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dolorosa_12It's been a tense few days. Matthias and I, with the foolish optimism of the pre-Omicron world, had intended to go to Germany and spend Christmas there with his family. We were meant to be travelling there on Tuesday 21st, using (due to having vouchers for lockdown-cancelled journeys bought in February 2020 that had to be spent by the end of 2021) the Eurostar via Brussels and then various Deutsche Bahn trains. This of course meant that we would have to take into account not only UK and German rules for pandemic travel, but also whatever rules applied in Belgium. When we booked the tickets, it was in a period of restrictions being lifted, and the only requirement was that we showed proof of vaccination status.
Over the past week, we watched as an increasing number of PCR tests were imposed as a requirement at various points throughout the journey, home quarantine upon returning to the UK was introduced, COVID cases in the UK skyrocketed, and one by one various western European countries slammed the door on entries from the UK. I was feeling an increasing sense of panic that even if the rules remained such that we would be permitted to travel, we might end up stuck there due to testing negative in the UK, picking up COVID at some point throughout the journey, and then testing positive while we were there. Finally, at 11pm last night, the German government put us out of our misery — a fortnight-long quarantine for all travellers from the UK made our intended week-long trip impossible. It's disappointing for all concerned, and Matthias's family are pretty sad not to see us for a second year running (although at least the brief window of relative safety during the northern summer meant that we've seen them in the past three months — whereas I haven't seen my Australian family for more than three years), but it's something of a relief to have the decision taken out of our hands.
In the past week, a friend in London — whose girlfriend is American — tested positive, two days before he was due to get his booster shot, scuppering their long-planned trip to visit the girlfriend's family in the US. And another friend is going to have to spend the next ten days isolating with her teenage daughter in the shared spare bedroom they're staying in at her stepmother's place — the daughter had a negative lateral flow test before joining the rest of the family for Christmas celebrations, but tested positive one day after arriving. None of these people were having irresponsibly raging social lives — they caught COVID on account of (in the first instance) living in London and doing a job which requires face-to-face working and travel on public transport and (in the second instance) being a teenager in a country which decided all students needed to be taught face-to-face in school with no mask mandate. Most of the other people I know who currently have COVID are healthcare workers.
I'm seeing a current trend in certain corners of social media to view a positive COVID test as a kind of individual personal moral failure, and it makes me want to beat my head against the wall, since the biggest risk factors at the moment seem to be a) being a frontline NHS worker or b) living in London. Meanwhile, an Australian guy on Twitter posed the (in my opinion very sensible) question as to why lateral flow/rapid antigen self-tests aren't made freely available in Australia (as they are in the UK, where they can be picked up in bulk from most pharmacies, at no cost), and the replies were full of other Australians catastrophising that self-adminstered tests would lead to faked results. My days of avoiding engaging about the pandemic with Australians who aren't a) my family, b) immigrants to other countries or c) family members of immigrants are certainly coming to a middle. Every time I catch a glimpse of this sort of thing, I just end up enraged and despairing.
In general, although I'm very fearful about the current trajectory of the pandemic and worried about my friends living in London, two weeks of somewhat enforced holiday at home isn't the worst possible thing that could happen. I'll cook a lot of slow, soothing food, we'll watch our backlog of TV series and go for walks in the misty fens, I'll read my way through Yuletide when it opens, and everything will be restful and calm. The darkness gathers outside, but we'll light candles inside.
Over the past week, we watched as an increasing number of PCR tests were imposed as a requirement at various points throughout the journey, home quarantine upon returning to the UK was introduced, COVID cases in the UK skyrocketed, and one by one various western European countries slammed the door on entries from the UK. I was feeling an increasing sense of panic that even if the rules remained such that we would be permitted to travel, we might end up stuck there due to testing negative in the UK, picking up COVID at some point throughout the journey, and then testing positive while we were there. Finally, at 11pm last night, the German government put us out of our misery — a fortnight-long quarantine for all travellers from the UK made our intended week-long trip impossible. It's disappointing for all concerned, and Matthias's family are pretty sad not to see us for a second year running (although at least the brief window of relative safety during the northern summer meant that we've seen them in the past three months — whereas I haven't seen my Australian family for more than three years), but it's something of a relief to have the decision taken out of our hands.
In the past week, a friend in London — whose girlfriend is American — tested positive, two days before he was due to get his booster shot, scuppering their long-planned trip to visit the girlfriend's family in the US. And another friend is going to have to spend the next ten days isolating with her teenage daughter in the shared spare bedroom they're staying in at her stepmother's place — the daughter had a negative lateral flow test before joining the rest of the family for Christmas celebrations, but tested positive one day after arriving. None of these people were having irresponsibly raging social lives — they caught COVID on account of (in the first instance) living in London and doing a job which requires face-to-face working and travel on public transport and (in the second instance) being a teenager in a country which decided all students needed to be taught face-to-face in school with no mask mandate. Most of the other people I know who currently have COVID are healthcare workers.
I'm seeing a current trend in certain corners of social media to view a positive COVID test as a kind of individual personal moral failure, and it makes me want to beat my head against the wall, since the biggest risk factors at the moment seem to be a) being a frontline NHS worker or b) living in London. Meanwhile, an Australian guy on Twitter posed the (in my opinion very sensible) question as to why lateral flow/rapid antigen self-tests aren't made freely available in Australia (as they are in the UK, where they can be picked up in bulk from most pharmacies, at no cost), and the replies were full of other Australians catastrophising that self-adminstered tests would lead to faked results. My days of avoiding engaging about the pandemic with Australians who aren't a) my family, b) immigrants to other countries or c) family members of immigrants are certainly coming to a middle. Every time I catch a glimpse of this sort of thing, I just end up enraged and despairing.
