I have just undergone another month of air travel visiting four countries and it continues to be a confusing morass of Covid-related regulations. My overriding impression is that some countries and, notably, one airline just cannot let go. I have experienced the complete range of restrictions from no restrictions (this simply used to be called ‘flying’) through the tyranny of enforced wearing of face masks and Covid testing to the requirement to provide proof of Covid vaccine status.
Croatia
The only frisson of Covid related anxiety I had on a recent visit to Croatia with my wife was when a message came from our driver before we left the U.K. that we would be required to wear a face mask in the car. However, when we arrived at Zagreb airport, he was there maskless and did not ask us to wear one. Our best guess is that this had been an automated message from Booking.com that had not been deactivated since the days of Covid tyranny. Given that this was Croatia, that message must have been extremely dated.
Croatia was one of the most liberal countries throughout the days of Covid, and dropped all Covid related entry requirements early this year, but you must experience it to believe it. For entry, no vaccine passports are required, no Covid tests are required and there are absolutely no Covid-related restrictions within the country. Moreover, unlike the U.K., there is almost no sign that there ever was a Covid ‘crisis’. At the gym we used there was just one old Covid sticker on the door and in some restaurants there remained some remnants related to recommendations for social distancing, and that was it. Full marks to Croatia from us.
Spain
I had to take a Covid test before flying to Spain. This was not checked on entry to Spain, but British Airways required the proof to be uploaded to their website prior to checking in online. I was at an international conference and I asked delegates from Australia, the USA, Canada, Hong Kong and Scandinavia if their airlines had required proof of vaccination status prior to checking in and none had. Nor had they been aware of the need for a Covid test, and nobody had been asked to provide proof on entry. It really is time that British Airways, and we British generally, stopped kowtowing to other countries, especially ones which cannot be bothered to enforce their own regulations.
There was no mention of having to wear a mask on the flights in and out of Spain on the relevant section of the travel advice website, unlike when I passed through earlier in the year. But Iberia, which for some reason crewed the British Airways plane I took to Barcelona, insisted. Delegates at the conference also verified that other airlines had not insisted on face masks on flights into Spain. Face masks were still required on public transport, but my taxi driver was maskless and did not insist I wore one. I noticed on passing trains and buses that people were not wearing masks, so I assumed that this requirement was largely being ignored. During the week of my visit Spain lifted all Covid-related requirements in the country and for travel in and out of the country.
Happy days until I was boarding the flight home to London when the Iberia staff manning the boarding gate announced that it was a Government requirement that face masks were to be worn on the flight. Some of the staff at the gate were asking people to produce face masks before they would let them scan their boarding pass; I was not asked. The flight was being operated by British Airways and when we boarded the plane, none of the staff was wearing a mask and were actively telling people that they did not have to wear them. Full marks for British Airways on that point and nil points to Iberia. Spain scores five out of 10 given that they were still insisting on restrictions on the way in and clearly had not distributed the memo widely enough about their being lifted. It will be worth keeping an eye on Iberia as the months pass.
The USA
Nothing has changed since my visit to the USA in August where proof of a vaccine passport is still required for entry. It seems to be devolved to the airlines to enforce this as you are not allowed to check in until you have completed and uploaded an attestation form (‘I do not have Covid’ – tick!) and a PDF of your vaccine passport. Nobody asks for any proof at U.S. immigration. Once again, I say: it really is time that British Airways, and we British generally, stopped kowtowing to other countries. It is worth noting that any two doses of an approved vaccine will suffice and taken at any time which means that my non-boosted AstraZeneca vaccines of early 2021 are recognised. These shots did not protect me at the time and even if they had any benefit at that point they will be of absolutely no benefit now. My impression is that this is an exercise in box-ticking to demonstrate the traveller’s compliance with the Covid regime.
Apart from hand sanitisers – these have always been quite prominent in germophobic America – there was absolutely no other indication of the Covid regime. Some people continue to wear face masks and, as I was at a nursing conference, some masks were in evidence. There was no compulsion to wear face masks and it was refreshing to have several conversations with unmasked colleagues, mainly of a Republican persuasion, about how ridiculous face masks were and what harm lockdowns had done to our economies. The only blot on the USA landscape was that to attend gala events at the conference the organisation – the American Academy of Nursing (AAN) – insisted that attendees prove vaccination status before they collected the tickets. These tickets were $200 a head, had been purchased months in advance and had a ‘no refund’ message clearly associated with them. The AAN provided a link for uploading CDC proof of vaccination and non-U.S. citizens could show any other valid proof on the day of collection. Frankly, and much to her credit, the young lady at the desk would have accepted my Tesco card, all she wanted was to ‘see something’. It is much more pleasurable flying out of the USA than flying in these days as nothing Covid related is required for boarding to the U.K. Zero out of 10 for the USA for continuing to require proof of vaccination status and they will continue to get zero out of 10 next year if, as they say they will, they maintain proof of vaccine status for entry through 2023.
