Would You Fly If Covid-19 Vaccination is a Requirement?
For people that love to travel, 2020 has been a challenging year. With COVID-19 around, travel bans and complicated entry requirements, it is difficult to plan any type of travel right now for most people. But what if you could only travel if you are vaccinated against COVID-19?
Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said the airline is planning just that. The Australian flag carrier’s boss said that passengers traveling internationally will be required to prove they have been vaccinated against COVID-19 after the vaccinations become available to the public. The news was revealed in an interview with Australian broadcaster 9 Network. Joyce said the company is looking to change its terms and conditions to ensure travelers get vaccinated before getting on the aircraft.
“I think that’s going to be a common thing talking to my colleagues in other airlines around the globe,” he said, as per BBC. “We will ask people to have a vaccination before they can get on the aircraft… for international visitors coming out and people leaving the country we think that’s a necessity,” he added.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA), the body representing airlines globally, also announced Monday that a digital health pass could be available in 2021. This pass could include passengers’ COVID-19 testing and vaccine information and it’s considered an important tool for the “safe reopening of borders.”
A spokesperson for Airlines for America, an industry trade group that represents major North American airlines, told CBS News in a statement that they’re “committed to restoring service in a manner that prioritizes safety and wellbeing of our passengers and employees.” They didn’t comment on the possibility of requiring proof of vaccination for passengers.
Requiring passengers to get vaccinated before they can fly will sure raise some problems. First, the the logistical issues and then the enforcement of the rules. We already saw multiple incidents in recent months when mask requirements were put in place.
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I am not sure what the purpose of requiring a vaccine to fly is? The people who already got the vaccine are pretty much immune to getting the virus, and the people who didn’t get the vaccine – well, then it is their own problem if they catch it?
Exactly!! Once the vaccine is out worry about yourself at that point you have an option to take it or not. If your crazy enough to inject an untested politically charged vaccine without worrying about the future side effects good on you the world need volunteer test dummies before the vaccine can truly be validated as safe for use. I highly doubt such an untested substance would become mandatory to travel. Just like Spanish flu it killed way more people and the world became natural immune without the need for a vaccine.
Excellent point. The availability of a vaccine should allow people the freedom of choice to make their own decisions and to accept responsibility for their own well-being . . . not lay it off on others.
No we will stop flying if that is a requirement anybody that wants to get a vaccine have added in fact get a double dose for me too while you’re at it
Yup, I’ve seen more death in the past 7 months than the past 7 years I’ve been in healthcare. Sign me up.
That puts it into perspective real quick.
Yeah I try not to comment on posts like these because the covid deniers and antivaxxers and other assorted weirdos come out of the woodwork. The slower the vaccines are disseminated the longer the pandemic & associated consequences continue. It’s really that simple.
I’m neither a covid denier nor an anti-vaxxer, and your ad hominem does nothing to rebut anything I’ve said . . . which should be easy if its so far wrong.
I left room for other assorted weirdos. I have zero interest in rebuttal or arguing with someone on a travel blog comments section. Stay safe.
The statistics suggest otherwise. It seems as if there has been “more death” because the deaths we experienced from Covid were highly compressed into a few weeks in a few locations. But if one looks at the statistics we can see that there was little excess mortality throughout the whole of 2020, as most of the people who died of Covid were vulnerable elderly and had co-morbidities such that they were likely to die later in 2020 with or without Covid. Excess mortality when properly viewed through cold numbers, rather than the chaos of April in places like New York City and New Jersey, we can see that while there was significant “excess deaths” during the height of the epidemic, that the death rate for the rest of the year in this age cohort was actually well below normal — deaths mostly shifted up in time.
Concerningly, most of the excess deaths during 2020 have nothing to do with Covid, at least not directly. There is one age cohort however which has seen massive excess mortality of nearly 100K people, and that is in people below 25-44, who committed suicide or overdosed during the lockdown in absolute record numbers (but who had a Covid mortality rate of only 0.0092%). These excess deaths have been essentially ignored by the media, but are no less tragic (arguably more tragic as these people might have had long lives ahead of them). So to the extent there has been excess deaths from “Covid” most of it has been due to the Covid lockdowns and resulting hopelessness and misery, rather than the disease itself.
Guess I’m wrong then, thanks.
