Why not NHS test for travel

HeinzVarieties

michael1234 said:

The NHS treats heavy smokers, drinkers, those that do no exercise and those that eat at McDonalds most days. They also provide free tests for almost any purpose except travel.

I'm starting to think NHS at cost (that isn't free) might be the right way to go. Why should several hundred private companies be allowed to profit out of this misery.

Because you don't understand how the general population has been conditioned to view COVID.

It's a disease which has been imported from abroad, with the dominant variant coming from abroad.  Then the population has been virtually nailed in their houses for months, businesses shuttered for months on end...

But then people want to go on holiday and heaven forbid they pay a bit more for an unnecessary trip, right?

This is about optics.  It doesn't look good to the pearl clutchers when you tell everyone to stay at home, mask up, blah blah and then you give people at cost tests when they could just not go on holiday.

Yeah, not go on holiday, what an amazing idea!

Sandtree

CKhalvashi said:

gary83 said:

Troytempest said:

I can afford to travel and I can afford a test.
Thousands of people can afford to go to festivals and the like and presumably can afford a test also but the Government is happy to pay for those tests.

Playing devils advocate, if the lateral flow tests are used to attend British pubs, restaurants, festivals or sporting events then those tests are enabling people to support uk based businesses. businesses that would continue to need tax payers support like the furlough scheme if they weren’t able to trade due to lateral flow tests. There is more benefit to the taxpayer and the government in allowing lateral flow tests to keep our own economy open.

That's a point I hadn't considered, which is true.

Pubs and restaurants yes, festivals are a bit more difficult though, as while they create short term UK work, many aren't UK-owned.

But many of the food stalls etc inside the festivals are.

The aim of all the regulations is to attempt to drive down infection rates, most of the regulations are poorly policed and ultimately rely heavily on people doing the right thing. The travel industry are used to having to ensure customers do what they should (have the right passport/visa, not carrying liquids etc),  people expect to spend money on travelling and a fairly high proportion of travellers are families, work trips etc which you'd hope are broadly compliant people.

Festivals on the other hand are poor at policing the few regulations that exist, just look at the level of drug availability in these things, attendees are typically younger people who;ve been told from the start the disease is less an issue for them and there are probably more wreckless types. As such you dont want to put barriers that can easily be circumvented. 

The idea would have been for the NHS/public sector to sell the travel vaccines but that would have been new infrastructure and with a Conservative government they will always believe market forces will provide better pricing than the public sector. The alternative is to have a new passenger duty but that creates fairness issues when rules change and people have booked months ago 

isplumm

R3dders said:

Apparently the whole plane get contacted on short haul flights if there is a positive case on the flight.  People don't sit on allocated seats and move freely about the plane, especially if its not a full flight.  This was confirmed by Track & Trace employee when they contacted us after a flight.

Sorry - that cannot be correct - I came back from Spain recently - I was at the back of the plane - my team were at the front - they all got pinged, I didn't.

Mark

SingleSue

michael1234 said:

The NHS treats heavy smokers, drinkers, those that do no exercise and those that eat at McDonalds most days. They also provide free tests for almost any purpose except travel.

I'm starting to think NHS at cost (that isn't free) might be the right way to go. Why should several hundred private companies be allowed to profit out of this misery.

That would be me beggered then, I wouldn't be able to afford to access healthcare for the essentials just so that people can have a jolly abroad.

For the record, you don't need to go abroad to have a holiday and neither is having a holiday abroad a guarantee for nice weather, I speak from experience from a rained out Spanish holiday (the day we arrived and the day we left were the only nice days in a 10 day break), a snow, rain or sleeted out French holiday (x 3), a rained out Prague trip and a storm and rained out Italy trip but have had many many gloriously sunny holidays here in the UK.

Sandtree

SingleSue said:
For the record, you don't need to go abroad to have a holiday and neither is having a holiday abroad a guarantee for nice weather, I speak from experience from a rained out Spanish holiday (the day we arrived and the day we left were the only nice days in a 10 day break), a snow, rain or sleeted out French holiday (x 3), a rained out Prague trip and a storm and rained out Italy trip but have had many many gloriously sunny holidays here in the UK.

There are very few guarantees in life, outside of taxes and death, but you can increase the odds by going further afield than another part of Europe. You'd be damned unlucky to go to the tropics and have snow or sleet unless you went mountaineering. 

If you want to go away over the festive period and don't enjoy the cold, snow, grey skies etc then the odds are better in the Caribbean than Suffolk.  However fully agree that you should be paying for your own tests.

zagfles

Sandtree said:

SingleSue said:
For the record, you don't need to go abroad to have a holiday and neither is having a holiday abroad a guarantee for nice weather, I speak from experience from a rained out Spanish holiday (the day we arrived and the day we left were the only nice days in a 10 day break), a snow, rain or sleeted out French holiday (x 3), a rained out Prague trip and a storm and rained out Italy trip but have had many many gloriously sunny holidays here in the UK.

There are very few guarantees in life, outside of taxes and death, but you can increase the odds by going further afield than another part of Europe. You'd be damned unlucky to go to the tropics and have snow or sleet unless you went mountaineering.

No, far worse possibilities like hurricanes or torrential rain!

lisyloo

HeinzVarieties said:

michael1234 said:

The NHS treats heavy smokers, drinkers, those that do no exercise and those that eat at McDonalds most days. They also provide free tests for almost any purpose except travel.

