COVID safe air travel
BUBBLES by their definition are fragile and temporary, easily burst.
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To have businesses and economies rely upon any sort of travel bubble is both unnecessary and foolhardy. Safety in any form of mass transportation is paramount, in air transportation it is crucial. Air transportation, accepted as the safest mode of mass transportation for good reason, did not achieve that mantle by using fragile bubbles.
It achieved that mantle by developing robust, standardised, highly engineered systems of safety, operated by highly trained, efficient, motivated aviation personnel.
Any proposed travel bubble between COVID-like cities only requires the re-emergence of a few mystery cases for it to burst, thereby sending the plans of travellers and countless businesses once again into chaos.
No, a more robust, standardised, systemic method of COVID-safe travel is urgently required, one based upon the proven aviation security systems already in place all over the world.
With a modicum of imagination and few (medical) modifications, an integrated method of PRE-departure (not post-travel) COVID surveillance can be established, irrespective of any particular location's current COVID reproduction rate.
No fragile bubble, rather, a robust system of ensuring consistent, sustainable safe air travel in any pandemic, not just COVID-19.
Without such a system, confidence in safe air travel will not be consistently achieved.
To do less is to ensure the inevitable last-minute cancellation of flights with the disastrous consequences to all concerned.
But what would I know, I've only been in professional aviation for 40 years.
Dale Newman, Relbia.
Pressure to open borders
I SEE that Scott Morrison has put the blow torch to Peter Gutwein about opening Tasmanian borders. I for one and like most Tasmanians have been happy that the borders were closed, and COVID-19 was stopped from entering the state.
The Premier's popularity has risen since the start of the pandemic, but now it will be under extreme pressure and scrutiny, now we are waiting for our first case to happen.
I know tourist businesses are cheering and the large hotel chains are champing at the bit at the expense of normal Tasmanian's health, it's all about the coin. Oh well Premier, I hope that the Tasmanian population can forgive you when the second wave hits and we have to shut down regions again.
Mask up, wash your hands, and stay 1.5 metres minimum from mainlanders.
Martin Leach, Kings Meadows.
Ecological burning questioned
FORICO has just announced a wave of 20 ecological burns starting October 19 and ending November 30.
An ecological burn is the burning of native vegetation for the preservation or enhancement of ecological processes only.
If Forico is attempting to make it more appealing to call these ecological burns, rather than just being more fuel reduction burns to get rid of logging waste, then they should have documented reasons for each burn - to promote carbon storage, nutrient cycling, water and air purification, maintenance of wildlife habitat, and so on.
In addition, Forico should already have pre-burn survey data for each site (which, you'd think, would also support the reasoning for an ecological burn) as well as proposed survey post-burn and ongoing monitoring to test if every one of their 20 ecological burns achieved the aims. Information appears to be sparse and for one we cannot continue to use our air as a sewer.
These are things we need to know as we experience climate change like never before.
Clive Stott, Grindelwald.
Vaping a worthwhile switch
INTERESTING that the anti-vaping argument uses cell cultures instead of actual studies on people. The latter clearly shows significantly reduced harm from nicotine vaping versus smoking.
Cherry picking in vitro and mice studies and ignoring real data from real people just won't cut it in anywhere anymore. As a former smoker who has quit deadly cigarettes through vaping, I can attest to how much my health (and wallet) have improved.
Samantha Barratt, Beacon Hill.
The role of modern prisons
ADAM Holmes analysis of the Tasmanian prison system (The Examiner, October 24) is a superb example of the journalist craft.
I don't agree with the conclusion that a new prison, no matter how well-intentioned, is the solution to the problems he explains.
And I think he's being a tad charitable about the culpability of the media in Tasmania. But on balance a good explainer.
This article and this journalist is part of the solution.
Bill Bartlett, Bracknell.
Fragrance Hotel appeal
SO far Launceston has only seen artist impressions of the proposed hotel.
Perhaps, instead of a laser light on Myer (The Examiner, October 26), a couple of cranes at 43 metres on the actual site would better demonstrate the height of what is proposed. The Verge is 24 metres, so is 43 metres over the road going to disappear simply because it is on lower ground than Myer?Launceston Heritage Not High Rise raised funds from a lot of small donors who wanted his appeal - it wouldn't have happened otherwise. And of course site contamination is an issue in many parts of Launceston but the letter writer misses the real point. There is a set process regarding how it is to be addressed in a development application. The proponent did not follow it and the council let it through.