The American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA) is asking the White House to exempt fully vaccinated U.S. citizens from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) inbound testing rule.
“While we understand the rationale behind the inbound testing order, it continues to present a number of practical challenges to our members and their clients,” ASTA president and CEO Zane Kerby said in a letter to Jeffrey Zients, COVID-19 Recovery Team Coordinator. “These challenges range from uncertainty as to the availability of timely testing in-destination to avoid disruption to their return trip to the financial and psychological burdens associated with being prevented from returning home due to a positive (or false positive) test result, to a general chilling effect on international travel bookings. The recent shortening of the testing window from 72 to 24 hours has only exacerbated these challenges.”
Kerby added that the inbound testing rule “remains the single biggest barrier to the full recovery of the international travel system on which so many of our members, and their clients, rely for their livelihoods.” He goes on to quote the CDC’s own research, stating “vaccinated individuals are five times less likely to be infected and 10 times less likely to experience hospitalization or death due to COVID-19 than unvaccinated individuals.”
Exempting the 200 million Americans who are fully vaccinated “would reflect the scientific consensus that widespread vaccinations are the single most important element of the fight against COVID-19 while allowing the travel industry’s recovery to begin in earnest.” This would also, Kerby argued, incentivize those who aren’t vaccinated to consider becoming so.
Kerby also noted, “We do not as a general matter believe that vaccination should be a prerequisite to international travel. That said, we do believe a balance needs to be struck in terms of protecting public health without crippling the free flow of commerce and individuals across international borders.”
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