White House to lift air travel Covid-19 vaccine by May 11

Days after the CDC updated its Covid-19 vaccination requirements for air travelers to the US, the Biden administration announced that the vaccination requirements – including for airline passengers – would end on May 11 at the ‘end of the day’.

According to the White House

Today, we are announcing that the administration will end the COVID-19 vaccination requirements for federal employees, federal contractors, and international airline travelers at the end of May 11, the same day that the COVID-19 public health emergency ends. HHS and DHS also announced today that they will begin the process to end their immunization requirements for Head Start teachers, CMS-certified health care facilities, and certain noncitizens at the land border. In the coming days, more details related to the completion of these requirements will be provided.

The requirement for non-US residents to be ‘fully vaccinated’ against covid-19 to travel by air was…weird. People came to America another way. The virus was already spreading here. And for the most part in the country there were no prescribed precautions for some time.

Infectious Americans could attend music concerts and pack into bars, but a foreigner who tested negative for Covid-19 could not enter the country unless they had received non-sterilizing vaccines (in 2023 the vaccinated individual could still contract and spread the virus).

Most of the world has withdrawn its mission. America does the same. Not just for a week and a half. Somehow, the requirement remains a protection for a few more days?

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