//Can you give us the name of the vaccine now please?//
I asked over four hours ago, Corby. Still waiting.
//If there was (say ) a ban on trains for the unvaccinated, it wouldn't be to coerce the antivaxxers into anything, it would be to keep the trains safe for everyone.//
I think that a ban on unvaccinated people on trains would be to coerce those who have not been vaccinated into agreeing to be so This is because the government cannot keep the trains (or anything else) "safe for everyone". Unsavoury as it may seem, that is the brutal truth. The problem is that too many people believe that they can and it is leading this country into awful difficulties. A few truths need to be accepted, and rapidly:
1. Infectious diseases abound all over the world and all the time.
2. Governments cannot prevent the spread of such diseases (especially this one).
3. In this particular case their attempts to do so are causing irreparable damage to the country in terms of the economy, the physical and mental health of people with non-Covid illnesses, the education of young people and the cohesion of society in general.
4. A vaccine against the disease is unlikely to be available any time soon.
So people will have to find another way of coping with the threat. They need to calculate the risk to themselves individually (that is, the likelihood of catching the disease and the impact on them it will have if they do). They need to take appropriate measures to mitigate that risk as they see fit. If they decide they want to live their lives sheltering or shielding, that's their choice. Those who don't must be encouraged to immediately return to normal life.
Talk of a vaccine to "eliminate" the virus is simply pie-in-the-sky. There has only been one vaccine successful in doing that - that was smallpox and it took 200 years to eliminate it worldwide.
So, everybody, make your own mind up what's best for you and do it. Leave others to do what they want to.
//Those who object to following the rules shouldn't be surprised if they can't join the club.//
But vaccination (if it was available) is not the rule. In fact the law as it stands specifically prohibits compulsory vaccination. From a purely practical point of view, how do you propose people, say, boarding trains are to be checked if they have been vaccinated? Show their certificate as they pass through the ticket barrier? Try that at London Bridge at 4pm on Friday (when everybody has seen sense and returned to work, that is). Perhaps a hot branding iron on the forehead at the time of the vaccination?
I'm pleased to say there has been a growing rumble in the Press over the last few days about the need for people to return to work and for life to return to normal (that is "normal", not "new normal"). I hope it builds and forces the government to consider the folly of its current strategy because if it does not we might as well tow the UK out into mid-Atlantic and scuttle it.