Biden’s Omicron plan — a great start for travelers but needs expansion

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The Biden Administration COVID-19 Omicron plan for travelers entering the U.S. is a great start, but it has holes that need plugging to protect the nation.

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We still know little about the COVID-19 Omicron variant with scientific clarity. It’s going to take a few more weeks to determine its contagiousness and virulence, how well current tests detect it and how well immunity from prior infections and vaccinations protect against it with an Omicron plan.

Against that backdrop, the new Biden plan seeks to do what it can to protect Americans while we learn about the new variant. The Biden plan is a great start, but it needs to be both adjusted and expanded if it is to accomplish its goal of protecting Americans at home and abroad from the COVID-19 virus. Let’s see where it can be improved.

The travel ban of southern Africa’s nations is already a bust, as Omicron has quickly spread to 38 countries.

The travel ban:
To stop the spread of Omicron, the U.S. and many other countries banned travel from southern Africa where the variant was first detected. With no real Omicron plan, the virus mutation has spread to 38 countries including the U.S. The ban is a bust and may harm future efforts to fight COVID. South Africa has been fully transparent about Omicron. That’s enabled the world to quickly learn about it. That transparency has turned into economic punishment for South Africa. In the future, it’s likely that other nations will take the lesson to heart that being honest and ethical about disease reporting may likely result in a travel ban leading to economic hardship and therefore hold back vital information. The ban should be lifted.

Full vaccination with a booster to maintain vaccine efficacy is the single most important way to end the COVID-19 pandemic. It is the beginning of an Omicron plan.

Vaccination of Americans:
The COVID vaccines have proven themselves. They’re safe, as serious side effects have only affected a tiny number of people compared to the more than 8 billion doses given worldwide. They’re proven effective with vaccinated Americans being five times less likely to become infected and ten times less likely to be hospitalized or die from COVID-19 than unvaccinated Americans. The Biden plan is right to aggressively appeal for the vaccination of every American, age five and up and for every eligible American to get a vaccine booster.

Transportation face mask mandate:
A massive study found that wearing a face mask was the single most effective public health measure against COVID, reducing the incidence of COVID-19 by 53 percent. The President wisely extended the face mask requirement for everyone traveling on planes, trains, buses and other public conveyances, terminals and stations.

All travelers should be fully vaccinated before entering the U.S., regardless of age or transportation mode.

Traveler vaccinations:
The Biden Administration Omicron plan requires that adult visitors to the U.S. must be fully vaccinated for COVID, if flying to the U.S. from abroad. For those visitors arriving by land and sea, currently, only non-essential visitors need to be fully vaccinated to enter the U.S. Essential visitors don’t have to be fully vaccinated until January, 2022. The rules are full of holes.

COVID is infecting people throughout the world. Everyone entering the U.S. from abroad, regardless of their transportation mode, should be required to be fully vaccinated, including U.S. citizens and residents, regardless of age, if they’re eligible for vaccination in the country of their citizenship or residency. For Americans and its residents, that’s easily accomplished by becoming fully vaccinated before leaving the U.S.

The definition of fully vaccinated needs reevaluation. To maintain immunity, it’s known that a vaccine booster is needed. Therefore, being fully vaccinated should include having a booster, taking into account vaccination timing. It’s likely that the definition will have to be regularly reviewed.

Vaccination certificate:
Americans traveling internationally are finding it necessary to obtain local vaccine passports at their international destinations to be able to freely move about. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warn that vaccination certificates are easily faked or forged. The U.S. should immediately adopt a verifiable vaccine certificate similar to the one used by the European Union to make us all safer at home and facilitate our travel internationally.

All people entering the U.S. from abroad should be tested for COVID regardless of their transportation mode.

Testing:
All travelers flying into the U.S. must be tested for COVID within a day prior to their departure, but visitors arriving by other modes of transportation aren’t required to be tested. Testing must be expanded to require everyone is tested for COVID prior to entering the U.S., regardless of transportation mode. The U.S. should pursue a plan to make COVID antigen test kits available in the U.S. for Americans for any reason, via prepaid rather than postpaid health insurance.

Ending the pandemic:
The COVID Delta and Omicron variants have proven that nations aren’t able to prevent COVID from crossing their borders. Unless every nation vaccinates enough of their population, no nation will be safe from COVID. The U.S.’ current 1.2 billion dose pledge is insufficient. I call upon the U.S. and its European allies to lead the world in the fight to end the COVID pandemic. Together, they should provide at least half of the world’s remaining vaccine needs, other than China and Russia, who should be providing their own and the remainder of the world’s doses.

While the Biden Administration’s COVID-19 Omicron plan is a great start, it must comprehensively expand it, as outlined above, or the pandemic will continue for far too long into the future. I call upon the nation’s leaders to back the Biden Administration’s scientific approach so that the nation can obtain essential herd immunity from COVID to keep our citizens from continuing to become pandemic victims at the current alarming rate.