The USA’s entry requirement will almost certainly be eliminated soon

Even though vaccines obviously help with the severity of the virus, everyone who has been able to keep even the slightest amount of critical thinking has known for a long time that they obviously do not prevent transmission and infection. All the data has been clear for a very long time. The U.S. federal government has just realized this (better late than never, like for the Canadian government for example).

For months and months now, even the mainstream media has been filled with testimonials from public health experts who say that having travel rules related to vaccination status is more political science than real science.

Especially with the American (and Canadian) definition of vaccination, which is just 2 vaccine doses (or even just 1 dose of Johnson & Johnson). Especially since the doses were obtained well over a year ago in the case of almost all vaccinated Americans.

All the rules related to travel have never been based on science from the beginning, so it’s not surprising…

But that will almost certainly be changing very soon in the U.S. at least — even though unvaccinated Canadians have already been circumventing their requirement easily for a very long time.

Major change in the United States

Earlier this month, the American CDC, the U.S. federal public health agency, officially adopted the same position for which “conspiracy theorists” have long been vilified.

(The term “conspiracy theorist” is applied so liberally these days that it devalues the term, it’s the crying wolf principle: using the same term for all those who simply dare to question the “experts” — “experts” who have been proven wrong very, very, very often — as for those who think the Earth is flat just further legitimizes the idiots who think the Earth is flat because the term just doesn’t mean anything anymore…)

Anyway, the CDC now says that it doesn’t make sense to have separate recommendations based on vaccination status. Shocker.

(The World Health Organization has been saying it for months and Flytrippers too — because it’s been obvious for a while for those who are rational and who look at the facts instead of blindly believing that governments are always trustworthy🤷)

The CDC also says that it doesn’t make sense to test people who are not sick, by the way. And that isolation is no longer required even for those who have been exposed to the virus.

The impact on U.S. travel rules

Oh well, the fact that the CDC realized that Flytrippers was right is not really relevant.

What’s relevant is the impact of this new policy for travelers who want to go to the United States!

The official press release for the CDC announcement ends with this sentence (emphasis is mine):

In the coming weeks, CDC will work to align stand-alone guidance documents, such as those for healthcare settings, congregate settings at higher risk of transmission, and travel, with today’s update.

In short, they say that the travel rules are not aligned with the new general recommendations. And “travel rules” means the vaccination requirement because that’s all that’s left there: even masks on planes are gone just like in most of Europe (I can confirm that even fewer passengers were wearing one on my U.S. domestic flight Monday night — under 10% — compared to back in April).

So in the “coming weeks,” they’re going to work to align the travel rules with the new recommendations. And so they will almost certainly eliminate the vaccination requirement for foreign travelers.

That’s what would be logical: they say that having rules based on vaccination doesn’t make sense and they say they’re going to review the travel rules. 

It’s 99% sure that the vaccination requirement will be eliminated.

But we’re going to say almost certainly because being logical is just not something the U.S. government has done at all for travel rules!

(Until 2021, you couldn’t enter the U.S. if you’d been in Europe, but if you’d been anywhere else it was okay — even though the virus was literally everywhere for months 🤡! And you could enter by air, but not by land — as if the virus could tell the difference 🤡!)

Anyway, this is one of the few governments that competed with Canada in terms of absurdity.

Taking weeks to update the travel rules also shows the lack of efficiency of the state apparatus very well. Weeks to add something can be justifiable (to get ready), but not to remove something: it should not take time, it is very easy to remove something. You remove it; the end.

The CDC says that having separate rules based on vaccination status makes no sense: how many hours of useless bureaucratic work does it take to realize that means that having separate travel rules based on vaccination is also very stupid? It should take 1 day, we’re now going on 1 month…

Even many cruise lines, which all required vaccination up until last week just to look good by following the CDC recommendation, didn’t even take a full day to remove the irrational requirement after the CDC update (well, at least some of them have removed the requirement but we haven’t really checked each one since we don’t want to promote cruises — we prefer promoting authentic travel that is more gratifying and that is better for everyone).

With the government, of course, it always takes longer.

The impact on Canada’s extremist rules

Once the U.S. vaccination requirement is eliminated, Canada will find itself even more isolated on the international scene with its extremist rules. Yes, that is literally the definition of “extremist” when most of the developed world has eliminated everything.

