Included in a statement at the tenth meeting of the Emergency Committee — which was convened by the director-general of the World Health Organization under the International Health Regulations and pertained to the 2019 Novel Coronavirus disease pandemic — was the modification that bans on international travel are ineffective.
Bans on International Travel are Ineffective: World Health Organization
The statement at the meeting — which occurred on Thursday, January 13, 2022 — included the following items:
- MODIFIED: Lift or ease international traffic bans as they do not provide added value and continue to contribute to the economic and social stress experienced by States Parties. The failure of travel restrictions introduced after the detection and reporting of Omicron variant to limit international spread of Omicron demonstrates the ineffectiveness of such measures over time. Travel measures (e.g. masking, testing, isolation/quarantine, and vaccination) should be based on risk assessments and avoid placing the financial burden on international travellers in accordance with Article 40 of the IHR. WHO advice for international traffic in relation to the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant
- EXTENDED: Do NOT require proof of vaccination against COVID-19 for international travel as the only pathway or condition permitting international travel given limited global access and inequitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. State Parties should consider a risk-based approach to the facilitation of international travel by lifting or modifying measures, such as testing and/or quarantine requirements, when appropriate, in accordance with the WHO guidance. Interim position paper: considerations regarding proof of COVID-19 vaccination for international travellers; Policy considerations for implementing a risk-based approach to international travel in the context of COVID-19
A Look at the Latest Statistics
The latest statistics are that at least 5,631,457 people — or slightly greater than 1.54 percent — have died of the minimum of 364,191,494 confirmed cases worldwide, according to this situation dashboard from the World Health Organization pertaining to the 2019 Novel Coronavirus…
…and at the same time, at least 5,662,700 people — or slightly greater than 1.51 percent — have died of the minimum of 374,317,243 confirmed cases worldwide, according to this situation dashboard from Johns Hopkins University & Medicine pertaining to the 2019 Novel Coronavirus.
At the time this article was written, at least 879,971 people — or slightly fewer than 1.19 percent — have died of the minimum of 74,037,216 confirmed cases in the United States, according to this situation dashboard from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pertaining to the 2019 Novel Coronavirus — and with an estimated population of 331,002,651 people, that means that slightly greater than 0.25 percent of the population of the United States have died with it.
The population of the world is currently at almost 7.8 billion people. Using the higher statistics from Johns Hopkins University & Medicine, that means that slightly fewer than 4.80 percent of the population have confirmed cases of 2019 Novel Coronavirus, with slightly greater than 0.07 percent of the population having died with it.
Final Boarding Call
I am not about to rehash what I have been saying for almost two years — if you are interested in reading the many articles which I have written pertaining to the current 2019 Novel Coronavirus pandemic, most of the links are listed in this article — but it is about time that some official authority with regard to the pandemic finally acknowledged the failure of banning international travel due to its ineffectiveness; and that some countries and jurisdictions are accordingly considering relaxing their rules and regulations.
I personally would like to see the day come as soon as possible when we can all travel internationally as freely as possible — similar or more improved over the way international travel occurred prior to the introduction of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus to the world…
Photograph ©2020 by Brian Cohen.
