The Slumbering Travel Giant Awakens – With a Catch

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September 27, 2021

It is gratifying to see news that borders are beginning to reopen and travel restrictions ease. However there is, inevitably, one immediate caveat and that is the requirement of countries for travellers to have been vaccinated.

Despite the justified criticism of compulsion over COVID-19 vaccinations, it is a fact that the vast majority of people have not suffered any adverse reactions or side-effects to the jab.

Nevertheless, the COVID-19 vaccine requirement restricts substantial numbers from returning to normal life and begs the immediate question:

If the vaccines are truly effective, then surely those who have had them need have no fear of those who have not – they are protected. Or are they?

This is the second question; there have been, now, innumerable cases of people who are vaccinated still going down with COVID-19.

This being so, one has to ask a third question; what is the point of such a vaccine?

The answer of course is that no vaccine (against anything) has ever proven to be totally effective and one is still at risk from the disease that it will help fight. What really counts is our natural immunity to such infections.

For the most part – although not always – the human immune system is remarkably good at warding off most afflictions. But that system has to be allowed to develop. It will not do so if people cannot mix and cannot travel.

There is a risk to travelling. Yet there is a risk to everything we do on a daily basis – including driving one’s car, getting on a boat, a bus and an airliner.

Sensible precautions are good. Panic-stricken and plain oppressive measures such as those the world has seen since March 2020 is not.

Image – Reuters

© KJM Today 2021.