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Dr. Drew Blasted on Social Media Over Vaccines and International Travel

Passport, International Certificate of Vaccination and Currency on a leather briefcase background

When famous TV and radio personality “Dr. Drew” Pinsky sent a tweet about vaccination requirements for international travel, the Internet was quick to corrected the misinformed internist. His tweet asks: “How would you feel if international travel also required other vaccinations?” Many responded with notes that at some destinations, vaccines are required.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, certain destinations required travelers to get vaccinated against diseases which are spread locally. However, noted television and radio medical personality “Dr. Drew” Pinsky may not have been immediately aware, after many Internet users were quick to respond to his latest tweet against vaccination passports and other solutions to reopen travel after the novel Coronavirus outbreak.

Dr. Drew: “Vaccine passports segregate people and strip them of their freedom to travel internationally”

On the morning of April 5, 2021, Dr. Drew went on Twitter to express his opinion against COVID-19 vaccination passports. Accusing them of “segregating people” and “[stripping] them of their freedom to travel internationally, he then continued to ask: “How would you feel if international travel also required other vaccinations?”

Twitter users were quick to respond to the board-certified internist, informing him that vaccination passports are required to visit some nations. While some shared pictures of their vaccine documents from the United Nations or U.S. Centers for Disease Control, others pointed out that the U.S. requires those seeking a visa to enter the country to document their vaccine history.

The comments are the latest misstatements by the former host of “Loveline,” “Ask Dr. Drew,” and “The Adam and Dr. Drew Show” podcast. Between February and March 2020, Pinsky claimed that COVID-19 was not as bad as the seasonal flu and claimed it was a “press-induced panic.” In April 2020, USA Today reported Pinsky apologized for his comments, and in December 2020, the newspaper noted that the doctor ultimately contracted the novel Coronavirus.

Comments Made as U.S. Steps Back From a Digital COVID-19 Passport Standard

Dr. Drew’s misstep comes as health officials say they will not create a digital COVID-19 passport requirement. In an appearance on the Politico Dispatch podcast, Dr. Anthony Fauci said the U.S. would not create a mandate, despite travel stakeholders asking the White House to name a single standard among the development of the IATA Digital Pass and the Commons Foundation CommonPass.

14 Comments
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TiberiusOnTime April 25, 2021

Being blasted on Twitter these days means nothing and is not worthy of a story, let alone front page news on flyertalk.

A
aresef April 15, 2021

The only thing worse than a quack is a quack with a camera or a microphone.

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CycloneSteve April 10, 2021

This is more than just a "Vaccine Passport" question. Will they decide having a contact tracing app is a requirement for a passport? Will they link your debit & credit cards to your passport? Will they disable your cards if you refuse to get a passport? "I'm sorry sir, your credit card was used in a business where you failed to check-in with the tracing app. We've temporarily suspended your vaccine passport until it can be cleared up." I would prefer to not be living at the leave of whomever is in charge of the government at that moment.

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CDTraveler April 10, 2021

To lyst: no vaccine is 100% effect, but that doesn't stop sensible people from getting them. Here's what the CDC has to say about the measles vaccine, which had been around since 1963: "One dose of MMR vaccine is 93% effective against measles, 78% effective against mumps, and 97% effective against rubella. Two doses of MMR vaccine are 97% effective against measles and 88% effective against mumps." Not a single 100% efficacy rating there.

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tkelvin69 April 9, 2021

Well, what do you expect from a TV doctor. Lyst- all vaccines have a percentage of people that will still contract the microorganisms and be contagious. The covid immunization is a vaccine.