Peter wrote:
I’ve just had a talk from a hairdresser
My hairdresser used to have PhDs in nuclear physics, macroeconomy and quantum mechanics and recently she acquired ones in virology, immunology and epidemiology.
Mooney_Driver wrote:
I think the main reason why people who usually travel don’t bother is the chaotic way regulation is implemented around different countries.
Airline travel is a major ballache even in the best times (long queues, petty security rules, the need to wait around for long periods of time in what amounts to an overpriced shopping mall). Add to that the hassle of testing, and in the recent past the possibility of wherever you went suddenly being put on the red list with virtually no notice, it has basically exceeded my tolerance for bravo-sierra.
I’m not likely to go anywhere outside the CTA (UK, Eire, IOM, Channel Islands) until the testing requirement is dropped altogether for double vaxxed people.
WingsWaterAndWheels wrote:
It is also probably because people from experience of the last 18 months expect that rules regarding traveling might (will) change anytime without any notice.
That is a huge problem indeed, yes. And the lack of coordination makes it even worse.
If at anytime a concentrated and standardized EU regulation which was not written in pencil but would guarantee a certain lead time before anything is adapted would have been a game changer it was in Covid. But exactly here it appears that every country cooks their own soup. Standardize curvature of bananas but failure in crisis is not really what makes something like this useful.
Emir wrote:
My hairdresser used to have PhDs in nuclear physics, macroeconomy and quantum mechanics and recently she acquired ones in virology, immunology and epidemiology.
ROFL! All issued by Facebook University or the likes I guess
alioth wrote:
I’m not likely to go anywhere outside the CTA (UK, Eire, IOM, Channel Islands) until the testing requirement is dropped altogether for double vaxxed people.
I agree, the testing requirements for double vaxxed people is ridiculous. It’s also contraproductive.
The requirement is going away soon in the UK. Other countries may still operate it. But many GA airfields are not operating the national policy which is applied to airline passengers. Details in the foregoing linked thread.
So there will be no more excuses for not making fly-ins abroad 
Well, unless you have no money left because you bought a boat 
Different people see it in different ways.
I’m double vaxed with Pfizer. But I’m not all that keen on travel which will put in into contact with lots of others. Pre-pandemic I travelled quite a lot. But the thought now of queuing up for security checks, or waiting at departure gates or getting onto an aircraft wit 189 others make me uncomfortable.
The idea of queuing up for passport control/customs at the other end isn’t much better, and neither is the thoughts of getting a bus or trail to the final destination.
I appreciate that my vaccine is likely to mean that if I get it, that I am not likely to have a particularly bad experience. Some do, but it’s not that common. But it’s certainly going to be very inconvenient. I’ve a wife and child who aren’t vaccinated, which would present interesting quarantine issues at home, and it means that I need to stay away from my office.
Even worse, if I had met any clients in the mean time they might be forced to close their business if their presence is required there and they are deemed a close contact, for at least 14 days.
I’m much more comfortable traveling where I can bring myself (by car or aircraft) and where I won’t be interacting with too many people.
I suspect it will be spring next year before I start to feel more comfortable with that. We’ve over 90% of our adult population vaccinated and getting a really good response from 12-18 year olds too. But the daily case numbers are just dropping very slowly. I suspect by spring the numbers will be really down low due to the existing vaccines or because we’ve all gotten a booster by then.
But at least things are gradually getting better. Options are there now for most to do their normal things, and now it’s more of a choice. Most are choosing to socialise more and it’s not having a dramatic effect on hospital levels/infection numbers, so things do seem to be getting better.
We don’t seem to hear too much about any new vaccines, even thought there are a lot in the pipeline. I wonder will any come along with better immunity against the new strains or even possibly with sterilising immunity.
dublinpilot wrote:
I appreciate that my vaccine is likely to mean that if I get it, that I am not likely to have a particularly bad experience.
We mustn’t forget though that even pre-vaccine, it was extremely unlikely that you’d have a bad experience if infected. Perhaps PROB50 you would be totally asymptomatic, and PROB99 you’d have nothing worse than a bad cold. Vaccines make a bad experience even less likely, but perhaps the “we must get everyone jabbed” mantra is making us forget how things were before and creating a false perception that each unvaccinated person is extremely vulnerable.
dublinpilot wrote:
We don’t seem to hear too much about any new vaccines, even thought there are a lot in the pipeline. I wonder will any come along with better immunity against the new strains or even possibly with sterilising immunity.
Small companies we’ve never heard of come to us on a daily basis with plans for trials of new vaccines and treatments. We give them a ballpark quote and send them on their way, and 99% will never happen. Most don’t have the funding and will never get it. Any small outfit can innovate with a little bit of VC money, but it takes serious (Pfizer or AZ-type) money to push a product through development and onto the market.
Perhaps PROB50 you would be totally asymptomatic, and PROB99 you’d have nothing worse than a bad cold.
For someone very young, sure. We did the numbers early in this thread. For a 60+, much worse. The vaccines are highly protective.
I’ve a wife and child who aren’t vaccinated, which would present interesting quarantine issues at home, and it means that I need to stay away from my office.
That changes things, potentially dramatically.
Airline travel is not as bad as I thought. Justine did two of them recently (one full of Brits, the other full of Greeks) and two earlier (one full of Brits and the other full of Germans) and caught nothing. I suspect nearly all people are indeed catching nothing on them, because the security staff are not bothering to even look at the paperwork.
Peter wrote:
For a 60+, much worse.
Sure, but not that bad if you’re in decent shape. I believe the major risk factor is being overweight and generally unhealthy, and I bet the correlation to serious Covid-19 is at least as strong as it is for increasing age.
The major missed opportunity here, in terms of public health messaging, was the failure to broadcast loud and clear “lose your excess weight and improve your cardiovascular fitness to reduce your vulnerability to Covid-19”. But of course, messaging that you have any responsibility for yourself is politically unacceptable these days and the expectation is that the taxpayer steps in to protect everyone.
