The United States announced on September 20 that in November, foreign travelers entering the country will be required to show proof of being fully vaccinated, a certificate showing negative COVID-19 test three days before boarding, as well as phone numbers and e-mail addresses for contact tracing. Jeffrey Zients, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, told the media that this new set of policies will take effect in early November.
According to the relevant regulations of the United States in the past, the entry measures of 33 countries including China, India, the United Kingdom and other European countries will be relaxed in the future. At the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak last year, former U.S. President Trump imposed travel restrictions on certain countries including the European Union. However, the Biden administration began to conditionally relax the entry of passengers from these countries 18 months after the policy was implemented, marking a major policy change in the U.S. The time when the U.S. government announced this was also a period when it was in diplomatic tension with its European allies.
While the U.S. is relaxing the entry conditions for travelers from these countries, many protective measures will continue to exist to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. The virus has already killed more than 670,000 Americans. Zients stated that it is important for foreign citizens flying to the U.S. to be fully vaccinated.
It is known in the past that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authorized the use of vaccines produced by BioNTech/Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, which will be included in the open entry. The U.S. CDC's latest announcement said that as for the British AstraZeneca, and vaccines manufactured in China, Russia and other countries will also be recognized. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that this is the focus of the inter-departmental meeting. This was originally intended to be announced in November, but it has now been announced in advance.
Under such circumstance, the world's vaccine war has been downgraded. Vaccines from countries such as China and Russia are now being recognized, while vaccines from countries such as India and Vietnam are not mentioned. This shows that the vaccine war will continue to exist in the future, and it will only be determined by a country's geopolitical strength. If a country is sufficiently influential, then its vaccines will be recognized. As for the scientific nature of the vaccine itself and the disclosure of data, the actual situation has not changed much compared with the past.
