Weren’t there reports of reinfection? Do we really know if a mild infection gives you long lasting immunity?
I keep hearing that they don’t know yet if antibodies give you immunity. Hopefully that will be studied over the coming months.
I find it harder and harder to manage my work without travelling, not necessarily for me but for my program as a whole. I am still holding out hope to make a trip to China, Korea and Japan in July, we have a big plan for this trip but not sure if the travel restriction from the US will be lifted by then. My husband will also need to travel soon for work.
I don’t want to travel for pleasure this year but as soon as travel eases up, and I know that I will be able to return to the US, I don’t have any personal fear for travelling.
Back to travel.
I would not travel internationally any time in the next couple of years (not because I am scared of the virus but because I can’t control what sorts of unpredictable moves foreign governments can make). I will travel domestically by planes as soon as it is allowed (and when the residents of our state are going to be welcome again),
My (limited!!!) understanding from listening to the podcast This Week in Viralogy…
Reports of re-infection might be getting confused with reports of testing positive again. The news might simplify the info so a layperson can understand, but it can also sometimes result in inaccurate or misleading info and conclusions.
Re: testing
Some tests will pick up remnants of the virus (“positive”) which is not the same as there being infectious virus present (re-infection & active disease).
To your second question, I don’t think we know the answers yet to that one.
If I got that wrong, please somebody correct me!
Not so concerned about air travel as I’ll wipe down everything. Hotel stays are a whole different matter. I feel like I’ll want to clean the room from top to bottom.
We have two weddings in the midwest (May and June) and could get to either of them by car with a cooler and driving non-stop to avoid hotels. But regrets have been sent to both. The annual 2 1/2 hour road trip to the family reunion in July is also probably out. One ancient aunt lives at that property, and an even more ancient uncle lives just down the road.
Our summer fly-and-drive CA, OR, WA trip was still in the planning stages when the virus arrived. My notes are filed and I remain hopeful that we can do that trip in a year or two.
Happykid is in grad school in TN, and we are in the DC suburbs. She’s staying-in-place as are we. Probably no road trips in either direction this summer. So happy to have Zoom and Facetime!
We’re supposed to be in Germany now, continuing on to Poland on Wednesday. Needless to say, it didn’t happen and I still need to get a travel voucher from Eurowings in the next day or two because they aren’t offering refunds even though they cancelled the Germany/Poland flight. I’m holding off because the voucher is only good for one year - giving us the most time we can get.
The next trip would have been in August and for our Anniversary - we travel every year for our Anniversary. Many times these trips are last minute - this will be one of those years. We joke about the “trip” being to our campsite down by the creek (on our property), but that might very well be it. Time will tell.
I’m definitely not eager to get this virus. Seeing that it has perhaps permanently damaged lungs in non-hospitalized mild cases (6 of 6 from one Austrian doctor’s experience regarding scuba diving) and the fact that we love scuba diving has us being super wary. There are no redos in life. We love scuba. We’re willing to let the tidal wave wash out around us while remaining on our island until more is known including helpful fixes.
My fear as well - but if we are allowed to travel for work, I would assume that employees should be able return to their home country without any issue. The company must know, if they don’t then they will do whatever it takes to bring their employees home, it’s their responsibility (Not that I wouldn’t confirm personally).
The only travel we usually do is to visit the kids and grand kids. We recently booked a flight to see one at the end of July; it is on Southwest, so can be cancelled. We can drive to my son, but takes 8 hours and usually with work, we can’t take that much time off in one chunk of time; flying is always quicker. Without stops, it would take 14 hours to get to my daughter. As I have back issues, sitting in a car that long, while doable, isn’t the best.
My husband stays at hotels when traveling to clinics to work, so he is equipped with mask, hand sanitizer, lysol spray and wipes; wiping down the entire room once entering. He does the best he can, and so far, he has been ok. He could easily pick up the virus at the clinic, so we would have no way to know where he was exposed,if he indeed contracted COVID.
So, I will wait and see where we are mid July and decide then.
