Trans Tasman Bubble is GO

Trans Tasman travel Bubble WILL start as predicted on Monday 19th April. Just announced by Prime Minister Arden

At the drop of a hat, after a case or two, the borders will close, people will be stuck

As much I don't want to admit, you are right - Auckland would go in and out of lockdown from just 1 case, WA would shut borders to eastern states when Brisbane had their recent events.

Those who make it without the need of getting stuck or forced quarantine on return will be very lucky. It will be a matter of time. I would like to see borders stay open no matter what and more destinations added now vaccines rolld out - otherwise what's the point of a vaccine. But both governments need to be clear and handle any potential lockdowns smartly.

Dan the lockdown is now for a couple of days while they do testing and tracing to make sure it is only one or two, and not one or two hundred. The Avalon cluster started with two. They won’t stop cross Tasman travel but if you are in a lockdown zone then you will have to stick out the few days., and get tested a couple of times. A small price to pay. If vaccinated in a month or two for us oldies, then even easier.

Can we have double status credits again, this time including international travel?

I can feel the POP even before I hear it. Somebody will end up in tears. Everybody including governments, know that vaccination does not stop infection nor transmission so Aunty Cindy will not make exemptions for those with a jab.

GoRobin the research which we know you query suggests otherwise see from US CDc

Science Brief: Background Rationale and Evidence for Public Health Recommendations for Fully Vaccinated People

The interesting thing here is that this "bubble" is only promised in about 2 weeks time. WHY ? If it was GO as mentioned, why is there a delay?

@patrickk...oh what utter rubbish. CDC does not do clinical studies.

GoRobin I presume you read the report before your response. There is also heaps of other evidence out there which sceptics will also dismiss.

@patrickk...and you never seem to be able to provide links to peer reviewed scientific papers. Only the HEADLINES which you seem to so desperately wanting to hangon to for your arguments. Not good enough. Just make it up as you go along.

Maybe this is all just a big CON. Did anybody give any guarantee that if you book a ticket to fly on 20 April that you will actually be able to fly on that date quarantine free? I don't think so. Even if you have been vaccinated? I don't think so. So the risk is no different to what it was last week. The only difference between this week and last week was that Aunty Cindy spoke this week. So is she giving any guarantee? I don't think so. We are all just suckers.

There’s actually very good emerging evidence that vaccination does reduce transmission of COVID, in addition to preventing symptomatic disease and death from it.

That's right. Even with the injection you can still get COVID and pass it on. The vaccine only stops you from becoming seriously ill and in that regard all the vaccines are very effective. As far as I know, no one who has been vaccinated has died from COVID.
However, the vaccine might still be effective in reducing the amount of time someone is contagious with COVID as well but only time will tell as we get the data on that one.
So far those reasons I think you're right - you can only open up to other countries that have a low or no rate of infection until your domestic population has herd immunity.

And now we have a new problem - the variants which could make some vaccines useless and put us on the yearly merry-go-round of having to get updated vaccines.

A bubble puts all Australian States and NZ in the same basket. There isn't much difference being stuck in Auckland if you want to go to Sydney and being stuck in Sydney if you want to go to Perth. COVID-19 risk throughout the basket diminishes as vaccinations increase. Eventually all these places will have high rates of vaccination. In the meantime we've been given an opportunity. We can choose to accept the risk of disruption, or we can choose not to travel.