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Last month, when the Biden administration announced plans to reopen the United States to fully immunized international travelers, the White House and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were surprisingly short of details on how the new would work. system.
Several weeks later and we still have few details on the new arrangements and even UK Transport Minister Grant Shapps had to embarrassingly admit that US officials had yet to tell him when the new rules would take effect.
The CDC continues to work on many details of President Biden’s hastily announced reopening plans, which has left many wondering if they could still be barred from entering the United States when the borders are closed. reopened.
The biggest unanswered question is which vaccines will the United States accept? If the CDC only recognized vaccines approved for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), that would limit the list to just three vaccines that aren’t even widely used in many countries.
Fortunately, we now have an answer to this question. On Friday evening, the CDC confirmed that it would recognize not only vaccines approved by the FDA, but also the World Health Organization (WHO).
The list of vaccines approved by the FDA includes:
- Pfizer / BioNTech (now marketed as Comirnaty)
- Moderna (sometimes known as Spikevax)
- J&J Janssen (officially called Ad26.COV2.S)
In addition, WHO has granted emergency use list status to the following four vaccines:
- AstraZeneca (marketed under the name Vaxzevria)
- Covishied (which is a recombinant of the ChAdOx1 vaccine)
- Sinopharm
- Sinovac
Airlines have already been made aware of the approved vaccine list to help them prepare before the new system rolls out next month, according to the CDC.
While the CDC is unwilling to release further details on Friday, it is believed that the United States will recognize a person as being fully vaccinated if they have completed their final dose of an approved vaccine at least 14 days before travel.
What we don’t know yet is whether the CDC will recognize as fully vaccinated travelers who have received mixed vaccine doses or travelers who have received doses administered in different countries.
A spokesperson said: “The CDC will release additional guidance and information as travel requirements are finalized.”
There are still a number of other questions to be clarified, for example whether there will be exemptions for children or people who cannot be vaccinated for medical or religious reasons.
Booster doses should not be a problem when the new rules are introduced.
The CDC is also working on a new contact tracing system that will likely take the form of an electronic passenger tracking form.
Restricting entry to only fully vaccinated visitors will allow the Biden administration to lift controversial travel bans in the European Schengen area and the UK, as well as many other countries including India, Africa from the South, Brazil and even China and Iran.
The change could, however, disadvantage travelers who live in countries where access to COVID-19 vaccines is still limited. Anyone vaccinated with the Russian Sputnik V vaccine will also be banned after the WHO delays approval of its emergency use list.
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