Stupid quarantine rules in Wales...do I ignore it?

[lardy]

Re: Stupid quarantine rules in Wales...do I ignore it?

FFS just go and see your family. This situation is now beyond. I work in blood laboratories all over the U.K. and have done without pause since this all started. Amazingly biomedical scientists are not dropping down dead, I’ve not heard of a single case, that said my cousin, who is not a well man, was in the Heath and seriously ill with CoVID. If you are compromised in terms of immunity it will find you. These rules are ridiculous. We should never ever have locked down and instead chased herd immunity like we have done from the dawn of our time (literally). Get in the car and visit whoever you like because the government are under the spell of scientists who will err on the side of caution after being thrust into the limelight. The lockdown has saved nobody!!! Not a single soul from the inevitable! At best it has delayed what would have happened anyway! Hence the mortality rate hasn’t altered in any appreciable terms!

Out of interest, what is your job when you are working in blood laboratories?

[Optimistic Nick]

Re: Stupid quarantine rules in Wales...do I ignore it?

There is some pretty irresponsible comment and advice in this thread, which basically encourage the OP to break the laws of Wales. Not that he needs much encouragement by the sound of it. Its this sort of attitude that has allowed the virus to spread all over the UK in the first place. The OP makes the serious mistake of assuming that he is fully protected and cannot transmit the virus because he has had two jabs. Also that the testing procedures are 100% foolproof. Also that he knows better than the medical experts who are advising the Welsh Government. The rules are there for a reason - to protect the people of Wales. If he has to come to this country on a visit in the first place, then the least he can do is follow the rules of the countries he visits but really, should he be travelling here at all at this time - all seems rather irresponsible to me.

I don't think he is suggesting he knows more than the people advising the Welsh government. I think he's confused because that expert advice seems to contradict the expert advice given to the UK government. Wales is part of Britain, hence the question.

I think you have to accept that if you don't carry the virus, you cannot spread it. And these aren't lateral flow tests he's taking- these are proper tests at a number of points which (assuming prove negative) provide sufficient comfort to the UK government that you do not have the virus and are not contageous. So if you can prove to the satisfaction of the UK Govt (who will take their own expert advice) that you don't have it, then why is that proof not acceptable in Wales? I think that is all he's asking here. There are five answers to that spring to mind:

1) Wales has better scientists who are right;
2) Both sets of of scientists agree on the scale of the risk but there are scientific factors that justify a more cautious approach in Wales;
3) crap admin - inability of executive powers to agree a common approach even though there is no good reason not to;
4) philospophy, and Wales placing greater emphasis on preserving life even though scientifically there is no difference in risk/likelihood of death or serious illness (that is not meant to be a slur on either party)
5) politics, and a desire to do something different to the tit with a mop for a haircut (that is a deliberate slur on both)

My money is on a mixture of 3, 4 and 5. It's not like England is just checking your temperature at Arrivals and allowing you in as long as it doesn't show a fever. We aren't talking about some moron mask-dodging anti-vaxxer here - this is someone willingly undergoing thorough testing and days in quarantine.

I agree with the concerns about why travel at all? One needs to have a very good answer to that question before going to the airport. After all you (presumably) don't know you haven't got it before you leave. But then we don't know the OP's circumstances - this might not just be a holiday/family reunion. And I do agree that as we are all in it together, you dp have to follow the rules no matter how daft they may seem to be (and sometimes actually are), because otherwise the whole thing falls apart.

But once he is here and has taken the steps necessary to satisfy UK Govt that he can leave quarantine - unless you routinely shell out for tests of this standard, twice, every time you leave the house... not really sure you have the moral high ground as regards his intention to drive a car from England to Wales.

[NYCBlue]

Re: Stupid quarantine rules in Wales...do I ignore it?

Looking to visit home next month for the first time in a couple of years.

The missus and I have had 2 Pfizer jabs - more protected than most readers on here - and will arrive at Heathrow, collect a car and travel direct to extended family in England for quarantine. Since the US is on the amber list, we have to buy 2 tests each (at 170 pounds) to use on day 2 and day 8; if negative on day 10 we are free to travel into Wales.

