Japan’s Continued COVID-19 Border Restrictions

Above, nighttime shoppers in Tokyo's Ginza shopping district. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

The pandemic is easing off in much of the world and nations have been easing restrictions accordingly and allowing foreign tourists to enter.

Except Japan.

People are wondering when Japan is going to open its borders. Last month, the Japanese government said they have "no plans" to reopen. It is speculated that the country will reopen during the last half of the year.

What's behind this?

The Diplomat has an extensive article on what's behind Japan's strict border closure.

They begin it with:

On April 13 Japan announced that family members of foreign residents in Japan will be permitted to apply for short-term visits as the government gradually eases its COVID-19 border restrictions. The welcomed decision comes after the government began allowing business travelers and some international students to enter in time for the spring school semester. No definite date has been set for the resumption of international tourism, which has been suspended since the start of the pandemic.

Japan’s rigid COVID-19 border restrictions have been criticized as “isolationist” and “xenophobic” due to the differential treatment of Japanese nationals and foreign non-residents. Japan has adopted a cautious approach to loosening restrictions and is known to shut the border to new arrivals in response to the spread of variants. In December, after a brief two-week window allowing business travelers and international students to enter Japan, the government reimposed the entry ban on new foreign arrivals until “more is known about the Omicron variant.”

Japan’s pandemic-hit economy is at risk of shrinking again due to the spread of Omicron and rising food and fuel prices, which are hampering consumer spending. Japan’s record low yen would encourage inbound tourism and play a considerable role stabilizing the currency and creating jobs. But the border closures prevent Japan from benefiting from the weak yen.

On April 11, Prime Minister Kishida Fumio said an appropriate decision on restarting tourism will be determined “based on the state of infections and the movements of other countries.”

Two and half years on and Japan remains an outlier among industrialized G-7 nations, which have re-opened for tourists and eliminated quarantines. The World Health Organization’s emergency committee recommended member states eliminate or ease travel bans imposed after the spread of Omicron, calling such policies “incomprehensible.”

To read more, go here. 

WHO: Travel Bans Proven "Ineffective" So Lift Them

Is common sense finally creeping into the World Health Organization?

It seems that way as they are calling for countries to lift their travel bans as they have proven to be ineffective in stopping the spread of coronavirus and its variants.

Japan is one nation who has a total travel ban in place. The omicron variant has hit there despite the travel ban and other restrictions.

According to a post in Study International: 

The World Health Organisation (WHO) is calling for countries to lift their international travel bans amid pandemic-related travel restrictions. In a statement, the agency said: “Lift or ease international traffic bans as they do not provide added value and continue to contribute to the economic and social stress experienced by States Parties.

“The failure of travel restrictions introduced after the detection and reporting of Omicron variant to limit international spread of Omicron demonstrates the ineffectiveness of such measures over time,” read the statement. 

They suggested implementing travel measures such as masking, testing, isolation or quarantine and vaccination. The statement said countries should not require proof of vaccination against COVID-19 for international travel due to limited global access and inequitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. 

To read more, go here. 

Foreign Citizens Seek US-Approved Vaccines As Travel Resumes

Above, Asia Lipovetckaia and Armand at the 2016 portrait unveiling party at the Odyssey Restaurant. Photo by Lori Thornhill.

As the U.S. is opening up to foreign travelers, many of them are in a quandary. The vaccine they received, such as Sputnik V, is not recognized by the Food and Drug Administration. In order to be allowed in, they must be vaccinated with FDA-approved vaccines.

KRQE reported:

Starting Monday, the United States plans to reopen to foreign travelers who are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. But there’s a catch: non-immigrant adults need to have received vaccines authorized by the Food and Drug Administration or which received an emergency use listing from the World Health Organization.

That leaves many hopeful travelers across the globe who taken full courses of vaccines widely used in other parts of the world — Sputnik V and the China-produced CanSino jab, in particular — scrambling to get reinoculated with shots approved by U.S. authorities.

Two other Chinese vaccines, Sinopharm and Sinovac, have been approved by the WHO and will thus be accepted for travel into the U.S.

While Sputnik V is used in around 70 countries worldwide, it has still not been approved by either the FDA or the U.N. health agency. Nearly 1 million people have received the vaccine in Hungary, a Central European country of around 10 million.

