Virgin CEO says borders need to open faster, even if ‘some people may die' Jayne Hrdlicka

Jane is merely voicing what more people are finally understanding. Maybe she could have suggested that international borders are opened gradually to lower risk countries based on personal vaccination. This then gives people choice. If you wish to travel, get vaccinated and if you wish to shut yourself away for ever, scared of the slightest risk, then you can. No one is forcing you to travel anywhere.

Sad there are so many people on this forum - obviously well heeled that don't have a problem with her vile repugnant remarks.

Thankfully she copped the reaction she deserved from the PM, opposition leader and general public

What rubbish. The media took her quote out of context. The PM was making similar remarks a month ago.

Seems to be a case of outrage of a woman expressing an uncomfortable opinion, but fine for a bloke to say what he thinks.

Virgin CEO Jayne Hrdlicka clarifies comments on need to reopen COVID border closures

abc.net.au/news/2021-05-20/jayne-hrdlicka-comments-covid-international-border-reopen/100152014

She was misquoted/comments taken out of context/taken in isolation/choice of words was far from ideal/paraphrase

Nevertheless she was commenting on borders and vaccine issues, state border closures, price war matters etc in the last 2 weeks, but I can't remember when was the last time she was promoting virgin products other than 2 months ago on that business class meal rollout

I suppose the VA products are good enough to sell themselves?

Most on here are happy to die early but try giving them a seat in business class that is not enclosed or God forbid they have to sit next to somebody or an olive has been removed from their meal and watch them cry like the self entitled, all about me babies that they are.

notff....you are such a joker. Who are you to say when someone will die. Nobody who commented so far has mentioned that they wanted to die. Pethaps it is just that you would wish an early death on those who don't share the same view as you. Did you forget during the pandemic that we all as individuals still have rights to express our own views? Or perhaps you would prefer to have us rounded up as in the 1940s and put into camps.

Do not question the government, they know best. It is Unaustralian to question government actions in 2021, did you not know that?

Closed borders forever. Lockdown save lives. We’re all in this together*

*unless you’re a politician, billionaire, actor or can play tennis.

Ted she made the point rather inelegantly that people die like they die from flu, and I expect some of them die after the flu shot. The question is how many is ‘some’. Next year the number we can accept will be quite low, probably lower than flu, but after that a few a year after vaccination (similar to flu) will probably be acceptable.

@patrickk....I can agree. Next year will probably see covid as just history. The Spanish Flu only lasted 2 years and that was without any special medications or procedures. We are now almost 1.5 years through covid. Many countries in the northern hemisphere are opening up fast and just getting on with living with another virus in their communities. Australia will probably lag until they do the "challenge test" and nobody is willing to put any kind of certainty as to when that will happen.

Some people are calling this a PR nightmare. Personally I think it kickstarted a difficult conversation that needed to be had. I’d say she’s a bit of a trail-blazer with all this vaccine talk and reopening of borders stuff going around now. Someone had to have the b*** to say it, she did. Well done JH!

Well said EmDoyle, all she said is what is going to happen anyway. People are born and then they die. Get vaccinated, take simple precautions but then return to living. It is impossible, actually impossible to stop people dying. It it’s not this virus, it’s something else. She did not say open up regardless, she said the time will come when we face up to the uncomfortable truth that people die each and every day. Why are we all so scared of talking about this?

Far and away the reaction I heard was to applaud her honesty.

567 deaths today alone in USA. Doesn’t sound “normal” to me, but yes get that vac as soon as you can.

Average deaths per day in the US is around 6500. 567 sounds very ordinary in comparison because the average age of these 567 deaths was 80.1 years old. There is little point locking the whole population to try to save a few 80 year olds who may die slightly earlier because of a virus. I speak to many 80+ year old people and they do not fear death, they want the young to be able to live and hate lockdowns passionately. I am sure you can find a few younger people who died from COVID. Just the same as I can find younger people who die each year from the flu. We cannot stop people dying. Politicians do not care about people dying, they just do not want anyone accusing them of not caring as it may stop re-election. I applaud the US. They offer vaccination and then open up despite the fact that the virus will still circulate.

Richard as I have mentioned many a time it is not deaths that is the issue but overwhelmed hospital systems as we have seen, previously in thecUS but now in South Asia. Vaccinations won’t stop you getting the bug but it will keep you out of hospitals. Currently hospitalisations are about younger people who haven’t been vaccinated yet, that is why we should get vaccinated. In the UK they are having vaccination blitzes in those areas with high infection rates just to keep people out of hospitals as one dose is better than none.