Antibody tests are not 100% accurate. You can get false positives and false negatives even when they are used at the optimal time.

There is also a case report published of two patients (of 300 odd) who had COVID infection confirmed at the time using PCR, but who never developed antibodies that could be detected using an antibody test.

The point is, don't take anything for granted. The virus didn't exist at all 18 months ago, and in that time mutations are also changing the way it might impact the body.

I think there is a misunderstanding about what is meant by long term issues. Heart muscle damage is mostly irreversible, but small damage at a young age, you will most likely not even notice it. Most of us do not use our heart to its maximum capacity in normal life unless you do very vigorous gym routines or are an athlete. As you age the small amounts of damage add up as your maximum output comes closer to your daily activities needs, this is why older pilots require stress tests, and that sadly may be the first time you find out your heart is in bad shape and your medical is pulled. Don't confuse actual heart muscle damage with coronary artery blockage, that can be fixed via stent or grafts, that's just fixing the fuel lines to the heart, if the heart muscle is damaged by the lack of blood then you lose heart capacity and generally don't get it back. Lung damage can be reversed in some cases, you can chop out a large chunk of lung and it grows back, unlike the heart, which damage can be counteracted with making other parts of the heart work harder/more efficiently, but not reversed. Yes bad cases of the flu can cause similar damage, just due to the body being over-stressed, but this heart inflammation is being found in even mild cases of covid, and asymptomatic patients.

Maybe Ruperts Rags don’t cover it, but unbiased news sources continually present articles about people suffering from long Covid.
as 43inches mentioned, there seems to be a complete misunderstanding to what this actually entails.

Back to Virgin, are any flight crew still completely stood down ?

No, all pilots now stood up to 75 % for the next roster and even a few lucky FO’s on 100%............go figure.

but it could all change if another ‘catastrophic’ border closure happens

I believe they are being keep below 100% due to continued lack of Cabin Crew

Slightly OT, but former VA part-owner SQ has started selling off and leasing back their A350s and 787s after their recently announced losses. The name of the lessors were included in the media release.

https://www.singaporeair.com/en_UK/s.../ne1121-210503

interesting to compare and contrast the CEO of Singapore Ailines versus Qantas…. Just one example.

Desperate lack of CC at present. Most are being called and messaged several times by Crewing on both their OPT and DDO's

Max.

Is there not hundreds of 737 rated Tiger CC they could make an offer to and get online pretty quick smart?

I think the problem is a lack of qualified trainers to run training courses.Remember they were very happy to get rid of staff in the beginning.They didn’t care about the experience level of people going out the door.😆

Already have some of them online and coming online now PoppaJo. Good for them, I suppose.

How many of those were fully vaccinated? Because that’s the issue isn’t it - get the population vaccinated, almost eliminates the chance of people getting seriously sick from Covid, significantly reduces transmission of the disease and then things (like international borders) can return to normal.

Australia in a nutshell...overreacting and over-regulating everything...

Yeah! Why can’t we be more like India, the USA, UK, Europe

Wish there was a “like” button in this forum

False dichotomy

So much for JH much lauded experience in managing a loco. Its always the same problem. To make money you need planes flying, to make planes fly with pax you need ground,crew, engineering crew, cabin crew, and tech crew. Each one of those categories needs to be trained on the planes that make you money and that training costs money and takes time. Management usually stop thinking at the first statement. If JH was indeed the saviour of Virgin then you would think that she would understand the rest but the reality is she doesn't.

As an industry, we are reaping what we have sewed.

Once upon a time this position was revered. When you employ check out chicks and pay peanuts guess what you get........

At J* they are short of cc because the good people at the Victorian Department of Justice employed a lot of experienced cabin managers to run their hotel quarantine. Better money and lifestyle was the reason they left and have stayed away.