Developed Vaccine Brings Hope to Avid Travelers

Travelers hope that a developed vaccine becomes available soon so that they can, once again, easily visit various places all around the world.

Travel has been heavily affected by the ensuing pandemic. Easy entry to various countries has become a difficult pursuit especially since massive lockdowns have been imposed to halt the rapid spread of the COVID-19 virus. Nevertheless, the news of a possibly developed vaccine brings a welcome breath of sigh.

Both companies hope to be authorized to commercially sell the developed vaccine within US territory before the end of November. Representatives plan to manufacture about 50 million doses prior to the end of 2020 and produce 1.3 billion vials next year.

Recently, several pharmaceutical companies, BioNTech and Pfizer, announced that a developed vaccine may be 90% effective against COVID-19 infection. This assumption was obtained from the collaboration’s third stage testing of the said vaccine. A couple of weeks after, the vaccine was observed to be even higher in efficacy, reaching 95%.

Consequently, Moderna announced that their developed vaccine against the virus is 95% effective, as well. In the UK, a vaccine produced by the joint efforts of the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca has been deemed 70% effective—a percentage that can even reach 90% as it gets further modified to reach its highest potential.

These updates are now providing hope as various countries grapple with the debilitating impacts of the pandemic, both economic- and health-wise.

Specifically, a developed vaccine—one that may be proven 100% effective against the novel coronavirus—can boost the economy. Likewise, an effective vaccine can result in a boom in the tourism industry which has been drastically decreased due to the necessity of restricted border entry in various countries around the world.

Explaining the ill impact of the pandemic on tourism, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development approximates that earnings from tourism will decrease by 80% this year.

Countries with a huge bulk of their GDP relying on tourism have had to make do with lesser income due to the need for lockdowns and social distancing protocols. Currently, it is predicted that it will take several years before these countries get to experience a resurgence of tourism in their territories. An effective, developed vaccine can help expedite this boon, however.

China, for example, is seen as an excellent epitome of that yearned-for tourism rebound. Since the country was able to immediately control the spread of the virus, they were able to restore air travel—enabling almost 90% of pre-COVID-19 air traffic.

“I believe that the main priority of the tourism industry is to get people travelling again safely by giving governments confidence that systematic Covid-19 testing and contact tracing are possible and reliable prior to having a vaccine programme,” asserts Aileen Clemente, the chairman and president of Philippine firm Rajah Travel Corporation, citing that a developed vaccine is not the sole solution for travel resurgence. “As we all know, the vaccine programme will take a while to roll out to all parts of the world, so pre- and post-vaccine programmes should be concurrently available,” continues Clemente.

Nonetheless, it is the hope of many that a developed vaccine becomes immediately available to the public so that a new normal can finally emerge—and easy traveling can be, once again, experienced.