When will international travel and cruising, even domestic cruising start in Australia again? Well, I chatted with Dr Robert Booy, a leading infectious diseases and COVID-19 expert to find out when he thought they would.
I am sure like many of you, I have become really rather tired of listening to proclaimed specialists in COVID-19, qualified by Facebook, innuendo, rumour, gossip, next door neighbour knowledge and more, and also those amazing conspiracy theorists that believe that COVID-19 does not exist at all, and of course those amazing anti maskers and anti vaxxers, but what can one say…except make sure we speak with people that know what there are talking about and are experts, oh and not politicians?
I also really enjoy chatting with people who are highly qualified and specialists in their field and you may recall that a little while ago I had an amazing chat with Dr Ian Norton, Managing Direct of Respond Global and an acknowledged infectious diseases expert and you can watch my chat with Ian by CLICKING HERE.
In the meantime, time has passed, infection numbers have gone up, infection numbers have gone down, lockdowns have come, lockdowns have gone, the Premiers have argued with the Prime Minister and the Prime Minister has argued with the Premiers, and very recently, the Prime Minister has released his four stage plan, with I suppose some plan better than no plan.
We are also beginning to enjoy some freedoms in our lives, but many of us remain very confused with and frustrated by everything that is happening around us, with two aspects of our lives here in Australia and also New Zealand, disastrously affected and remaining highly restricted, which are of course, international travel and cruising, both very difficult to understand why, especially when both are happening in other parts of the world.
So, I thought that it was time to have a chat with another acknowledged expert in infectious diseases and there I was watching Sunrise on Channel 7, when someone many of you will recognise came on, that is Dr Robert Booy.
I also thought that as Dr Booy knows what he is talking about and seems a really nice guy, I decided to see if I could get him to chat with me about COVID-19 and in particular about COVID-19, international travel and cruising.
A couple of emails later and the great news was that Dr Booy, who lives, breathes and sleeps infectious diseases and now COVID-19 and is a recognised leader in the field, working at a number of locations including the National Centre for Immunisation Research & Surveillance of Vaccine Preventable Diseases and the Westmead Institute of Medical Research, with a stellar career, that you can check out by CLICKING HERE, was happy to have a zoom chat with me!
Our highly informative chat, which you can watch by clicking on the video below, covers a wide range of areas and questions related to and about COVID-19, that will help us all understand it better and in particular international travel and cruising.
I asked Dr Booy whether he thought the government made the right decision in banning international outbound travel and is that decision still the correct decision now?
What did he believe needed to happen to allow international outbound travel to start and by when and will it kick off with those that are double vaccinated, willing to be regularly tested and then quarantining at home on their return?
How important are vaccination levels going to be in outbound international travel restarting?
What are his views on the Ruby Princess scenario in Sydney which happened some time ago, when we appeared to know very little about COVID, about which we know a lot more now, but is appears to be very high on the agenda in the governments’ thinking minds and views of cruising and their resistance to restart cruising again even domestically.
Finally, now in July 2021, around 15 months after COVID-19 kicked off and with cruising now starting all over the world except Australia, I asked Dr Booy when he thought cruising could restart with the biosecurity determination cruise ban now extended to Sept 17 and Carnival Corporation having extended their pause already to December 17.
His response about when he believes cruising will restart in Australia, may be a surprise to some, but it is very interesting indeed and you can listen to his response to find out when and also the answers by Dr Robert Booy to my other COVID-19, international travel and cruising questions, by clicking on the video below:-
A report and interview with Dr Robert Booy, leading infectious diseases and COVID-19 expert and specialist by John Alwyn-Jones, Cruise Editor Global Travel Media and Global Cruise News, Special Correspondent Aviation, Travel and Tourism and Presenter and Producer Global Travel Media TV
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