A Major Confusion in International COVID Regulations
If you’ve recovered from COVID at any time in the European Union in some member states, it will be at best extremely confusing and at worst impossible for you to be able to travel to the United States.
This post is going to be a bit of a departure from my usual software posts. In a way, however, the ultimate message relates heavily to software engineering in that it is all based on logic, and in this case, the logic fails. Before you roll your eyes at the COVID title: I’m not going to make any claims to political alignment at all in this article, I’m simply going to display the various regulations and rules as they are written, show what the issues are, and you can do your own further opinion-making on the whole thing.
How am I a seemingly expert in the United States and European Union COVID regulations? Long story short, my girlfriend was unable to travel to the United States for the holidays this year. It’s pinned on my Twitter and will stay there for quite some time until it becomes clear to me that steps are being taken to make things more clear for people:
If this whole fiasco did not completely ruin my holiday season, it certainly put a severely large dent in it.
Putting personal issues aside, let’s dig into all the rulings and regulations.
United States Presidential Proclamation
On November 8th President Biden issued A Proclamation on Advancing the Safe Resumption of Global Travel During the COVID-19 Pandemic which states:
The entry into the United States by air travel of noncitizens who are nonimmigrants and who are not fully vaccinated against COVID-19 is suspended and limited, except as provided in section 3 of this proclamation.
From the CDC’s Technical Instructions for Implementing Presidential Proclamation Advancing Safe Resumption of Global Travel During the COVID-19 Pandemic and CDC’s Order, fully vaccinated is defined as:
Fully Vaccinated Against COVID-19 means it has been:
2 weeks (14 days) since a person received one dose of an accepted single-dose-series COVID-19 vaccine (e.g., Janssen/J&J); OR
2 weeks (14 days) since a person’s second dose in a 2-dose series of an accepted COVID-19 vaccine; OR
2 weeks (14 days) since a person received the full series of an accepted COVID-19 vaccine (not placebo) in a clinical trial; OR
2 weeks (14 days) since the person received 2 doses of any “mix-and-match” combination of accepted COVID-19 vaccines listed in Table 2 (above) administered at least 17 days apart.
European Union Council Recommendations
Now, let’s examine the rules for the European Union. The EU’s main ruling on COVID-related travel restrictions is in the Council Recommendation (EU) 2021/961 of 14 June 2021 amending Recommendation (EU) 2020/1475 on a coordinated approach to the restriction of free movement in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Okay, insanely long title there. Recommendation 25 of the European Union Council Recommendations for states:
Without prejudice to Member States’ competence to set their vaccination strategies, a person having received a single dose of a 2-dose COVID-19 vaccine that has been granted a marketing authorisation pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 726/2004 after having previously been infected with SARS-CoV-2 should also be considered, in a travel context, as fully vaccinated, where it is indicated in the vaccination certificate that the vaccination course has been completed following the administration of one dose.
This means in the EU, fully vaccinated, in a travel context, can mean recovered plus only 1 dose of a 2 dose vaccine.
The Problem
Here’s a first problem: the definition of fully vaccinated between the EU and United States is inconsistent. Furthermore, it is up to member states to choose if they even want to take recovered+ 1 dose EU recommendation in the first place, making it even more challenging to track down what vaccination tracks are being used on a country-by-country basis. Austria is one of the countries that has chosen the recovered + 1 dose option.
The second problem: there seems to be a vast misunderstanding due to this EU recommendation, creating an almost Mandella effect thought process that not only should one be considered finished with their vaccination track, after recovering from COVID and receiving one dose, but worse: that you can’t or shouldn’t be able to receive your second dose. This was the problem my girlfriend ran into. However, have no fear! There’s yet another bill that can clarify this misconception, at least for Austria:
Austria’s Federal Law on the compulsory vaccination against COVID-19 (COVID-19-IG). In short: nowhere in that document does it state that individuals who have recovered from COVID-19 can’t get their second dose of a 2-dose vaccination! In conclusion, my girlfriend was incorrectly advised by multiple people that she could not receive her second dose.
Personal Commentary
What can we learn from this? As I try in all my educational content, articles, and so on, we need the rulings and regulations from governments that everyone can understand in plain simple language. We also need people out there doing the best job they can, not half-assing it or simply guessing what they believe to be true. Anyone in a position of providing consultation to others around the matters of COVID-19 needs to stop watching youtube, reading tweets, or whatever other garbage you may take to be primary sources of information. A little hint: they’re not primary sources!
Instead, these individuals should read the damn rules as they are written directly from the government, educate themselves, and then provide guidance. It shouldn’t have to come down to me, a freaking software engineer, having to read the presidential proclamation, the European Union commission’s recommendations, and the COVID-19 Compulsory Vaccination Act documents to finally fully understand what the truth of the matter is and what went wrong along the way.
All in all, I would err on the side of the United States being somewhat at fault here, as this recovered + 1 dose strategy would be more matching to EU travel regulations. At the same time, however, I’d say the individuals in Austria (and I would guess many other European states) are also equally at fault, dismissing the idea that someone could get their second dose even if they had recovered. So if you’ve recovered from COVID in the past and are finding it difficult to become fully vaccinated by the United States definition with both doses of a vaccine, now you know why! 😉
Well, it’s all water under the bridge now.
Happy Holidays. 🎅🎄
-Chris
