Coronavirus: testing and travel
May 12, 2020, 1:06 pm
#16
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So you've basically now also agreed to all the people in poor countries relying on tourism to greatly suffer, end up in intergenerational poverty and starve to death or have an early death due to poverty leading to low healthcare, because their poor governments cannot have generous welfare programs which the countries with cushy holding cells have. Do the sufferings of the millions of people in poorer countries reliant on wealthy tourists not mean anything?
I'm not saying one should ignore their own infection status. By all means, we should have some check or certificate before any trip starts. But what I am greatly opposed to is having tests and checks once a trip starts and someone is landing or departing from another country. Because that runs a huge huge HUGE risk of being stranded abroad which can wreck havoc to one's life. Not to mention any such rule will mean tourists will simply not go to these places which means suffering of millions.
I'm not saying one should ignore their own infection status. By all means, we should have some check or certificate before any trip starts. But what I am greatly opposed to is having tests and checks once a trip starts and someone is landing or departing from another country. Because that runs a huge huge HUGE risk of being stranded abroad which can wreck havoc to one's life. Not to mention any such rule will mean tourists will simply not go to these places which means suffering of millions.
May 12, 2020, 1:58 pm
#17
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That is not at all the germane point. Those fragile economies are suffering not primarily or solely due to lack of tourism. Lack of remittances and trade hurts more in most cases. And that is because the economies of Europe and the US have been shut down. Those economies need to start up again not only for their own benefit, but for the benefit of the entire planet. As noted above, inter-generational poverty, malnutrition, starvation, inflation, rising crime is coming. I haven't seen anyone who has an answer for that. And most seem to not comprehend how this is more damaging than COVID. The problem is that all of us here are relatively wealthy with meat on our table.
May 12, 2020, 5:23 pm
#18
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Join Date: Jun 2005
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A difficult issue is what if you test positive or get sick while in a foreign country away from your job, especially towards the end of your planned trip, and have to spend a few weeks there for treatment or quarantine. This is something you need to consider before you travel, if you can afford the delay, take the time off, or work remotely. If not, you travel domestically only.
As for the financial cost--this sort of situation is what insurance exists for. A new form of travel insurance--pays your quarantine/repatriation costs if you're caught by a test. Of course they'll want a negative test soon before your trip.
May 12, 2020, 5:26 pm
#19
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Join Date: Jun 2005
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So you've basically now also agreed to all the people in poor countries relying on tourism to greatly suffer, end up in intergenerational poverty and starve to death or have an early death due to poverty leading to low healthcare, because their poor governments cannot have generous welfare programs which the countries with cushy holding cells have. Do the sufferings of the millions of people in poorer countries reliant on wealthy tourists not mean anything?
May 13, 2020, 1:34 am
#20
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Join Date: Jul 2011
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That is not at all the germane point. Those fragile economies are suffering not primarily or solely due to lack of tourism. Lack of remittances and trade hurts more in most cases. And that is because the economies of Europe and the US have been shut down. Those economies need to start up again not only for their own benefit, but for the benefit of the entire planet. As noted above, inter-generational poverty, malnutrition, starvation, inflation, rising crime is coming. I haven't seen anyone who has an answer for that. And most seem to not comprehend how this is more damaging than COVID. The problem is that all of us here are relatively wealthy with meat on our table.
May 13, 2020, 9:46 am
#22
Join Date: Jun 2016
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Posts: 508
Reading this makes me glad to live in a civilized country and not the usa... How the hell can your sick pay end because you have been sick to long?
May 13, 2020, 11:55 am
#23
Join Date: Aug 2017
Posts: 1,610
Yes America sucks a lot. But here at flyertalk we aren't discussing changing the entire sucky US system. We are discussing living within that system and navigating it as best we can. Given the realities of the US corporate/healthcare systems, any medical tests which can jeopardize your job for no-show, will be absolutely unaaceptable to American tourists.
If countries want the millions of american tourist dollars, their policies will have to cater to them by not having medical tests or quarantines. Of course, countries are free to no allow US tourists, but I don't see how say, the Carribean, Polynesian, or Central/Latin Amercan markets will survive without american dollars.
May 13, 2020, 12:36 pm
#24
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May 14, 2020, 6:32 pm
#26
Join Date: Jul 2013
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Unless governments directly invent and fund that insurance, it will never come into being. Remember, insurance protects against the risk of unforeseen events. Since the WHO declaration of a pandemic, and with nearly every competent medical authority concluding the majority of the world's population will become infected, your getting COVID-19 is very much foreseeable and thus uninsurable.
Last edited by nerdbirdsjc; May 15, 2020 at 3:48 pm
May 14, 2020, 7:25 pm
#27
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Edwardsburg, MI
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I think this is the answer. I would consider international travel pre-vaccine if I knew the exact parameters of a quarantine should it be required. Where would I stay (jail cell or suite at the Ritz)? How food and essentials be provided or obtained? How much would I have to pay? Most importantly, how would access to medical treatment work should symptoms require it?
May 14, 2020, 10:20 pm
#28
Join Date: Aug 2017
Posts: 1,610
Absolutely no amount of fancy quarantine short of a resort or fancy hotel (fully paid for) will convince anyone to come to a country which threatens quarantine.
May 14, 2020, 10:36 pm
#29
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May 14, 2020, 11:00 pm
#30
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There are of course some serious logistical issues to be solved when that happens on a trip, but there will be a form of quarantine, one way or another.