Montreal, Canada/Sydney, Australia
Reuters
Aviation industry opposition to requiring mandatory COVID-19 vaccination for passengers has intensified as impending drug approvals trigger a debate over their role in air travel.
Airports Council International, which represents airports worldwide, joined most airlines in calling for a choice between testing or vaccination, fearing a blanket rule imposing pre-flight inoculation would be as disruptive as quarantines.
Passengers arrive at Heathrow Airport, as Britain launches its 14-day quarantine for international arrivals, following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), London, Britain, on 8th June. PICTURE: Reuters/Toby Melville/File photo.
Qantas Airways triggered the debate last week when it said a COVID-19 vaccination would be necessary for passengers on its international flights, which remain largely idle because of Australia’s strict border controls.
But other airlines, and now global airports, are worried that waiting for vaccines would bar people from traveling until they are rolled out widely, crippling business in regions, such as Europe that have relatively small domestic aviation markets.
WHO LOOKS AT POSSIBLE ‘E-VACCINATION CERTIFICATES’ FOR TRAVEL
The World Health Organization does not recommend countries issuing “immunity passports” for those who have recovered from COVID-19, but is looking at prospects of deploying e-vaccination certificates like those it is developing with Estonia.
Estonia and the United Nations health agency in October started a pilot project for a digital vaccine certificate – a “smart yellow card” – for eventual use in interoperable healthcare data tracking and to strengthen the WHO-backed COVAX initiative to boost vaccinations in developing countries.
The reality of vaccinations is growing, since Britain on Wednesday approved a COVID-19 shot from Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech, while other companies Moderna and AstraZeneca have delivered positive trial data amid their push for approval.
“We are looking very closely into the use of technology in this COVID-19 response, one of them how we can work with member states toward an e-vaccination certificate,” said Siddhartha Datta, Europe’s WHO programme manager for vaccine-preventable diseases, told reporters on a call from Copenhagen.
He cautioned that any technology initiative must not overwhelm countries in the midst of pandemic responses, must conform to varying laws and ensure seamless border-crossing service.
For instance, some national COVID-19 tracing apps do not function abroad.
Estonia earlier this year separately began testing a “digital immunity passport”, potentially to track those recovered from COVID-19 with some immunity, though questions remain over whether, or for how long, someone might by protected.
But another WHO official, Catherine Smallwood, the WHO’s Senior Emergency Officer for Europe, on Thursday said the agency is sticking to guidance against using immunity passports as part of bids to resume some cross-border travel normalcy.
“We do not recommend immunity passports, nor do we recommend testing as a means to prevent transmission across borders,” Smallwood said, urging countries instead to base travel guidance on COVID-19 transmission data.
Smallwood also said rapid antigen tests, in use by some airlines to test passengers boarding or getting off flights, may be “less appropriate” for enabling international travel. The antigen tests are less accurate than molecular PCR tests, so some people might slip through the cracks.
– JOHN MILLER and STEPHANIE NEBEHAY, Reuters
“Just as quarantine effectively halted the industry, a universal requirement for vaccines could do the same,” ACI World Director General Luis Felipe de Oliveira told Reuters.
“While we welcome the rapid development and deployment of vaccines, there will be a considerable period before they are widely available,” he added.
“The industry cannot wait till vaccination becomes available worldwide. During the transition period, tests and vaccines together will play a key role on the industry recovery.”
Australia has indicated people arriving from abroad will need to be vaccinated or to self-isolate in one of a limited number of hotels.
Qantas Chief Executive Alan Joyce said the policy could spread to other countries, noting proof of vaccination is already required for yellow fever for some destinations.
“Other governments are moving in that direction,” he told reporters on Thursday.
Testing or vaccines?
But the head of airline trade group IATA, which last week downgraded its financial outlook for the sector as a second wave of COVID-19 cases swept Europe and the United States, believes making vaccines compulsory would not work globally.
Systematic testing is “more critical to reopening borders than the vaccine”, IATA Director General Alexandre de Juniac told Reuters.
Shukor Yusof, head of Malaysia-based aviation consultancy Endau Analytics, said Southeast Asian countries would take different approaches on vaccine requirements. Asian countries have some of the lowest case numbers of the novel coronavirus globally.
Taiwan Health Minister Chen Shih-chung said on Wednesday that COVID-19 “passports” to show inoculation and infection history are a good idea, but hard in practice.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison called on Thursday for a common set of global recognitions for COVID-19 vaccines.
Some experts say vaccines will be difficult to mandate because of limited supply and a range of quality.
Dr David Freedman, a US infectious diseases specialist, believes more countries will follow Britain’s lead and use testing to reduce quarantine times.
“For the majority of the world’s population, especially in the developing world, it’s going to be years before everybody that wants to fly even has the possibility of getting the vaccine,” said Freedman, a professor at University of Alabama at Birmingham.
As more countries develop vaccines, airlines and governments will need to decide which ones to clear.
“The other issue about mandatory vaccines is going to be well what vaccine did you get?” Freedman said. “Do we trust every vaccine that’s made in the world?”
