Open For Infection?

Scientists at the University of Aberdeen have published (in the prestigious British Medical Journal), an analysis of factors, thought likely to contribute to death rates, in 37 countries severely affected in the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic (https://www.abdn.ac.uk/news/14653/). Factors looked at included numbers of international arrivals (generally by air); density of populations; percentages of urbanised folk; age profiles; average Body Mass Index (BMI) and prevalence of smoking. Many of these factors had already been linked to morbidity/ death after Covid-19 infections. Their most striking finding was that there was a 3.4% increase in Covid-19 deaths in that first wave, if a country had a million international arrivals. Pretty obviously, some international arrivals bring viral infections into their destinations (especially if they are not monitored). Air transport also tends to widely disseminate infections around some countries. These findings make it all the more remarkable, that the UK appears to be progressing at snail's pace with its 'plan' to get some international travellers (there are numerous exceptions) to quarantine (at their own expense) in airport hotels for 10 days on arrival. Every day that passes, without effective quarantine of arrivals, increases the risk of importing new variants of the virus. It's OK to be 'open for business' but you don't want to give Covid-19 a free pass!