European Union: Vaccinated Americans Can Visit This Summer

In addition to a sense of increased safety and an increased hope for a return to normalcy, the European Union has announced that fully vaccinated Americans will be allowed to travel to member European nations this summer.  As long time readers know, the husband and I love to travel.  The Covid-19 pandemic has cause us to have trips and cruises canceled in both 2020 and 2021 and we now hope for a European trip in 2022.   For 2021 we are resigned to domestic travel: a beach house rental in late June to make up for a canceled family cruise, a small family wedding in New York State in July and a holiday season trip to Fort Lauderdale. Sadly, I doubt that the chance for European travel will convince many vaccine resisting Republican extremists and ignorance embracing evangelicals  to get immediately vaccinated, but with luck seeing others enjoy more freedoms will apply needed pressure.  A piece in New York Magazine looks at the EU announcement.  Here are highlights:

After a year of nonessential travel from the United States coming to a halt amid the pandemic, the top executive of the European Union said in an interview on Sunday that fully vaccinated American tourists can visit the bloc this summer.

“The Americans, as far as I can see, use European Medicines Agency-approved vaccines,” European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, told the New York Times, referring to the public-health regulator which has approved the Moderna, Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson shots. She added that “all 27 member states will accept, unconditionally, all those who are vaccinated with vaccines that are approved by E.M.A.”

[H]er comments suggest that travel to the European Union will soon change from state-based restrictions to those based on vaccine status. Already, the EU is developing a program of “digital green certificates,” which will function as vaccine passports within the bloc. According to the Times, “technical discussions have been going on for several weeks between European Union and United States officials on how to practically and technologically make vaccine certificates from each place broadly readable so that citizens can use them to travel without restrictions.” Such a program would be a departure from domestic travel in the United States, where the Biden administration ruled out the possibility of a vaccine passport program earlier this month.

The announcement is a big step toward normalcy for Americans who can afford to travel to Europe — and a serious economic boost for local economies reliant on tourism. But it also reinforces the severe, artificial inequality of vaccine access between the nations which have secured millions of doses and those which are left to wait as wealthy countries refuse to share both supply and manufacturing technology. 

As of late April, just two percent of all vaccines administered globally had been administered in Africa, a continent which represents more than 16 percent of the world’s population.