So, coronavirus...

[Guy Smiley]

Indeed, it makes zero difference to us, and simply messes with airlines for zero net gain.

Not really.

China's current situation... case numbers overloading the health system, patients on floors through over crowding, morgues jammed over capacity, is the perfect scenario for mutations to develop and we'll be away again on the roller coaster of exponential rises in cases with all the pain and disruption that brings.

[Ymx]

China arriving with some cases won’t affect our health services.

As for variants, you won’t stop them anyway. Utterly pointless exercise, like it was with Omicron, which ironically helped wipe out the dangerous previous variants.

[Calculon]

So the UK government have no plans to impose restrictions on Chinese travellers despite many other countries doing so or indicating they intend to do so. Italy found that 52% of recent Chinese arrivals tested positive.

It's like our lot never learnt a bloody thing from their shit response first time around.

Why would they put new restrictions on them?

Are we worried about covid spreading here?

Thing is, our prevalence is about 1.5-2%, which is somewhere around a million or a million and a quarter. How many people arrive from China each day? If we say 20 flights, maybe around 8000 people max? If the infection rates are as bad as that plane that was sampled, it’s 4000 people, 28000 a week. It’s in the noise.

Indeed, a drop in the ocean of domestic spread, and the idea that PCR tests for Chinese passengers will stop any hypothetical new variants is hilarious. There was a complete ban on anyone from Southern Africa, didn't stop Omicron did it.

This is just politics, it's China so yeah, nobody likes them, and of course there are always those people who feel the government MUST do something, anything.

Anyway, for those panicking about new variants I believe the latest "scare" is the variant currently dominant in Massachusetts, it's part Delta, part Omicron. Something like that anyway, better ban people from the USA coming over

[Blackmac]

So the UK government have no plans to impose restrictions on Chinese travellers despite many other countries doing so or indicating they intend to do so. Italy found that 52% of recent Chinese arrivals tested positive.

It's like our lot never learnt a bloody thing from their shit response first time around.

Why would they put new restrictions on them?

Are we worried about covid spreading here?

You could have said that about any of the travel restrictions in the past though, but here we have a country with very low vaccination rates and clearly providing completely bullshit data about the situation in their country. There are suggestions that there are likely millions of new infections a day and the situation is ripe for new variants. There was even a claim yesterday that the level of infectious travellers seen by Italy could show a high level of health tourism by well heeled Chinese looking to avoid overwhelmed and poorly prepared Chinese hospitals.

[GogLais]

Arrivals from China aren’t going to spread themselves evenly through the country are they? Far from it I’d have though. Does that make an epidemiological difference?

[Blackmac]

China arriving with some cases won’t affect our health services.

As for variants, you won’t stop them anyway. Utterly pointless exercise, like it was with Omicron, which ironically helped wipe out the dangerous previous variants.

Really. Our totally overwhelmed health system can quite happily cope with hundreds, potentially thousands of additional patients. Not entirely sure that's a situation we should encourage if we can take some steps to try and avoid it.

[Calculon]

At least when the NHS collapses we'll know who to blame

[Blackmac]

At least when the NHS collapses we'll know who to blame

Odd take when I'm only suggesting it's something we could do without.

[Calculon]

Hordes of diseased Chinese flooding into the UK and overwhelming the NHS is indeed something you could do without

[Blackmac]

Hordes of diseased Chinese flooding into the UK and overwhelming the NHS is indeed something you could do without

I think you might find it is already overwhelmed. Pay attention.

[Calculon]

Of course the majority of Chinese visitors will be of a younger demographic, not many 80+ year old Chinese travel overseas, they will be vaccinated and healthy. Many will be students paying the exorbitant foreign student fees British universities rely on.

But as I said, any infected Chinese visitors will be a drop in the ocean of domestic spread.

[Ymx]

It’s quite frankly a laughable suggestion to put restrictions on a country with a virus which has already been here for years, and is currently in the millions. And even more laughable to be suggesting it’s a no brainer.

[Sandstorm]

It’s quite frankly a laughable suggestion to put restrictions on a country with a virus which has already been here for years, and is currently in the millions. And even more laughable to be suggesting it’s a no brainer.

If numbers in UK go up again dramatically post Chinese tourists returning and the Government decides we need another lockdown - I will find you and kill you.

[petej]

Of course the majority of Chinese visitors will be of a younger demographic, not many 80+ year old Chinese travel overseas, they will be vaccinated and healthy. Many will be students paying the exorbitant foreign student fees British universities rely on.

