Around 120,000 Chinese nationals were granted student visas in 2021. The number is likely to be similar if not higher this year. Similar numbers of “Family” visas were issued in each of those two years. This means around half a million Chinese nationals have entered the UK in the last two years for those two reasons alone. What is the point of placing restrictions on them now?
The SARS-Cov-2 virus (Covid) is now endemic in the UK and all of us will be exposed to it multiple times in our lives. There is no point in trying to prevent its spread and in any case, the overwhelming majority of the population have protection from serious symptoms though a combination of vaccination and natural immunity from previous exposure. For those people, infection will be no more than an inconvenience.
The UK Health Security Agency announced last week that it will stop publishing modelling data on coronavirus in early January. The chief data scientist, Dr Nick Watkins, said the publication of this specific data is “no longer necessary” as the country is living with Covid thanks to vaccines and therapeutics. This is a clear indication that the pandemic is now over and the disease is now endemic (along with a multitude of other respiratory diseases). There must be no moves towards imposing restrictions on people already here or on visitors. The full impact of the restrictions imposed in 2020-21 are only just being properly realised and the folly of ditching the country’s pandemic plan is finally being exposed. This had been in place for more than a decade, was approved by the WHO and did not involve lockdowns, facemasks or travel restrictions,
There is no way the country should expect or allow any of those assaults on civil liberties to be summarily imposed as they were before.