to UK is really low. The only thing this sort of attention to covid checks will achieve is another wave of racism similar to what has happened at the beginning of covid.

Yeah, and I get the feeling that some people are positively rubbing their thighs with glee at the thought of it!

I’ll feel better about it when we’ve had external confirmation that the strain is the same as what’s been doing the rounds here.

China has been relatively isolated for a long time (and it’s huge) so there’s the potential they’ve incubated their own strain in their population.

However, I’m hopeful that it’s the “rest of world” strain that got into China relatively recently so no real change to the strain and much less problematic.

Removing the “initial source” of Covid speculation - we’ve got to remember that it’s the rest of the world that have reinfected China with the new strains so it’s not really reasonable to say they can’t come here!

There's no reason to believe it is a significantly new strain - we know that Omicron was in China and they were struggling to contain it. We know their natural immunity was very low and vaccination rates not great, and then they opened up suddenly and dramatically - with the sick told to come to work if they possibly could - so spreading like wildfire is entirely to be expected.

We've also learned that vaccines and past infection from one strain gives strong protection against severe disease from another strain. So even if it is a new strain, that will a) make its way here eventually whether we do and b) not cause us too much bother.