Predictions of when international flights may resume/bans lifted

[dajop]

It's Wednesday again. The weekly vaccine morale boost, this time brought to you by ScoMo.

Still not terribly optimistic, but here's hoping.

 

[ethernet]

Transparency is still a casualty. I want to know if there will be vaccine snobbery / discrimination in the future. If I step on an outbound plane and have a Chinese or Russian or even Oxford vaccine in a 3rd country, will I have to quarantine when I return? If a vaccine is available outside .au - can I return home? On TV, they just announced they have not looked at immunity passports yet. I can see a lot of variables, and a lot of mistrust, plus enormous incentives to get National airlines up and running, as well as dividing the community into the haves and the have-nots. I have a gut feeling Australia will remain overly restrictive when other countries beat us to the punch.

 

[DC3]

...I have a gut feeling Australia will remain overly restrictive when other countries beat us to the punch.

Yes, but that means breaking the mould. We tend to be a follower, in Oz.

 

[Seat0B]

Transparency is still a casualty. I want to know if there will be vaccine snobbery / discrimination in the future. If I step on an outbound plane and have a Chinese or Russian or even Oxford vaccine in a 3rd country, will I have to quarantine when I return? If a vaccine is available outside .au - can I return home? On TV, they just announced they have not looked at immunity passports yet. I can see a lot of variables, and a lot of mistrust, plus enormous incentives to get National airlines up and running, as well as dividing the community into the haves and the have-nots. I have a gut feeling Australia will remain overly restrictive when other countries beat us to the punch.

Yes there has been a lot of talk in the medical interviews today about avoiding "vaccine nationalism". As for the immunity passport, wouldn't they just use the old yellow health books and record either your receipt of a vaccine or the results of your blood test? I resided in USA on an official passport in the early 1990s at the height of AIDS hysteria, and that was what we had to do to get entry to USA - bllod test results in the yellow book. I can see Travel Doctors or similar businesses doing this type of thing as soon as they can.

 

[N860CR]

Maybe this will finally be the time we teach Border Force staff what the little yellow book means. Each time I get back from Ethiopia etc I have to line up and see a person so they can sight my yellow fever certificate. I have yet to cross an “officer” who has a clue what that even means (not once has the yellow book been opened).

Personally, I’ve been massively skeptical about a vaccine from the beginning. I think the fact that our entire national policy is relying on one (and many countries are the same) suggest that we’re getting it one way or another and the powers that be have enough inside info to run with that.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Personally, I’ve been massively skeptical about a vaccine from the beginning. I think the fact that our entire national policy is relying on one (and many countries are the same) suggest that we’re getting it one way or another and the powers that be have enough inside info to run with that.

i don't think it is? It's just we haven't been given details about life with covid without a vaccine. But I am sure they are planning for that, too. (All we know is that at the moment, the Swedish model is not acceptable.)

 

[Matt_01]

As for the immunity passport, wouldn't they just use the old yellow health books and record either your receipt of a vaccine or the results of your blood test?

Like this old one.

 

[Seat0B]

Like this old one.
View attachment 225757

Yep I’ve still got one from my first ever trip overseas in 1975! Photographic evidence to follow when I locate it. Was immunised for typhoid, cholera and smallpox to travel to UK and Hong Kong. Must have been the conservative ordnung that day at the medical practice!

 

[kpc]

It is becoming increasingly clear to me that full opening of international borders will only happen when a vaccine is available and one is vaccinated. If there is no vaccine, it could be a very loooong time (even years) before the international borders are fully open again, especially for leisure travel!

 

[kelvedon]

And I would not be surprised if the Government adopted a no vaccination no o/s travel policy when we do get one.
That’ll limit the travel opinions for the anti vaxers

 

[Major]

Also this old one from 1969 with the smallpox page

 

[Seat0B]

My Yellow book from 1975 - branded as the Bank of New South Wales Travel department! Plus my Smallpox vaccination stamps. And these were diligently checked as we crossed borders.

I'm feeling quite elderly as I post this - Bank of NSW long ago turned into Westpac and Smallpox declared eradicated in 1980.

I guess soon we will all have one of these again to show our COVID-19 vaccinations.


EDIT: to remove double posting of photo

 

[Seat0B]

Also this old one from 1969 with the smallpox page

My original passport was in the H series - I note yours was a little earlier in the G series @Major.

 

[Seat0B]

And here is a slightly later version from 1981 - the dreaded RAAF needle book.

Lose that at your peril. My friend's was lost on posting one time in the 1980s and she had to get all her shots again. The days of paper records!!!

 

[kamchatsky]

For vaccination records, I think they have to do it electronically as well as the Yellow Passbook. Stamps and paper records can be faked. But with this digital age, there should be a global database of vaccinations for each person with electronic passport.

If there is privacy issues then maybe just record the nationality, passport number and date of birth without the name of the person in the vaccination database. Then the immigration officer can cross check it. The traveller would still need to bring the Yellow book though.

 

[jase05]

AJ still predicting July

Qantas boss Alan Joyce says international travel is unlikely from Australia before July next year

Australia's largest airline has suffered a $4 billion hit in revenue from the coronavirus pandemic.

amp.sbs.com.au

 

[Matt_01]

And here is a slightly later version from 1981 - the dreaded RAAF needle book.

Lose that at your peril. My friend's was lost on posting one time in the 1980s and she had to get all her shots again. The days of paper records!!!


View attachment 225785

I found it interesting that the RAAF had had their own ICV, the photo that I posted was the one the ARA gave me in 1989. I continued to use it after I left the ARA until it was full and now have one branded Travel Clinics Australia. I suspect my Dad still all the family ICVs from the 70's (pre smallpox version) from when he was posted to the UK.

 

[jb747]

And I would not be surprised if the Government adopted a no vaccination no o/s travel policy when we do get one.
That’ll limit the travel opinions for the anti vaxers

I quite sure that will be a requirement, but not just from Oz. It won't be written in that language though...

The records side of things will be very interesting. It won't be some little book or certificate that you have. You have to wonder if that medical records system that so many opted out of a year or two back might have a rebirth. No records, no passport, no go.

 

[Pushka]

AJ still predicting July

Qantas boss Alan Joyce says international travel is unlikely from Australia before July next year

Australia's largest airline has suffered a $4 billion hit in revenue from the coronavirus pandemic.

amp.sbs.com.au

Just as well I don’t like Qantas International then. They don’t like Adelaide.

 

[Scarlett]

My arm is hurting just writing this... I've got four needle books all stapled together.
I've either got a robust immune system now or <tin foil hat on> the alien dna is doing whatever dastardly thing it's supposed to do <foil hat off>.

I guess page 8/9 of the current book (other international vaccinations) will get a COVID-19 immunisation record in it, within the next 12 months.