US to drop Covid testing requirements for international air travel

[reader]

From CNBC

The Biden administration is dropping Covid-19 testing requirements for inbound air travelers from abroad, the White House said Friday.

 

Airlines and other travel industry members had repeatedly pushed the administration for months to drop the requirement, arguing it was hurting international travel demand.

The rule, established by the Trump administration and later tightened by the Biden administration, required inbound travelers, including U.S. citizens, to show proof of a negative Covid test before boarding U.S.-bound flights.

[floridarob]

Immediately or when, none of the articles are very clear 🤔

[reader]

Just reported that The change is effective 12:01 a.m. Sunday.

[PeterRS]

12 hours ago, reader said:

Airlines and other travel industry members had repeatedly pushed the administration for months to drop the requirement, arguing it was hurting international travel demand.

So the Biden administration bows to the demand of the airline industry! With 33% of the US population still not fully vaccinated, this seems nuts! If someone wants to go to the USA, in most countries getting vaccinated is not that difficult.

[Sherlocked]

Has there been any talk on dropping the Covid vaccination requirements for international travellers into the US? From what I understand, only the PCR test requirement is being dropped right, travellers still need to be vaccinated to enter the US?

[reader]

The requirement was an antigen test one day before departure. But if you’re going to acquire the virus you’re much more likely to do so in crowded airports on the return flight and those results would not register on the pre-departure test. 
 

The madness of endless testing has to stop at some point. And fortunately it’s stopping in time to save me a trip to the clinic and the 1500 bht test fee.

China claims it has vaccinated about 80% of population but did so with a near useless vaccine. The comparisons soon become meaningless. 
 

The only rational solution is to allow people who want to wear masks and get tested regularly to do so. At this point, those who want to be vaccinated in the countries most of us are visiting already have done so. You can’t force others to get it and I’m not inclined to spend any more time fretting over it.

 

[vinapu]

7 hours ago, reader said:

The only rational solution is to allow people who want to wear masks and get tested regularly to do so. At this point, those who want to be vaccinated in the countries most of us are visiting already have done so. You can’t force others to get it and I’m not inclined to spend any more time fretting over it.

 

yes, broadly peaking governments should start treating their populaces as adults making their own decisions and taking responsibilities for it. 

[PeterRS]

1 hour ago, vinapu said:

yes, broadly peaking governments should start treating their populaces as adults making their own decisions and taking responsibilities for it. 

I totally disagree. When it comes to medical issues and an infection can be spread to others as easily as covid, individual rights do not take precedence over the right of a community to protection from those who might be infected. I am all for freedoms, but freedoms with responsibility. Too often the second part is totally forgotten!

Earlier @reader wrote -

"China claims it has vaccinated about 80% of population but did so with a near useless vaccine. The comparisons soon become meaningless."

Am I missing something? Chinese are not permitted to travel outside the country as far as I understand it.

 

[reader]

Don’t fool yourself. China has its elite same as Thailand does, perhaps more so. If they’re connected, they travel, some to Thailand.

11 hours ago, PeterRS said:

So the Biden administration bows to the demand of the airline industry! With 33% of the US population still not fully vaccinated, this seems nuts! If someone wants to go to the USA, in most countries getting vaccinated is not that difficult.

But the 67% who are were treated with some of the most effective vaccines available. 
 

Forever testing is the route China is taking. Please feel free to join at your pleasure.

[Guest]

23 minutes ago, PeterRS said:

I am all for freedoms, but freedoms with responsibility. Too often the second part is totally forgotten!

Agree - freedom balanced with responsibility. It can’t be left to individuals because Covid taught us some people don’t care about themselves & how that affect others.

My bigger concern is that we allow almost unrestricted access for foreign nationals entering US with no health screening whatsoever.  Foreign nationals have no “freedom” to enter the US at all.  Chinese nationals for example, should have health certifications because of the unique transmissible diseases that originate there.  Covid19 is just the latest.  
This isn’t about any sort of racism - it should apply to any country where conditions permit these diseases to originate & flourish, along with consistent patterns.  The Chinese “wet-markets”  are prime breeding grounds & of course that’s going to spread as those exposed  travel outside China.  Tourists to wet-markets might also be exposed, so maybe there are restrictions on access to those places to foreigners.

