International travel and Covid 19

[Quagmire1974]

The New York Post recently published a story about something mongers here on ISG have been discussing for many weeks: faking COVID tests in order to travel.

https://nypost.com/2021/01/22/these-...-away-with-it/

[TomJackin]

People may find this humorous, in South Africa they ever concerned about a new Covid strain from the UK.

Nothing about the virus is humorous.

[Kafka]

People may find this humorous, in South Africa they ever concerned about a new Covid strain from the UK.

[Elvis 2008]

The hindrances to travel seem to be increasing worldwide. Canada basically is shutting down non-essential travel by grounding all flights to "sun" destinations, and requiring a lot of tests to get back into the country. In total you need 3 tests, you need a few days in a quarantine facility at your own expense, and a 14 day policed quarantine at the end.

That is the reality, but cases in Canada and the USA are down 50% off their peak so I do not get this new aversion.

Anyway, such is the reaction to the new strains of Covid, plus a general idea that people coming in are bringing Covid.

As I have documented before, there were always new strains of Covid. The reason countries like Colombia and Peru got hit so hard even though they locked down hard was they had the more contagious strains.

And other countries are doing similar things. Except the US, which is talking about a quarantine, and has a test requirement but is not creating these impossible barriers.

The quarantines in the USA even after a positive test are a joke. Shutting down the Mexican border, something Trump would have loved to do come election time, is just not possible with the amount of people crossing every day. Mexico is not cooperating with doing any Covid testing, and the idea that you test air travelers and not travelers by land or sea to me is a sick joke.

I have talked to other mongers and the cost of the Covid test is more than a bus ticket across the border so I expect guys to be flying into Monterrey or Tijuana and going by bus across the border into the USA. Again, it kills me that temperatures are taken when you go to Mexico but not into the USA.

The mRNA vaccines, Pfizer and Moderna, cause the body to form antibodies against the spike proteins that give the Corona virus (king as in crown) its name. If the virus mutates and loses its spikes, it becomes far less contagious but then the vaccines would not work, and it would no longer really be a Corona virus. On the other hand as long as the spikes are there, the vaccines will work.

That the Pfizer vaccine lost a little bit of its effectiveness against the newer, more contagious South African variant made little sense to me. How is that known? The clinical trials took months and now you are doing something in the lab to show whether it works? Like what?

I do not know about the non mRNA vaccines. I have not studied how they work. All I know is the data on them has not shown them to be as effective.

You get the vaccine and have a positive antibody test and a negative Covid test, and that should be good enough for any country. There is a lot of jockeying over what to accept with the vaccines and what not to. The Moderna booster really only helps at most one in 10 people and has a lot more side effects than the first shot so is one shot good enough?

Then just the other day, I read someone saying that antibody testing is no good, and I wondered why. The money involved in this is unreal.

Maybe it is not advantageous to a Canadian with the way that country is shutting down but a monger who does get a vaccine and waits 2 weeks and can travel is going to strike gold. I am in Monterrey now and the response from the women here has been out of control.

[Zeos1]

The hindrances to travel seem to be increasing worldwide. Canada basically is shutting down non-essential travel by grounding all flights to "sun" destinations, and requiring a lot of tests to get back into the country. In total you need 3 tests, you need a few days in a quarantine facility at your own expense, and a 14 day policed quarantine at the end.

Anyway, such is the reaction to the new strains of Covid, plus a general idea that people coming in are bringing Covid.

And other countries are doing similar things. Except the US, which is talking about a quarantine, and has a test requirement but is not creating these impossible barriers.

[Quagmire1974]

The new CDC Covid testing requirement is a bummer, but there is a way to make things easier. Delta Vacations just announced that it will only sell hotels that offer on-site testing.

https://www.delta.com/us/en/delta-va...s/vacation-now

No, you do NOT have to buy a Delta vacation, LOL. Just use their site to find a hotel with in-house testing.

Excellent reference, Xpartan. Another source is the forums on TripAdvisor. Travelers are rapidly and frequently posting locations (hotels, clinics, etc) and costs for COVID testing overseas.

[Golfinho]

The new CDC Covid testing requirement is a bummer, but there is a way to make things easier. Delta Vacations just announced that it will only sell hotels that offer on-site testing.

https://www.delta.com/us/en/delta-va...s/vacation-now
No, you do NOT have to buy a Delta vacation, LOL. Just use their site to find a hotel with in-house testing.

Hotels (resorts) in Cancun provide free testing. For guests with 4-night stay minimum. There will certainly be conditions for 'free testing' wherever it is being advertised.

Meanwhile for exiting Brazil at GRU, there is testing available right there at departures: 4-hour turnaround time. Get there early.

[Xpartan]

The new CDC Covid testing requirement is a bummer, but there is a way to make things easier. Delta Vacations just announced that it will only sell hotels that offer on-site testing.

https://www.delta.com/us/en/delta-va...s/vacation-now

As of January 26,2021, the USA Requires all air travelers, 2 years old and older, entering the USA To present a negative COVID-19 test result 3 days prior to departure. Your safety and convenience is our top priority, so through March 31, Delta Vacations will only sell international hotels that offer in-hotel COVID-19 testing because vacation should feel like vacation.

No, you do NOT have to buy a Delta vacation, LOL. Just use their site to find a hotel with in-house testing.

[Artisttyp]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/covid-19-...135608632.html

[Surfer500]

So, it is decided! Brazil it is! No testing requirements is a definite plus. Happy Thanksgiving TC.

FiddyCent.

You might want to consider Colombia, it's wide open right now. I was there last month, and no complaints, and it will cost you about a quarter of what you've been spending in Prague, albeit I had some great experiences there, even getting to bang a "Gypsy".

[The Cane]

This is the video I had intended to post:

https://www.today.com/health/covid-v...status-t203011.

[The Cane]

Are vaccine passport apps the next thing?

https://abc7.com/covid-19-vaccine-co...virus/8616764/

[SoberHans69]

I found this:

https://www.lonelyplanet.com/travel-insurance

I believe that Lonely Planet is a United Kingdom-based company, so they're probably pushing something that applies to residents of the United Kingdom like you.

I also found this from Conde Nast:

https://www.cntraveller.com/article/travel-insurance-uk

That's brilliant, thanks for your help.

[The Cane]

It could be similar to existing things. Many countries now require proof of various vaccinations to allow you in. Many require yellow fever vaccinations, for example. Anyway, no doubt something will be done along these lines, whether through IATA or some other organization.

As I noted in a post roughly 4 months ago, the attached is an image of the kind of vaccination record that has been used and accepted internationally for decades and decades. I've had a shot record like this since I was a child. I suppose it could easily be forged too, but it's been the standard forever. Will it be sufficient for establishing that you've had your COVID shot, like for yellow fever for example? I don't know, but they're going to have to come up with some kind of international standard.

[Zeos1]

It looks like the "COVID-19 Vaccination Record Card" will also exist on a mobile app called CommonPass. Major airlines are already on board (no pun intended):

https://www.lonelyplanet.com/article...al-health-pass

However, it also appears that the International Air Transport Association is creating a digital health pass named Travel Pass, which might be similar to CommonPass:

https://www.lonelyplanet.com/articles/qantas-vaccine

Bottom line, in my humble opinion, I don't see the "COVID-19 Vaccination Record Card" being accepted internationally for entry into foreign nations since they can probably be forged and not everyone reads English. I could be wrong, it's happened before.

It could be similar to existing things. Many countries now require proof of various vaccinations to allow you in. Many require yellow fever vaccinations, for example. Anyway, no doubt something will be done along these lines, whether through IATA or some other organization.