Tag: red list

Day 629, part 2 – Red list lifted

Posted on

I’m still mildly bemused by the exceptionalism shown to the UK regarding the recent travel red list. (I mean, I’m not really, we know that everyone loves to hate the Brits, but still…)

Sure, you can say that it was unscientific, unjustified or whatever (as if those are the only arguments that count here), but no-one seems to be chastising Chile or Italy or Oman or Singapore or the UAE or Panama or Uzbekistan or Canada or (weirdly) Rwanda (I know, right?) for stopping incoming Saffas and visitors to SA from… well… coming in.

And now that the UK (at the time of writing) has opened up again, while many of the the other countries (and there are almost 70 of them!) are still banning travel from SA, there still seems to be this latent whining at the UK, rather than any outrage at or pressure on other countries to follow their lead.

Odd.

We now know a lot more about Omicron – and while the news (tentatively) seems to be pretty good – when the UK and everyone else added SA to their red list, no-one had any idea how nasty or otherwise it might be (it didn’t even have a name back then!), and the UK had detected no cases there. What I wrote a couple of weeks ago still stands:

That “more information” did become available, and the UK has acted timeously on it. Of course I’m sorry that SA lost out on tourism business for three weeks. I know it’s crap. The last 2 years have been crap for all of us. Omicron was out of anyone’s control (and it’s still wildly out of everyone’s control!), and there will be other variants in the future which will probably result in new restrictions and limiting travel. It’s not anyone’s fault.

I know how much the tourist industry needs a good season right now, but as far as I’m aware, the UK (or anywhere else for that matter) has no obligation to send a quota number of tourists here each year. And I’m not a business person, but to me, seemingly relying on a single nation to prop up your tourist industry seems like a worryingly risky approach.

If this was really just about the tourist thing and the stigma of being on a red list, then it does seem as if local social media and news sites should move on now from their… er… “unjustified, unscientific and irrational” stance, and start pressurising the likes of Aruba, Gabon and Kuwait (oh, and “Germany, the US, France and the Netherlands”, obviously) to allow travellers from SA back into their countries rather than pointlessly continuing to chastise the UK.

Really weird that that’s not happening.

Day 611 – Travel

Posted on

Twitter: “But it’s ridiculous! People are tested before they can travel!”

And yet, at Schipol…

Link

South African Minister of Health: “Travel restrictions are unjustified”:

Also the South African Minister of Health: “We may restrict travel”:

Trump bans travel from parts of Africa this time last year. Joe Biden:

Image

Today, Joe Biden announces ban on travel from parts of Africa:

I know, I know. Cheap shots. Low hanging fruit etc etc.

Maybe it’s just people called Joe…

But also massive hypocrisy and many clear indications that – almost 2 years into this whole mess – we (and by we, I mean politicians) haven’t come up with any decent methods of dealing with it. It’s all a bit scary.

Look, the likelihood is that this variant will be all over the world already. Just because it was only detected now, doesn’t mean it wasn’t already widely circulating.

But yes, I do support the bans: for the moment, at least.
Anything which buys any healthcare system any extra time – and therefore information – has to be used when we are dealing with new, unknown variants.

And then the political aspect, whereby the government has to be seen to be doing something. When BJ didn’t close the flights from India back in May, he lost a lot of credibility (yes, yes, I know) regarding the way the government was dealing with Covid.

People used it as a tool to avoid following guidelines: “Why should I bother if Boris is just letting the virus in anyway?”. I’ve said countless times during this whole thing that being a President or Prime Minister is not a job I’d want during a pandemic. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. You are not going to please all of the people any of the time.

But then there’s an important caveat here: when the statistics, the information and the experts suggest that the limitations are not required, then they need to be lifted just as quickly as they were instituted. And that’s not an own goal; it’s not saying that they were wrong to put them into place in the first place: that’s acting on new information and data. Nothing wrong with that.
It must just happen as soon as some sort of all-clear is sounded, not 6 months down the line.

Day 408 – That Turkey travel ban

Posted on

Wel, not so much a travel “ban” as it being placed on the UK’s red list, along with a the Maldives and Nepal. I have a bit of a personal interest in the decision, so I was looking for answers as to why Turkey might have been added to the list, the effect of which is that travellers from there will have to isolate at a hotel in the UK for 10 days at their own cost.

