With mass vaccine rollout going quite fast in the US, UAE, Israel, UK, and select other
parts of the world - aka rich countries - many people in these nations see an end in sight
to the current pandemic.
One of the first things people can’t wait to get back to is travel.
After all, most people put all international travel plans on hold since the first lockdown.
However, if you live in one of the countries with a fast vaccine rollout and are planning
an immediate trip out after vaccination and herd immunity in your country, make sure to
delay travel to some destinations.
These include...
[INDIA]
An incredible country full of culture, historic sights, amazing food and landscapes, India
is high on many travelers’ bucket list.
Unfortunately, India is also currently going through a huge crisis in its healthcare system
because of a huge surge of COVID-19.
The virus has overflowed Indian hospitals, to the point where oxygen delivery systems
in New Delhi and other major Indian cities collapsed.
Worst of all, many local health experts point out that even this shocking amount of COVID
hospitalizations and deaths is likely undercounted.
Rural Indian citizens, or those living in the huge slums outside the central cities,
are unlikely to have access to healthcare.
Therefore, there are probably many more people than are being reported getting infected,
sick, and dying at home, without ever making it onto any official count.
Tourists visiting India now would create an unnecessary burden on a healthcare system
in crisis.
With oxygen supplies low throughout the urban areas, doctors and nurses working overtime,
and hospitals packed to the brim, India can’t handle foreigners coming in, contracting the
virus, and then also needing medical assistance.
Furthermore, a “double mutant” variant of the virus was recently detected in India.
Virologist Shahid Jameel warned that such a variant may be more resistant to vaccines.
As he stated, “double mutation in key areas of the virus’s spike protein may increase
these risks and allow the virus to escape the immune system.”
So if you want to experience the beautiful sights and sounds of India, maybe wait just
a little bit more.
[BRAZIL]
Brazil.
In the last few years, the country of stunning beaches, samba, and the most envied Carnaval
in the world has become synonymous with its aggressive and often ignorant leader - Jair
Bolsonaro.
Progressive Brazilians have bristled at the President’s COVID-denial, which continued
up until the point where Jair himself became infected.
However, it doesn’t seem that contracting the virus whose existence he denied did much
to open up Jair’s mind.
His refusal to acknowledge the spread and danger of the disease, as well as his general
disregard for indigenous people of Brazil, protecting the Amazon, and most of Brazil’s
working class, may explain why his approval rate was hovering around 24% in May of 2021.
When the pandemic’s death toll surpassed 162,000 in Brazil, Bolsonaro had the following
words of comfort to offer: “Everyone is going to die….we have to stop being a country
of sissies.”
As you might imagine, this ridiculous announcement offered little consolation to hospitalized
Brazilians or those grieving loved ones’ deaths.
Though Brazil’s vaccine rollout was progressing on schedule, it recently stalled due to various
failures of federal, state, and local governments to ensure the rollout went smoothly.
Additionally, Bolsonaro’s government has repeatedly been in favor of easing social
restrictions regardless of expert advice, leading to Brazil being one of the worst hit
countries in the world during the pandemic.
Brazil’s death toll and virus spread was also exacerbated by an infectious variant
that sprang up in the region, which experts determined was around 2.5 times more infectious
than the first virus variant.
Since trust in Bolsonaro has fallen to an all time low, causing doubts about the pandemic
numbers being reported and general social unrest, perhaps tourists can wait another
year before visiting the beaches of Rio.
[COLOMBIA]
Heading further north on the South American continent, you may have caught wind of Colombia
in the news lately.
Though the country had instituted a strict lockdown, it has recently experienced another
deadly surge in viral spread around the country.
However, there are other problems to deal with in Colombia right now.
Before the pandemic, social discontent had formed with the government of Ivan Duque Marquez,
leading to youth protests across the country.
Now, with many young people unemployed or barely surviving off their diminished income
during the pandemic, this discontent has only grown.
Everyday Colombians, especially young people who see Marquez as allied with the wealthy
and dismissing the concerns of the middle and working classes, have been protesting
daily on the streets, leading to violent clashes with police.
As of mid-May 2021, 19 people have been killed, and hundreds more injured.
