> We could never have closed our borders in a meaningful sense for any meaningful length of time I've been traveling in and out of the UK throughout the pandem

> We could never have closed our borders in a meaningful sense for any meaningful length of time I've been traveling in and out of the UK throughout the pandemic, and my observation is: - You don't have to close borders to have strong controls. The 'PCR test before travel' + 'test on day 2 and 8' would have been pretty robust if implemented at the right time. - These measures were consistently implemented at the wrong time. For instance, when the delta wave was starting, there were no restrictions. When it was peaking in the UK, there were strong controls, even when you were coming from a country with a low incidence rate. My general opinion is that the UK did the right measures[0], but consistently with the wrong timing. It's generally been the case that border controls have been harsh when they were most unnecessary, and weak when they were most needed. It's stupid to have to quarantine for ten days when you're traveling into a country that has multiple orders of magnitude higher infection rates, and no mask mandates - but that's what I was doing last year. [0]: across the board, not exclusively in regards to travel.