Vaccination Proof Starts Tomorrow at US Land and Ferry Crossings for Non-US Citizens

mattoleriver wrote:I don't know anything about ferry crossings but at land crossings you are already on U.S. soil when you are checked. I doubt that there is any process for "deporting" a citizen. What would happen if the country that you just left denied you reentry?

There are three vaccines approved for use in the U.S.: Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a person is considered “fully vaccinated” if it’s been two weeks after the second dose in a two-dose series or two weeks after a single-dose vaccine.

But not all COVID-19 vaccines available in the U.S. are used worldwide, and some people vaccinated abroad may not have been injected with a dose approved for use in the U.S. So, the CDC also considers a person fully vaccinated if they were inoculated with a World Health Organization emergency-use dose. Those shots include the three available in the U.S., and the Oxford/AstraZeneca, Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines.

The CDC’s recommendation has already been conveyed to the travel industry, the White House said.

“Earlier this week, to help them prepare their systems, we informed airlines that the vaccines that are FDA authorized/approved or listed for emergency use by WHO will meet the criteria for travel to the U.S.,” the CDC told USA Today.

It’s still unclear whether American citizens immunized in countries without the aforementioned authorized vaccines would be considered vaccinated or unvaccinated. Another question is what this means for non-citizens who have received a COVID-19 vaccine that isn’t FDA authorized or approved or authorized by WHO. That would exclude vaccines like Russia’s EpiVacCorona, which is used in Russia, Belarus and Turkmenistan but isn’t FDA- or WHO-authorized, or China’s CanSino, which is available in 10 countries worldwide, including Mexico.

The CDC appeared to answer the question on Sept. 28 when it updated guidance to say impacted people “may start over with an FDA-authorized or approved COVID-19 vaccine.” The agency also recommends that people who got vaccinated with a non-CDC or WHO authorized vaccine wait at least 28 days before getting an authorized vaccine, which will almost certainly complicate already tricky travel plans.

There are also questions about mixed doses, and the U.S. hasn’t said if it would impose vaccine validity rules as one country has already done.

Either way, the U.S. will have to figure out how to verify vaccine credentials for so many countries.