Here’s a chart from CDC that shows excess deaths in 2020 for the whole country. You can also choose each state individually.
https://public.tableau.com/profile/dataviz8737#!/vizhome/COVID_excess_mort_withcauses_11252020/WeeklyExcessDeaths
From the “weirdos” “covid-deniers and anti-vaxxers” at Johns Hopkins, in easier to digest form. https://www.jhunewsletter.com/article/2020/11/a-closer-look-at-u-s-deaths-due-to-covid-19
Here is the Johns Hopkins article where it still resides:
https://web.archive.org/web/20201126223119/https://www.jhunewsletter.com/article/2020/11/a-closer-look-at-u-s-deaths-due-to-covid-19
I just linked the data straight from CDC without commentary. I’m sure you can find many ways of looking at it in various articles and research.
Also, I never said you or anyone else was a “weirdo”, “covid-denier” or anti-vaxxer”. But here’s a retraction from Johns Hopkins for that article.
https://www.jhunewsletter.com/article/2020/11/a-closer-look-at-u-s-deaths-due-to-covid-19
At least you appreciate that others have a different opinion and point of view other than that of your own.
A lot of the frustration surrounding this topic and others is that everyone these days has an unhealthy desire to be right. To that end they’ll attempt shove their view point down the throat of others and then get angry when the other person doesn’t see it their way.
Let’s face it, we’ve all made up our mind about COVID-19 months ago and nothing or no one (even science) is going to change ones opinion…even if it means that it will cause harm to others.
The whole “wear mask, it could save the life of others” is probably a good reason to wear one. The disconnect is we live in a world where lots of folks have decided (right or wrong) that the responsibility of another person’s health isn’t our problem or concern.
Live and let live (or die) is a horrible analogy but one that folks may as well come to accept because we are not going to sway the point of view of another person even with pinpoint logic or science anyway.
Carry on…
The title of the article should be Will You Fly When Covid-19 Vaccination is a Requirement? — that will certainly be the case for international travel.
I traveled to 72 different countries & counting but oddly I can not think of any country I visited that required me to show proof of my vaccines, nor have I ever traveled with a copy of my medical records for just in case they ask. Am I missing something has anyone been to any country that actually required proof of required vaccine before they let you enter, if so what countries asked?
I don’t believe medical records are tied to my passport in anyway are they? I have seen a list of recommend/required vaccines by country you my want to have before travel but never actually had to show a record of them upon entry.
I feel like some countries require it for yellow fever etc.
I’m old enough to remember when I travelled with my ragged little yellow vaccine book. There used to be a lot of countries that required all sorts of vaccines, especially for yellow fever and Cholera. But Cholera is now almost completely treatable and there is widespread herd immunity for Yellow Fever which has a death rate of almost 10% (and usually fatal in bad cases) while the case fatality rate for Covid is much, much smaller and dangerous to a much smaller group of people. For political reasons I can see many countries requiring Covid vaccine, but there is little scientific basis for it. Even more so because those infected with Covid are unlikely to even get sick, while that second dose of vaccine will probably make you feel miserable enough to have to plan to take a day off work.
I am not planing on getting the vaccine any time soon. I do follow science as I work in wellness. However, science takes time and I would like to wait to see some years of experience before getting injected. So if that means only domestic travel, then so be it. But in the US mandatory vaccines would be difficult to enforce on a good day! So good luck and I will be awaiting the science of results.
I’d rather not fly than to inject a vaccine into my body that has been whipped up in months rather than the normal 2-3 year process.
That’s not to say that I’m opposed to a vaccine but certainly want to wait and see how it affects others before even considering it for myself.
Such requirement in the U.S. is unlikely to happen and I’m okay with staying domestically until the effects of the vaccine is more widely known.
If it lets me travel again (to countries that require it on carriers that require it) then yes.
Been unable to see family abroad due to not being able to get in the country with a US passport and don’t feel like jumping through the legal hoops/gray area to use my status of a family member of a citizen or my dual citizenship.
The question is more if/when we can get it as opposed to yes/no..
Plenty of countries have a requirement of proof of yellow fever vaccination for entry for any number of airline passengers. I’ve been assuming that the ‘covid card’ will become a 20th century addition to a yellow fever card and just kept tucked inside a passport for a while.
Wouldn’t surprise me.