England, however, also offers a day 5 quarantine release by purchasing an additional test and if that shows negative you've bought yourself out of quarantine (that's seems stupid but anyway...) . I've seen nothing in WAG's statements (including today's) about rules for ex-pats or visitors wanting to visit Wales so I called WAG today to check whether the 5-day England buy-out will free us to get into Wales on day 6 after arrival in UK.

Surprisingly I got a real person without too much delay (applause for that) but it was with regret that the spokesperson advised that Wales doesn't recognise the validity of the England 5-day release and, whilst appreciating the frustration of two systems running side by side the rules in Wales mean we must see out 10 days of quarantine after arriving in UK.

I recognise Wales is leading the way, data wise, in UK so Drakeford can justifiably point to the success of his Covid policy but doesn't there come a time when overkill is reached and precautions become too onerous and unnecessary?

Readers on this Board have undergone long, hard lockdowns to get where you are today in returning to normality (definitely tougher that I have here in Iowa) so my simple question is...do I ignore the quarantine and arrive back 'home' after 5 days and 2 negative tests as is permitted in England?

You've waited this long, I'd wait a bit longer if I were you. Maybe the rules are not as stupid as you think they are. People who have had both jabs can still contract and spread covid without even realizing it. And you could easily be exposed on the plane. Vaccinations have sadly stalled here. We're only at 50%. It's become political now. If there are 150 million people still unvaccinated, I should imagine your chances of flying on a plane with over 100 unvaccinated people are very good.

[Wash DC Blue]

Re: Stupid quarantine rules in Wales...do I ignore it?

The above post is a joke right ? What about all the doctors and nurses who have died on the wards ? Biomedics deal with their samples in sterile conditions, so hardly a surprise that they are well protected. In previous pandemics, chasing herd immunity, many hundreds of thousands more people died. Your apparent ‘who gives a f***’ or ‘let the b******s die’ attitude about people who are immunocompromised is a disgrace. You might have a different attitude if you were one of them or struggling to breathe on a hospital ventilator.

This post is really worrying to me.
It’s surely not a fair reflection of society considering the successful vaccine rollout?

[Wash DC Blue]

Re: Stupid quarantine rules in Wales...do I ignore it?

You've waited this long, I'd wait a bit longer if I were you. Maybe the rules are not as stupid as you think they are. People who have had both jabs can still contract and spread covid without even realizing it. And you could easily be exposed on the plane. Vaccinations have sadly stalled here. We're only at 50%. It's become political now. If there are 150 million people still unvaccinated, I should imagine your chances of flying on a plane with over 100 unvaccinated people are very good.

The rules seem arbitrary at best and I couldn’t consider The Welsh Assembly’s take anymore seriously than that of the committee of Cwmcarn Rugby Club.

The vaccines work or they don’t.
We’ve all sacrificed and abided by the rules.

Time to crack on with life!!

[Shute]

Re: Stupid quarantine rules in Wales...do I ignore it?

I too was interested in buying the Dante test kits, but then I saw they were named in this Guardian article.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/may/29/covid-test-travellers-quarantined-kit-results

Might be worth paying a bit more to avoid the hassle that some of the labs are causing for people. I couldn't imagine the frustration of doing 10 days isolation and then having to do another 10 because your test wasn't processed.

[goats]

Re: Stupid quarantine rules in Wales...do I ignore it?

You've waited this long, I'd wait a bit longer if I were you. Maybe the rules are not as stupid as you think they are. People who have had both jabs can still contract and spread covid without even realizing it. And you could easily be exposed on the plane. Vaccinations have sadly stalled here. We're only at 50%. It's become political now. If there are 150 million people still unvaccinated, I should imagine your chances of flying on a plane with over 100 unvaccinated people are very good.

Can they? Hasn’t it just been proven that people who have had both can’t carry it, or 95% can’t for Pfizer?

[The Lone Gunman]

Re: Stupid quarantine rules in Wales...do I ignore it?