To the untrained eye, it might just seem that their open borders and large spike in cases might be the reason, but that’s just to the untrained eye, so I went searching for a trained eye, on which might be able to give some better insight.

It didn’t take me long to find Nico00503.

Despite what it says there, a quick look shows us that Nico00503 has actually been shouting into the void on twitter for a few months now, but no-one is listening, because that’s what voids do best. Or don’t do worst, at least.
Well, it’s time to change all that, because he has incisive comment to offer on everything. And that includes that Turkey red-list decision announced yesterday. And the untrained eyes were all wrong: it’s all about the [checks notes] UEFA Champions League Final. Man City v Chelsea, right? Right.

Of course it is.

Of course UK WANT CHAM LEAGUE FINAL PLAY IN UK. It makes complete sense. Think of all the money they’ll make with all the fans not allowed to attend. And all that extra cash from airport taxes by preventing fans travelling to Istanbul (“UK GOV ALSO DONE PRESSURE ASKING OWN CITIZEN DONT GO ISTANBUL”) to not attend the game they aren’t allowed to attend. And if you think differently, then just remember IT IS BIG LIE. PRESSURE NOT FOR COZ CORONA. Yeah. Infamously, British teams have a terrible record in CHAM LEAGUE FINAL PLAY IN Istanbul.

Although, late last year (when there were ten time fewer cases each day in Turkey), Nico00503 had other ideas:

It takes a big man to look at a different situation and be willing to publicly change his mind on the big issues. And no-one wants CORONA KEEP GROWN UP COUNTRY. And clearly, the only plan to prevent CORONA KEEP GROWN UP COUNTRY is NO ENTRY ISTANBUL AND NO OUT FROM ISTANBUL,COMPLETELY NEED IT LOCKDOWN IN ISTANBUL.

Well, then, at least. Not now. Now it’s all about MAKING PRESSURE TO UEFA.

Amazed by the clarity of Nico00503’s argument on this, I went looking on his timeline for answers to questions I didn’t even know I needed to ask. And there were plenty to be had. Like how to make money in the UK.

Wow. Such straightforward stuff when you think about it. IN UK DOG ARE HOLY DOG. So yes, IF I SALE 2 OR 3 DOGS EWERY WEEK, there’s quite literally millions to be made. Could there be a South African spin-off? MAYBE I START DOING DOG BUSINESSS.

Medical note: If you start doing dog business, maybe consult your GP.

Nico00503 also has advice for the new mayors in the UK:

Wow. That’s bad news for JUNKEYS,CRIMINAL SHIT PEOPLE ARUND THE MANY CITY. These live televised executions might seem a little harsh at first glance (and probably for quite some time thereafter as well, to be honest) but we all need to remember that THEY ARE NOT SWEETHEART.

And then some vital information as to the origins of Coronavirus. Scientists have been trying to pinpoint this for a while now. They should have just talked to Nico00503.

And again, that thing about DOGGY BUSINES. And why? JUST COZ ABOUT MONEY,TAKE CONTROL,TO OWN SOMETHINK.

Exactly, Nico00503. SOMETHINK, but most people never even apply their minds at all. I can see that we are both thinkers. Kindred spirits, if you will.
I thought that some sort of hugely successful vaccine programme might be the reason for decrease in Covid-19 cases in the UK. You think differently. Of course you do:

To be honest, I never even considered that UK GOV,JOHNSON DONE, HOCUS POKUS AGAINST THE CORONA. But it does appear to have had a magical effect. Or maybe that’s not what it was at all. Maybe the way forward was just to get around to ASKING CORONA MAKE PAUSE FOR THE SUMMER. Other nations should try this approach. Of course, given our precarious geographical position right at the bottom of the Southern hemisphere, our government would have to consider ASKING CORONA MAKE PAUSE FOR THE WINTER. If only we’d realised that ending the global pandemic was a simple as a quick magic trick and a gentle request to the virus’ better side.

Look, this might be my blog, but this is very much Nico00503’s blog post. Consequently, it would be wrong of me to leave you with my thoughts here. And how could I even compete with the mind-blowingly obvious, but so clearly understated, genius like this kind of thing? No. If there’s one thing you take away from today’s post and maybe even from 2021, let it be this thought from our erstwhile protagonist:

Have a great day.

Word.