News of Australia’s discussions with Singapore and New Zealand about resuming travel has given hope to holiday makers looking for an international getaway.
While the details have yet to be worked out, New Zealand is looking hopeful for an April start date and Singapore, July departures.
The moves will escalate the chances of international travel for Australians. But it comes at a cost, and some are suggesting we are moving too fast.
What has come out of the Singapore discussions is that citizens from both will require vaccinations before they can start tucking into bowls of laksa at a Hawker Centre. And that raises the controversial question of vaccine passports for Australians earlier than at first thought.
Earlier this year, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said it was necessary to have vaccine passports or certificates for travellers to visit. Which means Australians will need to think about whether they are prepared to accept both mandatory vaccines and a means of proving it.
Qantas boss Alan Joyce has already said he is keen to have a passport app and has trialled it. IATA’s travel pass will be ready “within weeks”, say bosses – and is already being trialled by Etihad, Emirates, Qatar Airways and Air New Zealand.
Countries like China and Israel have been fast to develop digital vaccine passports. The Chinese government unveiled a system that could be accessed through WeChat while in Israel, residents can access the digital ‘green pass’ a certificate of inoculation that granted people privileges that the unvaccinated aren’t allowed. This included hotels, gyms, swimming pools and bars.
But there have been major questions that have been raised about the ethics, inequality and privacy around vaccine passports.
According to the BBC, around 200,000 in England have petitioned against a vaccine passport, forcing the MPs to debate it. Those opposed to a digital certificate believes it will “create a two-tier society where some people can access support and freedoms while others are shut out – with the most marginalised among us hardest hit,” according to the BBC.
The debate has already spread to Australia. Dr Bridget Pratt from the Centre for Health Equity at the University of Melbourne told the ABC that people living in low and middle-income countries may have to wait longer.
“I think a ‘two-tier’ idea of rules for vaccinated and unvaccinated people is a concern both within countries and between countries,” she said.
“And those two tiers will likely reinforce existing inequalities because the people who lack access to the vaccine are likely to already be socially marginalised.”
That could create a situation where people in richer nations get to enjoy international travel for years before the rest of the world.
“That can have significant impacts for wellbeing in terms of family and social relationships, work, and just the enjoyment of getting a holiday,” she said.
Vaccination passports are spreading throughout travel.
A number of cruise lines have said they will require their passengers to provide vaccine passports.
Billionaire and entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson’s cruise brand Virgin Voyages earlier this week announced all passengers will be required to be vaccinated against COVID-19 before boarding future cruises.
“Safety and security is our number one priority, and always has been our number one priority. We’ve heard the president talk about the acceleration of vaccines out there, where by May, all adults could be vaccinated. So, we think that that’s an important criterium to create a safe environment on our ships. We’re going to be requiring all of our sailors and all of our crew to have to be vaccinated before they get onboard the ship,” said Virgin Voyages’ CEO Tom McAlpin.
Royal Caribbean also announced that passengers and crew older than 16 must be vaccinated before sailings from Israel to the Mediterranean.
Other cruise lines that will require vaccination passports include luxury brand Crystal Cruises, American Cruise Lines and others.
I would be very happy to get a vaccine passport to travel. Would be silly not to.
To force people to take a vaccination which has been proven to be neither safe nor working, is a blatant attack on the free will of all people and should be called a Human Rights crisis. I work overseas but might now not be allowed to go on any plane because I object against being injected with something I do not know the long and short term consequences of? Absolutely insane that tens of millions and mostly HEALTHY people around the world are penalized for objecting to poison their bodies with a vaccination for something no one knows much about at all.
I think that you should check the facts before making such uninformed statements.
1.The vaccines that have been approved, have been tested extensively and proven to be safe.
2. People have been vaccinated to against various viruses and diseases for many decades. This has saved thousands or millions of lives.
3. The COVID 19 vaccines are NOT poison, and have saved hundreds of thousands of lives so far.
Of course, you can choose not to be vaccinated, but that choice has consequences.
Agree totally
People need to check their insurance policies because they may not be covered for side effects (including death) as this is an experimental vaccine. In other words the government is treating us as lab rats and refuses accountability or liability.
Agree totally. They have the treatments like HCQ, Invermectin, Zinc, Vitamin D etc and they made many of them illegal. Instead they want to compromise peoples immune system instead of getting us to do things that build it. BTW this is my second post as the first one pointing out you are not insured for side effects of the vaccine was deleted. Ring your insurance company and ask them.
Absolutely correct. These [email protected] jabs are approved for emergency use and it will be a further 4 to 5 yrs before formal approval. I don’t want to participate in the trials that are occurring at present. I have cruise deposit from 2019 pending. I definitely will not have the jab and so will have to try and retrieve deposit if jab passports are required. I am against any coercive medicine and against the way rollout is being handled such as adverse reactions register will be delayed by 3 months. Why? Why are doctors only allowed to tell us positive things and not adverse things in the name of informed consent? Why can’t they tell us which [email protected] we are getting? Very weird for transparent medical procedure.
Absolutely. My safety and the safety of fellow passengers is paramount.
Of course I would, will, and am.
I have had countless other essential injections. This is just another.
Why is the issue being turned into a beatup headline? It should be procedural.
I would never subscribe to being injected with what is being called a vaccine, just to travel internationally.
I would rather stay in Australia.
If our federal government can eventually work out how to actually vaccinate more than a few thousand of us I’ll be on the first plane I can get on to the US. Not everyone can afford to travel overseas now – I had to wait five decades before I could. No way should I be waiting till everyone is in the same boat before I travel.
I cannot take the flu shot again so I am not risking this vaccine and it’s potential health repercussions for me. So no!
simply put, no. I have travelled internationally quite frequently and I would love to go again, but no way am I taking an experimental vaccine to do so. You do know that the testing period doesn’t finish until 2023? And that your insurance won’t cover you as you have taken part in an experimental medical procedure? If those that want to take it do, then my NOT taking it, shouldnt affect those people. International travel will die with this requirement.
The ” vaccine” doesn’t prevent you from catching covid or stop you from sprwading covid. You have a 99.7% chance of surviving if you are under 50 if you catch it.
Pass, I’ll stay here
YES. If it means seeing my family again
Never ever
NO!!!!!!!!!