Even Australia, which was about the most determined to stop the coronavirus (going as far as to shoot dogs in shelters to reduce contacts 🤡!) is part of the 80+ countries that have eliminated all rules for all travelers.

This is what the World Health Organization experts have been recommending for over 7 months now, by the way… but Canada follows the experts just when it suits them.

Imagine that! When even Australia has gotten over it, now you know it’s really past time to get over it….

So maybe when the U.S. removes its vaccination requirement, Canada will do the same with its exact same requirement (Canadians have always been exempt from the vaccination requirement to enter Canada of course). 

And maybe Canada will eliminate the terribly stupid 14-day quarantine that all unvaccinated travelers have to go through, even those who test negative to 3 (!!!) COVID-19 tests!

(Remember that Canada’s entry rules were there to reduce the virus’ entry and that the virus is already everywhere — and most importantly that literally all the provincial governments really don’t give a damn about this now…)

But as I just said, it’s also been months since almost all European countries no longer have mask requirements on airplanes and Canada is quite comfortable being extremist about this to reassure those suffering from Covidanxiety and/or those who clearly know nothing about airplane air quality.

I’ll say it again if you missed it because it’s important: having a mask requirement in airplanes is obviously completely absurd when all mask requirements are lifted in other indoor spaces. At least when you rely on the facts and the science — air quality is better on airplanes than in any other indoor space on the ground — and not on feelings of irrational fear.

Canada will probably have masks on planes until 2023, or longer. You can avoid them by flying from an American airport on the other side of the border as I did this weekend (provided that you go to a country that does not require it either of course).

Your plane ticket could even be cheaper from there and the airport chaos will be less severe (Canada is close to #1 worldwide for that based on the data; you can thank our dear federal government for that too obviously)!

The more Canadian airlines lose business because of this, the more likely they’ll finally do what international airlines started doing months ago: stating the facts about air quality loud and clear publicly to get the government to finally move. Because all politicians have ever cared about — and will ever care about — is public opinion.

(But Canadian airlines have been the shyest about criticizing — not surprising that we still have amongst the most extreme measures. Criticism of the holy government has just not been tolerated at all in Canada compared to elsewhere. And most importantly, our airlines would rather not antagonize the government that gifted them the wimpiest passenger rights regulations that protect the airlines more than they protect passengers — sign up for our free newsletter to not miss our tips about that soon!)

So anyway, I wouldn’t bet on the fact that the upcoming end of the U.S. vaccination requirement will lead Canada to do the same thing, considering how much the government liked to score political points by punishing the evil unvaccinated citizens.

Reminder of U.S. rules and rules in general

An important reminder for those who have forgotten, the pandemic unfortunately still exists in terms of travel rules. 

The United States is not one of the 80+ countries that have eliminated all rules for all travelers. And neither is Canada, so even if you choose to go to a country that has finally gotten over all of this, there are still rules for when you return.

However, the United States and Canada are at least among the 189 countries open without an entry test, at least for the majority of Canadians — those who are vaccinated according to the original, never-updated definition.

But the U.S. has never eliminated its vaccination requirement (that applies only to those over 18 by the way).

The U.S. requirement is confusing because, as we’ve been telling you for months, by land, very few customs officials check for proof (I was just not asked anything about it Sunday for example). So a lot of unvaccinated travelers have been going there for a very long time despite the requirement.

You can read our ultimate guide on how to travel to the United States for all the details. It will always be kept up to date.

I’ll take this opportunity to remind you of something else that’s very basic that we’ve been repeating for months, which is that there are just 2 sets of rules to check for any trip, it’s as simple as that:

• Entry rules of the countries you are going to
• Entry rules for Canada

There are no other rules, so once you enter the United States, you don’t need anything to take a domestic flight (like in any other country in the world).

Learn more

How to travel during the pandemic

So this requirement to be vaccinated to enter the U.S., strictly enforced by air and not so much by land, is what could change.

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Summary

The U.S. public health agency has realized that having separate recommendations based on vaccination status didn’t make sense. They’re probably conspiracy theorists. Kidding aside, they say they will align travel rules with these new recommendations in the “coming weeks.”

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Featured image: Big Sur, CA USA (photo credit: Spencer Davis) 

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