Travel - would you go?

Silvius

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Hi all, would you consider travelling to the Canaries or similar for a few weeks over the winter if you were in a position to self-isolate for two weeks on your return? It's something I'm wrestling with at the moment. We usually go to the sun for a couple of weeks for health reasons (physical and mental) over the winter. We've followed official guidance all along and don't like to go against it but as we could self-isolate quite easily we're weighing up the pros and cons, mainly the health benefits of going v staying. Obviously going through the airport and going on a plane carries significant risk to be considered too. Any thoughts?
 
Thats a "problem" many others would love to have, whether to go to the Canaries or not?, if you don't have work commitments then why not. The plane is not an issue as everyone is wearing masks and they are half empty anyway. The reason most people are not travelling is because they have work commitments and cannot afford to quarantine for 2 weeks on return, you don't have that problem.
 
I never said it was a problem. It's not a problem, although health problems have worsened in the Irish winter the years we haven't gone. I can work from anywhere as a lot of people can now. Can also work while self-isolating obviously. I think quite a few are travelling or working elsewhere because of this ability to remote work, didn't Amazon call their staff back to Ireland recently? My hesitation is about breaking official guidance. I don't like doing it and I know that family and friends take a very poor view of people breaking the rules and this influences me too.
 
I don't like doing it and I know that family and friends take a very poor view of people breaking the rules and this influences me too.
Sure you are quarantining for 2 weeks, whats the problem? You probably need to have a conversation with yourself, which is more important , the holiday in the Canaries, or what other people think ?
In any case you will be in the Canaries so you wont be meeting them anyways, by the time you get back there will be a new bogeyman, maybe it will be the pubs, maybe it will be dubs going to wexford again.
 
I'm a stickler for the restrictions regarding Covid. I expect everybody else to be the same. That's why I ain't leaving the county, never mind the country until restrictions are lifted.
 
Yeah I guess I was interested to see which side people would come down on, 'use your head and as long as you're not putting anyone else at risk do what suits you' or 'rules are rules and you're the worst in the world if you break them'. My extended family are more in the second camp and while I usually don't worry too much what they think I'd rather not fall out with the lot of them over this. People generally have extremely strong and fixed views about anything to do with covid. I was also wondering if there's any aspect of risk assessment here that I missed, I don't want to put anyone else at risk.
 
Queuing to get on plane. Queuing to get off plane. No social distancing. Transfer to terminal on packed bus. Queuing at passport control.

A family member flew through Malaga recently. All inbound planes being directed to one area. Two large Jumbo type planes from Middle East off loaded at same time his flight was being off loaded. Airside packed. Non airside practically empty.

These are the things that put me off.
 
I would love to travel but it looks like it will be a while yet before holidays abroad is a good option.
A staycation is not even an option right now. :(
 
Hopefully Covid checks at the airports in Ireland for returning holiday passengers will be introduced soon and the 14 days restrictions after returning from holidays will not be needed.Our friend Covid will probably be with us for a number of years.I agree with joe sods advise[My 5 cents worth]
 
I felt uncomfortable while shopping in the spring time because of the Covid. I'm definitely not travelling abroad for the foreseeable future.
 
Queuing to get on plane. Queuing to get off plane. No social distancing. Transfer to terminal on packed bus. Queuing at passport control.


I've been on four flights since July.

Terminals, buses, flights are all really empty. Everyone is masked. You are not in a confined space breathing in anyone's aerosols for prolonged periods indoors at any point. There is very little risk.



I am beginning to think that people perceive Covid risk a bit like rape or murder. Everyone is convinced that fleeting encounters with a stranger are the most risk, but in reality you will most likely catch it from someone you know and spend a lot of time with.
 
So you quarantine when you arrive back in Ireland and test positive after 5 days. So then what - overloaded Irish health system has to cope with another imported case and potential new mutants arriving here.
The restrictions on geographical movements are there for a reason and for the protection of society as a whole.
Nobody has a 'right' to disregard these for purely selfish personal objectives.
 
So you quarantine when you arrive back in Ireland and test positive after 5 days. So then what - overloaded Irish health system has to cope with another imported case and potential new mutants arriving here.
The restrictions on geographical movements are there for a reason and for the protection of society as a whole.
Nobody has a 'right' to disregard these for purely selfish personal objectives.

Doubtful it will be possible to restrict it for long. There is a long list of reasons one can and will use for travelling. By summer the most vulnerable ones are hopefully vaccinated and also cases will go down again naturally with the higher temperatures and additional sunlight like it did last summer.
Also not all imported cases lead automatically to a new hospital case. Any new mutant will arrive here in Ireland in the end regardless. People tend to forget this is not North Korea.
 
By summer the most vulnerable ones are hopefully vaccinated and also cases will go down again naturally with the higher temperatures and additional sunlight like it did last summer.

The assertion that warmer temperatures / more sun would lower covid transmission has been shown long ago to be . A study in India showed transmission increasing with extreme temperatures.
 
Not talking N. Korea at all - but definately admire New Zealand / Australia.
They are not in the EU and geographically already quite isolated. They do not host large populations of foreign nationals. A ton of lorries and buses / vans / planes come and go here daily basically. Ireland is hosting the EMEA HQ of many multinationals and also here travel is still involved.

@Leo https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0238339
Faced with the global pandemic of COVID-19, declared by World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11th 2020, and the need to better understand the seasonal behavior of the virus, our team conducted this systematic review to describe current knowledge about the emergence and replicability of the virus and its connection with different weather factors such as temperature and relative humidity.
(...)
The initial screening identified 517 articles. After examination of the full texts, seventeen studies met the review's eligibility criteria. Great homogeneity was observed in the findings regarding the effect of temperature and humidity on the seasonal viability and transmissibility of COVID-19. Cold and dry conditions were potentiating factors on the spread of the virus. After quality assessment, two studies had a high risk of bias, eleven studies were scored as moderate risk of bias, and four studies were classified as low risk of bias. The certainty of evidence was graded as low for both outcomes evaluated.
(...)
Considering the existing scientific evidence, warm and wet climates seem to reduce the spread of COVID-19. However, these variables alone could not explain most of the variability in disease transmission. Therefore, the countries most affected by the disease should focus on health policies, even with climates less favorable to the virus. Although the certainty of the evidence generated was classified as low, there was homogeneity between the results reported by the included studies.

That review of the literature sees it a bit differently
 
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