Restricting travel by type of vaccine could be discrimination, warns PAHO

Countries should allow entry to vaccinated travelers, regardless of their type of vaccine to avoid discrimination and facilitate business, said a senior official of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).

With rising vaccination rates, countries are faced with new questions about how to contain the spread of COVID-19 while easing travel restrictions.

The United States said last week that it would reopen the land border with Mexico, the busiest in the world, but would only allow people who have been inoculated with vaccines authorized by the World Health Organization (WHO), leaving aside two injections widely used in Mexico, Sputnik V from Russia and CanSino from China.

“It is very important that countries can reach bilateral and multilateral agreements so that all the vaccines that are being used are accepted,” said PAHO Deputy Director Jarbas Barbosa.

“It can facilitate tourism, it can facilitate business, it is in the interest of society,” he added.

He added that turning people away based on their vaccine could unfairly affect certain travelers. “This, without a doubt, could create a kind of discrimination,” he said.

Millions of Mexicans have been vaccinated with Sputnik V and CanSino injections, neither of which are approved by the WHO, and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said he will urge the WHO to speed up approvals.

41% of people in Latin America and the Caribbean have now been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, although not uniformly across the region, said PAHO Director Carissa Etienne.

The Covax vaccine exchange program is set to provide another 4.6 million injections to the region by the end of the week.

Etienne urged people to get vaccinated against both coronavirus and influenza, noting that some people may have lower defenses against influenza from staying home and social distancing.