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Corona / Covid-19 Virus - General Discussion (politics go to the Off Topic / Politics thread)

@Ted, New Zealand is not that petite, land mass wise. It is about foreign travel policy and high quality, distributed test-and-trace (not a centralised out sourcing to SERCO!) – Uruguay, which is not an island and is next to the extravagantly moronic Bolsonaro, appears to have maintained near zero infection.

In time the UK will stand out as one of the island nations that has NOT eradicated the infection. Probably with the likes of the Philippines etc

Oxford (EGTK), United Kingdom

Indeed, and think Australia and it in particular the state of Victoria will be successful again, I am just challenging the assumption that it is easy. It does not appear to be so.

Ted
United Kingdom

SERCO are an “organisation” which would not exist were it not for the utter incompetence of NHS management and civil servants generally. Oh and I nearly forgot the self perpetuating H&S culture which consists mostly of people who cannot do any other job

However, I am not sure the UK can be compared to NZ. “Almost nobody” travels to NZ other than tourism. For most people with enough money, it is a 24hr+ journey, and very expensive. The UK, OTOH, is a major European transport hub, and Brits are at the top (or very close) for the numbers travelling abroad, especially to mainland Europe. It is not for no reason that both Easyjet and Ryanair are basically UK based airlines as far as traffic goes. This level of movement was hard to stop without draconian measures, which the UK tends to not do (in peacetime) as a matter of long standing moral principle.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Given how intractable the virus appears to be, it is very likely that the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland will pursue a zero infection policy, Ryanair notwithstanding.

Hopefully epidemiologists will help our cabinet of bluffers come to the correct moral decision.

Oxford (EGTK), United Kingdom

RobertL18C wrote:

it is very likely that the Republic of Ireland

Would that not be in conflict with the key freedom of movement of people they’re signed up to?

I think small islands it works well, but large places which have a lot of movement of people (both tourist and business) less so. It needs strong border controls and people making long stays, it’s less effective if people are going to be coming and going for just a few days or weekend trip.

The Republic of Ireland is not part of Schengen as far as I know.

France

Schengen is not about free movement, it’s about abolishing border controls.

Free movement is a fundamental EU principle which applies also to non-Schengen countries.

ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden

But without Schengen there are controls on entry and exit, so that there can be restrictions on entry eg the refusal of entry to someone with Covid19 or the insistence on isolation or quarantine. That is not the case with Schengen countries unless Schengen itself is suspended temporarily by a particular country.
May be a slight difference but it is there:)

France

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/02/does-stage-4-shock-and-awe-in-melbourne-mean-we-should-have-gone-for-elimination-of-coronavirus-after-all

It would appear Australia has finally woken up that if you have the advantage of being an island zero infection is the best policy.

Oxford (EGTK), United Kingdom

Schengen is irrelevant in this, and has been since March across Europe as almost all individual countries suspended it immediately due COVID and half a dozen had already suspended it anyway for security reasons over the last 4-5 years though didnt always use the powers suspension allowed.

At the end of the day, it is not sustainable for countries to be locked down without travel and have businesses closed.
In the absence of a proven vaccine, eventually everyone is going to have to take some kind of personal responsibility as to how they go about life.

Regards, SD..

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