Way too much risk for global pandemics given modern jet travel & airborne transmissible diseases.  Look to the places where most of the problems originate and stop them before they travel.  it’s too late once the disease has crossed borders.  

I’d have no problem obtaining & showing a health certificate required by any country for entry, if the US was shown as an incubator for airborne diseases and that I may put others at risk.  That’s just being responsible.

[vinapu]

46 minutes ago, PeterRS said:

I totally disagree. When it comes to medical issues and an infection can be spread to others as easily as covid, individual rights do not take precedence over the right of a community to protection from those who might be infected. I am all for freedoms, but freedoms with responsibility. Too often the second part is totally forgotten!

 

 

15 minutes ago, Slvkguy said:

Way too much risk for global pandemics given modern jet travel & airborne transmissible diseases.  Look to the places where most of the problems originate and stop them before they travel.  it’s too late once the disease has crossed borders.  

’

so where we stop, are we supposed to live with restrictions , certificates and masks until last case of covid will be eliminated on Feb 23, 2037 ?

I understand need for restrictions but it must be transparent and well known formula when we stop, no case at all, 1 case per million , or 3 per 10 millions, whatever.

Yes they are people who don't care  whether they make other sick or not  but there's other end , people so scared they become paranoid. We can't be taken ransom by those

either. 

Modern life has it's conveniences and with them risks mentioned above mulitiply  but do we rally need to make every country North Korea or Pol Pot's Kampchea and isolate all from everybody ? is that even doable? 

What about achieving herd immunity? By vaccinations only if 1/3 of populace refuses even one dose like in USA ?

 

[vinapu]

30 minutes ago, reader said:

Don’t fool yourself. China has its elite same as Thailand does, perhaps more so. If they’re connected, they travel, some to Thailand.

 

they do, 

guy I offed from Dreamboys  in beginning of Jun when I asked him how many offs  he has ( we know each other for years so I give myself right to be somewhat nosy) he told me and added "all Chinese"

[Guest]

33 minutes ago, vinapu said:

Modern life has it's conveniences and with them risks mentioned above mulitiply  but do we rally need to make every country North Korea or Pol Pot's Kampchea and isolate all from everybody

travel is a privilege to all - not a right 

I don’t have any right to board an airplane if I don’t comply with their rules, nor do I have a right to enter any country if I don’t meet their requirements.  
Like most things - this is about seeking balance & not making sweeping decisions that restrict people without cause.  
My imperfect suggestion is to take a hard look at places where new airborne diseases tend to originate and have stricter requirements for people coming from those areas.  
Covid19 is old news - we need to be thinking about the next pandemic and a better way to prevent, predict & respond. There will be another one & it will be worse.

[vinapu]

17 minutes ago, Slvkguy said:

Covid19 is old news - we need to be thinking about the next pandemic and a better way to prevent, predict & respond. There will be another one & it will be worse.

hopefully not during our tenure in this world

[vinapu]

18 minutes ago, Slvkguy said:

travel is a privilege to all - not a right 

 

motto of all autocrats , sounds like taken straight from pages of Stalin's " Short history of All Russia Bolshevik Party ".

Slaves couldn't travel but their masters could. 

is one thing to comply with the rules but another to multiply them in order to restrict free movement.

 

[Guest]

Just use passports as an example.

for Americans - passports are a privilege extended to citizens who are not incarcerated, do not have a warrant out for their arrest, and do not owe child support in excess of $2500. There are several other reasons a passport can  be denied. And, a US passport is considered government property and does not belong to the individual.  Passports are issued at the discretion of the US State Dept and can technically be confiscated at any time, for cause. 

I travelled extensively in Eastern Europe as a college student (for political studies) before the fall of communism and saw real Stalin-type authoritarian regimes in action.  East Germany was about as authoritarian & invasive as you can imagine outside of Stalin’s Russia.  What we’re discussing here isn’t even remotely comparable. 

[alvnv]

This is a slippery slope: If you put restrictions for entry from a country that has a history of diseases (all of Africa, most of Asia, Central and South America), it would include all of your own citizens returning from their trips to the said regions, as well as travelers from all other countries that do not impose such draconian rules. That’s why the travel restrictions are in place during active pandemic, but not when diseases become endemic for these regions.

We all need to practice precautions but, unfortunately, some of us are selfish, careless, or not smart enough to know the difference. Look at the World we are living in.

