https://abcnews.go.com/Health/...nt-enter-us-82632795


Travel groups want to scrap testing requirement to enter US

The travel industry is lobbying Washington for changes it thinks will get more people on airplanes and staying in hotels

By DAVID KOENIG AP Airlines Writer
February 2, 2022, 5:18 PM
• 4 min read


DALLAS -- Airline and tourism groups are pushing to eliminate the government requirement that international travelers provide a negative test for COVID-19 before boarding a U.S.-bound plane.

They believe the testing rule is discouraging people from booking international trips. They point to the United Kingdom, which eliminated a similar rule last month.



Airlines for America, which represents the nation's biggest carriers, and 28 other airline, travel and business groups wrote Wednesday to the White House coronavirus policy adviser urging the Biden administration to end the testing requirement.

The groups argued that the testing requirement is no longer needed because of the high number of COVID-19 cases already in every state, higher vaccinations rates and new treatments for the virus.

“Removing the requirement will greatly support the recovery of travel and aviation in the United States and globally without increasing the spread of COVID-19 and its variants,” they wrote.

The White House did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

At the same time, one of the major tourism-industry groups said it is seeking tax breaks for conventions and trade shows, which it believes will help revive business travel.

Domestic leisure travel in the U.S. has recovered to pre-pandemic levels, but business and international travel have not fully rebounded. From early 2020 through last December, spending in the U.S. on travel has dropped by a cumulative $730 billion, and many jobs in the sector have not come back, according to the U.S. Travel Association.

Last month, the United Kingdom dropped a requirement for vaccinated travelers to pass a COVID-19 test before boarding a flight to the country. Travel groups are asking the Biden administration to similarly ease current U.S. rules, saying it would boost international flying.

Tori Emerson Barnes, executive vice president of the travel association, said people are reluctant to book international trips if there is a chance that the could get stranded and unable to return home if they test positive for the virus.

Industry officials also note that airlines saw a bump in bookings after the U.S. eliminated country-specific bans on travel in November, and the predict that the same will happen if the U.S. drops its pre-departure testing requirement.

The testing rule does not apply to flights within the U.S.

Government figures suggest that surges in COVID-19 caused by new variants of the virus have played a bigger role than testing requirements in discouraging travel.

From a low point in April 2020, the number of people traveling to, from or within the United States compared with 2019 rose every month until last August and September, when the delta variant hit.

The recovery resumed briefly, then stalled in December and went backward in January, as the omicron variant pushed U.S. COVID-19 cases to new records.

Airlines for America said its member airlines carried 38% fewer international passengers in late January than in the same period of 2019. Travel between the U.S. and China — which has its own tight restrictions on international travel — remains just 2% of pre-pandemic levels.

Separately, leaders of the U.S. Travel Association said that they are talking to members of Congress about tax changes they say would boost business travel.

The group is calling for a tax credit equal to 50% of costs that organizers and sponsors incur for conventions and trade shows. A bill containing the idea has foundered since it was introduced in the House nearly a year ago.

Since the pandemic started, many large conferences have been canceled, moved online, or offer both online and in-person options. Barnes, the travel association official, said event organizers and small businesses need incentives to resume in-person events and business meetings.

The group also wants to restore a break that was eliminated in the tax-cut law that former President Donald Trump and Congress, then led by Republicans, approved in 2017. That law eliminated the 50% deduction for business expenses that are considered entertainment.

Thank you Kathi for posting

I have been following this and was looking for what Washington was looking to do.

I think the John Hopkins report was eye opening on all the lockdowns and such. And now that it is out I was thinking the testing and masks will be a thing of the past.

Johns Hopkins Study Finds COVID Lockdowns Ineffective at Saving Lives

A study from researchers at Johns Hopkins University found that lockdowns have had "little to no effect on COVID-19 mortality."

The researchers conducted a meta-analysis of 24 studies examining government mandates that restrict people's freedoms, including school and business closures, stay-at-home orders, travel bans, and face mask requirements. The results of the meta-analysis indicated that lockdowns in the United States and Europe have reduced deaths from COVID-19 by just 0.2 percent.

"We find little to no evidence that mandated lockdowns in Europe and the United States had a noticeable effect on COVID-19 mortality rates," the authors of the study wrote.

An analysis of studies that focused just on stay-at-home orders found they were 2.9 percent effective at reducing mortality. Studies that gathered data on a broad number of government-imposed pandemic measures actually indicated that stay-at-home orders marginally increased COVID deaths.

The authors found no evidence of a noticeable effect on COVID mortality from any specific lockdown measure except for business closures, though "the variation in estimates is large and the effect seems related to closing bars," the authors wrote. They found mask mandates may reduce mortality but declined to form a conclusion on their effectiveness because their meta-analysis looked at only one study that examines universal mask mandates.

The authors concluded that governments should abandon lockdown measures because of their negligible impact on mortality and the real societal damage they cause.

"While this meta-analysis concludes that lockdowns have had little to no public health effects, they have imposed enormous economic and social costs where they have been adopted," the researchers wrote. "In consequence, lockdown policies are ill-founded and should be rejected as a pandemic policy instrument."

The study was published by Johns Hopkins's Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and the Study of Business Enterprise. One of the study's authors, economics professor Steve Hanke, is a codirector of the institute.

If you want to do something re health concerns on an airplane, I’ve got two suggestions that are pretty easy.

Check for fever on boarding. You have a fever, you are denied for the day, but airlines are required to rebook for free.

Secondly, if someone has a recurrent cough on the plane, they should be masked. The flight attendants should be able to tell if someone is sick and coughing all over the place.

Those two things are easy to do and fast.

I agree with pretty much everything except the 50% tax credit. The expenses are already deductible. Why should tax payers subsidize half of the costs of doing business.

crbutler, I am for you plan of how to handle concerns when flying. Also anybody that is that concerned is welcome to wear a respirator or even a full face respirator.

Switzerland does not require testing of those with a double jab.

May be that is what is going to happen.

I duplicate posted this but deleted it.

I'll be glad for this crap to end. Hopefully this will spread to the rest of the world. We're booked for a holiday in Ireland and Portugal at the end of May and it will make life a lot easier if we don't have to test before each country.

Currently Ireland doesn't require pre-entry testing but Portugal and the US do.