The United States will only allow entry to tourists who have received one of 6 WHO-approved vaccines and omit Sputnik V

Beginning in November, the United States will only allow entry to tourists who have received one of six vaccines approved by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The measure was confirmed by a spokeswoman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, for its acronym in English) to Reuters, and covers the vaccines of Pfizer, Moderna, Oxford / Astrazeneca, Sinopharm, Sinovac and Janssen.

“Six vaccines authorized / approved by the FDA or listed for emergency use by the WHO will meet the criteria for travel to the United States,” detailed the spokesperson for Reuters.

He added: “Earlier this week, to help them get their systems ready, we briefed airlines. CDC will release additional guidance and information as travel requirements are finalized.”

As expected, the layout excludes anyone who has been immunized with the Sputnik V vaccine, the first applied in Argentina. According to official statistics, 23% of Argentines have received Russian doses.

It was a decision to be expected. The White House announced weeks ago that it had decided to ease travel restrictions for all fully vaccinated foreigners.

He had thus yielded to pressure from the European Union and the United Kingdom They wanted Joe Biden’s government to overturn a decision by former President Donald Trump, which closed the border to Europeans.

In the United States, only those from Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson. The question was what vaccines the United States would consider a passenger to be “fully vaccinated” with. Only those authorized by the WHO?

The EU had already opened its borders to Americans fully immunized with vaccines approved by the WHO. This is why the Biden government had to make the same gesture because a large part of Europeans are vaccinated with AstraZeneca. To have allowed only those from the United States would have been a political problem.

However, with the decision, the CDC leaves out Sputnik, which has yet to be approved by the WHO. Given that the United States’ relationship with Russia is strained, this is not something that comes at a political cost to Biden.

The decision of the White House is not only health but also very important in the business world. There has been strong pressure from the authorities in the tourism sector, strongly impacted by the ban on passengers, especially from Europe, to expand the list of authorized vaccines as much as possible.

For now, until the WHO approves Sputnik, Argentines immunized with doses of this vaccine will have to wait to travel to the United States.

LM