What are you talking about you halfwit? It’s nothing of the sort. I work for Abbott Laboratories who have ploughed multi millions into developing tests to identify antibody testing and rapid testing but that doesn’t mean that the approach has been correct. Why don’t you offer a real opinion that is informed rather than scoff. But then that is you all over! As well most of this board know.

OK, here's some opinions:

1) Here in the UK, we're being told by our governments not to travel to countries on the amber list for leisure purposes. Therefore, in my opinion, nobody who lives in a country on the amber list should be visiting the UK for leisure purposes either. To me, the fact that people were allowed to travel to and from the UK on holidays last year with reasonable degrees of freedom was mind-numbingly stupid, but the same seems to be happening this year to a lesser degree. I just don't get it. I'd love to go on holiday this year to Greece or Spain or even Germany, but I believe that, under the present circumstances, doing so would be both irresponsible and unreasonable. I think 2022 is a more realistic option.

2) Your suggestions that "we should never ever have locked down and instead chased herd immunity," "the lockdown has saved nobody, not a single soul," and "(the virus) has spread because that’s what viruses do, there was no containing it, only hiding from it," are utterly idiotic. You sound like a fool.

[The Lone Gunman]

Re: Stupid quarantine rules in Wales...do I ignore it?

The vaccines work or they don’t. We’ve all sacrificed and abided by the rules. Time to crack on with life!!

The vaccines will work properly once all of us who are prepared to accept them have had them and are as fully protected as we can be. Most of us have sacrificed and abided by the rules and we're cracking on with life, but we have to be sensible and reasonable as none of us want to go back to the situation we were in previously. It's been an extremely grim fourteen months, but we're now slowly and very surely returning to some sort of normality. What most of us don't want is for everything to go tits up again because certain groups of individuals are determined to ignore the guidance and go on holidays regardless.

[FormerlyJohnnyBreadhead]

Re: Stupid quarantine rules in Wales...do I ignore it?

I don't think he is suggesting he knows more than the people advising the Welsh government. I think he's confused because that expert advice seems to contradict the expert advice given to the UK government. Wales is part of Britain, hence the question.

I think you have to accept that if you don't carry the virus, you cannot spread it. And these aren't lateral flow tests he's taking- these are proper tests at a number of points which (assuming prove negative) provide sufficient comfort to the UK government that you do not have the virus and are not contageous. So if you can prove to the satisfaction of the UK Govt (who will take their own expert advice) that you don't have it, then why is that proof not acceptable in Wales? I think that is all he's asking here. There are five answers to that spring to mind:

1) Wales has better scientists who are right;
2) Both sets of of scientists agree on the scale of the risk but there are scientific factors that justify a more cautious approach in Wales;
3) crap admin - inability of executive powers to agree a common approach even though there is no good reason not to;
4) philospophy, and Wales placing greater emphasis on preserving life even though scientifically there is no difference in risk/likelihood of death or serious illness (that is not meant to be a slur on either party)
5) politics, and a desire to do something different to the tit with a mop for a haircut (that is a deliberate slur on both)

My money is on a mixture of 3, 4 and 5. It's not like England is just checking your temperature at Arrivals and allowing you in as long as it doesn't show a fever. We aren't talking about some moron mask-dodging anti-vaxxer here - this is someone willingly undergoing thorough testing and days in quarantine.

I agree with the concerns about why travel at all? One needs to have a very good answer to that question before going to the airport. After all you (presumably) don't know you haven't got it before you leave. But then we don't know the OP's circumstances - this might not just be a holiday/family reunion. And I do agree that as we are all in it together, you dp have to follow the rules no matter how daft they may seem to be (and sometimes actually are), because otherwise the whole thing falls apart.

But once he is here and has taken the steps necessary to satisfy UK Govt that he can leave quarantine - unless you routinely shell out for tests of this standard, twice, every time you leave the house... not really sure you have the moral high ground as regards his intention to drive a car from England to Wales.

By far and away the most sensible reply on this thread.

