There might be a few snags along the way. Firstly, there is no conclusive evidence that a person who is vaccinated against the virus will not infect another.
by Dr. Ruwantissa Abeyratne in Montreal
"The best way forward is the blended comprehensive approach which puts containment as a major pillar." Dr. Tedros Adhanom, WHO Director-General.
On 23 November 2020 Reuters, along with other media such as CNN reported that “ Australia’s Qantas will insist in future that international travelers have a COVID-19 vaccination before they fly, describing the move as “a necessity”. Furthermore, Reuters quoted QANTAS Chief Alan Joyce as saying “We are looking at changing our terms and conditions to say, for international travelers, that we will ask people to have a vaccination before they can get on the aircraft,” This statement comes in the wake of promising news of a vaccine being developed by several sources and vaunted as both effective and result oriented.
The World Health Organization records that there are currently more than 100 COVID-19 vaccine candidates under development and the process of introducing a viable vaccine could take a while: “ Many potential vaccines for COVID-19 are being studied, and several large clinical trials may report results later this year. If a vaccine is proven safe and effective, it must be approved by national regulators, manufactured to exacting standards, and distributed. WHO is working with partners around the world to help coordinate key steps in this process. Once a safe and effective vaccine is available, WHO will work to facilitate equitable access for the billions of people who will need it.”
In the meanwhile, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) – a global association of airlines representing the air transport industry - is in the final development phase of the IATA Travel Pass, a digital health pass that will support the safe reopening of borders. This travel pass is expected to manage and verify the secure flow of necessary testing or vaccine information among governments, airlines, laboratories, and travelers. For its part The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) – a specialized agency of the United Nations with a global membership of States – through its Council Aviation Recovery Taskforce (CART) makes mention of its Testing and Cross-Border Risk Management Measures Manual and adds, while acknowledging that testing is not universally recommended by public health authorities as a routine health screening method, exhorts States contemplating testing in their COVID-19 risk management strategy to follow the approach outlined in the Manual.
Arguably, the most sensible recommendation of CART is that “States considering the formation of a Public Health Corridor (PHC) should actively share information with each other to implement PHCs in a harmonized manner. To facilitate implementation of PHCs, the ICAO Implementation Package (iPack) on establishing a PHC is available to States”. At no point in the annals of commercial aviation have the two key words “standardization” and “harmonization” been relevant and critical than in the current context of the pandemic where compliance and global consistency of measures have to be rigidly followed through the centrifugal forces of communication and sharing of information.
An article published on 7 November 2020 in the Lancet states: “ A first generation of COVID-19 vaccines is expected to gain approval as soon as the end of 2020 or early 2021. A popular assumption is that these vaccines will provide population immunity that can reduce transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and lead to a resumption of pre-COVID-19 “normalcy”. Given an initial reproduction number of around 2·2,1 which has since been revised to as high as about 4, and taking into account overdispersion of infections,2 perhaps about 25–50% of the population would have to be immune to the virus to achieve suppression of community transmission”.
There might be a few snags along the way. Firstly, there is no conclusive evidence that a person who is vaccinated against the virus will not infect another. WHO says: “ When a person gets vaccinated against a disease, their risk of infection is also reduced – so they’re also far less likely to transmit the disease to others” This means there is no guarantee that a flight full of vaccinated persons will not give the virus to others along the way before the air transport contract is concluded. According to international treaty as interpreted by decided litigation the carrier is in control of the passenger from the boarding gate until he clears his baggage from the carousel on arrival. Does this mean that the carrier would have to ensure that the vaccinated passengers do not come into contact with any other person while disembarking? Would the fact that all passengers are vaccinated be sufficient for the carrier to disregard the recommendations of CART such as: adjustment of the boarding process to ensure, to the extent possible, and consistent with weight and balance considerations, the boarding and disembarking of passengers is conducted in ways that reduce the likelihood of passengers passing in close proximity to each other; should seats be assigned for adequate physical distancing between passengers? should airlines allow for separated seating arrangements when occupancy allows it? should Passengers be encouraged to stay in the assigned seat as much as possible? Or should their movements be controlled in the cabin? should interaction in the cabin be limited or suspended? Should food and beverage services be curtailed or suspended? How about lavatory access?
The airline is a “common carrier”. Therefore, incontrovertibly, whenever an airline issues a ticket to a passenger in return for the payment of money, the airline undertakes to carry the passenger to the destination given in his ticket with reasonable care and within a reasonable time. Courts have accordingly followed the principle that the airline is contractually bound to carry a passenger who has been issued with a passenger ticket and that the airline is bound by the following legal parameters: to carry any person, without the imposition of any unreasonable conditions, if he is not in an unfit condition, and has paid his fare; to carry the passenger safely; to treat the passenger with due care throughout his/her flight; and, to ensure that the passenger is given the benefit of the speed inherent in air transport. All this means that whatever measures the air carrier adopts they should not be an undue burden on the passenger. This can only be attained through a globally harmonised system and not by piecemeal efforts.
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