CDC gives OK to fully vaccinated people to travel

[C-Dragons]

The Washington Post just published an article stating the CDC has given the green light for fully vaccinated people to travel.

Unfortunately, there is no reference to cruise ship travel, but hopefully this is the first step towards that goal.

[marieps]

2 hours ago, C-Dragons said:

The Washington Post just published an article stating the CDC has given the green light for fully vaccinated people to travel.

Unfortunately, there is no reference to cruise ship travel, but hopefully this is the first step towards that goal.

The article indicates CDC is hedging its bets, saying it's safe for the vaxed travelers but still recommending against travel.  Typical federal double-speak.  Perhaps Markeb can chime in, our resident expert on all things federal.

[markeb]

40 minutes ago, marieps said:

The article indicates CDC is hedging its bets, saying it's safe for the vaxed travelers but still recommending against travel.  Typical federal double-speak.  Perhaps Markeb can chime in, our resident expert on all things federal.

 

Not sure I'm an expert on this one...

 

This is probably the bottom line of what they posted today:

 

CDC recommends delaying travel until you are fully vaccinated, because travel increases your chance of getting and spreading COVID-19. If you are not fully vaccinated and must travel, follow CDC’s recommendations for unvaccinated people.

 

Which I'd consider a pretty standard public health recommendation, all things considered. It's kind of the "we'd really prefer you not travel, but we know you're going to, so here's our best advice if you do". I can list at least 2-3 examples of the same thing over the years, but the ones that come to mind are even more politically charged, so I'll leave them alone! 

 

The ever increasing data on real world effectiveness of the vaccines to prevent disease and transmission makes them comfortable in the science to loosen the recommendations for vaccinated travelers. I'd be confident this was seen and OK'd a few levels higher than the CDC before it was released. And it could be an early indication of what the CDC and HHS have proposed for international travel at the interagency level. I still think that release is a month away, but this is also a bit of a carrot for people hesitating to get vaccinated.

 

Oh, and that one isn't a federal double speak; that's an infectious disease doc and public health expert who just really can't say it's OK to travel, because the oldest, most widely used, most effective, and most studied means of stopping the spread of infectious disease in people, animals, plants, etc., is to quarantine and isolate. I don't know anyone in the field who wouldn't qualify that recommendation with some version of "we'd really prefer you not travel". It's hard wired...

[marieps]

55 minutes ago, markeb said:

 

Not sure I'm an expert on this one...

 

This is probably the bottom line of what they posted today:

 

CDC recommends delaying travel until you are fully vaccinated, because travel increases your chance of getting and spreading COVID-19. If you are not fully vaccinated and must travel, follow CDC’s recommendations for unvaccinated people.

 

Which I'd consider a pretty standard public health recommendation, all things considered. It's kind of the "we'd really prefer you not travel, but we know you're going to, so here's our best advice if you do". I can list at least 2-3 examples of the same thing over the years, but the ones that come to mind are even more politically charged, so I'll leave them alone! 

 

The ever increasing data on real world effectiveness of the vaccines to prevent disease and transmission makes them comfortable in the science to loosen the recommendations for vaccinated travelers. I'd be confident this was seen and OK'd a few levels higher than the CDC before it was released. And it could be an early indication of what the CDC and HHS have proposed for international travel at the interagency level. I still think that release is a month away, but this is also a bit of a carrot for people hesitating to get vaccinated.

 

Oh, and that one isn't a federal double speak; that's an infectious disease doc and public health expert who just really can't say it's OK to travel, because the oldest, most widely used, most effective, and most studied means of stopping the spread of infectious disease in people, animals, plants, etc., is to quarantine and isolate. I don't know anyone in the field who wouldn't qualify that recommendation with some version of "we'd really prefer you not travel". It's hard wired...

We reasoned and well said.  I'm so glad you chimed in.