'Colonial Policymaking': UK slammed for vaccination-travel rule bias & unabashed duplicity

The Boris Johnson-led government in the UK has drawn backlash after it confirmed that persons who have received both doses of vaccine against COVID-19 in several countries including India will still be considered “unvaccinated.” British political analyst Alex Macheras said in a tweet on September 18 that the UK government is considering fully vaccinated people from Africa, South America, UAE, India, Turkey, Jordan, Thailand and Russia as “unvaccinated” and they will be subjected to 10-day home quarantine and tests of coronavirus.

In the Twitter thread, Macheras also noted that one foreign minister told him that in the new meeting with Britain’s new Foreign secretary Liz Truss, they expect to talk about the supposed difference between Pfizer jabs in the UK or Europe. Macheras also weighed in on the decision and said it’s “quite something for UK to take such a stance against so many countries' vaccine rollouts...especially those countries administrating the exact same vaccines as UK.”

The discriminatory move has drawn backlash from several people who noted that the new rules of the British government are “absolutely bizarre”. Some of them even noted that the Covishield vaccine, which was originally developed in the UK and manufactured the Serum Insitute in Pune has been supplied to Britain as well. One of the Twitter users has also said, “this smacks of racism.” Several internet users called out the British government for an "outrageous" rule and asked for the reasoning behind the same.

UK changes protocol to only have a single 'red list'

The UK government has placed India under the ‘amber’ list and as per the official website, “From 4 am Monday 4 October 2021, the rules for international travel to England will change from the red, amber, green traffic light system to a single red list of countries and simplified travel measures for arrivals from the rest of the world. The rules for travel from countries and territories not on the red list will depend on your vaccination status."

Regrading approved vaccines against COVID-19, the British government has said that the individual must be “fully vaccinated” under the UK vaccination programme which is approved by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) or other overseas programmes approved by MHRA. The official website noted that an “approved vaccination programme in Europe or the USA – not all are recognised in England.” 

Notably, the website says that in the UK, “fully vaccinated” means the person has either two doses of an approved double dose vaccine such as Pfizer or AstraZeneca, or one dose of an approved single-dose vaccine such as Janssen.

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