The USA Specifies Which Vaccines Will Be Accepted To Enter Starting In November

As Flytrippers recently told you, the United States, which does not currently require any vaccination to enter the country, will change its rules in November. They will now require vaccination, but they had not yet mentioned which vaccines would be accepted.

Here is the good news that was just announced (although there is one remaining caveat).

Mandatory vaccination

As mentioned in Flytrippers’ ultimate guide to pandemic travel, it is not (yet) necessary to be vaccinated to travel (this will change before the end of October).

(Absolutely nothing is required to board a plane in Canada or exit Canada, only the destinations’ entry rules matter. It is so frustrating to see so many people say the opposite; it’s blatantly false.)

And then, each country obviously makes its own rules in terms of what is required to enter.

The United States is going to make vaccination mandatory for entry as early as “early November”. You can read all about these upcoming US entry rules in November or our guide on how Canadians can travel to the United States.

The 2 concerns for many Canadians was that:

• The US has never approved the use of the AstraZeneca/Covishield/Vaxzevria vaccine
• The US has never approved the use of combination vaccines (2 different doses)

But here’s the good news: The US will accept all the vaccines approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) even those not approved by the CDC, according to the Washington Post.

Here is the complete list:

• AstraZeneca
• Johnson & Johnson
• Pfizer
• Moderna
• Sinopharm
• Sinovac

BUT it remains to be seen if a combination of vaccines will be accepted as well, we wanted to post this quickly at least for the first major good news, I’m going to dig deeper into the WHO rules on mixing vaccines once I return from my trip to Vancouver tomorrow.

At Flytrippers, we want all the information shared to be 100% accurate at all times (this is especially important on the travel rules subject because we see SO many people saying stuff that is completely wrong on the topic, it’s scary).

So, as far as I know, the WHO still hasn’t officially ruled on this (they hadn’t explicitly recommended for or against mixing the doses yet). I honestly don’t know if this has changed, their site is really not very user-friendly, as is often the case with sites made by bureaucrats.

To be continued.

But it seems very encouraging because it shows that the US is going to be quite permissive in terms of accepted vaccines and not be as strict as their CDC guidance, which bodes very well for those with mixed doses.

Cautious optimism seems warranted.

For example, the US is going to be even more permissive than Canada, which outright refuses entry to foreigners who are vaccinated with Sinopharm and Sinovac, even though the WHO has approved those vaccines.

(This is another good example of what you were told is the most important thing to understand about travel rules: There are infinite differences between the seemingly very similar rules of different countries, such as the 11 major differences that already existed between those for Canada and the United States.)

Flytrippers will try to clarify the rules for those who have received mixed vaccines, stay tuned.

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Summary

The AstraZeneca vaccine will be accepted for entry into the United States even though it was never approved by the United States.

What would you like to know about this news? Tell us in the comments below.

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