Hungary was one of only two countries in the 27-member European Union to roll out the Russian vaccine. Fewer than 20,000 people received it in Slovakia.

Citizens of Russia, where use of Sputnik V is most widespread, also are seeking Western-approved shots so they can travel abroad. Faced with the prospect of being turned away from flights, Russians have booked tours to Serbia, which has authorized use of the Pfizer-BioNTech, China’s Sinopharm and the AstraZeneca vaccines in addition to Sputnik V.

Russia, which unveiled Sputnik V with much fanfare as the world’s first registered vaccine in August 2020, criticized U.S. plans to leave the vaccine off its list of approved shots.

Artist Asia Lipovetckaia of St. Petersburg, Russia was planning to come to New Mexico for a 2-3 week visit, but the pandemic hit and those plans had to be scrubbed. She can come to the U.S. if she gets vaccinated by a FDA or WHO-approved vaccine. She could go to Serbia to get it as the above article stated. To date, she has not been vaccinated.

To read the full article, go here.

Russia's Sputnik V Vaccine Excluded

Above, Asya and I having lunch in Santa Monica a week before my move to New Mexico.

Before the pandemic started, Asya and I were talking about a visit by her to New Mexico for a couple of weeks or so. She resides in St. Petersburg, Russia. The pandemic put a pause on that. She was stuck in Denmark for a few months when the pandemic hit and travel restrictions were enacted.

As everyone is aware, the pandemic has hit every country. 

Russia claims to have developed the first vaccine for COVID-19, called Sputnik V. 

According to the Moscow Times:

Russia has confirmed 7,464,708 cases of coronavirus and 205,531 deaths, according to the national coronavirus information center. Russia’s total excess fatality count since the start of the coronavirus pandemic is around 596,000.

On the number of Russians vaccinated, ABC News reported:

Vaccination rates have remained low, too, with only 32% of the country’s 146 million population having received at least one shot of a vaccine and only 28% fully vaccinated.

Unfortunately, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Drug Administration does not recognize Sputnik V vaccine, which will cause some problems when new rules are announced in November on foreign visitors to the U.S. In 2019, over 300,000 Russians visited the U.S.

Axios reported:

New rules allowing fully vaccinated international travelers to enter the U.S. beginning in November will exclude those vaccinated by Russia's Sputnik V vaccine, the Washington Post reports.

Why it matters: Sputnik V's exclusion will mean millions of fully vaccinated individuals won't be eligible to travel to the U.S., per the Post.

• It will also have a wider international impact, as Russia has plans to distribute its vaccine to around 70 countries.  

State of play: According to the new rules, non-citizens entering the country must be inoculated with vaccines approved for emergency use by either the Food and Drug Administration or the World Health Organization, per the Post.

• These include the Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines used widely in the U.S., as well as the AstraZeneca vaccine. It also includes the Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines developed by China.

WHO has paused its review process of the Sputnik V vaccine over concerns about its manufacturing process, according to the Washington Post.

It will be interesting to see how things shake out once the new rules are announced.

Bogus Arguments Against West Africa Flight Bans

The so-called disease control "experts" (the World Health Organization's "experts" have already botched the containment of west African Ebola) are against travel bans to or from affected countries.

President Obama is also against any flight bans. He's a fine one to talk since he isn't enforcing existing immigration laws or securing the borders, thereby allowing people with diseases to enter.

One argument is that such a ban will prevent needed medical supplies and physicians from getting to affected areas. Another is that it will cause people to flee affected areas in other ways.

Those are ridiculous arguments.

It is doubtful that a flight ban to or from Ebola-affected countries would also include special humanitarian flights with medical supplies, etc. An exception would or should be made there.

Also, it is bogus to say that banning flights will cause people to "flee" in other ways.

In order for someone to enter another country, they would have to produce a valid passport. The border guards will check passports of people to see where they've been by the stamps. If someone tries to hide where they've been by tearing out any stamped pages, they then can be refused entry. They can also be screened for Ebola at the border crossings just like at the airports.

If someone is hell-bent on entering this country, nothing we can do will prevent them from doing so. But why make it easier to allow someone with Ebola to come in and infect the American people?