Fully vaccinated people may travel, CDC says

[DonViejo]

Source: Washington Post


Agency updates its guidance because of studies showing real-world effectiveness of coronavirus vaccines and rapid pace of vaccinations, now close to 3 million people daily.

By Lena H. Sun and Lori Aratani
April 2, 2021 at 11:31 a.m. EDT

Federal health officials gave the green light Friday for fully vaccinated people to resume travel as an estimated 100 million Americans have had at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine, and evidence mounts of the shots’ effectiveness.

-snip-

The agency updated its guidance because of several newly released studies documenting the strong real-world effectiveness of coronavirus vaccines in protecting against infection and spread of the virus, and the rapid pace of vaccinations, now close to 3 million people a day.

For domestic travel, people who are two weeks past their final shot do not need to get a coronavirus test before or after trips and do not need to self-quarantine after travel. That means grandparents who are fully vaccinated can fly to visit their grandchildren without getting a coronavirus test or self-quarantining, provided they follow the other recommended public health measures, such as wearing masks on planes, buses, trains and other forms of public transportation.

For international travel, fully vaccinated people do not need to be tested before their trips unless it is required by the destination, the guidance says. For their return to the United States, fully vaccinated people should get tested and have a negative result before they board an international flight back to the United States.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/04/02/cdc-fully-vaccinated-may-travel/

[Raven123]

1. The reason we need vaccine passports

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

6. Exactly

[JohnSJ]

7. Doesn't the CDC card that is given when they vaccinate you serve as a vaccine passport?

[NurseJackie]

17. It's such a simple document... anyone with a decent printer can make their own.

I wish it had a unique identifier that was associated with each person's name... or a chip... or a hologram... something/anything that would make it more difficult for the anti-mask yahoos from trying to forge their own.

Remember the fake "Freedom to Breath" mask-exemption card that they were using last year?

[intrepidity]

2. Very thankful for this last part:

For their return to the United States, fully vaccinated people should get tested and have a negative result before they board an international flight back to the United States.

The last thing we need are those variants like P.1 and P.2 hitching their way here.

[jaxexpat]

12. Time out.....those horses have already left the barn.

As have all the preventions we cling to that have depended on some sort of border entry regulation. In this modern world, the fact is that if it exists in nature almost anywhere in the world, it's in the USA already.

[intrepidity]

16. True, but no need to unnecessarily add more

Especially vaccine-tolerant variants.

No harm in testing. Our failure to scale-up testing quickly and efficiently in the early days contributed substantially to our current predicament.

[RobinA]

3. How Is This Different?

I flew in domestically in mid-February, two flights out and two flights back. Nobody said boo about vaccination status.

[groundloop]

4. Because many don't give a shit what science says.... that's why infections are increasing AGAIN.

[Blasphemer]

21. Well... vaccinations were not as prevalent then

So all states and airlines could do is "require" (but not really enforce) testing and quarantining. Now they can require (but not enforce) a vaccination. I know those who aren't vaccinated yet or those who won't get vaccinated will still be able to fly but the airlines will be able confirm the vaccination status of many/most flyers so that's something at least.

[speak easy]

5. Not to New Zealand they can't,

unless they are James Cameron.

[hamsterjill]

8. So, vaccinated people obviously cannot spread the disease, right?

Is that what they are saying? Then, what about people who have had COVID and still have the antibodies?? Can they not spread it?

Some of this stuff needs to be buttoned up so that we all have a clear understanding.

[IronLionZion]

10. Here's CDC guidance on that

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/fully-vaccinated.html

Why it's not buttoned up is that some vaccinated people could still catch a variant and spread it, but they don't have enough data about that yet.

[hamsterjill]

11. Thank you for this.

I appreciate your help.

It doesn’t really give me much comfort though. If there is still doubt, I don’t think the CDC should recommend travel. Just my opinion.

I wonder if concern over the economic impact on the travel industry played in to this decision.


I’ll not be traveling myself yet.

[Dial H For Hero]

9. Sounds good to me! I'm headed to Thailand in July.

I'll have to restrict myself to the island of Phuket, but that's no problem!

[jaxexpat]

13. Oh, well then you should have no problem.....

you're likely to only run into a few thousand people there from East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Oceania, Europe, the Americas, the Middle East and Africa. Absolutely no Antarcticans and very few Martians ever go there.

[Dial H For Hero]

14. I'm running into tons of unvaccinated and infected people here in the USA.

The per capita rate of people who can pass on Covid-19 is far less in Thaland, even with an influx of tourists....and Thailand is requiring proof of vaccination to enter.

[AZLD4Candidate]

15. My second home. . .Love phuket.

Love the eat street on the South near the split, the one near Jungceylon, and the one north of Patong on Beach Road.

I normally stay at Club Bamboo in their penthouse suite. If you get it, you'll know why.

I have property in Krabi to build my retirement home with my wife.

Tell me in PM your experiences with COVID19 in Phuket Airport. Do you still need to quarantine there? When I am back with my wife, we are looking to spend a week there before we both come back here.

[DFW]

18. Oh, well. I guess the economy here could use it

But I was actually getting used to not having swarms of other Americans pushing and shoving their way around and speaking their own version of English to people in countries here without even asking if the locals understood it.

[RussBLib]

19. I ain't going to Florida!

... at least until they get some reasonable politicians in charge of that mess.

[jmowreader]

20. Hawaii is still not accepting vaccination in lieu of testing

They undoubtedly heard of Republicans falsifying vaccination cards.