Governments have the task to bring certainty to today's travel experience, and find a standardised system to encourage a return to international business and leisure travel, according to Global Rescue CEO Dan Richards. Photo Credit: Getty images/ Travel Wild
The science bringing Covid-19 treatments and vaccinations to market is successfully saving lives.
But it is also outpacing government authorities' ability to identify and implement a standardised system that will permit, even encourage, a return to international business and leisure travel.
That must change.
Currently, some countries, such as the US, still call for illogical rules like requiring fully vaccinated returning resident travellers to obtain and present a negative test result for Covid-19 infection.
Other countries, such as Thailand, South Korea and Dominica, go further by requiring fully vaccinated foreigners to undergo a mandatory quarantine.
When it comes to documentation of coronavirus vaccination or negative PCR test results for Covid-19, it is the wild west right now as the world's government health officials slog toward some form of a universal standard for crossing borders.
Most vaccination cards are little more than paper card stock, hardly designed to counteract fraud.
Here is a recommendation for countries with high per capita rates of vaccination and previous infection: do not require proof. Open your borders, and your economies will follow.
Let your health system absorb any cases that occur, which is what they are designed to do.
The US should do this immediately, and Europe should be in a position to do the same within months, likely before a universal standard is ready.
For those countries that do not have the virus under control, the solution may not be easy to identify.
Critical coordination
In these locations, government officials must take a leadership role in recommending secure technology standards where users, rather than centralised organisations, store and control data used for vaccine, previous infection and testing verification for Covid-19 and future disease outbreaks.
Of course, as vaccines and therapeutics spread throughout the world, these governments should be prepared to reduce or remove restrictions to travel.
If they must show proof, travellers want to control their own vaccination and testing data rather than entrusting centralised organisations with the information.
According to Global Rescue's 2021 Traveller Sentiment and Safety Survey, twice as many respondents want their proof-of-vaccination and Covid-19 testing results maintained by the individual and presented as necessary, as opposed to centralised storage of the personal information.
And, 16% of respondents do not want the data collected at all.
Travellers haven't always been against centralised collection of coronavirus testing and vaccination information.
Last September, a Global Rescue survey found 88% of travellers were ready for centralised collection of information and wanted governments or organisations to step in and systematise programmes designed to beat Covid-19.
As time passed, more testing technology came to bear, and travellers embraced the convenience of fast, on-site testing and revealed they were willing to pay for it.
The overwhelming majority of respondents (91%) said they would submit to fast, on-site Covid-19 testing to check for the coronavirus before travel, and 80% said they would pay for the test depending on cost.
Sentiment supporting centralised traveller health information made an about face in a little more than half a year.
Transparency and access to testing are key to keeping the most people healthy that we possibly can. Those are two different things, and we cannot remove the uncertainty of the travel experience ourselves; that goes to governments.
We must get some level of coordination among governments so when travellers book their trips, they have a guarantee they will not have a problem with their digital health certificate and get stuck in quarantine on either side.
Better yet, governments in a position with ample healthcare availability should drop their restrictions. And they should do it now.
Dan Richards is CEO of Global Rescue, which provides medical, security, evacuation and travel risk management services to enterprises, governments and individuals. He currently serves on the US Travel and Tourism Advisory Board.
Source: Travel Weekly