Fortress Britain
Travellers could face up to a decade in jail for trying to hide a visit to a “red list” country, Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, revealed today.
From Monday, anyone flying to the UK from 33 mostly South American and southern African countries will be escorted from the airport to a hotel where they will remain under guard, quarantining for 10 days. Disobeying could mean a £10,000 fine.
The cost of the hotel “package” – which needs to be booked online in advance – is £1750, and includes hotel, transport and two PCR tests to be taken on day 2 and day 8 of quarantine. International arrivals from all other countries will also be required to take these two tests, but can quarantine at home. Olivia Gavoyannis has the full details below.
Ten years in jail seems a bit steep considering the average rapist serves seven years. The policy is designed to appear tough – Fortress Britain pulling up its drawbridge and clamping down hard on (foreign) variants. Sir Keir Starmer has urged the government to go further to “secure our borders”.
But is it a proportionate or practical response?
The hope is that the policy will allow the authorities to quickly identify and prevent the spread of mutated viruses that might render current vaccines less effective. But if the rationale for preventing international travel is the risk that a vaccine-busting variant could emerge, then the policy could be justified forever.
David Heymann, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: “We know that borders cannot stop infectious diseases. No matter how rigid your controls are, there will always be some that comes through.
“I think the best way forward is to live with the understanding that viruses and bacteria, any infection, can cross borders and we have to have the defences in our own countries to deal with them.”
Prof Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, reiterated today that all the current coronavirus vaccines “are still preventing severe disease and death”, even against new variants.
“As long as we have enough immunity to prevent severe disease, hospitalisations and death, then we’re going to be fine in the future in the pandemic,” he said.
Tory backbenchers are worried that the travel restrictions suggest the government is sliding towards a zero-Covid policy where case numbers, not hospitalisations and deaths, dictate restrictions.
But the message from Jonathan Van-Tam at last night’s press conference was pragmatic. Asked if the government’s aim was to eliminate Covid, the Deputy Chief Medical Officer said that the objective was instead to get to a stage where it could be treated like seasonal flu – in other words, a virus with seasonal peaks that can be managed in the community rather than hospitals thanks to frequently updated vaccines. This, he said, would allow the country to return to something “close” to normal. Let’s hope so.
WHO would have thought?
It’s been a good day for China, as the WHO team announced the findings from its investigation into the origins of Sars-CoV-2, ruling out the theory that the virus was bioengineered or leaked from a lab.
Dr Peter Ben Embarek, chairman of the team which has been in China for the past month, also said there was no “evidence of large outbreaks that could be related to cases of Covid-19 prior to December 2019 in Wuhan or elsewhere”. In other words – no cover-up before this point.
The credibility of the investigation has been brought into question. China’s insistence on a “joint inquiry” meant involving Liang Wannian – the man who oversaw the country’s response to Covid-19. The involvement of Dr. Peter Daszak, the British Zoologist who has worked closely with the Wuhan Institute of Virology in the past, represents another possible conflict of interest.
In what many are seeing as a concession to Beijing, the team didn’t rule out the possibility that the virus was imported into Wuhan via frozen food, a theory widely regarded with extreme scepticism. Chinese officials have been keen to push the idea, suggesting the virus could have originated abroad. Dr Embarek insisted the findings were “robust”.
Something in the water
A mystery hacker tried to poison the water supply of Oldsmar, Florida – population 15,000 – last Friday. In a surreal scene, a hapless employee at the local water treatment plant watched as the mouse on his screen moved of its own accord and tried to increase the concentration of sodium hydroxide (caustic soda) in the water. The chemical is used in small quantities to regulate water pH but in higher concentrations can damage the skin and eyes as well as cause diarrhoea and vomiting.
Thankfully, the employee managed to quickly return the sodium hydroxide levels to normal.
Pinellas County Sheriff, Bob Gualtieri said, “This is somebody who is trying, as it appears on the surface, to do something bad. It’s a bad act. It’s a bad actor.”
The culprit, and where the hack originated, remain unknown.
Mattie Brignal,
News Editor