Travel agency rejects mandatory COVID-19 injections, experts say herd immunity is distant

PARIS / SYDNEY (Reuters) – The head of a global travel organization on Monday opposed making the COVID-19 vaccination a requirement for travelers in the fight against the pandemic, despite skepticism about herd immunity this year.

Several health experts told the Reuters Next conference that the massive rollout of coronavirus vaccines would not result in enough people being immune to be able to effectively stop the spread of COVID-19.

Some policymakers have proposed that vaccination be mandatory for air travel as the world intensifies the battle to curb the spread of COVID-19, and Australia’s Qantas Airways has announced plans to introduce such a requirement.

But Gloria Guevara, chief executive of the World Travel and Tourism Council, said such measures would be like discrimination in the workplace.

“We should never require vaccination to find a job or to travel,” Guevara, whose organization represents an industry representing up to 10% of global employment, told a Reuters Next panel.

“If you need the vaccination before the trip, that leads us to discrimination.”

It was backed by Tony Fernandes, CEO of AirAsia Group, who said global testing protocols remain the key to unlocking travel.

Their comments contrasted with the majority of online panel viewers in an instant poll who supported a vaccination requirement.

Contrasting views have highlighted the difficulties in reaching agreement on ways to defeat COVID-19 as the death toll from the virus and its economic fallout increases.

More than 90 million people are believed to have been infected with the novel coronavirus worldwide and around 1.9 million have died from the disease since it emerged in China in December 2019, according to a Reuters tally.

MASS VACCINATION

Countries like the United States, Singapore and European states have started rolling out vaccines such as those developed by Pfizer and its partner BioNTech, Moderna and drug maker AstraZeneca alongside the University of Oxford.

Indonesia and India plan to start mass vaccinations later this week.

But Dale Fisher, president of the World Health Organization (WHO) Outbreak Alert and Response Network, said, “We won’t get back to normal quickly.”

He was cautious about the chances of countries quickly achieving collective immunity.

“We know we have to achieve collective immunity and we need it in the majority of countries, so we are not going to see it in 2021,” Fisher told Reuters Next. “Some countries could achieve this, but even then it will not create ‘normalcy’, especially in terms of border controls.”

It was the best of times, based on current knowledge about the vaccines being deployed, Fisher said.

Pandu Riono, an epidemiologist at the University of Indonesia, told the conference that some governments are too dependent on upcoming vaccines and that means herd immunity cannot be achieved in the short term.

Irma Hidayana, Indonesia-based co-founder of LaporCOVID-19, an independent coronavirus data initiative, said public confidence in vaccines could have an impact on deployment.

Another issue, Fisher said, was uncertainty over the ability of the virus to mutate further.

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