Italy
Prior to travelling to Italy, I encountered some Italian colleagues in Spain who assured me that all Covid related restrictions had been lifted inside the country. On my previous visit, unlike the one before that and the one before that, all restrictions related to entry had already been abandoned. I was keen to put the new freedom to the test. Miraculously, it is true. No Covid tests, no Covid vaccines and no masks required anywhere. Given that these are early days and, with the propensity of the Italians to declare a health crisis at the first sign of the sniffles, seven out of ten to Italy.
I hope this is the last time I write here about travel. While I intend to keep travelling, I hope that the USA will have seen sense and dropped its Covid requirements, but I doubt that will happen until the GOP return a President to the White House. I see no hope of China ever relaxing its entry requirements as Xi Jinping seems to be having too much fun inflicting arbitrary lockdowns on its population.
However, while other countries I have visited recently, even the ones that still require or only recently required Covid restrictions, seem relatively unscarred physically from the ‘pandemic’, it is embarrassing to see the mess of our pavements and buildings in the U.K. with indelible Covid warning stickers, shop doors still displaying face mask and social distancing stickers that seem impossible to remove (I have tried). Likewise in public buildings and especially in toilets, similar signs that are impossible to remove (I have tried). The floors of Heathrow airport and the taxi ranks there are still festooned with ‘Stand Here’ stickers two metres apart. They may be ignored now, but they are still there.
The expense, the effort, the induced fear and the pillorying of people who stood too close, did not wear a face mask or who refused to be vaccinated, and the anxiety that this might all happen again – the question I hope every politician, public health official and general busybody who inflicted the economic and social disaster that was 2020-2021 on us is asking is: Was it worth it?
Dr. Roger Watson is Academic Dean of Nursing at Southwest Medical University, China. He has a PhD in biochemistry.
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I like very much the Covid madness ratings and can add Thailand and Vietnam to this game of Top Trumps.
Both score very highly if we’re talking about immigration, I’d say 8 for Thailand and 9 for Vietnam. The shadow of Covid tyranny hangs over their respective points of entry, but masks and so-called vaccine so-called passports are not required for either. Oh, the same is true for Malaysia where I was quite briefly a few weeks ago. So SE Asia gets a collective score of 8.5 on the Watson Tyranny Scale.
But it’s out in the countries themselves where things get murky. I work in a school in Saigon where perhaps 1/3 of the children remain masked at all times. I regularly see children as young as 3 or 4 wearing masks. I visited a medical centre to arrange a mandatory medical check last week and was the only maskless person in the whole place. Still, no one said anything.
So masking here has become normalised for many people (helped I think by the fact that people already wore them because of smog). Yes, the shadow of Covid Tyranny looms large, but it’s a complex picture that, even after a month of being here, I can’t quite fathom.
I should also add, this experience has emphasised for me just how dehumanising masks actually are. Some of the kids I teach have started to come to school without them for the first time and it’s like I’m seeing them for the first time. With a mask on I had no idea what they actually looked like and I’m surprised when I see their whole face. ‘Oh so that’s what you look like’, I think to myself.
The next question for me is, when in two weeks I get my Vietnamese driving licence and start riding a scooter (overwhelmingly the most popular mode of transport here), do I go maskless and breathe in pollution, just to prove a point? Does that count as cutting of my nose to spite my face? Either way, I’m not putting one of those bloody stupid things on my face!
Oh, and to answer the question posed in the headline:
As the good doctor should by now be aware, Covid-19 never was about public health and the US still insists on vaccination because it’s agencies spearheaded the project and don’t want to let go, even while the whole charade has become untenable for ‘normal’ countries which still have some semblance of independence and whose policies are their own. ‘Vaccination’ is a proxy for compliance, surveillance and control, all of which have for a long time been the modus operandi of the US regime.
… and the US government played along with its agencies projects because they were all part of a routine Mencken Imaginary Hobgoblin.
Luciferase which is in all the injections fluoresces under blue lights which seem to have become very fashionable recently, is this how the injected can be identified? As per the now removed page from the WEF site boasted.
I thought the luciferase theory had been debunked.
Not as far as I’m aware of.
Ah! but, by whom was it debunked?
Indeed. I’ve always believed the mask was absolutely key to the control agenda. It signals a change to the default thinking; instead of assuming most people are friendly, the mask signals that most people are a threat. It is not only an indicator of compliance, but enforces dark beliefs of what risk others impose. Distrust, fear, and dislike is silently nurtured. It reminds everyone that there is a crisis that can only be dealt with by following the guidance given by authority. The mask is a much more powerful tool that most understand.
I absolutely agree and have always seen them the same way. They also promote collectivist thinking and discourage individuality. Rather like the population of a certain superpower just to the North of me.
Masks are today’s equivalent of Gessler’s Hat. And I never bowed before it.
Well, whoever Gessler is these days, he/they/she/it can eff off!
Great to read your news, crisis.