But as I said, any infected Chinese visitors will be a drop in the ocean of domestic spread.

Broadly I agree and think the restrictions are mostly worthless from the disease prevention angle but would support testing due to the total lack of honesty and openness from the Chinese authorities means we can't trust anything they say.

[Ymx]

It’s quite frankly a laughable suggestion to put restrictions on a country with a virus which has already been here for years, and is currently in the millions. And even more laughable to be suggesting it’s a no brainer.

If numbers in UK go up again dramatically post Chinese tourists returning and the Government decides we need another lockdown - I will find you and kill you.

Don’t forget to wear a double face mask, and do not enter the household until it’s well ventilated.get double jabbed a week before for extra safety.

[Calculon]

This from the Strait Times. Singapore is not introducing any restrictions on future Chinese visitors, despite receiving far more Chinese tourist than the UK, and being a small city state

Spoiler

Show

senior infectious diseases consultant Professor Paul Tambyah from the National University Hospital (NUH) felt they were somewhat reassuring.

He said: “It tells us that the current reported surge of cases in China is mainly due to strains which have been circulating in the rest of the world for the last few months without a major impact on the healthcare systems of any of the countries where they have been circulating.”

Experts here say there is a high chance of new sub-variants emerging in China, given the large number of people getting infected. They also noted that it is not likely to matter.

Dr Sebastian Maurer-Stroh, executive director of the BII, said: “Over the past three years, hundreds of short-lived variants have emerged with very little impact from the majority.”

He said the recent genomes from China are mostly the BA.5.2 and the BF.7, which fit the Asian pattern generally. “With global travel resuming, a more broadly synced lineage pattern would be expected,” he added.

Said Prof Hsu: “We would expect new variants globally as a matter of course. China, with millions of people getting infected daily, will add to the likelihood of such new variants and sub-variants arising, but should not be singled out as the sole or even the greatest risk of such an event.”

Prof Tambyah said: “There has not been a bona fide new variant since the Omicron variant emerged from South Africa (which has a considerably smaller population than China).

“The sub-variants of the Omicron variant have emerged from South Asia and other parts of the world, but none have been associated with surges of deaths, even though there have been more infections.”

Said Prof Hsu: “Singapore’s approach is rational. Taking a stricter stance against incoming travellers has done little more than briefly delay any potential new wave of Covid-19.”

Associate Professor Alex Cook, vice-dean of research at the NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, agreed: “Even if we have hundreds of infections from travellers from China a day, that is still very small compared to the number of local cases in previous waves.

“Once community transmission has already become widespread, the benefits of maintaining an isolationist policy are much reduced. Similarly, the countries rushing to erect barriers to Chinese travellers despite having had massive waves themselves of similar variants are most likely being unduly cautious.”

Professor Dale Fisher, a senior infectious diseases consultant at NUH, added: “Restricting visitors will appeal to some countries and some people, but while it may lessen a likely surge in mild cases here, I would not expect any surge to translate to many severe cases or a threatened healthcare system.”

He said there must be benefits from intervention. Implementing measures against travellers from China is both inconvenient and expensive, and will deter travel that in turn would prolong the impact on certain businesses

.

[Calculon]

Of course the majority of Chinese visitors will be of a younger demographic, not many 80+ year old Chinese travel overseas, they will be vaccinated and healthy. Many will be students paying the exorbitant foreign student fees British universities rely on.

But as I said, any infected Chinese visitors will be a drop in the ocean of domestic spread.

Broadly I agree and think the restrictions are mostly worthless from the disease prevention angle but would support testing due to the total lack of honesty and openness from the Chinese authorities means we can't trust anything they say.

They are worthless, but if the public and media want them, the politicias will respond and I wouldn't be surprised if restrictions are introduced. Like a lot of COVID policy, it's for show and does more harm than good. Just a pity that so little has been learned over the past two years as indicated by this performative policy.

The CCP will only be transparent if it suits them, however as far as I'm aware there hasn't been any major issues with regards to the monitoring of new variants in China. In terms of case numbers we now they are currently in the middle of a massive wave, the size of which should at least ensure that it will pass sooner.

[Biffer]

Indeed, it makes zero difference to us, and simply messes with airlines for zero net gain.

Not really.

China's current situation... case numbers overloading the health system, patients on floors through over crowding, morgues jammed over capacity, is the perfect scenario for mutations to develop and we'll be away again on the roller coaster of exponential rises in cases with all the pain and disruption that brings.

China isn’t a perfect situation for new variants though.

