Would you get one of the first vaccines if it meant you could travel internationally?

[Pauline]

I got a text from the NHS this morning and get my vaccine tomorrow. I am in the 5th group in the UK, 65 and older. I think our county (Dorset) is doing well with the program. They have 2 days a week where they do vaccinations all day at the Bridport NHS centre.

 

[milgreen2]

I received my second Modena shot yesterday, my husband received his second Pfizer shot last week. Sore arms in the injection areas were our only reactions. We will not travel until it is safe, but hope that won't be too long as we are in our late seventies now. I don't know how much longer we will be comfortable with our independent travel style, unfortunately we are not a fan of tours of any kind.
Mary-Pace

I received my 2nd Moderna vaccine at the end of last week and was down for the count through most of the next few days. But it's all worth it! I also had a reaction to both doses of the shingles vaccine last year.
My husband will be able to schedule his vaccines by the end of the week -- we anticipate having to wait a couple of weeks for the first available appointment -- and we feel the same way about future travel. Two bucket list destinations for me are South Africa/Botswana and Vietnam/Cambodia but given all of the covid variants out there, we may decide to put exotic travel on hold for a while and hope we are still fit and able when worry-free travel resumes.

 

[wco81]

I think Vietnam is doing well for covid in general but they shut down travel early and may not be in a hurry to restart it.

 

[wco81]

Not official by any means but this site tracks what some EU nations have said about vaccine certificates.

List of EU Countries Issuing/Asking for Vaccination Certificates

With more COVID-19 vaccines getting approved, and more people being vaccinated throughout the EU Member States and the Schengen Area Associate countries, the urge to restore travel for those vaccinated has also increased. The so-called ‘vaccination passports’ or ‘vaccination certificates’ have...

www.schengenvisainfo.com

Way too early to confidently book anything.

 

[Pauline]

On today’s news they were talking about no summer travel for us in the UK! Some are recommending we keep our borders closed and then open up within the country, like they’ve done in Australia and New Zealand. At this point in the lockdown here, I would be happy to just do a day trip.

 

[wco81]

On today’s news they were talking about no summer travel for us in the UK! Some are recommending we keep our borders closed and then open up within the country, like they’ve done in Australia and New Zealand. At this point in the lockdown here, I would be happy to just do a day trip.

Yeah it sounds like they want to set up a hotel quarantine like Australia and NZ did. But those countries didn't allow any tourists in, just their own returning citizens who were subject to hotel quarantines that the govt. actually covered.

I can understand the rationale, considering how bad December and January were for new cases and deaths. But turns out that these mutations which reinfect people may be developing on different continents, without travel causing too much spread of these specific variants.

UK allowed a huge volume of travel to UAE over the winter months before they shut that down recently. People were flocking there because they imposed few restrictions for people wanting a holiday there. So that may have caused variants from different continents to mingle and then be taken back to different countries.

So while they may want to restrict foreign travel, at the same time, they're loosening things like restaurants and bars being allowed to reopen and maybe schools as well.

Just not too rational, seems like they bend to pressure from some industries and not to others.

 

[joe]

More interesting data coming out of Israel with regards the dynamics of immunity and the effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine. Encouraging stuff, even if only preliminary findings.
The main points are that people who have recovered from Covid get a significant boost to their immune system after receiving a first dose of the vaccine, that is at least as high as what is seen with people who receive the full two doses; and that immunity after being infected with Covid lasts at least ten months, even if low amounts of, or no antibodies, are detected.

Israeli study boosts belief post-COVID immunity stays when antibodies fade

Massive immune response witnessed when small cohort of previously infected people get 1st COVID-19 vaccine dose, indicating they are well ahead of the game, Bar-Ilan team says

www.timesofisrael.com

 

[phirhon]

Australia is working very hard to keep the virus and the new variants out. At the start, hotel quarantine was covered by the government, but for a long time now, returned travellers have to pay for it themselves. Hotel quarantine has worked well for us, but these more infectious strains are causing problems. Our authorities are finally coming to accept that air borne transmission is a big factor.

At the moment there is a cluster in Victoria which began in hotel quarantine. Apparently a returned traveller with the virus used a nebuliser in their room ( nebulisers were not supposed to be used ) and this has allowed increased droplets to escape into the corridors. There are about 13 cases and some are workers and close family members, and some are returned travellers already in quarantine. Today the state government has placed the state in total lockdown for 5 days to allow contact tracing and to restrict movement.

This probably seems absurd and overkill to everyone who lives in countries with thousands of cases, but it has worked a few weeks ago in my state of Queensland where we had a hotel cleaner and her partner contracting the UK variant, and more recently in Western Australia. Australians have proved very compliant and done what is asked of them. All our cases now begin from hotel quarantine and restrictions in quarantine continue to get tighter as they try to plug the gaps and keep it confined.

Australia has not yet begun vaccinating. That begins in a couple of weeks. It will be a while before we get ours. Australia also has vast areas where the towns and rural properties are isolated, often with no medical facilities for hundreds of kilometres. People depend on visits from the flying doctor. So the roll out will be interesting.

 

[wco81]

Wow talk about irresponsible, using a nebulizer. There’s an infamous spreader event in CA where it was a Christmas party at a hospital and someone had an inflatable costume with some motor pushing air all the time and that infected 100 people and at least one died.

Not only that but this event is suspected of spreading some variant.

These were health care workers.

