Days after the CDC updated its Covid-19 vaccination requirement for visitors traveling to the U.S. by air, the Biden administration announced that its vaccine requirements – including for airline passengers – will end at the ‘end of the day’ on May 11.
According to the White House,
Today, we are announcing that the Administration will end the COVID-19 vaccine requirements for Federal employees, Federal contractors, and international air travelers at the end of the day on May 11, the same day that the COVID-19 public health emergency ends. Additionally, HHS and DHS announced today that they will start the process to end their vaccination requirements for Head Start educators, CMS-certified healthcare facilities, and certain noncitizens at the land border. In the coming days, further details related to ending these requirements will be provided.
The requirement that non-U.S. residents have received ‘full vaccination’ against Covid-19 in order to travel here by air was… odd. People entered the U.S. by other means. The virus was already spreading here. And there were essentially no mandated precautions in most of the country for quite some time.
Contagious Americans could attend music concerts and pack into bars, but a foreigner who had tested negative for Covid-19 could not enter the country unless they’re received vaccinations that were no longer proving to be sterilizing (a vaccinated individual in 2023 could still contract and spread the virus).
Most of the rest of the world has lifted their mandates. The U.S. will, too. Just not for a week and a half. Somehow the requirement remains protective for a few more days?
It is incredibly sad to think back to the billions of dollars wasted, the countless businesses destroyed, families unable to gather for births, deaths, weddings or funerals, students who’s education was set back by years, people who’s mental illness was exacerbated by isolation leading to substance abuse or suicide, jobs lost, livelihoods destroyed, on and on we can go. All so that a bunch of self-important bureaucrats could feel like they were saving the world by becoming tyrants laying down endless rules that accomplished nothing but hurt billions of people to one degree or another. I hope that the American people realize that handing over liberty in exchange for promised safety never works.
I agree with @Doug
Staying at home to avoid being intubated = handing over one’s liberties.
What snowflakes.
“I hope that the American people realize that handing over liberty in exchange for promised safety never works.”
They won’t.
Like James has said, very unlikely. Fools.
TY @Doug. Criminal how people weren’t allowed to be with their loved ones as they died.
@doug
The fact that people will wear a mask in a car when alone or walk outside when wearing a mask tells you everything you need to know
@jojo, wearing masks in the car can be because it’s sometimes easier to leave on a N95 mask than to take it off then put it back on. The wearing of masks can also result in not getting a speed camera ticket in Oregon because of insufficient identification.
As far Gary Leff’s “Somehow the requirement remains protective for a few more days?”, look at it the other way. Sanity now but insanity in a few more days. Foreigners should be required to be vaccinated. If they suffer serious illness, they could be hospitalized and run away from the bill, sticking it to Americans.
“Foreigners should be required to be vaccinated. If they suffer serious illness, they could be hospitalized and run away from the bill, sticking it to Americans.”
This is arguably one of the dumbest statements I’ve ever read. Sometimes a surgeon has to cut to heal.
@derek
“Foreigners should be required to be vaccinated. If they suffer serious illness, they could be hospitalized and run away from the bill, sticking it to Americans.”
Better yet, force every foreigner to board the ferry from the DR or Bahamas to travel to the US. The CDC vaccine requirement does not apply to both, so unvaccinated foreigners have been using those routes to enter the US. You see those ferries are magical and purify you from Covid. Win-win.
@derek
99% of the time from my observations, the driver is NEVER wearing a KN-95 mask- only cheap surgical ones (which are nowhere near as effective)
I never got vaccinated, thank god.
My immune system is healthy, and I’ve never gotten covid.
Travelled to 50+ countries in the last 3 years.
Ignored all covid procedures, and lived my life.
All the ‘Trust the Science’ people are dead to me. What liars and cowards.
They have never admitted how wrong they got it.
It was never about health, only power.
@Don – Happy to hear. Blind faith in authority is more suited to religion than to science.
Pete – If YOU want to stay home, go right ahead. Just don’t force the rest of us to.
@Brian L – Gary’s post this time was about people who were coming into *my* home (where I am vaccinated, and yes, I wear N95 masks). They have no *right* to be here and they should be vaccinated in order to come here.
And now all of these democrats are trying to rewrite history and they take zero responsibility for their deadly actions. Thank god trump was president or it would have been much worse. He really should have fired Fauci.
The Federal Government dropped its COVID-19 vaccine travel mandate for non-citizens (the Travel Ban) on the same day its opposition to a motion for an injunction against that mandate was due in a lawsuit brought by ICAN’s attorneys, headed by Aaron Siri, Esq.