In general, although I'm very fearful about the current trajectory of the pandemic and worried about my friends living in London, two weeks of somewhat enforced holiday at home isn't the worst possible thing that could happen. I'll cook a lot of slow, soothing food, we'll watch our backlog of TV series and go for walks in the misty fens, I'll read my way through Yuletide when it opens, and everything will be restful and calm. The darkness gathers outside, but we'll light candles inside.
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Date: 2021-12-19 05:44 pm (UTC)Yep.
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Date: 2021-12-20 01:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-12-19 09:53 pm (UTC)As you say, at least the decision has been made. I've spent too much time wondering if/when I'll be able to go home to visit as the UK and US governments keep changing their minds.
Once Omicron really gets rolling here things will just get worse and worse as so many people just refuse to get the vaccine anyway.
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Date: 2021-12-20 01:25 pm (UTC)I'm sorry you're in the same situation. It's really awful being an immigrant in these times, and people keep talking as if those of us wanting to travel overseas are just selfishly wanting a holiday, when it's really because we want to see our families! I hope that you'll be able to come over here next year — I suspect in the summer it will be more likely to happen without disruption, but everything has been so unpredictable that who knows?
I hope things aren't as bad with Omicron as you fear, but given it's pretty awful in the UK at the moment (especially in London), I don't hold out much hope.
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Date: 2021-12-19 10:06 pm (UTC)For me the worst bit about being Aussie on Twitter right now is probably the stupid #AustraliaHasFallen hashtag, because as much as it's been taken over by Aussies posting positivity and sarcasm, sometimes there are glimpses of the people who are taking it seriously, and it's kind of terrifying to see people talking about how the US should send troops to Australia to 'help' us. I avoid the tag, but it's not fun knowing there are people out there thinking it.
I'm very sorry you don't get to have your long-awaited family visit, but I think your plan for holidaying at home sounds marvellous. I'll send you a bit of the Melbourne Christmas sun (current forecast: 25 degrees and no rain) to light your candles, and of course you know I'll be reading Yuletide too! I got mine in on the last day this year, which was unnerving because I'm usually early, but it's done and I was happy with it.
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Date: 2021-12-20 01:31 pm (UTC)Ha! We've had those tests in the UK since at least last September, because once face-to-face teaching in schools and a return to in-person working happened, it was mandated that all school students and everyone who used public transport had to take one rapid test a week. The only instances I've heard of faked results were the times some high school students realised you could fake a positive result by putting lemon juice on the testing strip — so they were all faking having caught COVID so they could stay home from school!
For me the worst bit about being Aussie on Twitter right now is probably the stupid #AustraliaHasFallen hashtag, because as much as it's been taken over by Aussies posting positivity and sarcasm, sometimes there are glimpses of the people who are taking it seriously, and it's kind of terrifying to see people talking about how the US should send troops to Australia to 'help' us. I avoid the tag, but it's not fun knowing there are people out there thinking it.
Yeah, those people are really scary, and the worst part is that they encourage the far right in Australia to buy into their paranoid thinking. My sister works as a policy advisor for one of the ministers in Dan Andrews's government, and I'm terrified that some far-right conspiracy lunatic is going to go on a violent rampage at her workplace at some point.
I'm very sorry you don't get to have your long-awaited family visit, but I think your plan for holidaying at home sounds marvellous. I'll send you a bit of the Melbourne Christmas sun (current forecast: 25 degrees and no rain) to light your candles, and of course you know I'll be reading Yuletide too! I got mine in on the last day this year, which was unnerving because I'm usually early, but it's done and I was happy with it.
Thank you! I hope you enjoy Christmas and Yuletide when they come around.
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Date: 2021-12-20 06:37 am (UTC)But I do think there were people treating a positive COVID test as an individual personal moral failure from the beginning, as well as those treating places with big outbreaks as dirty and suspect, so that's definitely not new.
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Date: 2021-12-20 01:44 pm (UTC)But I do think there were people treating a positive COVID test as an individual personal moral failure from the beginning, as well as those treating places with big outbreaks as dirty and suspect
Yes, this was exactly it, and I think Australia's really successful, precise contact tracing system had a lot to blame for this attitude. Until the big outbreaks, you knew very precise details about every case — how they'd caught it, where they'd been, how long they'd been infectious in the community and so on. Whereas in the UK all we got were (huge) case numbers, with no further details, which made the whole thing less specific and personal, and ensured that we understood that (particularly prior to the existence of vaccines) catching COVID was generally due to bad luck and systemic failures and inequalities (e.g. nursing home workers not being given paid sick leave and therefore coming into work sick).
The thing that's most frustrating to me as an immigrant is the tendency for a lot of Australians to immediately call for border closures (or stricter border closures) rather than mask mandates, improved vaccination programs, or any restrictions on their own lives. This feeds into the attitude you've mentioned — that the virus is something brought in to the country/state by those dirty, immoral people over the border, rather than something that requires behavioural change from everyone in the world.
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Date: 2021-12-20 12:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-12-20 01:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-12-20 10:49 pm (UTC)You're very right about certain people regarding COVID-positive diagnoses as personal failings. It doesn't seem to be as much of a thing where I am, in a big urban area, but my own (rural) parents absolutely say things like that.
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Date: 2021-12-22 01:49 pm (UTC)People who talk about catching COVID as a sign of moral irresponsibility drive me up that wall — at the moment, the biggest risk factors seem to be living in a big city, or working in the healthcare sector. I'm sorry your parents hold that view.