Scrutable

Sciolus wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 08, 2021 6:37 pm

Considering they keep banging on about the economy, it's striking that the UK government is encouraging outbound tourism and discouraging inbound tourism.

They still seem to be trying to paint a narrative that covid is something that comes from abroad, rather than being bred domestically and served up with scotch eggs.

I think we are going to end up seeing semi-permanent quarantine and travel bans, both here and in Europe. Nobody will want UK travellers and UK will not want travellers from Europe infected with Delta previously seeded by UK visitors. Things do not look good for the travel and tourism industry.

I'm still rubbing my eyes at this:

Herainestold wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 10, 2021 3:46 pm

I think we are going to end up seeing semi-permanent quarantine and travel bans, both here and in Europe. Nobody will want UK travellers and UK will not want travellers from Europe infected with Delta previously seeded by UK visitors. Things do not look good for the travel and tourism industry.

The current UK policy is herd immunity through getting infected - though this is not explicit. Remember how "herd immunity" (before there was a vaccine, so meaning post-infection immunity) was proposed at the begining of the pandemic?

Millennie Al wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 10, 2021 11:55 pm

Herainestold wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 10, 2021 3:46 pm

I think we are going to end up seeing semi-permanent quarantine and travel bans, both here and in Europe. Nobody will want UK travellers and UK will not want travellers from Europe infected with Delta previously seeded by UK visitors. Things do not look good for the travel and tourism industry.

The current UK policy is herd immunity through getting infected - though this is not explicit. Remember how "herd immunity" (before there was a vaccine, so meaning post-infection immunity) was proposed at the begining of the pandemic?

It won't work for Delta. People with Alpha immunity will get sick from Delta. Vaccines are much better, but still have problems with Delta.

“It is rather confusing for customers because as well as our own requirements there are [other] countries themselves and their views,” said a spokesperson for the Association of British Travel Agents (Abta).

#ShitBritsSay

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Bird on a Fire wrote: ↑

Sun Jul 11, 2021 11:11 am

“It is rather confusing for customers because as well as our own requirements there are [other] countries themselves and their views,” said a spokesperson for the Association of British Travel Agents (Abta).

#ShitBritsSay

Christ the arrogance. Other countries have their own views.

All being well I'm off to Iceland in a week!

Have booked my PCR test for Saturday afternoon. I've not been going out much anyway but I'll be extra careful this week given the situation here.

And my first jab tomorrow! Remains to be seen whether I can get the second one in Iceland (I'm there for work/study, not tourism), or wait six weeks and have it when I get back.

Sadly they were out of the one-shot vaccine, so I've had Moderna.

Supposed to come back in four weeks - should I expect any big problems from waiting seven? Because AFAICT they haven't been using that one in Iceland, and you can't mix and match it.

I shouldn't think it would be an issue - in the UK we are waiting up to 12 weeks between doses. My second Moderna dose was around 10 weeks after the first, and while I felt like crap for a couple of days I doubt that had anything to do with the time between doses.

Thanks. I've just been doing some googling and it does indeed sound like it is probably no biggy.

The nurse who injected me was pretty insistent I should try to stick to the recommended interval, but I guess that's her job/training.

I shall relax on the subject, and just enjoy the fact I'm gaining about 80% immunity from this first shot alone.

temptar wrote: ↑

Sun Jul 11, 2021 1:35 pm

Christ the arrogance. Other countries have their own views.

The specific "other country" of main interest to us is Czech R. My wife is Czech. My daughter has dual nationality, and is fluent in Czech, mainly as a result of spending every summer holiday in Czech R, with relatives and friends who mostly can't speak English.

So what is the current Czech view on all this? If you casually check if you can go there, just about the first thing you'll read is that "entry for purposes of tourism is not permitted". But on closer examination, we find that entry for Czech citizens is allowed, regardless of purpose. The precise formalities depend upon where you come from. Britain is classified as "very high risk", the 3rd highest of 4 categories. So the rules for that are test before coming, self isolate for 5 days on arrival, test again, isolation ends on a negative test. If they get around to recognising our vaccination certificates, you won't even have to do anything on arrival.

So all our UK-resident Czech friends are off to Czech R for summer, indeed some have already gone, and verify that it isn't a problem. So my wife and daughter have just booked. The flying bit was essentially free with the flight refund vouchers from last year. Ryanair are running lots of flights to cater for the demand, even to the secondary airports in the east of the country that are more useful for us.

Bird on a Fire wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 13, 2021 11:29 am

Thanks. I've just been doing some googling and it does indeed sound like it is probably no biggy.

The nurse who injected me was pretty insistent I should try to stick to the recommended interval, but I guess that's her job/training.

I shall relax on the subject, and just enjoy the fact I'm gaining about 80% immunity from this first shot alone.

Isn't that 80% immunity against the original strain? afaik we don't have data on VE for Moderna against delta but I'd expect it to be similar to Pfizer's 34% for one shot and 80%+ for two shots. Or have I missed something?

Re timing, the US are trying to stick to the mfrs schedules but the CDC did say you could have up to 6 weeks gap with Moderna "if necessary".

Aha. There's a bunch of various figures on VE gathered here: https://www.businessinsider.com/delta-v ... ?r=US&IR=T and it actually references a preprint from 10 days ago which reports a figure for Moderna (72%). Preprint here: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101 ... 1.full.pdf

jdc wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 13, 2021 3:07 pm

Aha. There's a bunch of various figures on VE gathered here: https://www.businessinsider.com/delta-v ... ?r=US&IR=T and it actually references a preprint from 10 days ago which reports a figure for Moderna (72%). Preprint here: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101 ... 1.full.pdf

Good work jdc. I was just going to try and track this info down and you have done it already.

bird, I am sure you don't need my advice, but be cautious. Assume only 34% efficacy and act as if you are unvaxed. Masks, distancing, you know the drill.

Looks like it is okay to delay up to 6 weeks between doses, and Germany recommends mixing between AZ and Moderna, but I didn't see anything about mixing Moderna and Pfizer.

Thanks jdc and Herainestold - I was indeed thinking of the origrinal strain in my excitement. But worry not, I'm actually being extra cautious these days because of the rising cases here and I really want to go to Iceland.

France is claiming to accept the NHS Vaccination Certificate, which in principle suggests that they accept any two AZ vaccinations regardless of batch number.
We have our pre-travel PCR test this afternoon - fingers crossed I'll be working even more remotely by next week

shpalman wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 23, 2021 8:10 pm

JQH wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 19, 2021 4:31 pm

I wonder when the Euros and Olympics are going to be postponed (again).

Tokyo 2020 Games may have to be held behind closed doors, says Lord Coe

A person has tested positive for Covid-19 at the Tokyo Olympics athletes’ village!

I am completely shocked by this occurrence!

Quarantine to remain for travellers returning to the UK, which has a large number of cases of a somewhat vaccine-resistant variant (delta) from France in case they bring a vaccine-resistant variant (beta) with them.

Their cases are going up too!

Who needs France anyway.

Got nasally gouged for 100€ this afternoon.

Was an interesting set-up - don't think I've seen a drive-through marquee before.

shpalman wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 17, 2021 3:14 pm

Who needs France anyway.

IMG_20210717_171322_735.jpg

To be fair, I've often wondered why the UK doesn't have more outside cafes - I've done them in Belgium during a snowstorm, Copenhagen in drizzle, etc. Just need umbrellas and heaters (preferably from a decarbonised grid, of course).

Bird on a Fire wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 17, 2021 5:04 pm

Got nasally gouged for 100€ this afternoon.

Latin would express "paid through the nose for the nose" more economically than English does.