avermat

Qantas is planning to make corona vaccination mandatory for all international passengers once it's available. Bad news for anti-vaxxers. Qantas plays it's part in protecting their continent from foreign diseases. Very unlikely to see Finnair making similar move due to all asian transfer passengers.

intuition

Australia has its share of authority defiance. While their PM has said vaccination will be as mandatory as possible for all citizens, I can imagine a lot of people going to great lengths to avoid taking it.

Still, it is a slightly odd stance for an airline. If it is their role to "protect the country", why don't they implement bio-hazard screening of all pax? You can get aboard an QF flight with a bag of fruit e.g. which is considered a big threat to the country.




-- Added
I'm going to answer that one myself:
It is because it makes such great TV for the vultures at channel 7 to film foreigners bringing all but the kitchen sink on their YOLO trip to AU

Ed Size

That only means that travel to Australia won't pick up anytime soon - since it will take a while till potential travelers get their vaccine, also there will be many who don´t stand first in line if a new vaccine is rolled out. And I don t call it "Bad news" if I have another reason for not traveling to Australia

WilcoRoger

We have this show on one of the channels in FIN. Once arriving at SYD, there were signs about Border Patrol filming on location and if one's not happy what to do to avoid being accidentally (or otherwise) filmed.

I very much WANTED to be filmed and be on the show but I saw no sign of the camera crew so it was smooth sailing with just a nod to the customs/quarantine officers.

Totally OT - just compare this show with the similar US show and you can't stop wondering about the polite professionalism of the Ozzy officers in comparison to their N-American collegues

seldomrfly

​​​​​​I have tickets to Australia. Guess I can cancel them right away, probably also needed to move them forward in x months or years. Wouldn't describe myself as an anti-vaxxer, have had all the "good old" vaccines. But will certainly not stand first in line for this one, I'll let the old an vulnerable have it first. Think I stick with my Ivermectin pills for a while. 😅

intuition

Oh yes very true. Even the handling of hammered bogans arriving home with souvenirs like stuffed animals, weapons, plants and so on, getting agitated and whiny "why you pull me over, I am 'strai-an" (a.k.a. Australian)

My beef isn't with the ABF, it is with TV's unscrupulous exploration of visitors from certain places. If you over and over air footage of a few select nationalities bringing the same kind of food items (forbidden to bring, but culturally important to the traveller) you'll end up with the N-american public discourse, even if the agents are polite professionals.

Courmisch

I am not against the measure in principles. But how is that going to work in practice? Will WHO define vaccination certificates? and how will they be identified?

Also, what about people who have actual medical reasons not be vaccinated? especially if they are Australian citizens?

Ed Size

There are other airlines ;-) But I m sure everything said at the moment won't last very long. Once there is more experience the rules will be adjusted, either way.

WilcoRoger

There is the so called "yellow passport" (which I think is a WHO format document) which is the universally accepted certification for vaccinations received. I never had one, but my Mom used to have in the 70's & 80's when she travelled a lot to Asia and Africa. I guess it is still around.

r2d2

Yes, it is. I got mine a bit over a year ago with the yellow fever vaccination. It's still 1970's style, basically a piece of cardboard where the vaccinations are written with pen and confirmed by the signature of the person giving the vaccination, so probably not the most reliable document

florens

I have one. It is a total joke as can easily be forged if one wants to.

ffay005

It should not be too difficult. There is already a model for this, the (ancient paper format) yellow fever vaccination certificate. As it concerns mostly developing countries, nobody has been interested in bringing it to the 21st century, but when thinking about this today, I came up with the following idea:

Registered vaccination centres worldwide (like with yellow fever).
Plastic card, the size of a credit card, with basic security features, first names, last name, date of birth and photo. Basically it could look like an ID card.
In addition, the card would include your country of birth / citizenship, the country where you live or whatever is needed.
Most importantly, the card would show the date of the first shot and the date of the second shot, as well as the date as of which it is valid (which is probably a week or so after the second shot).

When you get your second shot, you bring your photo with you and fill in a form, and the card is mailed to you after the second shot and should reach you before its validity starts.

Then you can show this card together with your passport at immigration, when boarding your plane, or (without your passport) even when entering a shop or restaurant or spa or whatever.

Shouldn't be too difficult to implement, and if the WHO does this, it should be widely accepted. OTOH, if the WHO does nothing, the EU could do this on their own. It would surely be accepted by most of the world as EU tourists are usually highly appreciated.

Courmisch

Ooh, I might actually have that piece of folded cardboard document aside in my child health book. While I still use the health book to track tetra-vaccination, I never used the piece of cardboard.

FFlash

I have and use it anywhere I go. Is there anything else proof?

LassiJ

Noticed this article related to the ”digital health pass” which would be used as a certificate of the negative test result and vaccination:

https://www.iata.org/en/pressroom/pr/2020-11-23-01/