A vaccination mandate for travel? Fauci says it's possible
Addressing a topic on the mind of everyone in the travel industry, Dr. Anthony Fauci told Newsweek that it is "quite possible" that Covid-19 vaccinations could become mandatory in order to travel to other countries.
"Well, you know, of course [it would be good for Covid-19 to become a standard travel vaccine]," he told the news outlet. "I mean, if everybody gets vaccinated, of course that's good."
Citing the example of yellow fever, Fauci said that although the U.S. doesn't require visitors to have a yellow fever vaccine, other nations do.
"It's the place to which you are going that requires it," he said. "I went to Liberia during the Ebola outbreak. I had to get my yellow fever vaccine or they would not let me into Liberia."
Fauci, who heads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, also said that a Covid-19 vaccine passport could be issued in the U.S.
"Anything is on the table. Anything is possible, of course," he said.
Fauci said that it was unlikely that the U.S. would nationally mandate getting a Covid-19 vaccine, because "we almost never mandate things federally [with regards to health]."
"I'm not sure [the Covid-19 vaccine is] going to be mandatory from a central government standpoint, like federal government mandates. But there are going to be individual institutions that I'm sure are going to mandate it," he said.
