Rules driven more by politics than Covid are taking a heavy emotional toll on families around the world
Moira Hunt hasn’t seen her mother in over 18 months. Hunt and her husband, Shane, live in the UK but are from Australia, where Moira’s mother is about to be admitted to hospital. In her 70s, she has had to cope with the pandemic and her own illness without her daughter by her side. Shane has also, despite a family crisis, been unable to go back to Sydney to see his father and relatives.
Moira and Shane can go home, but would need to shell out £10,000 each for plane tickets, and then another A$3,000 (£1,600) for hotel quarantine, even though they are fully vaccinated. As of last Friday, they also have to prove that they have a “compelling reason” to travel. Shane can just about stomach the separation, but the unfairness of the financial element has made it a bitter pill to swallow. “If you have disposable income and disposable time, if you aren’t a normal everyday member of the public, you’re fine. When you realise it all comes down to money, it becomes harder to accept. It makes the emotional toll even harder to bear.”