Vaccine passports, what do you think?

I always assumed that vaccination passports would be used only for travelling abroad, on the basis that no country wants their health facilities clogged up with loads of holiday makers who catch Covid and then end up in hospital, and possibly even dying. At least if travellers have been double jabbed the probability of them taking up hospital beds is reduced.

We're just back from Co Kerry in Ireland, and its mandatory when entering a bar, restaurant, museum, etc to wear a mask, sign your contact deatails, and show evidence of a vaccination.
We didn't have a problem with it, but not sure where collective safety trumps personnal freedom.

Vaccine passports have been dropped quite honestly with our high vaccination rate I couldn’t really see the point
Double vaccinated can still transmit the virus making them irrelevant

No idea Sodapop I was at stansted going through departures and the woman held up a notice, which i couldn’t read I pointed to my eyes and told her I couldn’t read it, so she held it higher ??? Dont ask !! so I went through the same thing again and she shouted, as if I was deaf as well as blind “Do you have a hair dryer” I said yes and she said “get it out please” so I faffed around with the zip on my suitcase and whipped it out into the tray Bingo

Looks like the government are changing their minds because too many MP's are against it. Not because the idea is wrong, but because it will get out voted.

Looks like it’s not going ahead now anyway.

What is the reasoning behind the hairdryer thing BlueBelle did any one say ?

It simply doesn’t work , in the countries where they are in use people are finding it very easy to get fake ones and I know that first hand (not me I add) when I flew recently nothing was asked for although I d sweated buckets making sure everything was printed out and on my phone in case I lost the paperwork No body asked me if I had Covid if I d had vaccinations or if
I d been tested nobody asked anything apart from if I d got a hair dryer and if so take it out my case ( never had that one before fluids shoes belts laptops but never a hairdryer) and coming back they didn’t even ask about the hairdryer !!! ?
The tests you do at home are often incorrect anyway

I've just seen that Sajid Javid has said the idea has been scrapped.
He didn't like the idea of people being asked to show their papers.
(This is the Government that wants to show their papers for voting)

I self test twice weekly with lateral flow to coincide with visiting a relative in a nursing home. As requested, I report the result on the government website. That’s where I see a flaw if folk are trusted to self test and show confirmation of a negative result for entry to venues.

The site asks for the batch number of the test strip and if my result is positive or negative. It leaves me to select the answer. Then seconds later I receive a text telling me my test was negative. I could just have easily reported negative for a positive result. Then have a government text on my phone providing “proof” of a negative test and today’s date on it.

I'm in Scotland. I test myself twice a week. Waiting for my timer to go ping right now, so I can check the result.

We've been wearing masks all along (which I don't mind) and we've still got high case numbers. But interestingly, the same proportion of deaths per head of population as in England.

There's no easy answers, I'm glad its not me who has to decide these things. I'm sure this will come as a surprise to some, but I think the Scottish Government often make decisions on what will be popular, rather than based on scientific evidence. (One day I'll post about GM crops.)

i did a you gov chat asking if i support vaccine passports, in scotland we are seeing a rise in covid cases and hospital admission, i am due to go for an operation on monday and it might be cancelled depending on how many new covid cases they get over the weekend. if i need to carry a bit of paper to get in somewhere then that is fine, at least i will know the other people in the place have all had there vaccines. i have family members who won't get the vaccine saying they are either too busy or the famous "i will be fine". my son works as security in a testing centre and he tests himself every 2 days as it is rife in scotland. so yes to passports.

I agree with the decision. Thanks for coming back Alegrias. I think this thread demonstrated quite a lot of misinformation about their purpose and benefit.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-58535258

No vaccine passports in England

Thoughts?

Jaxjacky

scones the way I see it, may be incorrectly. You are close to people at an event and everyone has been double vaccinated. If someone has Covid and others are infected, they will probably be less ill and far less likely to be hospitalised.

That’s how I see it as well, a case of reducing risk, not eliminating it.

