I wondered if anyone caught the interview with the scientist late last night on Radio 5 as the discussion regarding the Astra-Zeneca vaccine was quite shocking? I am not a fan of Radio 5 and wondered if it was scare mongering but many medical journals are also reporting the same fact that this vaccine is ineffective against the South African variant. This was widely report in the medical press on 18th March but has not been published in the mainstream media nor any announcement made by the government. You can find numerous articles on line to this fact but what as not been reported is that this effectively means we are back to square one. AstraZeneca Vaccine Ineffective Against S. African Variant (webmd.com) AstraZeneca Covid Vaccine Ineffective Against South African Variant In Trial | Kaiser Health News (khn.org) There have only been a small number of infections from the South African variant in the UK but between 10-15% of the new infections in France are from this variant. The British media is reporting this as Europe being behind the UK with countries like France and Germany experiencing what the UK went through in November- December. This is only partly correct because most of the cases are for the Kent variant. The scientist interviewed suggested that the all the vaccines we have in place are likely to be ineffective to varying degrees but the worry was that the mutations of the virus may be such that the vaccine will not be subtle enough to prompt the body's antibodies to recognize any difference. In a nutshell, the scientist was suggesting that all foreign travel should be discouraged and was strongly against anyone taking foreign holidays because the risks are effectively no less than last year. The South African variant is likely to be more deadly and the suggestion was that the UK is likely to be hit by the third wave currently affecting Europe at some point in the autumn. The really scary thing was that the research to find a vaccine will mean starting from scratch and not modifying those we currently have available. There was a rush to find individuals in the UK who had this variant a few weeks ago yet the government made no comment as to why this was so pressing. Nor has anyone really explained in the press what is happening in Europe with many papers suggesting that the problem is due to the EU's failure to procure vaccines at the same rate as the UK. This is true for about 85% of infections but there is a sizable balance which relates to the South African variant is is suggestive that , in this instance, we are behind the Europe wave currently being experienced.
Looks like the idiots who booked summer holidays abroad are going to look like....well.....idiots! Covid: Summer holidays abroad 'unlikely', warns government adviser - BBC News
Though in fairness, some of those idiots were people who had the same holiday booked last year and had to defer it to this year. I have a Greece trip booked for September (deferred from last August that was originally booked Jan 2020) and that may need to be moved again. Or we lose the money.
I do think the government need to come out and say holidays abroad will be banned until further notice. We cannot afford variants from other countries to run riot in the UK. I would much rather we had all restrictions on living in the UK lifted and keep it that way before holidays abroad are permitted again.
I'm talking about the muppets who booked a holiday 5 minutes after the PM spoke about the path out of lockdown.
I agree - we have the benefit of being an island. Let's close the borders (no I am not being sarcastic) to all non essential travel and this way we can isolate as a nation without any draconian lockdown rules within it.
Sadly, based on experience, that ain’t gonna happen ....... if they didn’t close the borders until virtually a year had gone by since the reports were coming in from China and Italy and they can’t even find people arriving now who have tested positive (can I have my billions of pounds back, please?) , there’s zero chance of this happening .... Bloody shame - so much could have been done better, but money talks .... (mustn’t get political, Dave ..... )
Another benefit would be to encourage going on holiday in the UK - it would be great to boost tourism here. Nothing wrong with holidaying in the UK at all. There are loads of places you can go in the UK. I don't think many people fully appreciate our country and how stunning some parts of it are.
And we all speak the same language There is no struggle to put an 'o' on the end of each word in the hope that we are understood. Or need to shout louder as that always makes people understand us.
You say that but we're the ones looking good right now. Europe have been ****ing stupid with their vaccination schemes and now are going to pay the price. I think the government will ban holidays abroad this summer. Politically (sorry!), the government can use this to their advantage. They can say that by keeping our borders closed over the summer, we've learnt our lesson and because of it we're the first European country to get back to anywhere near normality.
We to, have holidays booked this year after deferring from last year.....if we have to defer again, no problem. As soon as Europe for example catches up on their vaccine programmes and infection drop......travel again will commence. Just a question of when.
Interesting, and worrying, though I'm sure if that were shown as a definite, the EU would be harping on, loudly, about that, rather than the weird distraction point about the clots...?
