Just Because You Can Travel Internationally Now Doesn’t Mean You Should

After more than a year of the COVID-19 pandemic,travel restrictions are liftingespecially forfully vaccinated people.

In this weird limbo era of the pandemic, how can we be responsible international travelers?

Is there even such a thing right now?

Travel internationally sitting on beach.

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But this also puts us in a relatively uniqueand uniquely privilegedposition globally.

For example,Reutersestimatesthat 20% of Mexicos population is vaccinated.

Thailand has distributed enough vaccines for 9% of its population.

Those who arent vaccinated should only travel if its a necessity, theCDC says.

If youre fully vaccinated, thats great, and youll likely have a lot more options available to you!

You have a responsibility to learn about how the pandemic is affecting your potential destination.

Dr. Maragakis recommends taking a look at theCDCs sitefor information about your destination before traveling.

Are hospitals already overwhelmed in the country youre visiting?

You could really be straining their health care system, Dr. Liao says.

In a low-risk area, the purpose of the visit matters less, Dr. Liao says.

A beach vacation, on the other hand, might not.

That could really undermine their public health efforts and make things even worse in the long-term.

Being fully vaccinated significantly reduces your risk of getting and spreading COVID-19.

But we have seen thatbreakthrough infectionsand asymptomatic spread of the virus are possible.

But other countries may be in a similarly vulnerable position but not have those rules in place.

That doesnt mean the risk isn’t there.

Where you could, make choices that will protect those around you.

But its best for everyone on the planet to haveequal access to the vaccines.

This is really a global worldwide threat to all of us, Dr. Maragakis says.