Letters: Covid travels and so must we
[Re: Archbishop of Canterbury calls for end to ‘travel apartheid’, yesterday]
Sajid Javid has admitted there is community transmission of Omicron, meaning it is already spreading within the UK – not just being imported from elsewhere.
What, then, was the point of travel bans on South Africa and other countries? Do we never learn that these things do not work?
Covid is a worldwide problem and shutting ourselves off from one another might buy us an extra day or two, at most, but the trade off – throwing our crucial aviation industry into turmoil and signalling to other countries that we will throw them under the bus – is not worth it.
We can only ever control the spread of Covid so much. We can continue to roll out booster jabs as fast as possible. Face masks are not an unreasonable imposition on our liberty, but the phenomenon we have witnessed across the world of border controls and flight bans has lead to a very alarming attitude that can only signal bad things to come.
If we do it here in the UK, we also signal to other countries that it is acceptable to do it to us.
This causes havoc for people across the world who both travel for leisure (not to be snorted at), family and work.
We must continue to work with every country to get more jabs and we must continue to work with every country to end the pandemic.
It is the only way.
Gerard Pearson