I'll admit that Ive had the exact same thought about doing the 5-day release in England then traveling to Wales. It's all well and good to respect the "law" of Wales, but the virus doesn't distinguish between the two countries. It baffles me that I can isolate for 5 days and then freely go about London, Leicester or Liverpool, but the moment I step over Offa's Dyke I'm suddenly compromising the entire country. It's fair to wonder what the point of being fully vaccinated and doing multiple lab tests is if you still have to lock yourself in a room for 10 days.

We're not talking about going on a jolly because we're bored either, as some people here seem to think. I haven't seen my family for near 2 years and I'm sure OP is experiencing similar. In that time there has been 3 family deaths and a birth. People are in no position to judge the situations of others and assume they're just looking for a holiday, especially when trying to navigate the total disconnect between England and Wales' respective positions.

[The Lone Gunman]

Re: Stupid quarantine rules in Wales...do I ignore it?

By far and away the most sensible reply on this thread.

Let's be honest, this thread was a load of nonsense to begin with. Cowbridge Blue had already done his homework. He knows what the UK government guidance is with regard to foreign travel and what the rules and regulations are here in Wales, but he's stated in his thread title that he believes the Welsh quarantine rules are 'stupid' and his opening paragraph says he's looking to travel to the UK from a country on the amber list for leisure purposes. He's going to do what he wants regardless. The validation or otherwise of a bunch of anonymous strangers on a football message board isn't going to make a scrap of difference to the choices he makes and I'm guessing the same is true for you.

[surge]

Re: Stupid quarantine rules in Wales...do I ignore it?

By far and away the most sensible reply on this thread.

I'll admit that Ive had the exact same thought about doing the 5-day release in England then traveling to Wales...

Another saying the virus doesn't make distinctions cross borders...

If one nation has fewer ICU beds per 100,000 of the population than another then presumably pressure on the NHS is felt much more quickly. Borders can be important whether covid knows what it's doing or not.

My view is that if you're going to admit to breaking the covid rules of a nation then you should be able to tell us what extra steps you took to reduce the risk of it spreading. If you can't and your answer is that you followed the rules of another nation which would allow you to act as you wanted to then it's not great.

And presumably you know that you as a single individual probably aren't going to have a telling impact but if 999 single individuals came before then the risk increases.

[Optimistic Nick]

Re: Stupid quarantine rules in Wales...do I ignore it?

Another saying the virus doesn't make distinctions cross borders...

If one nation has fewer ICU beds per 100,000 of the population than another then presumably pressure on the NHS is felt much more quickly. Borders can be important whether covid knows what it's doing or not.

My view is that if you're going to admit to breaking the covid rules of a nation then you should be able to tell us what extra steps you took to reduce the risk of it spreading. If you can't and your answer is that you followed the rules of another nation which would allow you to act as you wanted to then it's not great.

And presumably you know that you as a single individual probably aren't going to have a telling impact but if 999 single individuals came before then the risk increases.

He's proved he doesn't have it and so cannot transmit it, through 2 negative PCR tests (assuming that's what his tests show: if one is positive presumably all bets are off anyway). The vaccine is a red herring here, it's the rigourous testing that's in point. What more do you think he can he do? And have you extended the same duty of care to the people of Wales whenever you leave the house?

[Des Parrot]

Re: Stupid quarantine rules in Wales...do I ignore it?

I too was interested in buying the Dante test kits, but then I saw they were named in this Guardian article.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/may/29/covid-test-travellers-quarantined-kit-results

Might be worth paying a bit more to avoid the hassle that some of the labs are causing for people. I couldn't imagine the frustration of doing 10 days isolation and then having to do another 10 because your test wasn't processed.

That’s interesting, my kits from Dante arrived before I came home and I’ve received the results next day. I’ve previously used TestingForAll but they were sold out and the government recommended CTM (expensive) and Express Test based at CCS, they’ve all delivered on time

[SLUDGE FACTORY]

Re: Stupid quarantine rules in Wales...do I ignore it?

Stay out of Wales

We don't like outsiders here !