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The CDC still says “don’t travel”.
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But President Biden, who has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, is running across the country.
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Leading independent health experts say he should be allowed to do so, as well as others who have completed the vaccination.
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President Biden is taking a victory lap in the United States, although COVID-19 continues to spread.
On Wednesday, he visited parts of Pennsylvania and on Friday he will be in Georgia as part of the White House’s “Help is Here” tour, publicizing the new relief money from COVID-19 – which includes a new round of $ 1,400 for American qualifying payments.
In doing so, Biden – who has been fully vaccinated for nearly two months – is not following what his own Center for Disease Control and Prevention recommends.
“The CDC recommends that you do not travel at this time,” reads the agency’s website for months. “Traveling increases your chance of spreading and obtaining COVID-19.”
The CDC says that not enough people have yet been vaccinated to make travel across the country safe again.
But many independent public health experts have said that what Biden is doing is perfectly normal, and that the CDC is being very strict and cautious with its guidelines for vaccinated people, even though it is still too risky for unvaccinated individuals to move.
Health experts agree: domestic travel should be an advantage for vaccinees
Dr. Carlos del Rio, a distinguished professor of medicine at Emory University, is just one of the last to join other health professionals in recommending behaviors that the CDC does not yet do.
“Yes, you can travel if you are fully vaccinated,” said del Rio on Monday in a live JAMA broadcast. “You know, wear a mask, etc., but it will be safe.”
Other big names in public health arguing that it’s okay for vaccinated people to travel, as long as they’ve given their vaccines for several weeks to take effect, include: Dr. Leana Wen (former Baltimore health commissioner), Dr. Preeti Malani ( director of health, University of Michigan), Dr. Ashish Jha (dean, Brown University School of Public Health) and many, many more.
“Keeping telling people not to travel is not going to help us,” added del Rio. “People are just not listening.”
Vaccinated people still have to wait several weeks after their vaccinations and continue to wear a mask in public
President Biden was vaccinated with his first dose of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine on December 21 and completed his two-dose course on January 11. Health experts recommend waiting at least two weeks after that, before traveling, to make sure the photos had enough time to take effect.
There are still some minor concerns that vaccinated people may be able to catch and then spread COVID-19 to others, even if they themselves have no symptoms after that, so it is important that vaccinated people continue to wear masks. But more and more research suggests that this is highly unlikely, especially with vaccines that have been authorized for emergency use in the United States, by Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson.
Early studies are suggesting, instead, that these three COVID-19 vaccines are 74 to 94% effective in preventing asymptomatic infections, even when variant B.1.1.7 is more transmissible and slightly more deadly, first discovered in the UK, it’s in the mix.
“Conclusion: vaccines work in the real world,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, during a COVID-19 meeting at the White House on Wednesday.
Air travel around the world may not be practical yet, but short flights to visit relatives and domestic holidays should be a vaccination advantage, according to Wen.
“We can’t just have an abstinence view on this,” said Dr. Preeti Malani, health director at the University of Michigan at JAMA, emphasizing the importance of face-to-face meetings for our emotional well-being. “We also need to remember that COVID is not the only risk in our lives and that all other risks need to be balanced against that.”
Biden seems to have already accepted that. It would be nice if your public health agency did that too.
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