My view on masks was extremely simplified:
I’m not firkin wearing one. Anybody wearing a mask is a dozy, ignorant pillock.
That’s it.
Have the farmers had any success?
No, not to my knowledge. I haven’t heard anything meaningful in a while, not since the government declared they’d forcibly buy out up to 600 livestock farmers.
I like the look of this documentary which is currently being made about it all and the director talks with Del Bigtree here;
https://www.sgtreport.com/2022/11/documenting-the-dutch-farmer-saga/
So true. It is extremely antisocial, and has been referred to as a “tax on socialization”. All cleverly disguised as a virtue signal of altruism to “protect others”, of course.
Facemasks: the control agenda
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Ascot SL5 8BP
Stand in the Park Sundays 10.30am to 11.30am – make friends & keep sane
Wokingham
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Bracknell
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I always wonder about that when passing the local Apple store: They have a really big Face Masks Are Recommended sign at the door despite nobody inside the store is wearing any.
Oh, that reminds me. I think you’re probably referring to the one in the Oracle. I stomped angrily away from that store during June 2020 when the staff insisted on face masks to gain entry before they were made mandatory. Good that nobody is wearing them now.
Yep. I’ve occasionally seen a doorman wearing a mask, but that’s it.
Spain and Portugal have now both dispensed with all covid restrictions, and South Africa, which is great, but I gather from travel.gov.uk webpages that sadly Eswatini ( previously Swaziland ), and India, Bangladesh and Pakistan all still want either a proof of vaccination or a negative pcr test less than 72 hours old.
Why are India et al still persisting with this rubbish? 
I have a feeling that Turkey and Morocco are too, but can’t remember what the travel.gov. uk pages said about them.
Spain still require masks on public transport
Not going there until they drop that
True. Yes, I second that.
I’m now wondering why Dr Watson says/seems to think that “every other country” has dropped restrictions. Does he mean that the US is one of the very very few remaining or just “every other” as in every 1 in 2 countries? ie about half of them? In which case the US isn’t such an outlier for keeping them.
For the unvaxxed (or the vaxxed who are unwilling to use a vaxx passport):
Open for travel. COVID-19 testing or quarantine is not required.
129
countries
Test & Travel
Open for travel with required
COVID-19 testing.
51
countries
Test & Quarantine
Open for travel with required testing and quarantine upon arrival.
13
countries
Closed
Only returning citizens or people in special circumstances may enter.
34
countries
As per Where can I travel to? Travel Restrictions by Country | KAYAK
Plenty of the 129 countries that have no covid travel restrictions still have mask mandates.
I wouldn’t be running around so much and I’d be avoiding pressurised environments if I was able to show a valid vaccine passport. Although, with the levels of excess death currently, I wouldn’t risk running for a bus with my compliance card..
The reason the USA is keeping vaccine passports is because it is a part of the Emergency Declaration that allows for extended mail-in voting, to which the Democrats are particularly attached.
Great detailed posts to this good detailed sceptic traveller story.
In 2021 friends of nearly 20 years responded negatively to my refusal to give consent to the jabs (not anti vax) asked me quote “ aren’t you going to be upset if you can’t go on holiday?” And that “ it is our duty to take it” I was told that what I said had made them feel uncomfortable. I know they were frightened!
I do feel bitter and angry about all of this.
What to respond too when the response now is “well we are not masking now and may not need more jabs because the vaccines have helped produce the milder version and herd immunity” I feel it’s a loss for people who put the head above the parapet because the virtue signalling smug compliant believe they made it safe and we are still the conspiracy disinformation crew. Me.
How to reply politely without keeping my cool and calm so that I don’t lose the discussion. 5:1 the battle will commence at lunch next week. May be my last. Sad.
I have been going around my local town ripping off those stupid mask signs for sometime (estate agents, newsagents, banks, etcetera) however there is still one very stubborn pharmacy that has all the original fear mongering signs and still insists on only one customer at a time enter their shop. I and a colleague of mine from my local SITP have challenged them on separate occasions but to no avail. What is going through these people’s heads? Extraordinary.
Well done
we have still got those visual dictatorship signs stuck on our playground but there are the state control cameras watching so I am not brave enough! to rip of those left. I started to dig one off as they are stuck with super puritanical glue, the worst kind of glue ;)but my daughter was worried so I stopped.
I hilariously thought I would go in the dark and rip them off. Granny in a hoodie. No doubt a prison sentence given. During the authoritarian time, I took my grandchildren there and they had taken off the swings and taped things off and no water running on the play water machine and only 3 allowed , made my blood boil because it had no basis in science.
We need reparations the ‘IN’ word at the minute! But I call it justice.
You can add launderettes to my business mask vendetta. Just ripped a couple down as I was delivering The Light thought I’d leave a couple there for anyone interested! There are CCTV cameras there but I thought sod it come and get me I really don’t care anymore there’s no justification for these fear inducing notices and never was. RESIST DEFY DO NOT COMPLY!!!
Joe Biden, cdc, fda, all bought and paid for.