My understanding is that they will work by encouraging vaccination compliance. The more of us vaccinated the sooner we will exit this pandemic and return to a more normal life.
Yes you can still catch and pass on the virus even after double vaccination, but fully vaccinated people will have some "Swiss cheese" protections. The "holes" are less likely to line up in a large proportion of cases. Vaccination will prevent some from developing the disease at all, it will mean a lower viral load in most who do catch it which can help to reduce the transmissibility. It will mostly reduce the severity of the illness in those that do get symptomatic disease, reducing the burden on the NHS. Wearing masks, and maintaining some degree of social distancing are further layers. All in all I can see vaccination passports, if used properly, are one tool in the armoury to reduce the virus to something we can live with, in the same way we live with flu each winter. Eventually there wouldn't be a need for them.

I think no - except for travelling.

Too little too late.

I know someone who came back from a short break with friends & now all 5 of them, in their 40s have gone down with Covid - all double vaccined. All ill & it's gone to their chests.

- So vaccinated after most of us! - yet ....

An interesting and thoughtful response Alegrias.

As I have said before, I haven’t really got a problem with them, but as has been pointed out, fully vaccinated people can still get and pass on Covid, which is a problem. I already have my ‘passport’ because I downloaded the NHS App some time ago, and your vaccine history is on there. You can use the App to make a GP appointment, reorder medication or check your records, so the App isn’t just a vaccine passport. We also sent for a paper copy as back up as we are travelling to Greece in a week and have to prove double vaccination.

The Lateral Flow tests could have been used for entry to big events but unfortunately they are not 100% accurate and also it has been reported that whilst a negative Lateral Flow has been required in order to enter festivals, at the festival near my home a couple of weeks ago, positive Lateral Flows were photographed discarded near the entrance. It appears that people have found someone to ‘help’ them gain access to the festival.

I haven’t returned to the theatre or live productions since Covid. I would feel more confident in the future if I knew everyone in the theatre was double vaccinated, but it wouldn’t totally assuage my feelings. I am very afraid of getting Covid again because I was so ill. Lovely posters have reassured me before that having had the disease and the vaccinations, I’m probably very immune, but the feeling persists. Without vaccine passports or/and Lateral Flow tests, I’m not sure how we get fully back to normal.

Yes GG13 I thought that as we got Covid after being double jabbed. So as well as the vaccine passport you would need a very recent negative test. Or as in Denmark, scrap the whole thing!

scones the way I see it, may be incorrectly. You are close to people at an event and everyone has been double vaccinated. If someone has Covid and others are infected, they will probably be less ill and far less likely to be hospitalised.

I have no problem with countries mandating a vaccine passport if you want to travel there. Countries can set their own entry requirements However, for things in your own country, I have serious doubts. And its irrelevant to me if they have them in France, Canada or wherever; that's not here.

Despite Galaxy asking, nobody has actually said how they work. Not how do you get them, or where do you have to show them, but how do they really limit the spread of Covid? Are they a way of making more people get the vaccine? Are they meant to make you think that the person next to you at the football is “safe” for you to stand next to? I’ve never really seen the reasoning.

I won’t be getting a vaccine passport in the current situation but I’m not planning any trips to nightclubs or sports matches. But what if they come in for visiting restaurants, or cafes? Or popping into Starbucks to pick up a coffee? Or into Tesco for a pint of milk? And what if government thinks this is pretty good, we can track people, so let's just keep this in place forever?

So I’m not convinced.

Galaxy

Yes thankyou. I thought I had gone mad. Wheres alegrias when you need her.

Thinking, and waiting till morning ?

Yes , I have one on my phone and I use it without any problems. I show it everywhere shops, restaurants, cinemas, transport and gym classes. Moreover, everyone wears a mask when required. I haven’t seen anyone arguing. Just think it is a social matter not to spread your viruses to others.
I feel safer but then I don’t go to crowded places and still eat outside in restaurants. My gym classes have a limited number of people. The film I went to see a month ago, we were only two in the theater but I think there will be more now.
Even with these precautions and the wearing of masks I known it’s not a guarantee.
As * Ladyleftfieldlover* said we had to carry a yellow card stating all inoculations when living in another country.

We all know now that the vaccines are the way out of this, so anything which might encourage more people to get theirs has my vote.