I'm starting to think NHS at cost (that isn't free) might be the right way to go. Why should several hundred private companies be allowed to profit out of this misery.

Because you don't understand how the general population has been conditioned to view COVID.

It's a disease which has been imported from abroad, with the dominant variant coming from abroad.  Then the population has been virtually nailed in their houses for months, businesses shuttered for months on end...

But then people want to go on holiday and heaven forbid they pay a bit more for an unnecessary trip, right?

This is about optics.  It doesn't look good to the pearl clutchers when you tell everyone to stay at home, mask up, blah blah and then you give people at cost tests when they could just not go on holiday.

Yeah, not go on holiday, what an amazing idea!

Of course we could not go on holiday (I haven’t).
we could all stay wrapped up in cotton wool forever.

we should be able to use the resources at hand e.g. masks, testing to allow people to do things.
I think travellers should pay not the nhs.

I am amazed at the number of jabs (typhoid etc.) and medicals (diving, private pilot etc.) I’ve had for free from the nhs. I’d say it was too generous.

HeinzVarieties

lisyloo said:

HeinzVarieties said:

michael1234 said:

The NHS treats heavy smokers, drinkers, those that do no exercise and those that eat at McDonalds most days. They also provide free tests for almost any purpose except travel.

I'm starting to think NHS at cost (that isn't free) might be the right way to go. Why should several hundred private companies be allowed to profit out of this misery.

Because you don't understand how the general population has been conditioned to view COVID.

It's a disease which has been imported from abroad, with the dominant variant coming from abroad.  Then the population has been virtually nailed in their houses for months, businesses shuttered for months on end...

But then people want to go on holiday and heaven forbid they pay a bit more for an unnecessary trip, right?

This is about optics.  It doesn't look good to the pearl clutchers when you tell everyone to stay at home, mask up, blah blah and then you give people at cost tests when they could just not go on holiday.

Yeah, not go on holiday, what an amazing idea!

Of course we could not go on holiday (I haven’t).
we could all stay wrapped up in cotton wool forever.

we should be able to use the resources at hand e.g. masks, testing to allow people to do things.
I think travellers should pay not the nhs.

I am amazed at the number of jabs (typhoid etc.) and medicals (diving, private pilot etc.) I’ve had for free from the nhs. I’d say it was too generous.

Not sure what the point of this post is?  The tone is disagreement but the words are you agreeing with me?

Sandtree

zagfles said:

Sandtree said:

SingleSue said:
For the record, you don't need to go abroad to have a holiday and neither is having a holiday abroad a guarantee for nice weather, I speak from experience from a rained out Spanish holiday (the day we arrived and the day we left were the only nice days in a 10 day break), a snow, rain or sleeted out French holiday (x 3), a rained out Prague trip and a storm and rained out Italy trip but have had many many gloriously sunny holidays here in the UK.

There are very few guarantees in life, outside of taxes and death, but you can increase the odds by going further afield than another part of Europe. You'd be damned unlucky to go to the tropics and have snow or sleet unless you went mountaineering.

No, far worse possibilities like hurricanes or torrential rain!

Hurricanes are broadly seasonal... as to torrential rain, and having spent a fair amount of time there last year, more than half the time its torrential rain for 20-30 minutes and everything is dry again within another 30 minutes. More than hide from it the Mrs would run out into it.

You certainly can get continuous heavy rain but in our months there that was a single day even though it was during the rainy season. In normal times you probably wouldnt go during the rainy season (but then in normal times we wouldnt be able to afford that length of stay even in rainy season).

lisyloo

HeinzVarieties said:

lisyloo said:l

HeinzVarieties said:

michael1234 said:

The NHS treats heavy smokers, drinkers, those that do no exercise and those that eat at McDonalds most days. They also provide free tests for almost any purpose except travel.

I'm starting to think NHS at cost (that isn't free) might be the right way to go. Why should several hundred private companies be allowed to profit out of this misery.

Because you don't understand how the general population has been conditioned to view COVID.

It's a disease which has been imported from abroad, with the dominant variant coming from abroad.  Then the population has been virtually nailed in their houses for months, businesses shuttered for months on end...

But then people want to go on holiday and heaven forbid they pay a bit more for an unnecessary trip, right?

This is about optics.  It doesn't look good to the pearl clutchers when you tell everyone to stay at home, mask up, blah blah and then you give people at cost tests when they could just not go on holiday.

Yeah, not go on holiday, what an amazing idea!

Of course we could not go on holiday (I haven’t).
we could all stay wrapped up in cotton wool forever.

we should be able to use the resources at hand e.g. masks, testing to allow people to do things.
I think travellers should pay not the nhs.

I am amazed at the number of jabs (typhoid etc.) and medicals (diving, private pilot etc.) I’ve had for free from the nhs. I’d say it was too generous.

Not sure what the point of this post is?  The tone is disagreement but the words are you agreeing with me?

You implied we should all stay at home (with a sarcastic - what an amazing idea).
the problem is that there are economic and mental/physical health issues with locking people down. The economic implications mounting up are huge.

I am promoting getting on with life in a safe way (but not expecting others to pay for it).

why are you telling people not to go on holiday if they are prepared to comply with all the rules?

Apologies in advance if I’ve misread your sarcasm but that’s how (what an amazing idea) came across to me.