The protests were re-triggered when Marquez’ government proposed a new tax plan which favored
the wealthy, while taking away many tax exemptions for everyday goods and placing a higher tax
burden on most citizens and small business owners.
Though Colombia is home to some of the most beautiful destinations in the world - Cartagena,
Medellin, and Santa Marta, to name a few - the atmosphere is tense as tens of thousands of
young Colombians are currently out on the street all across the nation to protest for
their rights.
Hopefully, the protests lead to a plan that will ease the economic burden on Colombian
people, and tourists can return to a happier, more peaceful country soon.
[RUSSIA]
Perhaps it’s no surprise that the widespread corruption in Russia has bled through to COVID
numbers as well.
Demographer Alexei Raksha is among many experts and officials who think Russia’s official
numbers barely even approach the actual tally of the sick and deceased.
Raksha worked at Rosstat state statistics agency until summer of 2020, when he was forced
out over disagreements regarding the COVID numbers.
The disagreement basically came down to Raksha wanting to report accurate numbers and give
civilians an idea of the present risk, while Putin’s government was more interested in
pretending everything was OK.
Raksha believes that the death toll as of March 2021 was around 450,000; way more than
the 94,300 deaths Russia’s COVID headquarters were officially reporting.
Russia has repeatedly opened up against expert advice, favoring its economy over its citizens’
health, and even opened up to allow a referendum that would help Putin stay in power.
Of further concern is Russia’s use of the locally-developed Sputnik V vaccine.
International experts and scientists peer reviewing Russia’s findings have expressed
skepticism about the trial methods, results, and even group sizes.
Sputnik V’s phase 1 and 2 trials, published in “The Lancet”, counted only 38 participants
each.
Though Russia approved a fast-track rollout of the vaccine in August of 2020, it still
has not made primary data available to an independent or international drug testing
authority.
So while Russia claims to be progressing on the vaccine rollout, we have no idea how effective
the Sputnik V vaccines actually are.
A visit to the Hermitage Museum or an adventure on the trans-Siberian railroad might sound
like the trip of a lifetime, but these are all good reasons to hold out on your Russia
visit just a little bit longer.
[TANZANIA]
Even for the stunning continent of Africa, Tanzania seems especially blessed.
Those who visit the Serengeti to see majestic animals up close or seek to climb Kilimanjaro,
one of the world’s “Seven Summits”, do so in Tanzania.
However, Tanzania is currently experiencing a problem during the pandemic; or rather,
two problems at once.
COVID denial coupled with rampant vaccine hesitancy.
In February of 2021, Tanzanian Health Minister Dorothy Gwajima publicly demonstrated her
own take on how to prevent COVID-19.
Did she get vaccinated in front of the cameras?
No.
Instead, she made a smoothie with ginger, onions, lemon, and pepper.
Besides sounding alarmingly like the Master Cleanse, Gwajima insisted that this smoothie
mix was Tanzanians’ best defense against viral infections.
Perhaps most distressingly, she also went on to state that her country has no plans
to receive vaccines for the pandemic, and citizens should rely on herbal steaming and
“natural remedies” instead.
When your Health Minister is spouting advice usually heard echoing off the walls of Gwyneth
Paltrow’s GOOP-funded mansion, you should be worried.
President John Magufuli stepped in to back up his health minister’s claims.
After months of denying the existence of COVID in the country, he finally admitted that the
virus had indeed been making the rounds, but advised citizens to pray the virus away instead
of observing any lockdown measures.
As you can tell, this doesn’t make us confident that Tanzania plans to reach vaccine-based
herd immunity any time soon.
[FRANCE]
We hate to take the City of Love off your travel plans, but we just might have to for
now.
Paris is frequently listed as the number one tourist destination throughout the world,
but there’s something else France may be number one in: it is now considered one of
the most vaccine-hesitant places in the world.
In early 2021, a survey in Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper showed that only 41% of French people
planned to get vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus.
Although experts expect that percentage to increase as the vaccine rollout accelerates
and more people observe its safety and effectiveness, France has a contentious relationship with
vaccines that might keep that number far short of what is required for herd immunity.