I’d actually prefer to fly an airline that had mandatory vaccination. I have no problem getting a vaccination so having everyone on the same page would be a welcome change. By the time it’s pushed out to public use, it’s vetted quite a bit and not just experimental. Science learns from their mistakes, remember thalidomide? It was actually the FDA that denied approval in the US that resulted in lower number of thalidomide related birth defects.
Long term side effects are not known at this time, but the vaccine generates an immune response that is similar to previous vaccinations, so I’m OK with the assumption it’s not my different.
The distrust of vaccines, non-belief of masks, and just denial of the science and severity of the coronavirus goes against the reality.
BTW, we get on planes and cars based on technology and science. We eat food that have been bred for higher production, or hormones, or are genetically modified. We don’t think about those risks or dangers because science and technology has proven its safety on a mass scale. Literally in the billions of people and trillions of activities tied directly to the same kind of rigor used to certify drugs, food, and technologies. Yes there are minute chances sometimes things can go wrong (food chain contamination, bad engineering/manufacturing of machines), but by and large, we have put our livelihood in the tech and process every day.
The same people that believe that the stacks of bodies piled high in the refrigerated trucks are a hoax will obtain fake vaccine documents, just like they did when some airlines offered “doctor notes” as an excuse to not wear a mask.
When you have no facts to argue, just throw insults. Nobody here is arguing that covid is a hoax and that it hasn’t caused horrible misery and suffering. The issue that you’re avoiding with your ad hominem is whether the responses to Covid fail to consider the level of threat posed, are counterproductive and worse than the disease itself. Feel free to engage with that question if you want to discuss, rather than through unsubstantiated insults.
Really funny to see all these folks saying they won’t get the vaccine. I guess you won’t be doing much international travel then because there’s no way most countries will allow you in without proof of having gotten the vaccine. And those countries that do allow you in will be a small list (similar to what’s in place now, like Mexico).
YES!
What would your answer be if you were told that the vaccine was likely to make you feel ill? What if I told you that the second dose (they are all two dose vaccines) would be likely to make you feel ill enough that you would need to plan to take a day off of work?
In fact, this is likely to be the situation. The side effects have gotten little publicity, but when people start getting the vaccine and tell about their experiences, I suspect that there will be far fewer people willing to take it. I hope that’s wrong. Of course this is separate and aside from any unknown long term effects, for which we can’t test against in this time frame.
I would prefer to travel to countries that require a vaccine (and on airlines that do the same).
No way. I’ll actively avoid any countries or airlines that require it.
I’ll take my tourist dollars to places that places that use actual science – not social media pandemic hysteria BS.
I’ve been flying without fear or problems since August, but I have no intention of taking the vaccine at this point. I don’t consider myself particularly vulnerable to Coronavirus considering my age and health status, and I don’t think it would be wise to accept either 1) the known likely side effects of the vaccine (feeling ill, body aches, chills, headache, and ill enough on the second dose to likely require at least a day off work (which hasn’t been much advertised or discussed)), or 2) the possibility of long term side effects which are still unknown and at this point incapable of long term randomized controlled studies. I will avoid any airline or country which requires me to take the vaccine, but there are some countries that I would likely get vaccinated if they require it for entry (but that’s a small list).
Negative. I’d rather get natural immunity. Would take 2-3 years of observation of mass vaccination before I’d even consider it.
No one has ever gotten natural immunity. In the US we enjoy immunity because of vaccinations.
Ha funny! That surely is not a far from the true statement. We become naturally immune to many viruses. A very common one is Chicken Pox most people in the USA have caught chicken Pox once became naturally immune and never needed a chicken pox vaccine.
(Mistyoe) I mean that is a far from the truth statement of course naturally immune is possible.
Yeah right just like your immune to the flu from getting a flu shot right? I mean seriously???
Im guessing that would be an individual carrier decision and not a requirement for all and travelers would have their choice of who to fly with. I dont plan to get the vaccine anytime soon at least until the side effects are studies more within the next 5 years. I traveled recently flying felt it was overall safe more so with the blocked seats which will soon go away. The worst and most vulnerable part of travel for me seams to be the security check point where they are touching your ID, boarding pass, everyone was bottled neck in close proximity, handling trays, and inspection agents touching and opening your bags. Once I was through high risk security and washed hands everything felt fairly safe.
Absolutely I’d fly if vaccination was required and fully expect airlines (and many countries) to require a vaccination certificate and/or negative test at least through 2021.
I plan to get a vaccination as soon as I possibly can!