China has a largely immune naive population due to their zero covid extreme lockdown approach and less effective vaccines. They now have a high transmission variant (omicron) rattling around in that naive population - so there’s no evolutionary pressure for a new variant with immune escape, because there ain’t much immunity.

There’s a lot of confidence in virology circles that nearly all of the major variants have come from prolonged incubation in immune compromised individuals. We know this happened for Alpha (immune compromised patient in Kent) and it’s thought likely for omicron (long incubation in someone with HIV in Africa).

Now, more cases means more immune compromised folk at risk of infection, but that’s global. There are likely to be some new sub variants in this massive wave that China is having, but there’s no pressure to create something more infectious or more immune evasive. So most likely is further sub variants of Omicron, rather than completely new variants.

[Guy Smiley]

Well, that's no fun.

[dpedin]

Some sample testing for Chinese arrivals is sensible to enable monitoring of numbers of cases and to see if any new covid variants are entering our system but agree with others there is no need to ban arrivals. My understanding is the variant doing the harm in China is one that is already doing the rounds in the UK and Ireland. The UK has relatively high levels of vaccination and as we know by now those fully vaccinated will in the main avoid serious illness or death. China is suffering because of a relatively low level of vaccination and a less efficacious vaccine. In the UK it is by far only those nutters who have decided not to be vaccinated or to get topped up who are at serious risk. It is increasingly looking like flu will have have just as big an impact in the UK and is already impacting on the NHS and will see high sickness rates in early 2023 as companies go back to work.

The NHS sounds like it is now fucked with pressures of covid and flu on top of 12 years of underfunding, so if nothing else it is worth folk getting vaccinated against both. The NHS is running at 94%+ bed occupancy rate - 80-85% is the widely accepted bed occupancy rate that enables the most efficient running of the system. Length of stays are also increasing as discharge at this time of year is very difficult. At 94% occupancy or more the NHS will be chronically understaffed, waits at front door will be huge and growing due to poor flow through the system and patient boarding (patients in beds in wrong wards) will be unacceptably high leading to poorer and more unsafe care. Clinical risks in NHS are now unacceptably high. Given covid and flu rate will be higher amongst doctors, nurses and other NHS staff due to increased exposure absence rates will be high, the system has ground to a halt and we are now at cancer and emergency care only. Highly predictably and it's almost like the current Gov planned for this scenario?

However the situation in China presents a greater economic than health risk to us at the moment. As the numbers of those ill or dying continues to climb and fear grows in the population then their industry is seriously impacted and this will have a huge ripple effect across the world economy. We are already seeing significant drops on output from China and the knock on impact on share prices in companies like Apple. Any significant drop in output from China will have a huge impact on inflation rates and on any growth or recovery countries around the world were planning for in 2023.

Finally we know now through any number of high quality clinical studies that vaccination against covid, and flu, is safe, highly effective and prevents the vats majority of serious illness and deaths. Ignore the nutters and just get jabbed!

[Ymx]

China just suffering from being overly locked down and everyone therefore catching it at the same time and overwhelming the system. It will blow over within a month. Then will be back to normal.

There is no need to react in the UK by the doom mongers, and get jabbed again and again, unless you are highly at risk.

[JM2K6]

That's horseshit. China suffered from a very low level of vaccination - and a worse vaccine than we have. Lockdown bought them a lot of time they failed to use wisely.

"Don't get jabbed unless you're at high risk" is a nonsense take.

[Biffer]

China just suffering from being overly locked down and everyone therefore catching it at the same time and overwhelming the system. It will blow over within a month. Then will be back to normal.

There is no need to react in the UK by the doom mongers, and get jabbed again and again, unless you are highly at risk.

Overwhelming majority of studies show that there’s significant benefit to vaccination.

[Ymx]

China just suffering from being overly locked down and everyone therefore catching it at the same time and overwhelming the system. It will blow over within a month. Then will be back to normal.

There is no need to react in the UK by the doom mongers, and get jabbed again and again, unless you are highly at risk.

Overwhelming majority of studies show that there’s significant benefit to vaccination.

Just watch the shrill screaming “anti-vax nazi.”

I’ve had it 3 times. But I won’t any more unless
1. I’ve not had covid for a long long time
2. There’s a serious variant out

I’ve had my top up a few weeks back. A bit sneezy and a little tired, but just carried on and worked from home.

[Marylandolorian]

That's horseshit. China suffered from a very low level of vaccination - and a worse vaccine than we have. Lockdown bought them a lot of time they failed to use wisely.

