February 05, 2021
3 min read
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Adalja and Marrazzo do not report any relevant financial information.
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Last week, President Joseph R. Biden Jr. signed an order suspending entry to the United States for non-citizens traveling within 14 days of their stay in South Africa.
Biden also reintroduced restrictions on travelers from Brazil, the UK – excluding overseas territories – Ireland and an area of Europe with 26 countries to the US.
Amesh A. Adalja
Jeanne Marrazzo
In announcing the newly signed restrictions, the White House cited concerns about the variants of SARS-CoV-2 first detected in Brazil, South Africa and the United Kingdom, which raised concerns about the vaccine’s effectiveness.
Experts have discussed the usefulness of travel restrictions in controlling the spread of pathogens and stated that history has shown it ineffective and sometimes even counterproductivealthough they acknowledge that they may be necessary at times.
Amesh A. Adalja, MD, A senior scientist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security said it was important to remember that “despite travel restrictions, the variants are spreading across the United States and we shouldn’t get a false sense of security from doing these things.”
“I think that a distinction has to be made between travel bans and travel restrictions,” Adalja told Healio. “For example, we have the test technology to make traveling relatively COVID-19-free. It just needs to be implemented – at the gate.”
Jeanne Marrazzo, MD, MPH, FACP, FIDSA, The Director of the Department of Infectious Diseases and Endowed Chair of Infectious Diseases at the University of Alabama at the Birmingham School of Medicine said travel restrictions can and do work.
“Timing is everything, though,” said Marrazzo, who is also a member of the editorial board of Infectious Diseases News. The effectiveness of such restrictions depends on accurately identifying travelers who pose a real risk, she said.
“COVID-19 presents a particular challenge as at least half – and possibly more – of all transmissions come from people who are infected but do not know – either they have no symptoms or they do not recognize them when it comes to COVID,” said Marrazzo. “Because of this, it might be effective to apply travel bans broadly to a region that is believed to be the source of a particular problem.”
It is believed that the emerging variants are more transmissible and can bypass the immunity induced by natural infections or vaccination.
Researchers have predicted that variant B.1.1.7, discovered in the UK, could be the dominant SARS-CoV-2 virus in the US by March. The variant spreads easier and faster than other variants, according to the CDC, and experts in the UK have reported that it may be linked to an increased risk of death, although more studies are needed to confirm this.
The B.1.351 variant, first identified in South Africa, is the most worrying of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony S. Fauci, MD, and other experts have said. The variant first identified in Brazil is known as P.1. All three were discovered in the US, according to the CDC, although it is unclear how widespread they are.
According to Marrazzo, experts believe that the window of time in which variants can be prevented from entering the US or spreading out of control has closed. She said travel bans could prevent even more variants from being imported, which could potentially arise in response to various pressures. “However, this is very theoretical at this point and the overall effect of such bans – including the human, societal and economic implications – needs careful consideration,” she said.
Separately, Marrazzo said it was important for the US to step up its efforts to monitor emerging travel restrictions on variants or not.
“The only reason we even knew about strain B.1.1.7 is because the UK has one of the most aggressive and sophisticated approaches to sampling and sequencing – if not most – in the world. We currently have nothing in the US like in many other countries, ”said Marrazzo. “The only way to record the emergence of these and new variants is to set up a system that knows what is coming – and any travel bans should be informed on the basis of this data, if necessary.”
References:
CDC. New COVID-19 variants. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/transmission/variant.html. Accessed February 4, 2021.
The White House. Proclamation suspending the entry of certain other persons at risk for the transmission of coronavirus disease, other than immigrants and non-immigrants. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/25/proclamation-on-the-suspension-of-entry-as-immigrants-and-non-immigrants-of-certain- additional people at risk for coronavirus disease transmission /. Accessed February 4, 2021.
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