They more than likely just transferred through a parisian airport and may not have needed the normal checks due to this. Others, including returning British holidaymakers, have been using Dublin for the same reason so as to avoid quarantine when getting to their destination.
If only there was a way to stop this from happening
Frankly it’s bonkers that there are countries excluded from mandatory hotel quarantine. The enforced quarantine should apply to every traveller regardless of which country they are coming from or been in.
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Fully agree especially as the fact of travelling brings you into contact with people from various countries.
Travel from NZ to UK. You will likely need a transfer in the US, North Africa or Asia. Airports themselves are hubs, of infected people from numerous counties, trying to get to their destination.
Fly via LA and you could easily spend 12 hours next to a bloke from Brazil who also transferred there. There are likely people from South Africa who need a stop over at Dubai.
Airports are hubs and it’s normal for people to transfer between flights.
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Singapore will have a short stay facility for business travellers where to me is like a semi quarantine where you can meet locals for business meetings in the same room but with a glass screen and individual ventilation on each side…
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Bloody hell, I wish I had seen this video earlier.
Basically sums up everything I wrote above 
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Not to mention the planes themselves. Breathing recycled air for hours and hours.
Im a daily watcher of Ros Atkins on Inside Source, but it is just an opinion piece. I have a massive problem with some of that reporting.
The reporting that the AZ vaccine is more effective than the Pfizer vaccine - 85% vs 94%. The Pfizer trial showed 95% effectiveness using the recommended two doses. The 85% figure is from Isreal data specifically after a single Pfizer dose when all the evidence since November has pointed toward the Pfizer vaccine needing two doses for best efficacy.
Secondly the suggestion throughout the piece that multiple EU countries have trashed the AZ vaccine when it has only been done so by one - the French government. I know that its only France because Ros couldn’t line up a single piece of evidence that another country also were talking down the AZ vaccine. How much influence does Macron and his words have in Germany? I would say very little.
I do think there is a communication issue here though. Germany waited for data to show effectiveness in over 65s. They have it now from the Scotland preprint showing 79% effectiveness in over 65s and 81% effectiveness in over 80s. The government need to sell this and sell it hard. As has been suggested get some government ministers in front of the camera getting the AZ jab.
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Did you actually watch it?
The data regarding the Pfizer/AZ efficacy specifically referenced it related to hospital admissions after the first jab and was from a Scottish study.
You must also have missed the explicit reference to the Handelsblatt report of a German government briefing that the AZ vaccine was only 8% effective in the over 65s.
I gave a few examples above of poor communication and it is something that is being recognised within Germany.
Kordula Schulz-Asche, (Greens) “massive communication failures on the part of the government”
“The skepticism of the citizens - which is currently spreading even among health and nursing staff - can be traced back to a really fatal communication."
Christine Aschenberg-Dugnus FDP “The Federal Government’s communication strategy must improve with regard to possible side effects or vaccine reactions. Here the government must deliver immediately, because there must be no loss of confidence”
Perhaps its political opportunism…but I think it is an important issue. Perhaps not as dumb (Trump level of stupidity as shown by Macron) but still failures.
It’s peculiar that you are referencing that part of my post without actually arguing on my point that the Pfizer vaccine must be given in 2 doses for expected effectiveness so its wrong to even compare effectiveness after only 1 dose. For more pointless comparisons how about comparing the 2 vaccines a day after they were administered? Here’s the same 85% effectiveness after 1 dose from the data in Israel:
German government briefing?? That’s a Trump level of untruth there.
How is it wrong? The point was to rebutt the false claims being made against AstraZeneca. It’s entirely legitimate to directly compare it with Pfizer at a similar stage in the process. AZ’s efficacy improves on the second dose as well, after all. They didn’t mention that either because they were simply comparing like with like, efficacy after first dose.
“According to information from Handelsblatt from coalition circles, the federal government only expects an effectiveness of eight percent among the over 65s.”
HANDELSBLATT (TRANSLATED), 26 JANUARY 2021
I had an interesting exchange last week.
Betsi Cadwaladr has been posting on it’s Facebook page that if people know of vulnerable people they should phone the vaccination hotline to book an appointment as there is spare capacity.
So I did. It actually took me best part of a week to get through trying on and off, here and there and what followed was the most bizarre exchange that went along the lines of “who told you that? they shouldn’t be doing that and send me a screen shot of the post?”
Anyway, long story short, I didn’t get an appointment as i was informed that vaccine stocks are the driving factor at the moment.
Perhaps we should ask the EU for some of theirs?
They’re obviously not using all the AZ doses. I know you’re being facetious but it’s nothing short of scandalous that many EU countries simply cannot use all of the AZ vaccines it currently has whilst it simultaneously embargoes deployment of vaccines to countries like Canada and whilst developing nations have none at all.
It is I agree, and yes it was a cheeky comment from me.
It seems utterly crazy that this has been allowed to take hold to this level and its the politicians themselves that should actually shoulder a lot of the blame. It is a disaster on an unfathomable scale where politics has basically prevented the world from sorting this mess out.
Meanwhile
Looks like we could be in surplus territory by the end of the summer, which will be excellent news.
Not a rocket, an 8 shot salute candle. Illegal for public use in the UK. Pretty much the most dangerous thing to fire at somebody short of shells.
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He literally said that the EU’s reasoning was a lack of data on the AZ vaccine, then instead of showing just the 94% efficacy figure for the AZ vaccine to demonstrate its effectiveness which would have been perfectly reasonable, instead turned it into a comparison between Pfizer and AZ after a single dose at 28-34 days even though there won’t be a single EU citizen that will fit into this bracket since the second dose of Pfizer is required to be administered at 3 weeks (1). They were being dodgy with the figures. You know it, even if you won’t admit to it, and I know it. I won’t comment about a direct comparison of Pfizer and AZ after a second dose as there is currently no data for that.
It goes against logic that EU citizens are rejecting AZ on grounds of efficacy. It may be less effective than Pfizer but its a shit load better than having no vaccine at all. Why are the public also talking of side-effects? I don’t think Ive seen side-effects reported anywhere in the UK so its unusual that this becoming a reasoning for not taking the AZ jab.
Yet 3 paragraphs under that the comments from the German health minister:
“At first glance, it seems that two things have been confused in the reports: About 8% of the subjects in the AstraZeneca efficacy trial were between 56 and 69 years of age, and only 3 to 4 percent were over 70 years of age.
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The comparison was necessary because it was also showing these nations to be hypocritical. They have criticised the efficacy of AZ but not Pfizer and yet the AZ vaccine is proving to be more efficacious after the first dose than the Pfizer vaccine. There needs to be a comparator otherwise the criticisms of a vaccine’s efficacy has no context.
There is plenty of emerging data for that already, as has been posted in this thread (96% efficacy for AZ after 2nd dose)
Of course it goes against all logic but that’s what you get when you have deliberate briefings against a particular vaccine (AZ) for the ready consumption of an already vaccine-skeptical population. Demonstrating the actual efficaciousness of the AZ vaccine now is too late, the damage has quite clearly already been done with regard to its perception within populations of EU member states at large. First the EC effectively labelled AZ the company as an entity not to be trusted and then various prominent government officials and media-outlets labelled the vaccine itself as something not to be relied upon. They’re now reaping what they sowed.
Yes, but this doesn’t change the fact that Handelsblatt reported that it had been briefed by the German government that AZ was only 8% efficacious in those over 65+. A story that they stood by. At that point the damage is done.
Might even be enough to vaccinate the teachers? Who knows?