And freedom does not mean that if you are dumb enough you could contract a highly contagious disease and then freely spread among those for whom it could be deadly.

[PeterRS]

15 hours ago, vinapu said:

guy I offed from Dreamboys  in beginning of Jun when I asked him how many offs  he has ( we know each other for years so I give myself right to be somewhat nosy) he told me and added "all Chinese"

With all respect to @vinapu I somehow doubt how accurate your off was, unless he already studied or worked here. Chinese is a term that covers those who live in China and the vast majority that make up the huge Chinese diaspora. Did he ask if they were Chinese from China? Did he ask if perhaps they were Chinese living in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, The Philippines, Hong Kong, Sydney, Melbourne, Vancouver, Toronto, San Francisco . . . Was his English good enough to know if they did not tell him? 

China has been very strict re outbound travel since a directive issued on 27 January 2020. That directive was reiterated on 30 March 2022. Further, since 6 August 2021, China has ceased issuing and renewing passports other than for those studying or working overseas. Essential outbound travel  is permitted provided the authorities are satisfied on the "essential" elements. All other outbound travel is banned.

One of my good friends and his partner live in Shanghai. One is American who has lived in the city with his Chinese partner for almost 30 years. The Chinese is a successful businessman running several companies. Yet even he has been unable to satisfy the authorities that the business trips overseas he used to make fall into the "essential" category. So he cannot travel outside the country.

[reader]

With all due respect, I’ll take the word of a Bangkok off any day before that of China boilerplate claims or third-hand accounts of your hi-so acquaintances. 

There are also Chinese students currently studying here in Bangkok and Thai students, it was announced today, will soon be returning to study in China.

 

 

[PeterRS]

34 minutes ago, reader said:

With all due respect, I’ll take the word of a Bangkok off any day before that of China boilerplate claims or third-hand accounts of your hi-so acquaintances. 

You obviously may do as you wish - as do I. My information is not third hand. It was information directly over the phone from a man I have known and trusted for almost 30 years. I know who I believe. You have also merely repeated what i stated - that there are Chinese students in Bangkok, as indeed there are some Chinese workers.

[reader]

2 hours ago, PeterRS said:

Essential outbound travel  is permitted provided the authorities are satisfied on the "essential" elements. 

“Essential” permits a helluva lot of discretion on the part of bureaucrat who makes the decision. Gee, I wonder what might possibly influence such a bureaucrat to look favorably on an applicant?

[vinapu]

20 hours ago, vinapu said:

guy I offed from Dreamboys  in beginning of Jun when I asked him how many offs  he has ( we know each other for years so I give myself right to be somewhat nosy) he told me and added "all Chinese"

 

5 hours ago, PeterRS said:

With all respect to @vinapu I somehow doubt how accurate your off was, unless he already studied or worked here.

I only repeat what he told me, I did not dwell on the issue who his clients are , what counted for me was that he was happy enough to continue working

[Guest]

On 6/11/2022 at 10:54 AM, vinapu said:

hopefully not during our tenure in this world

depends on your age - but I fully expect I will see more pandemics in my lifetime….and I’m not young.  diseases we thought were gone may very well come roaring back to life in new ways.
that’s why the casual discussions around bareback sex are so frightening. As an example - In the last 2 years, the US CDC guidance in treating gonorhrea & chlamydia have radically changed because the new strains are much more difficult to treat.  These once easily treatable infections are mutating and building resistance to antibiotics.  There will come a point where they may no longer be treatable.  
So many gay men now think PREP is an open door to do whatever they want with no consequences.  Meanwhile, traditional STIs are on the rise.  Nobody should be surprised when this becomes another public health crisis.  I can largely avoid exposure based on my personal choices, but not 100%. There’s always some risk, however slight.

of course,  airborne diseases are very different from disease spread through sex/intimate contact.  But, the point about the threat of yet unknown pandemics coming our way is very real.  It’s way more likely to happen than not.

[reader]

Other than that, hope you had a good weekend. 🙂

[PeterRS]

20 hours ago, reader said:

“Essential” permits a helluva lot of discretion on the part of bureaucrat who makes the decision. Gee, I wonder what might possibly influence such a bureaucrat to look favorably on an applicant?

Agreed. But you clearly know precious little about the Chinese authorities when its President has decreed a zero covid policy. Anyone who breaks the rules re covid stands to lose more than his/her job!