US health officials are moving ahead with a Covid vaccine mandate for travelers entering the country — though there is no evidence it will lower infection rates.
The unpopular policy was expected to end when the federal government officially ends the country’s public health emergency on May 11, when all remaining pandemic measures are expected to end.
But in an announcement on Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated the policy rather than dropping it.
The US will allow travelers who received at least one dose of vaccine on or after August 16 to enter the country. The CDC says this is because many who have received a single dose since this date may have received the more protective divalent injection.
Sticking to the vaccine mandate rule makes the US an international outlier. Few countries still require visitors to have a Covid vaccine to gain entry, including Angola and Indonesia.
The CDC says it will allow people to enter the country who have received just one Covid vaccine since August 16, 2022. They will be considered fully vaccinated
Recent studies have shown that while the Covid vaccines can prevent hospitalization and death, they are not as effective against transmission of the virus.
A 2022 paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that after 25 weeks, the protection afforded to recipients by the Pfizer vaccine against Omicron infection dropped to just nine percent.
A booster shot initially increased this protection to 67 percent, only to drop to 45 percent after just two weeks.
Experts have previously dismissed decisions to keep Covid-era policies in place as “being out of step” with the rest of the world.
Dr. Doug Badger, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told DailyMail.com: ‘Neither the European Union nor Canada makes such a demand.
‘Vaccines reduce the risk of an infected person developing a serious illness, but they do not prevent transmission.
“The administration should follow the science and repeal this policy.”
In its update, the CDC said, “Because some traveler vaccine data may not specify whether recent Moderna or Pfizer doses were bivalent, CDC will consider anyone with a record of a single dose of Moderna or Pfizer vaccine issued on or after Aug. 16. 2022, to comply with the requirements of the amended decision to board an aircraft to the United States.
“This date was chosen because it is the earliest that travelers can get a bivalent booster.”
Covid vaccination requirements for foreign arrivals by air to the US are currently due to expire on May 11, 2023, says the Transport security administration.
But the authorities have previously chosen to renew these policies just before the previous expiration dates.
These rules were supposed to expire on April 11, but they were extended by a month just before the deadline.
Bivalent boosters specifically target the Omicron variant, unlike the original vaccines that targeted the initial Wuhan strain of the virus.
Scientists claim this means they provide better protection against serious illness and death from the currently circulating strains.
Most countries have already dropped their vaccination requirements for visitors, while there is mounting evidence that they are not slowing the spread of the virus.
The UK scrapped mandatory Covid vaccination for visitors in March last year, more than a year ago now.
France followed suit in August, while the European Union lifted all of its Covid-related travel requirements for its members in December.
China, in line with most of the rest of the world, also does not require travelers to have a Covid vaccine.
However, it does state that they must have a negative Covid test result at least 48 hours before departure.
There are also now much higher levels of immunity in the population from vaccinations or previous infections than in the early days of the pandemic.
John Hopkins estimated in February last year that about three in four Americans had some degree of immunity to Covid. It is likely that current levels are now even higher.