That is the reason and thankfully there are some good people and organisations out there fighting to keep some of us sane from the insanity as Doug described it.
We are living through some bad times in many years but unfortunately the only way it gets better is to get much worse first. It’s coming in many forms.
@JamesN So you want people with Ebola and leprosy to stream into the US?
@Efer
“Better yet, force every foreigner to board the ferry from the DR or Bahamas to travel to the US. The CDC vaccine requirement does not apply to both, so unvaccinated foreigners have been using those routes to enter the US. You see those ferries are magical and purify you from Covid. Win-win.”
Fake news, Russian type misinformation. By and large, foreigners do NOT come to the US via the Dominican Republic or the Bahamas.
Besides, the ferries are not magical but that’s just a loophole. So you are in favor of bad policy just because there is a loophole? So we don’t punish Israel for nukes so we should help North Korea develop nukes to be consistent???? NO. Please do NOT support North Korea, Efer (or by using your pro-North Korean logic).
“So you want people with Ebola and leprosy to stream into the US?”
A great example of a straw man. One of the classic fallacious arguments. Honestly, I shouldn’t expect much else from him.
@Tood
Advocacy groups like ICAN using lawsuits are the only way out of this mess. Politicians are unreliable. The “justice system” is unreliable as well, but at least there are legal precedents to fall back on, and juries to convince. I am hoping one day we will see the endless commercials on TV — “Have you are someone you love been injured by a vaccine?…” Sure, they have legal immunity if they have good faith (which is one way you know they are dangerous), but they don’t have legal immunity from fraud or malice. When we see those commercials, that’s when we will know this fascist insanity is finally over for good.
Why so soon?
-Progressive Liberal Democrats
@Don what a total liar, until end of summer 2022, most countries required vaccinations for tourists, so not sure which of those 50 countries you actually visit in the last 3 years.
For those “pro Trump”, Covid arrived during his terms, most restrictions were done during his term, but were extended with the new administration.
The Covid’s vaccine requirements for non-us visitors prevented people from most “communist /socialist” countries to visit the US, because they only used some Chinese or Russians vaccines that were not approved by OMS.
@derek
Lol… so pointing out the idiocy of the rule by showing an obvious loophole that defeats the purpose of The Zcienze™ used to justify it is akin to Russian propaganda.
You’re an NPC.
@Greg – Did you read the comment I was responding to? Rhetorical question, you obviously didn’t.
@Fredderick
Until the end of summer 2022 most countries had already dropped the vax requirement and those that didn’t allowed you to present a negative test as an alternative.
Trump did place the negative test rule before entering to the US. It was Biden administration that expanded it to include the vax requirement.
The Chinese vaccine was in the list of the CDC allowed vaccines to enter the US. The Russian one was not. All the “socialist/communist” Latin American countries had at the beginning only the AZ or Russian vaccine option. Those who opted for the Russian because it was the only one available at the beginning had to re-vaccinate again to comply with the CDC entry rule.
You have no clue what you are talking about.
JOJO and Brian agree with your comments..WE would let people in via air with Vax but if they were Illegals coming around the border or walls it was and still is ok ..Over 2 million came thru without checking their VAX CARDS nuts…
@Frederrick Come on man, don’t you know how easy it was to get a fake vaccine card???
Glad to see that the U.S. is finally catching up with the rest of the world in easing these restrictions. But seriously, why’s it taking a week and a half for this to happen? If it’s cool for 10 days from now, why not just make it cool for today? Anyway, I’m really happy for tourists who’ll be able to come to the US without vaccination soon!
This is a copy/post from the opening lines of this story: The requirement that non-U.S. residents have received ‘full vaccination’ against Covid-19 in order to travel here by air was… odd. People entered the U.S. by other means.
I have a news flash for Gary. All non-US residents had to be fully vaxxed to enter the USA, not just those by air.
For all of those who thought the restrictions during covid were unnecessary, think about the 6.8M people who died from the disease. Sad that their loved ones had to lose a family member and there are still those out there that think it was a waste of time to try to prevent more deaths. How very sad that people don’t check out the facts.
@Patrick – the vaccine requirement for land border crossings was not the same as for air arrivals, it was added later and allowed a non-resident to “verbally attest to their COVID-19 vaccination status”
Anyone willing to say they were vaccinated met the requirement at land borders. Proof of vaccination was required to board an aircraft headed to the United States.
While others might make a different point, mine was not about ‘porous borders’
Gary
My point is that the vax requirement still was there once the land border crossings were opened back up. Whether the US CBP officer asked to see it was up to each individual officer. We know people who tried to cross unvaxxed and were asked and then sent back home.