Foreigners visiting the US legally still required to have COVID vaccine

over 1 year ago

If you are not a US citizen or "green card" holder (permanent resident) and you wish to visit the country, you had still better have your COVID shot squared away. Yes, the requirement is still in effect. It is still in effect even though none other than Rochelle P. Walensky, the head of the CDC, had herself acknowledged that vaccinated people can get infected with the virus and transmit it just as easily as their unvaccinated peers - and that was over a year ago. And, of course, this requirement applies only to those seeking to enter the US legally - even though illegal migrants face no such requirement. And, given that at this point over a hundred thousand illegal migrants attempt to enter the country via the Mexican border alone every month, it is easy enough to conclude that this requirement is completely unnecessary - at least, it can clearly be done away with, and the sky will not fall.

I could mention many levels of double standards surrounding this policy. One is the unequal treatment - with legal visitors being disadvantaged. Another one is the seeming silence of the open borders advocates about this policy. But I will just use this to underline, once again, what appears to be a pattern about the handling of this pandemic: these policies are mostly driven by political, rather than public health considerations. This policy is one of the more glaring examples of that.