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MONTREAL / SYDNEY: Opposition from the aviation industry to requiring mandatory COVID-19 vaccination for passengers has intensified as impending drug approvals trigger a debate about its role in air travel.
Airports Council International, which represents airports around the world, joined with most airlines in calling for a choice between testing or vaccination, fearing that a general rule imposing pre-flight inoculation would be so damaging. like quarantines.
Qantas Airways triggered the debate last week when it said a COVID-19 vaccine would be necessary for passengers on its international flights, who remain largely inactive due to Australia’s strict border controls.
But other airlines, and now global airports, are concerned that waiting for vaccines will prevent people from traveling until they are widely deployed, crippling business in regions, such as Europe, that have relatively small domestic aviation markets. .
“Just as the quarantine effectively stopped the industry, a universal requirement for vaccines could do the same,” ACI World CEO Luis Felipe de Oliveira told Reuters.
“While we welcome the rapid development and deployment of vaccines, it will be a considerable period before they become widely available,” he added.
“The industry cannot wait until the vaccine is available worldwide. During the transition period, testing and vaccines together will play a key role in the recovery of the industry.”
Australia has indicated that people arriving from abroad will need to be vaccinated or isolated at one of the few hotels.
Qantas Chief Executive Alan Joyce said the policy could be extended to other countries, noting that proof of yellow fever vaccination is already required in some destinations.
“Other governments are moving in that direction,” he told reporters on Thursday.
TESTS OR VACCINES?
But the head of the airline trade group IATA, which last week lowered its financial outlook for the sector when a second wave of COVID-19 cases swept Europe and the United States, believes that making vaccines mandatory would not work globally. .
Routine testing is “more critical to reopening borders than the vaccine,” IATA director general Alexandre de Juniac told Reuters.
Shukor Yusof, director of Malaysia-based aviation consultancy Endau Analytics, said Southeast Asian countries would take different approaches to vaccine requirements. Asian countries have some of the lowest case numbers of the new coronavirus globally.
Taiwanese Health Minister Chen Shih-chung said on Wednesday that COVID-19 “passports” to show inoculation and infection history are a good idea, but difficult in practice.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Thursday called for a common set of global recognitions for COVID-19 vaccines.
Some experts say that the vaccines will be difficult to demand due to the limited supply and quality range.
Dr. David Freedman, a US infectious disease specialist, believes that more countries will follow Britain’s lead and use the tests to reduce quarantine times.
“For the majority of the world’s population, especially in the developing world, it will be years before everyone who wants to fly has a chance to get the vaccine,” said Freedman, a professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
As more countries develop vaccines, airlines and governments will have to decide which ones to eliminate.
“The other topic about mandatory vaccinations is going to be good, what vaccine did you get?” Freedman said. “Do we trust all the vaccines that are made in the world?”
– Reuters
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