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Industry warned against ‘placing too much hope on vaccine’
An industry expert has sounded caution amid all the excitement around the UK preparing to roll out a Covid vaccine, warning: "It’s dangerous to place too much hope and reliance on a vaccine at this point."
Martin Alcock, director at the Travel Trade Consultancy, was speaking at the latest Barclays State of the Nation webcast, where he said that, without testing being ramped up, quarantine lists are likely to still operate for some time.
He said: "The vaccine treats the symptoms but doesn’t stop it spreading and that alone isn’t going to put us in a position where people can start to travel frequently. It’s the spread that’s keeping travel restricted."
Alcock, former analyst at the Civil Aviation Authority, said: "My concerns are that it has to be rolled out on an unprecedented scale," adding that the government has struggled with its track and trace system, ordering PPE and even the ‘ferry contracts debacle’ when it was preparing for a hard Brexit, before the pandemic.
"You don’t have to be that much of a government sceptic to see it’s unlikely to be plain sailing and rollout will be complicated by the vaccine-hesitant, anti-vax movement. Getting to the levels required will be a challenge."
With many different vaccines being developed and a lack of coordination between nations about which ones will be accepted, Alcock said the global situation ‘could be the medical equivalent of the Betamax video – no-one will be willing to accept it’.
"Short term, it’s testing that is much more important. The receiving country bears all the risk.
"If the government thinks this vaccine is the cavalry coming over the hill, they may pull back on testing and, without it, we’re stuck with a quarantine list."
By Lisa James, Deputy Editor (UK)
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Lisa
Lisa joined Travel Weekly nearly 25 years ago as technology reporter and then sailed around the world for a couple of years as cruise correspondent, before becoming deputy editor. Now freelance, Lisa writes for various print and web publications, edits Corporate Traveller’s client magazine, Gateway, and works on the acclaimed Remembering Wildlife series of photography books, which raise awareness of nature’s most at-risk species and helps to fund their protection.
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