"Don't get jabbed unless you're at high risk" is a nonsense take.

Have you ever seen this poster making sense?

[Calculon]

That's horseshit. China suffered from a very low level of vaccination - and a worse vaccine than we have. Lockdown bought them a lot of time they failed to use wisely.

"Don't get jabbed unless you're at high risk" is a nonsense take.

China vaccination rate was 89.35% on December 13, 2022 (https://ycharts.com/indicators/china_co ... ation_rate)
but for over the most vulnerable segment of the population, 80+, it is only something like 40% fully (3 shots) vaccinated.

Study from Hong Kong suggested that three dose sinovac has similar efficacy than pfizer bioNtech

Three doses of either vaccine offered very high levels of protection against severe or fatal outcomes (97·9% [97·3-98·4]).
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35850128/

A lot of Chinese might have waning immunity due to being vaccinated a long time ago and of course there would have been very little infection-acquired immunity in the population. Would definitely agree with your last sentence. It looks like the final decision to suddenly scrap all internal restrictions was taken at short notice with almost no preparation done.

[fishfoodie]

That's horseshit. China suffered from a very low level of vaccination - and a worse vaccine than we have. Lockdown bought them a lot of time they failed to use wisely.

"Don't get jabbed unless you're at high risk" is a nonsense take.

China vaccination rate was 89.35% on December 13, 2022 (https://ycharts.com/indicators/china_co ... ation_rate)
but for over the most vulnerable segment of the population, 80+, it is only something like 40% fully (3 shots) vaccinated.

Study from Hong Kong suggested that three dose sinovac has similar efficacy than pfizer bioNtech

Three doses of either vaccine offered very high levels of protection against severe or fatal outcomes (97·9% [97·3-98·4]).
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35850128/

A lot of Chinese might have waning immunity due to being vaccinated a long time ago and of course there would have been very little infection-acquired immunity in the population. Would definitely agree with your last sentence. It looks like the final decision to suddenly scrap all internal restrictions was taken at short notice with almost no preparation done.

A company here is doubling in size on the back of developing an inhalation method for covid vaccination, which is being licensed in China, where the older population is reluctant to get injected. This method also seems to require only a fraction of the amount of vaccine.

https://www.siliconrepublic.com/innovat ... e-in-china

[Calculon]

cool

[JM2K6]

That's horseshit. China suffered from a very low level of vaccination - and a worse vaccine than we have. Lockdown bought them a lot of time they failed to use wisely.

"Don't get jabbed unless you're at high risk" is a nonsense take.

China vaccination rate was 89.35% on December 13, 2022 (https://ycharts.com/indicators/china_co ... ation_rate)
but for over the most vulnerable segment of the population, 80+, it is only something like 40% fully (3 shots) vaccinated.

Study from Hong Kong suggested that three dose sinovac has similar efficacy than pfizer bioNtech

Three doses of either vaccine offered very high levels of protection against severe or fatal outcomes (97·9% [97·3-98·4]).
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35850128/

A lot of Chinese might have waning immunity due to being vaccinated a long time ago and of course there would have been very little infection-acquired immunity in the population. Would definitely agree with your last sentence. It looks like the final decision to suddenly scrap all internal restrictions was taken at short notice with almost no preparation done.

That vaccination rate isn't for triple vaccination, which is where the vaccine is as effective as ours, and yes, there's many tens of millions of vulnerable people who are unvaccinated.

Most sources suggest somewhere between 50-60% fully vaccinated over the entire population.

[dpedin]

That's horseshit. China suffered from a very low level of vaccination - and a worse vaccine than we have. Lockdown bought them a lot of time they failed to use wisely.

"Don't get jabbed unless you're at high risk" is a nonsense take.

China vaccination rate was 89.35% on December 13, 2022 (https://ycharts.com/indicators/china_co ... ation_rate)
but for over the most vulnerable segment of the population, 80+, it is only something like 40% fully (3 shots) vaccinated.

Study from Hong Kong suggested that three dose sinovac has similar efficacy than pfizer bioNtech

Three doses of either vaccine offered very high levels of protection against severe or fatal outcomes (97·9% [97·3-98·4]).
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35850128/

A lot of Chinese might have waning immunity due to being vaccinated a long time ago and of course there would have been very little infection-acquired immunity in the population. Would definitely agree with your last sentence. It looks like the final decision to suddenly scrap all internal restrictions was taken at short notice with almost no preparation done.