That may be a self-selected sample (scuba divers going to the doctor because they had breathing difficulties)… but are there any reliable numbers on how often longer term damage to lungs, heart, etc. occurs in those who recover from COVID-19? People and media focus on the death rate, but death is not the only possible bad outcome. Long term lung or heart damage could be very detrimental to both quality of life and general health (it would limit exercise, for example).
Not going anywhere that isn’t necessary until things are under at least as much control as the seasonal flu is. I am immune deficient so have to be extra careful. When things open I will go back to work but otherwise I won’t change what I’m doing now. I will not go to stores and will do pick up or delivery, I will not go to events or restaurants or gatherings. I wish I could do those things but it wouldn’t be smart, at least not during times when the virus is active. I already have been careful during cold and flu season so this is more of what I was already doing (which I can’t say is fun, but does keep me much healthier). If I don’t do these things and I get sick often I imagine it will be hard for me to keep my job as I would end up missing too many days from being sick. By being careful I am able to work and hope that will continue.
As for trains and buses, etc, I think any small, enclosed space, no matter how crowded or not, poses a problem of virus transmission given what we have seen about the virus hanging in the air in turbulent gas clouds that can travel far and are released by sneezes, coughs, and even people talking and breathing.
If I found out I had the virus and was forever immune to it, I would travel but only when it wasn’t flu season at least as much as that was possible.
I really wanted to take summer trips to the Grand Canyon and other things. I wanted to go to Italy with DH in the future, too. Not sure how that will work.
I’d feel safer on a plane with the air that isn’t recycled blowing down on me than I would on a bus or subway care.
Agreed - and that’s the info I want to wait to learn about. They get tidbits from known cases and then have to figure out the puzzle. We can wait for them to figure out more rather than risking being a tidbit.
Did you read the scuba article? It was linked on the medical thread and close to home thread. The fact that the doctor couldn’t see a problem looking at them, but then was amazed at the x-rays raised a big caution flag for me. How many others have similar problems, but haven’t gone to get looked at (for scuba or otherwise)? No one knows at this point - but the cases he’s talking about weren’t the severe ones in the hospital from what I read.
If we weren’t into scuba or hiking, etc, I might not care as much - but many of our travels revolve around those activities. We’re middle aged, so not spring chickens anymore. I want to keep diving.
So far we had to cancel two trips, one a short domestic flight away and one a big, milestone birthday European cruise that will be complicated to reschedule since it involved 6 people. Now I am feeling very doubtful about our summer plans to spend time at my parents’ beach house. We would have to fly to get there and then suppose we infected them? They are in their 80s. This trip is not complicated to arrange or reschedule so we’ll just have to decide later.
As far as planning ahead, I am assuming it will take a while to get a vaccine in widespread use, maybe 2 years? I would be willing to start doing more travel and taking more chances even without a vaccine if we could make progress on a number of fronts. If we could get ahead on production of the protective equipment for health care workers and figure out ways to reduce the risk to them, figure out some better treatments for the sick, get more info on the usefulness of antibody tests, etc. I don’t think the risk needs to go completely away in order to get me willing to travel again, but it needs to be reduced some.
I would not be the first person to jump on a plane, but I won’t be among the most reluctant either. That being said, I am still extremely reluctant to even go to the grocery store. I’ve been getting some things from the farmers’ markets, where I feel safer in the open air, and trying to minimize all errands as much as possible. I will probably stick to serious efforts to reduce social interactions even if restrictions around here are lifted.
Husband and I were seldom traveling anyway except to visit son in Seattle. But he prefers coming here anyway, so it will be up to him when he feels comfortable getting on a plane. We discussed his driving but then the hotel issue comes up.
Perhaps he’ll be willing to fly if he can wear a mask throughout. But we’ll see. TSA has a lot of info on changes at the airport including where positive cases have been identified. Naturally SEA has higher numbers, as does SAN (probably due to the passengers off the last few cruise ships that docked here).
https://www.tsa.gov/coronavirus
I did have my eye on a couple of cruises to go on my own, but now would not step foot on such a ship for a few years if ever.
We are lucky to live in a vacation destination so can easily daycation. On a negative note, the apparent trend towards domestic driving vacations may bring tons of people into the area. Th silver lining is that the city can really really use the tourism business.