 

[Alpinista]

My second (Pfizer) shot is scheduled in another week. My wife (per county notification) will be on track for her first shot within the next few weeks. Our Alaska cruise was canceled (early May), but we are now planning a trip to Belize. Our late May trip to Italy looks very shaky at this point, but we are looking at a trip to Iceland, dependent upon a relaxation of entry requirements (not quite the same, but somewhere is better than nowhere and we loved Iceland when we were there once before). There are a lot of countries who are beginning to open travel and hopefully the US will get its act together for those of us living stateside and that the EU will start their own recovery.

 

[aap519]

I saw a news clip about the nebulizer:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...aporized-virus-started-new-australia-outbreak

 

[wco81]

TSA is looking to hire 6000 more screeners by summer, in anticipation of greater number of travelers.

They cite vaccination progress as one reason for this reasoning.

https://www.tsa.gov/news/press/rele...over-6000-airport-security-screening-officers
https://www.tsa.gov/news/press/rele...over-6000-airport-security-screening-officers

 

[Cameron]

I've had my 1st Pfizer; and will get my 2nd on March 1st. It seems so many countries are excluding Americans, and I continue to watch Europe, both the vaccine and covid counts, as well as the policies.

 

[wco81]

There are some hopeful early reports that the vaccines cut down transmission a lot. One out of Israel which monitored asymptomatic infections as well as symptomatic ones.

Same for a Mayo Clinic study as well.

If these preliminary findings hold up, that may encourage the policy makers to open up travel.

 

[wco81]

A couple of dozen Americans have had problems related to low-platelet count after getting vaccinated. One person died of a blood hemorrhage as the condition apparently prevents blood from clotting.

By the end of January, 32 cases of a decreased platelet count, 14 cases of thrombocytopenia, and 11 cases of immune thrombocytopenia were recorded in people who had received either Pfizer or Moderna COVID vaccines in the U.S.

Rare Blood Disorder Thrombocytopenia Reported After COVID Vaccines

Thrombocytopenia can be triggered as an immune response to medication or infection, but a link between the condition and COVID-19 has not been proven.

www.newsweek.com

No causal relationship has been established. But the vaccine companies and presumably the FDA are monitoring it.

 

[aap519]

Global airline body IATA plans COVID travel pass for end of March​

LONDON (Reuters) - Global airline industry body IATA said it would launch a COVID-19 travel pass at the end of March, bringing into use a digital system for test results and vaccine certificates which will help facilitiate international travel....

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...avel-pass-for-end-of-march-idUSKBN2AO1PJ?il=0

 

[wco81]

Global airline body IATA plans COVID travel pass for end of March​

LONDON (Reuters) - Global airline industry body IATA said it would launch a COVID-19 travel pass at the end of March, bringing into use a digital system for test results and vaccine certificates which will help facilitiate international travel....

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...avel-pass-for-end-of-march-idUSKBN2AO1PJ?il=0

I saw that.

Seems they're hoping if they build it they will come.

That is countries have to send vaccine and test certificates to the travel pass and they have to accept it as valid documentation and allow people to enter for tourism if they have the valid certificates.

 

[joe]

they have to accept it as valid documentation and allow people to enter for tourism if they have the valid certificates.

That indeed will be the crux of the matter : how to recognize and certify the different vaccination documents issued in all countries, and how to deal with the many countries that are still debating the ethical and practical implications of issuing such certifications.
Some countries have already signed mutual agreements, but I am hoping that the answer might be in rapid and non-invasive testing, as opposed to being dependent solely on proof of vaccination. With the technological advances happening, this might be just around the corner.

 

[wco81]

The EU is working on vaccine passports, though no final decision on whether tourists, especially those from outside the EU, will be allowed to visit this summer.


EU leaders noted that they're working on vaccine certification.

Faced with a pandemic that has killed more than 900,000 people in Europe and thrust the continent into its deepest recession, EU leaders agreed to work on vaccine certificates, which southern countries hope will unlock tourism this summer.

Merkel said technical work on so-called vaccine ‘passports’ should be completed by the summer but some countries - including France and Belgium - are concerned that easing travel for people who have been inoculated would discriminate against others.

https://www.reuters.com/article/eu-summit-idUSL1N2KV1R5

Macron also talked about vaccine certificates or passports.

French President Emmanuel Macron said he is confident European Union leaders will agree on common standards to allow international travels during the summer, including through introducing vaccine certificates amid other measures.

Macron spoke in a news conference following EU talks about whether and when to introduce vaccine certificates, which could help smooth a return to air travel and possibly avoid another disastrous summer holiday season.

"None of us will accept that to attract tourists, one country would have looser rules than others and would be taking risks by making people come from the other side of the world to fill up its hotels," he said.

Southern European countries dependent on tourism, like Greece and Spain, support such a system, but their northern EU partners, like Germany, doubt whether the certificates would work.

Macron said vaccine certificates cannot be a condition for travelling in Europe this summer since a large part of the population won't have access to vaccination yet. He said tests may be required for non-vaccinated people.

https://www.startribune.com/the-latest-brazils-signs-vaccine-deal-with-indian-company/600027238/

 

[CaWino]

I got my first vaccine today - Pfizer. 2nd shot is already scheduled for three weeks. No side effects & and my arm is no more sore than an annual flu shot. Travel is still highly uncertain, both home and abroad. I'm hoping the covid situation will diminish and stabilize by September 2021, to consider scheduling a trip. Even this may be too optimistic. One can only hope.