That vaccination rate isn't for triple vaccination, which is where the vaccine is as effective as ours, and yes, there's many tens of millions of vulnerable people who are unvaccinated.

Most sources suggest somewhere between 50-60% fully vaccinated over the entire population.

That's my understanding of the situation plus they started vaccinating younger folk first and there is still significant vaccine hesitancy amongst the older age groups with only about c40% of over 80s (probably more than this now given recent efforts?) reported in Nov as having had the latest booster. Unfortunately it is a numbers game - 1,43 billion population, 200m over 65 and 33m over 80 - it doesn't need much for there to be a sizeable number of hospitalisations and deaths.

An inhaled vaccine would be fantastic but the last thing I saw about this was that it wasn't clear if it was as an effective method of delivery as injection and we perhaps need both? Have any studies reported yet? Fingers crossed.

[Calculon]

That's horseshit. China suffered from a very low level of vaccination - and a worse vaccine than we have. Lockdown bought them a lot of time they failed to use wisely.

"Don't get jabbed unless you're at high risk" is a nonsense take.

China vaccination rate was 89.35% on December 13, 2022 (https://ycharts.com/indicators/china_co ... ation_rate)
but for over the most vulnerable segment of the population, 80+, it is only something like 40% fully (3 shots) vaccinated.

Study from Hong Kong suggested that three dose sinovac has similar efficacy than pfizer bioNtech

Three doses of either vaccine offered very high levels of protection against severe or fatal outcomes (97·9% [97·3-98·4]).
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35850128/

A lot of Chinese might have waning immunity due to being vaccinated a long time ago and of course there would have been very little infection-acquired immunity in the population. Would definitely agree with your last sentence. It looks like the final decision to suddenly scrap all internal restrictions was taken at short notice with almost no preparation done.

That vaccination rate isn't for triple vaccination, which is where the vaccine is as effective as ours, and yes, there's many tens of millions of vulnerable people who are unvaccinated.

Most sources suggest somewhere between 50-60% fully vaccinated over the entire population.

WHO considers 2 shot sinovac for under 60 to be fully vaccinated and for over 60, 3 shots. Seems sensible to me, there is disagreement regarding what constitutes fully vaccinated for the different vaccines so that's a stat that is not really helpful without further context. Of course China also used other vaccines and so did the UK. I believe it's generally thought that the AZ one might have a slightly lower efficacy. Anyway, the idea than " China suffered from a very low level of vaccination", if you mean that currently they have very low level of vaccination, is just silly when you look at their overall rate.
https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations. - even if "only" 60% of their population have received a booster dose

They specifically suffer from low levels amongst their elderly population.

Purely anecdotal but all the Chinese I know are vaccinated, their employers (both public and private) told them to either get vaccinated or find another job.

edit: this is from wiki citing a bbc article, so a shit source but anyways

In July 2022, according to official figures, while 89% had received 2 doses, only 56% of eligible people had received a booster dose. Furthermore, this was even lower among vulnerable elderly age groups, with only 19.7% of people over the age of 80 having received a booster dose.

if that is correct, not good, but hopefully the figure for the over 80's is much better now.

[Ymx]

So China have 89% with 2 or more shots. Less who are with 3 shots, but 2 presumably is quite significant in terms of death. But their problem being the old ones who actually need it haven’t opted to take it. Although, fortunately, that’s just 2.5% of their population.

The efficacy of the Chinese one is in the same playing field as AZ for severe infection? Really? But above JM definitively said it was much poorer.

So I’m not exactly seeing why it’s horseshit, this won’t pass within about a month over there. Let’s see shall we?

I seem to recall the same types getting riled up about not locking up shop again over Omicron and the South African travel ban and the rubbishing of the early data of it being less lethal In SA. Adding this comment ‘you do realise the our "freedom" has been really fucking stupid, right?’ actually said in December 2021.

[Calculon]

I don't know the efficacy compared to AZ, mayby no good study directly comparing them

This is just one study from Hong Kong, but a pretty good one
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9286709/

Both vaccines were estimated to have high effectiveness against severe disease in adults aged 20–59 years, in whom vaccine effectiveness was estimated to be 96·3% (95% CI 94·9–97·3) for two doses of BNT162b2 and 91·7% (88·7–94·0) for two doses of CoronaVac (table 2). The difference in vaccine effectiveness was greater for older adults, with higher effectiveness among adults aged 60 years or older who received two doses of BNT162b2 (89·3% [86·6–91·6]) compared with those who received two doses of CoronaVac (69·9% [64·4–74·6]).


