I'm intrigued by what is going on in Australia right now, looking from afar in the UK. I still haven't cancelled my hotels in late Nov / early Dec in Brisbane and Adelaide for the Ashes, although I'm resigned to the fact I am locked out of Aussie for a long time. Did I see somewhere that there is talk of border closures until potentially 2023? Its insanity.
Are everyday Aussies really putting up with this never ending cycle of scare tactics, lockdown and political game playing? I thought there was a plan? I deeply feel for my fellow Australian friends and aviation comrades who are having to put with this nonsense day after day.
Were they putting up with it when Scotty from Marketing was walking around freely in the UK, tracing his family tree and mingling with political mates at the G7? At the same time saying how dangerous the UK is right now.*
*Newsflash - it isn't. The delta variant of course is a more infectious and possibly deadlier variant, but each of the vaccines are strongly effective against it and now over 80% of the adult population has had one dose and as of now all of the priority groups would've had their second. Life has almost returned to normal domestically and in fact, in reality, with Euro 2020 ongoing, it already has. In 18 days time, in theory, all restrictions will have been removed in the UK although I'm dubious as to what might happen later in the year. Right now there are around 20,000++ cases a day on average, but only around 200 a day going in hospital and on average around a dozen a day are dying. On a typical day probably around 1,300 people die every day in the UK. Perspective - something a lot of governments don't seem to have.
Being double vaccinated, I couldn't be any more protected apart from the exposure from widespread community transmission. But the vaccines are so miraculous, in over 90% of cases prevent you getting severe disease, even more so if you're under 50 where the risk really was significantly reduced before vaccines. Eventually, people who are fully vaccinated will be able to travel to amber countries without a return quarantine and most of Europe are now doing this from today with their new travel pass.
For what it's worth, I am 33 years old and had the AZ vaccine in around late March. I was groggy for 24 hours first time like most but absolutely fine - like 100,000s of others in my age bracket who had early access for whatever reason. Back at the time when there were question marks over this vaccine, there was 1.1 case in 100,000 of severe reaction which was slightly larger than the severe Covid risk for this cohort and as such the decision was made by UK JCVI, the regulator. Not for scare tactics, but a strategic risked based decision.
The world really is full of inconsistencies at the moment... it does irk me how science differs depending on your nationality, wallet size or celebrity status.