Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[Left Back]

3 minutes ago, Bairnardo said:

See if Spain or wherever are happy to have us, and the vaccination of the vulnerable was complete, il be doing precisely f**k all quarantining.

Il not tell a soul I'm going, and il just go and come back.

Leitch can smoke my wang.

Never heard that phrase before.

[Ron Aldo]

Don't know about anyone else but international travel is pretty far down my list of priorities for the summer.

I've had summers with no holidays before and I'd happily do the same this year if it meant I could meet my pals in the pub for a pint or go for a haircut without wondering whether it'll be my last for 6 months.

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

Surely there could be grounds for a legal action if measurably things are better, the vulnerable are vaccinated and the vaccine demonstrably shows a reduction in transmission and illness. 

[vikingTON]

11 minutes ago, Ron Aldo said:

Don't know about anyone else but international travel is pretty far down my list of priorities for the summer.

I've had summers with no holidays before and I'd happily do the same this year if it meant I could meet my pals in the pub for a pint or go for a haircut without wondering whether it'll be my last for 6 months.

It shouldn't be an either/or proposition though, other than in the minds of the genuine psychos advising the SG.

Multiple weeks backpacking Latin America is probably not going to happen - though if you have proof of vaccine then really anything goes - a fortnight in Spain/Portugal etc. most likely will though. Tourism is part of what they need to fund their own healthcare and economic assistance packages.

Edited January 20, 2021 by vikingTON

[Left Back]

4 minutes ago, Inanimate Carbon Rod said:

Surely there could be grounds for a legal action if measurably things are better, the vulnerable are vaccinated and the vaccine demonstrably shows a reduction in transmission and illness. 

Good plan.  By the time your case gets through the courts we’ll be onto the next pandemic.

Keep us updated with progress though.

[vikingTON]

14 minutes ago, djchapsticks said:

I mean, it's not even difficult to read into what happened during the Spanish Flu. It's nothing like Covid so for him to make a direct comparison to it as if we need to do what was done during that pandemic, is fucking hilarious.

The relevant analogy is in fact SARS, which hit SE Asia badly but burned out before it became a global event. It made those governments better equipped to address threat, promoted (but did not mandate) behavioural precautions such as masks and did not involve any completely redundant restrictions once the credible threat had passed. They didn't keep them going in case SARS 2 turned up because they're not irrational morons.

That is the post-Covid normal that governments should be working towards and anyone who is not on board that programme should be emptied from any position of influence. 

[Todd_is_God]

14 minutes ago, Michael W said:

One thing often overlooked is the destination country has just as much, if not more, say in these things. If the destination country has been slow to vaccinate or is otherwise in a mess, no relaxations this end are going to help. 

Of course. I was speaking as if the scenario was that countries were open to UK tourists, and the SG were thinking that they could just keep saying no whilst WM were saying yes.

[Elixir]

'Spending by tourists in Scotland generates around £12 billion of economic activity for the wider Scottish supply chain and contributes around £6 billion to Scottish GDP, representing about 5% of total Scottish GDP.'

Let's torpedo that for the second year on the spin when every vulnerable person who wants it will have been vaccinated. 

Keeping hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals in Scotland apart from family for at least a full year. Just fantastic for public mental health!

[101]

22 minutes ago, DeeTillEhDeh said:

11 hours ago, Marshmallo said:

Did [mention=66969]101[/mention] become a prolific poster around the time of the outbreak of the pandemic?

I'm sure he's an alias.

Haha brilliant, an alias for who.

[101]

6 minutes ago, Elixir said:

Keeping hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals in Scotland apart from family for at least a full year. Just fantastic for public mental health!

You could spin family visitation as an essential reason to travel especially if it was causing mental ill health. Both virus suppression and mental health can be addressed at the same time obviously not difficult cases, but things like seeing family you have to apply some common sense.

It's the mental health of people who will never see their family members again and are suffering and put in a queue for an underfunded and understaffed service that I think will be under most strain in 2021 should this last much longer.