Goes on to say that three doses of Sinovac offers similar protection to three doses of the Pfizer/BioNtech and recommends that over 60s get three doses of either vaccine.

Three doses of either vaccine offered very high levels of protection against severe or fatal outcomes (97·9% [97·3–98·4]).

I keep saying this but China's problem realy isn't that their vaccine is shit, it isn't, but that most of their elderly haven't been fully vaccinated.

[Ymx]

The UK government is set to follow other countries by requiring travellers from China to be tested for Covid-19 from early next year, amid concerns that the lifting of restrictions there has seen a wave of infections.

The Department of Health said that anyone travelling from China on direct flights to England from January 5 will need to show a negative Covid pre-departure test taken no more than two days before departure.

Although there are no direct flights from China to Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, the department said it is working with devolved nations so that the changes are imposed UK-wide as soon as possible.

The UK Health Security Agency will also launch surveillance from January 8, which will see a sample of passengers arriving in England from China tested for the virus as they arrive.

[dpedin]

The UK government is set to follow other countries by requiring travellers from China to be tested for Covid-19 from early next year, amid concerns that the lifting of restrictions there has seen a wave of infections.

The Department of Health said that anyone travelling from China on direct flights to England from January 5 will need to show a negative Covid pre-departure test taken no more than two days before departure.

Although there are no direct flights from China to Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, the department said it is working with devolved nations so that the changes are imposed UK-wide as soon as possible.

The UK Health Security Agency will also launch surveillance from January 8, which will see a sample of passengers arriving in England from China tested for the virus as they arrive.

This is purely a political action. Lock downs were required in order to gain time to understand what we were facing, stop community spread, develop and roll out vaccines to protect the population from a novel and dangerous virus. We have done that in the UK and the majority of folk, especially the old and vulnerable and apart from the anti-vax etc nutters, will be protected from serious illness and death. I haven't seen any info that suggests it's a new variant causing problems in China, anyone? So there is no clear and obvious reason to test all travellers - only the surveillance testing makes any real sense. If some are testing positive then it is likely that the whole plane load from China will end up with covid, assuming there is no masking etc on board but even that won't prevent spread, but the majority infected on board will test negative when getting off the plane and only become positive days later! There is no PH rationale for this action now.

[Ymx]

Indeed, it has to be nothing other than political. If you’ve covid and travelling from India, then fine. But if you have covid and travelling from China, no way!!

It can be summed up by this emoji

[Ymx]

More of the article

There are concerns that the daily cases and deaths in China have been greatly underreported as officials have stopped requiring cases to be reported, and changed classifications for coronavirus deaths.

Health Secretary Steve Barclay said that the UK was taking a “balanced and precautionary approach”, describing the measures as “temporary” while officials assess the latest Covid-19 data. “This allows our world-leading scientists at the UK Health Security Agency to gain rapid insight into potential new variants circulating in China,” he said.

https://www.itv.com/news/2022-12-30/uk- ... a-arrivals

[Calculon]

The UK government is set to follow other countries by requiring travellers from China to be tested for Covid-19 from early next year, amid concerns that the lifting of restrictions there has seen a wave of infections.

The Department of Health said that anyone travelling from China on direct flights to England from January 5 will need to show a negative Covid pre-departure test taken no more than two days before departure.

Although there are no direct flights from China to Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, the department said it is working with devolved nations so that the changes are imposed UK-wide as soon as possible.

The UK Health Security Agency will also launch surveillance from January 8, which will see a sample of passengers arriving in England from China tested for the virus as they arrive.

This is purely a political action. Lock downs were required in order to gain time to understand what we were facing, stop community spread, develop and roll out vaccines to protect the population from a novel and dangerous virus. We have done that in the UK and the majority of folk, especially the old and vulnerable and apart from the anti-vax etc nutters, will be protected from serious illness and death. I haven't seen any info that suggests it's a new variant causing problems in China, anyone? So there is no clear and obvious reason to test all travellers - only the surveillance testing makes any real sense. If some are testing positive then it is likely that the whole plane load from China will end up with covid, assuming there is no masking etc on board but even that won't prevent spread, but the majority infected on board will test negative when getting off the plane and only become positive days later! There is no PH rationale for this action now.

This

[Ymx]

We are all agreeing.

Quick lock the thread !!!

[Calculon]

90% of people in Henan province infected according to health official

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-64208127

Find it easy to believe, instead of the 3, 4 or 5 fives that most countries experienced they're having one big fuck off wave.