I love to travel. I’m often last-minute putting together plans and was so proud of myself this year for getting everything arranged in January. Was really obsessed with the planning for a month. Would have been a June trip to Italy, ending with a bang in Zurich after a panoramic train ride through the Alps.
Just last night my D texted me a photo of the Edinburgh Botanical gardens with the message “so pretty, we should have gone there!” We spent a couple of weeks in Scotland last summer
and now I am SO grateful for the memories of that trip! As Midwest67 said, life is short! I just regret not adding another week or two. We barely scratched the surface.
Funny, when I presented the possibility of that trip, I had that “life is short, carpe diem” feeling. I was realizing how time may be running out to travel with her, how so many unexpected things in life can get in the way. I actually said something to the effect that I hope she’ll have many chances to travel, but if, for any reason, she could choose only one destination in the world, what would it be? My normally indecisive daughter replied “Scotland” without missing a beat. (Which surprised me greatly…I would have expected Bora Bora, or the Caribbean or Greece from a 16-year old girl). It turned out to be an amazing trip and I hoped that Italy would be Part II, but I,m so very glad we got to do Part I!
I have my doubts about international travel in the summer of ‘21, but maybe a graduation road trip to a national park could be in the works, and hopeful for a Christmas break trip trip during her freshman year of college (‘21/‘22). Chile, anyone?
Also afraid to hope for a vaccine, but pinning my optimism on better understanding of who is most affected by Covid-19 and effective treatments.
We are supposed to be landing in Spain 2 weeks from today and then moving onto Scotland. All our flights were cancelled by the airlines and luckily we have received refunds for pretty much everything. Still dealing with a European airline for flights within Europe. They cancelled the flights but make it very difficult to get a refund instead of a voucher. At this point I just want our money back as I have no idea when we’ll be able to take the trip. Until things settle down I am just not comfortable being in another county since I don’t want to be “stuck” and scrambling to find flights back should things start to escalate.
I am less worried about traveling domestically when things reopen. I am dreaming of a trip to the beach. Feel badly my college aged kid not only got her freshman year cut short but is also missing out on the European trip. But, we ended up with a puppy instead!
DH was supposed to give a talk in Scotland in September and we’d have spent another week or two there. I’m guessing that will get put off. We were supposed to go back to Hong Kong also for lectures - first it got put off because of the protests, now the virus. I’d love to go back, but am beginning to think it may never happen.
While, I’d like a vaccine, I suspect it will be about as effective as the flu vaccine, so I’m really looking more at our ability to cure the bad cases. Once that happens and we’ve weathered a possible second bump, I might feel like it was possible.
I had two big trips planned for this year. One was mid May for 7 of us on a sailboat in French Polynesia. The charter coming is only giving a voucher for a future trip next year. It can be anywhere they charter but it still leaves a bitter feeling. You can rebook anywhere they charter but will have to pay the balance if the cost is higher (totally am fine with that) but if the cost of the rebooked trip is less they will not give a refund of the difference. The airline Air Tahiti Nui is being difficult. They will refund two of the tickets with a $250 charge per ticket. The other 5 are “non refundable”, they in their words will generously rebook by end of June for travel by next sept. Today I sent them a bulletin from the DOT, if I don’t get a refund I will file a complaint with the DOT and my credit card.
The other was a Sept/oct trip to Italy. I hadn’t yet booked anything. I don’t see it happening this year. I’m hoping it can happen fall 2021.
We have a wedding with a hotel booked for early Nov. It’s an easy drive and we could do it without the overnight. My concern will be if the virus is still around or on its way back I don’t want to pick up something and bring it to Thanksgiving with the in laws.
I am thinking about booking a long weekend for October at a family vacation home. It’s a few hour drive and we can always cancel.
We bought a travel trailer last fall so I hope we can do a little camping this year.
If Eurowings and if you are successful in the next day or so, let me know (pm or otherwise). I have not been successful and will probably have to take the voucher on the 29th as that would have been our original flight (before they shifted it to the 30th). I don’t want to lose out completely, but don’t know if we’ll need a European flight within a year so would prefer a refund.