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.....

The age distribution of vaccines skews very differently in China and the UK though @Onnabugeisha . They have highest vaccine hesitancy in the oldest age groups unfortunately, whereas the unvaccinated in the UK were mostly younger people. They've also had much lower booster take up.

But you’re right, most other direct flights are now going via Paris.

Do they?

Direct flights are those where the actual aircraft goes from A to B via an intermediate stop (e.g. London-Sydney via Singapore).

I'm not aware of many aircraft going China>Paris>UK but I guess it might be going on.

Sorry if this comes over as pedantry but the vocab is important when we're talking about entry restrictions.

Just caught Paul Hunter on radio who confirmed we’ve had this strain and it’s on the way out so there won’t be a surge.

All about money and the tories. At a guess ....

Brexit has left the UK begging for deals and so have to put up with insurmountable shit from other countries as a result. Any deal on any terms and the minute there is an issue the brits have to tow the line because otherwise the Chinese who have all the playing cards will pull the financial plug.

Either that or its back hand financial deals paying for Michelle Mones nails , Rees Moggs glasses or funding the tory party conference.

Because we are all vaccinated & we now know that Covid is not a serious illness. Recent history has proved that restrictions do not work. Why are paranoid people so desperate to drag us back to 2020?

They don’t want to admit they were wrong and everything they forced the rest of us to do was wrong too. EVERYTHING

No, direct flights are those that go from A to B with zero intermediate stops.

The flights that used to be direct, ie London to Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu etc are now mostly going via Paris. So are no longer direct flights.

The only flights that are still direct are London to Hong Kong.

Don’t forget, Tedros of the WHO said in February 2020 that no country should be banning travel from China because:

“Because of this strategy and it weren’t for China, the number of cases outside China would have been very much higher,”

Really, 658 million cases could have been “much higher”? That’s a relief then.

www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-who-idUSKBN1ZX1H3

Worth asking yourselves why, when the rest of the world has mostly got Covid under control, suddenly all these “tourists” from China - where cases are currently exploding - are keen to travel far and wide…

I agree, but the lower rates are due to vaccine hesitancy/refusal, not due to the “Chinese government failing to get the vaccine into the arms of the elderly”

Initially, it was yes because China prioritised essential workers. But the lockdowns protected the elderly. Over the past two years, everyone has been offered full vaccination. So it’s not a case of elderly having been denied vaccination causing the current higher death rate for their age groups.

However if they are I’ll while here it will be putting more strain on our hospitals that we don’t need ,, and as it looks like their own hospitals are really struggling then that is a possibility. Surely asking for a negative test is not too much ? We all had to do it after all .

Chinese tourists aren't going to start arriving today on non-existant flights. They've issued no passports for the last 2+ years, 95% if their airline industry is suspended. By the time it all picks up again, the huge wave will have passed.

It WAS a serious illness , but has mutated here and vaccines have helped . How do we know for sure what variants are in China ? We really don’t. Hindsight is a wonderful thing .

suddenly all these “tourists” from China - where cases are currently exploding - are keen to travel far and wide…

Exactly the same reasons as people across the world really wanted to travel when restrictions eased.

The Chinese people protested against restrictions, the government removed them. And given that the population is not fully vaccinated, then this will be the test of the theory that's been doing the rounds (based on misunderstanding of a recently published paper about Ig4 and levels are after repeated exposure either to vaccine or to wild+vaccine) that you're somehow better off having covid that being vaccinated against it.

No, it’s not going to test that theory, because 87% of Chinese are fully vaccinated compared to 88% of British.

i thought the problem in china was that so many werent vaccinated

@Onnabugeisha

No, direct flights are those that go from A to B with zero intermediate stops.

That wasn't quite the definition used when I was working in aviation but I guess it may have changed....As I recall it, strictly speaking:

A to B via an intermediate stop was described as a direct.

A to B with no stops was ....a non stop (but I know "direct" was sometimes used).

The difference is (or at least was) important when it comes to proposed entry restrictions and sometimes travel plans in general

www.cntraveler.com/story/the-important-difference-between-non-stop-and-direct-flights

But with significantly less effective vaccines...

There's nobody 'there' (whereever 'there' is) to make a decision. It's the week between Christmas and NY - the Houses of Parliament etc will be empty.

The average Chinese person isn't flying into the UK or anywhere else.

What exactly is "suffering" about taking a LFT ?

You don't seem to want any restrictions on anything at all (covid related) do you?

I believe their wave issues are because they concentrated on vaccinating workers first, over the vulnerable and elderly.

Are you suggesting they’re coming here deliberately to try and spread more cases? Bonkers.

Honestly, I cannot believe people are getting that worked up over it. How many people do we think are arriving here from China each day? Covid is all over the place here anyway. And we have already seen that our vaccines provide good immunity to each strain that has come along so far.

We are not exactly our on our own here. Only a very small number of countries have changed entry requirements at this point.

We're in another Covid wave here now. But for the first time flu etc are more of any issue than Covid. They're probably as likely to catch it here and take it back than bring it with them.

you have to feel sorry for the chinese who have been living in lock down for longer than anyone.
what are they doing in south korea, as they were held up as a very good example

Immunity lasts 6 weeks and you can get it again, it's not like you get it and it protects you for any significant time.

I absolutely think a negative test is what is needed when travelling.

Does anyone remember that our border forces are striking?!

Who is going to deal with the extra admin that this involves.........