US WILL still demand proof of Covid vaccination to enter in 2023 – making it the only country in the West

 Travelers flying into the United States will still need proof of Covid vaccination in 2023 — making the US the only country in the West to stick by the failing policy.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has extended the rule, which only applies to non-US citizens, until at least January 8 next year to ‘limit the risk of Covid-19, including variants of the virus'.

But there has been a growing acceptance among experts that Covid vaccines - while highly effective at preventing severe illness - do not stop infections very well.

Dr Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), admitted earlier this year they shots 'can’t prevent transmission anymore'.

Yet since November 2021, non-US citizens entering America have had to provide proof of Covid vaccination.

The CDC defines fully vaccinated as having had an accepted single-dose vaccine, or both doses of an accepted two-dose series, at least two weeks ago. A booster dose is not needed. 

Most major Western nations such as the UK, France and Germany, have already dropped these types of recommendations.

The countries still requiring Covid vaccination to enter are: China, Angola, Libya, Ghana, Cameroon, Liberia, Yemen, Indonesia, Pakistan, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan.

The TSA announcement said it was renewing the policy to ‘limit the risk that Covid-19… is introduced, transmitted, and spread into and throughout the United States’.

The document reads: ‘Together with the Presidential Proclamation and the CDC Order, these policies are intended to limit the risk that Covid-19, including variants of the virus that causes Covid-19, is introduced, transmitted, and spread into and throughout the United States, potentially overwhelming United States healthcare and public health resources, endangering the health and safety of the American people, and threatening the security of our civil aviation system.’

This is at odds with the CDC's own guidance, published in August, which no longer differentiates between vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals. 

Estimates indicate the Covid vaccines prevent about 30 to 40 per cent of infections in the three to six months after immunization. But this falls to virtually zero after that.

But the shots reduce the risk of severe disease or death by up to 90 per cent in the months after inoculation.

Dr Walensky summed it up in January this year when she said: 'Our vaccines are working exceptionally well. 

'They continue to work well for Delta with regard to sever illness and death. They prevent it... what they can’t do anymore is prevent transmission.'

The shots have become increasingly weaker at preventing transmission as Covid has mutated. 

The updated bivalent vaccines were supposed to enhance protection against Omicron and its subvariants which are dominant world-over. 

But there are doubts about whether the vaccines actually work better than the original, as reported by DailyMail.com this week. 

The Biden Administration and CDC dropped the requirement for international travelers to the US to provide a negative Covid test in June, but will not budge on the need for Covid shots.

This means vaccinated people can fly even if they are testing positive for the virus. 

Over 80 per cent of the US has received at least one dose of the Covid shot, and 69 per cent are double-vaccinated.

But uptake of booster doses has been sluggish, with only 26.3million taking up the bivalent shots.

Dr William Schaffner, Professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, told DailyMail.com the extended policy was a 'puzzle'.

He said: 'There are several reasons that it is a puzzle that travelers entering the US must continue to demonstrate their Covid vaccination status. 

'First, Covid is abundant and is being widely transmitted in the US, so we are not protecting our population from an infection that is not here. Second, the vaccines are only modestly effective in preventing transmission. Indeed, vaccinated persons can be infected and transmit the virus to others.'

He added: 'Lastly, in dealing with any highly contagious respiratory virus, it has clearly been shown that travel restrictions of any kind are not very effective in keeping new viruses out of a country—and Covid is no longer new.'

And Dr Doug Badger, senior research fellow at the center for health and welfare policy at The Heritage Foundation, told DailyMail.com the requirement is 'out of step with science and with the policies of other countries'. 

He added: 'Neither the European Union nor Canada imposes such a requirement. Vaccines reduce the risk that an infected individual will develop severe illness, but they do not prevent transmission. The administration should follow the science and rescind this policy.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11390871/Covid-vaccination-proof-required-enter-America-2023.html