Prior to the current pandemic, a Gallup survey conducted in 44 countries, surveying 140,000
people in total, found that France was actually the most vaccine-sceptical country in the
world.
One in three French people surveyed said they did not believe vaccines, almost any vaccines,
to be safe.
Even if the number of French people willing to get the COVID vaccine increases, if approximately
33% of French people remain opposed, it means herd immunity will never be within reach.
Perhaps scientists can find a way to deliver the vaccine via croissants or cigarettes instead.
But for now, the Eiffel Tower will have to wait.
[MEXICO]
Mexico?
But how is that possible!
Mexico has been open to travelers through most of the pandemic!
In fact, it was probably the top visited location for US tourists in 2020, welcoming hundreds
of thousands of US citizens who wanted to escape the lockdown.
How can it be a bad place to visit after the pandemic ends?
Well, everything we just said before kind of answers your question, doesn’t it?
Mexico was involved in a lot of scandals regarding the presence of COVID-19 in the country.
In late March of 2021, the government released a statement revising its total number of COVID
deaths - up 60% from the original estimate to a total of around 321,000 people at the
time.
Back in December of 2020, the virus was spreading like wildfire throughout the country, and
especially in densely populated Mexico City.
With a central urban population of almost 9 million, and a metro population of 21.8
million people, COVID spread almost completely unchecked and did untold damage to Mexico
City’s massive population.
Federal officials kept insisting that the virus was at bay; spreading for sure, but
nowhere near the levels that would necessitate a lockdown.
However, independent journalists, including reporters for “The New York Times”, found
that Mexico City had far surpassed their own thresholds while shoppers, diners, and others
were still clogging the streets.
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was accused of downplaying the pandemic, partly
in order to keep tourism, especially tourism from the US, open.
Tourism accounts for about 8.5% of Mexico’s GDP, and the pressure to keep borders open
and people employed in the sector was intense.
During the height of the surge, President Obrador was found telling Mexicans to ignore
stay-at-home orders and telling people that masks weren’t “essential”.
As the recent revision of the COVID numbers show, Obrador also spent quite some time lying
about the numbers.
Contrary to his claims, Mexico had one of the highest recorded COVID-19 death tolls
in the world.
Like Brazil’s Bolsonaro and Tanzania’s Magufuli, Mexican President Obrador also set
a bad example from the top.
He often refused to wear a mask, and would even hug and kiss supporters at huge public
events.
On January 23, President Obrador started to experience flu-like symptoms.
Though he took a COVID-19 test, he also had no intention of holding up his schedule to
protect any of his citizens.
In fact, while waiting for his test results it seems like he tried to spread the virus
to as many people as possible.
He held an indoor dinner with business leaders, met with top government and military officials,
attended four public events in two different Mexican states, and took three commercial
flights.
After his little viral tour of Mexico, he got his test results and tweeted that he was
positive after all.
In addition to President Obrador’s own personal mission to infect his people, he made it extremely
difficult for Mexican citizens to test and isolate.
His government called free COVID-19 testing a “waste of time…[and] resources”.
That means that while Mexico was reporting very few COVID cases, the actual numbers were
through the roof, reflected in the very high positivity rate during surges, which sometimes
hovered close to 50%.
However, many people in Mexico live at or below the poverty line, and could not afford
COVID-19 testing, or get access to healthcare.
This means the numbers reported in Mexico, even now, are probably way below the real
ones, and Obrador’s government has every incentive to keep lying about the extent of
the viral spread.
At the end of the day, even though some countries have done a commendable job with the vaccine
rollout, thanks partly to massive funds and resources, scientists and epidemiologists
emphasize that we are only as safe as our neighbors and other countries throughout the
world.
That’s why it's important for those nations nearing herd immunity to help vaccinate other
countries, for people around the world to be educated on the vaccine and the virus as
much as possible, and perhaps most of all, for leaders around the world to set a good
example for their people.
Where do you want to travel, or not travel, when the pandemic ends?
Tell us in the comments below!
In the meantime, since you’re sitting at home anyway for the foreseeable future, click
on one of our hilarious and informative videos, here, or maybe here!