Edited January 20, 2021 by 101

[Elixir]

https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/covid-19/facts/questions-answers-travel

Quote

Given that COVID-19 has spread globally, measures at borders are not an effective way to reduce the community transmission of COVID-19. However, if the number of cases is reduced to almost zero in a country, some benefit might be achieved by implementing measures at borders.

And that does not mean that, because it's mid-summer and cases are extremely low, has 'elimination' been achieved.

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

7 minutes ago, Left Back said:

Good plan.  By the time your case gets through the courts we’ll be onto the next pandemic.

Keep us updated with progress though.

So you think that if cases are considerably lower, less people in hospital and the vaccine is working to prevent transmission and serious illness then we should continue to have freedoms restricted? There absolutely is a case if those things are not occurring and there would be zero argument from me if we still had considerable issues. There has to come a point whereby the harm of a lockdown outweighs the harm of a virus. For Jason Leitch and others who have mismanaged this pandemic since the fucking outset to lecture folks is just becoming massively draining. I dont think it’s particularly outrageous to suggest there will come a point whereby people will stop listening. Certainly if this is the trajectory of the snp government i’d like to know by May so my vote can go elsewhere. 

[Left Back]

4 minutes ago, Inanimate Carbon Rod said:

So you think that if cases are considerably lower, less people in hospital and the vaccine is working to prevent transmission and serious illness then we should continue to have freedoms restricted? There absolutely is a case if those things are not occurring and there would be zero argument from me if we still had considerable issues. There has to come a point whereby the harm of a lockdown outweighs the harm of a virus. For Jason Leitch and others who have mismanaged this pandemic since the fucking outset to lecture folks is just becoming massively draining. I dont think it’s particularly outrageous to suggest there will come a point whereby people will stop listening. Certainly if this is the trajectory of the snp government i’d like to know by May so my vote can go elsewhere. 

I suggested nothing of the sort.  As I said, let us know how you get on.  Good luck.

[Elixir]

As I've said, every single ballot I have ever cast has been for the SNP, but if they put up measures which effectively ban international travel come summer, my vote is gone for good. I'll still vote for independence in a future referendum, but I can't endorse such a dystopian measure. Granted I have personal reasons for this, but still.

Also, from a party that wants to rejoin the EU and endorse freedom of movement on our own continent? Absurd. There shamefully hasn't been so much as a peep about international residents in Scotland throughout the pandemic.

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

1 minute ago, Left Back said:

I suggested nothing of the sort.  As I said, let us know how you get on.  Good luck.

Im sure any such action would be taken by people within the travel industry and I dont think it’s as unlikely as you make out. 

[Wee Bully]

Not logged on for a while. The last few pages feels like screaming into the void by people who can’t read beyond a headline.

If you think that booking a non-refundable holiday for this summer is a good idea, launch right ahead. I want a holiday too, but I might just go for the refundable option, just in case.

[DeeTillEhDeh]

I'd worry more about the first person on Barra to have contracted it tbh. The locals will probably have them tied to a cross and burned. 

Inside a wicker man surely?

[doulikefish]

9 minutes ago, Wee Bully said:

Not logged on for a while. The last few pages feels like screaming into the void by people who can’t read beyond a headline.

If you think that booking a non-refundable holiday for this summer is a good idea, launch right ahead. I want a holiday too, but I might just go for the refundable option, just in case.

Yip im on my third re-booking of a Carribean island hopping trip from last year 

I think ill just go for next year 

[welshbairn]

34 minutes ago, Elixir said:

Keeping hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals in Scotland apart from family for at least a full year. Just fantastic for public mental health!

That might make sense if nearly every country on earth hadn't banned travellers from the UK.

[doulikefish]

44 minutes ago, Elixir said:

 

Keeping hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals in Scotland apart from family for at least a full year. Just fantastic for public mental health!

Didnt realise there had been a travel ban for a year