Category Archives for Commentary.
While travel shaming may have been understandable at the start of the pandemic, and getting out into the world may make sense for many that have been vaccinated, this is a time for tolerance of others’ risk profiles and preferences since we’re in an ‘in-between space’ where there’s still virus spreading and still people at great risk for it, even as an increasing number of people face very low risk to themselves and others.
The first time back is a little weird at first, but it’s not something that really lingers. You get over the strangeness of it all by doing it. One trip back and you’re an expert at it again.
What does go a long way is a welcome and kind confidence from employees. It makes you feel like they’ve been there, they’re fine, and they know this is all going to be ok.
Some state governors have issued orders against vaccine passports, but these have only limited meaning, such as not requiring state employees to get vaccinated and not requiring proof of vaccination for state business. The Biden administration has said they’ll facilitate but not require vaccine passports.
But do governments have a constitutional obligation to offer vaccine passports? That’s the argument that two law professors make, that government action to protect people from public health risks must use the least restrictive means possible. – and vaccine passports are required because they allow people to escape restriction.
The State Department announced a ‘do not travel’ recommendation for 80% of the world’s countries. They are explicit that this decision is not their assessment of risk for those countries, but a change meant to mirror what the CDC already says. Indeed the CDC’s current guidance does not match actual risk.
However this is the wrong direction for travel guidance, and it’s the CDC that should be updating risk assessment.
Thailand has a new outbreak of Covid-19, threatening tourist re-opening. In the Maldives cases are falling dramatically, over 90% of tourism workers have been vaccinated, and nearly all visitor life is outdoors. Yet the CDC categorizes Maldives as the highest possible risk ‘do not travel’ and Thailand the lowest risk.
The quality of testing varies tremendously. Anyone who tests positive can just keep keep trying, using tests with low specificity. This reader took five tests until he finally got a negative one. It’s like the California emissions testing shop that used to pass every car with a $35 re-testing fee. The tech would stick the emissions probe in the tailpipe of his own car, every time.
On Meet The Press an infectious diseases expert gave this scary – and completely misleading – take on flying after being vaccinated against Covid-19: “Let me just give an example on the airplane flight. When you get vaccinated, it’s like buying a fireproof suit that works 90 to 95 percent of the time. But it doesn’t work all the time. So why want to walk into a big fire if you don’t have to?”
This completely misrepresents the risk of Covid-19, and how vaccine effectiveness is reported.
The Caribbean island of St. Vincent is facing a disaster after the eruption of the La Soufrière volcano there which has been dormant since 1979. Residents in the north were evacuated. Cruise ships, with nowhere to no and no passengers to sail, positioned to take refugees to neighboring islands. But there was a problem, according to the Prime Minister: to enter neighboring islands they’d need to be vaccinated against Covid-19.
he U.S. federal government isn’t going to require vaccine passports for citizens, nor are citizens going to be required to get vaccinated (though failing to require vaccination in exchange for $1400 stimmy checks was a huge lost opportunity in the fight against the pandemic).
However the Biden administration is working on standards to allow for vaccine passports, and has been in talks with airlines about creating them. The White House says it will offer its guidance for moving forward “soon.”
Vaccine passports can be a temporary tool that allows travel to re-open. Since several Covid-19 vaccines have been shown not just to protect the person that’s vaccinated, but also to prevent spread, they can help assure a country that visitors who have had a shot are less likely to infect their citizens with the virus.
There are complex arguments – both practical and ethical – around vaccine passports. But this celebrity doctor’s complaint about them seems ignorant of the facts..
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
