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Coronavirus

Vaccine for international travel?

(83 Posts)
GagaJo Thu 14-Jan-21 18:42:27

Exactly Esspee. I probably won't get my vaccine until May / June and have been stuck overseas. But it would make total sense to do both.

One of my students went home to Ecuador over Christmas and had a covid test each time.

Esspee Thu 14-Jan-21 17:55:00

Nobody was suggesting anyone skips the queue.

Personally I don’t think it unreasonable for an airline to insist on a vaccine certificate and a COVID test. It would allow people to feel confident enough to travel.

Maggiemaybe Thu 14-Jan-21 17:04:52

So book a holiday and get access to a free vaccine? That would be even worse!

GagaJo Thu 14-Jan-21 16:24:15

No. Vaccines given by whichever authority provides them. I didn't think anywhere was charging for them.

Maggiemaybe Thu 14-Jan-21 16:15:33

So anyone who booked a holiday could jump the queue and buy a vaccine? hmm Would that be fair?

growstuff Thu 14-Jan-21 16:13:57

Any country which relies on vaccines and negative tests alone is asking for trouble, considering that vaccines don't have 100% efficacy and haven't been proved to stop transmission and lateral flow tests have also been shown to be inaccurate, in some cases with 50% false negatives.

Fennel Thu 14-Jan-21 16:08:32

It sounds good in theory, but in practice would add extra expense to the journey. Especially when you probably need 14 days in a quarantine 'hotel' at the other end.
Our Romanian cleaning lady had booked flights back 'home' for her and her 2 young children. The children are thoroughly miserable here and she was going to take them back to live with her parents. But was refused at the airport - no prior tests. I had warned her they would have to go into quarantine in Romania but she either didn't understand or didn't want to believe.
She had borrowed £300 to pay for those flights.
If vaccine was necessary too, I can't imagine it would be free.

GagaJo Thu 14-Jan-21 07:32:27

I think it is a great idea. Maybe a vaccine AND a covid test (covid test required now where I am AND for the UK I think). It would require everyone to have access to the vaccine of course.

Requiring everyone who wishes to go overseas to have been vaccinated against Covid-19 is a path towards discrimination, according to the head of the World Travel and Tourism Council.

Gloria Guevara, chief executive of the industry body, criticised the approach by Australian airline Qantas, whose boss, Alan Joyce, suggested passengers would need a jab before they can board one of its international services.

“We should never require the vaccination to get a job or to travel,” she said. “I totally disagree with the approach from Qantas. If you require the vaccination before travel, that takes us to discrimination.”

The chief executive of AirAsia, Tony Fernandes, supported Guevara, and added that global testing measures are the way to unlock travel.

However, according to a survey conducted by Qantas, 87 per cent of respondents said they would be happy to take the coronavirus vaccine if it was demanded for international travel, while 85 per cent thought it should be required for travel to “at least some countries”.

A 2020 report by the Ada Lovelace Institute, an independent research body, stated that the introduction of ‘vaccine passports’ could “pose extremely high risks in terms of social cohesion, discrimination, exclusion and vulnerability.”

uk.news.yahoo.com/travel-latest-news-mandatory-vaccine-081612096.html