Category Archives for Commentary.
The Biden administration is driving a project to introduce vaccine passports, which could be used not just for travel but also for return-to-work and attending events.
While many countries will require proof of vaccination for entry, it’s entirely unnecessary for domestic use since by the time it’s introduced everyone who wants a shot will already have protection – and the compromises necessary for the passport project will render them next to useless.
What if it’s immoral to travel even though it’s safe? An epidemiology professor argues one reason that the CDC hasn’t changed its guidance to allow vaccinated people to travel is it’s inequitable, it creates haves (vaccinated) and have nots (unvaccinated) and that’s morally wrong. In other words, you shouldn’t take advantage of being vaccinated because you’re privileging yourself over others,
The two week moving average of airline passengers going through TSA security checkpoints has bumped up to 54% of comparable 2019 levels. Passengers hit a pandemic-era single day high of 69% on Sunday, March 21.
Perhaps even more telling U.S. hotel occupancy is way up. It’s the highest it’s been in a year, and down just 15% compared to the same point in 2019. A lot more people are traveling now, vaccine or not.
Adults can get vaccinated and children cannot. You may be able to travel, but what about travel with your kids?
Is it reasonable to travel with children who haven’t been vaccinated? And will countries allow unvaccinated children to enter?
The last Director of National Intelligence says there “quite a few” incidents that are “difficult to explain” incidents “exceed[ing] the sound barrier without a sonic boom.” And in some cases “we don’t have good explanations” for what we’ve seen “all over the world.” Many haven’t been made public before.
Vaccines approved so far in the United States have been highly effective not just against preventing symptomatic infection but more importantly against severe Covid leading to hospitalization and death, and also – we are learning – against asymptomatic infection which means vaccination cuts down on spread of the disease. We just do not know how long this protection lasts because not enough time has passed yet to make this determination.
That’s a problem for policymakers as they consider whether to open up travel without testing or quarantine to those who have been vaccinated., so we don’t know how long ‘vaccine passports’ should be valid.
The CDC tried to revise its guidelines for travel based on the science, but they were blocked by the Biden administration from doing so. CDC guidance still remains not to travel.
But the science tells us something different. Here’s what we know. Tell me you disagree.
The CDC’s new guidelines for people that have been fully vaccinated do not allow for travel. They were going to change that, but the section of their guidance document that would have done so was removed after intervention by the Biden administration.
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said on Monday, “Every time there’s a surge in travel, we have a surge in cases in this country.” But this isn’t actually true, and it misses the point completely.
His FAA has asked its Drone Advisory Committee for “recommendations on how it might use more gender-neutral language” eliminating words like ‘unmanned aircraft’ and ‘airman’. The head of the FAA’s drone integration office wants to see “the adoption of gender-neutral language…in aviation generally.”
And the FAA plans to look at updating language throughout existing regulations to scrub gendered words.
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 »
