Ask HN: When, if ever, will it be safe to travel again? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: When, if ever, will it be safe to travel again?

8 pointsaphextron11 comments

What metrics should we be watching? What is an acceptable level of risk to you?

Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific could be free of Covid-19 pretty soon, so we'll get our own little bubble of safe travel. Looking forward to it.

Looking to the advice of the world health organization on travel restrictions there never should have been any.

https://www.who.int/news-room/articles-detail/updated-who-re...

This has been the WHO recommendation for some time.

I want to piggyback on this post:

I know someone who lives in the Carribbean (St Maarten) and wants to travel to the US. Is this allowed currently?

The US gov travel website does not make it easy to figure out.

Anyone know if this is a great time to go traveling? Would hotels be very cheap and touristy places less touristy? Or would touristy places be mostly closed altogether?

Restrictions on normal life are pretty much gone in my country and most people I encounter are ignoring them. I plan to travel this year after August.

Other than repatriation or other out-of-the-ordinary circumstances: Once a vaccine has been widely applied or once treatments are available that sufficiently and consistently mitigate symptoms of COVID-19 infections.

It's not a matter of personal risk. It's one of trade-offs and risks at a societal level and from an economic point of view:

What could possibly be so important that it's worth risking getting an entire complement of passengers infected and possibly reintroducing the pathogen into a country for?

Assuming there will be a vaccine is an act of faith. They have been working on a SARS vaccine for years, with billions invested and several man-centuries, and have failed so far.

Given the promising efforts so far the discovery of a vaccine is quite likely. There wasn't one for SARS because that disease simply went away by itself with not enough infected patients anymore for a vaccine to have any significant effect.

Like I mentioned, even if there won't be a vaccine having a reasonably efficient treatment would be another option. In that case, COVID-19 over time would simply be relegated to a flu-like disease.

It all depends on your personal circumstances. Are you in a risk group? If so, I'd wait for a vaccine.

Personally, I'm not in a risk group, have been exposed (close prolonged contact to multiple positive people) without any major issues. I've flown twice since March and am flying at least 3 more times this summer.

I personally avoid flying for environmental reasons.

If I absolutely had to fly, it would be 1-2 years after a vaccine or proven treatment is developed. Until then won’t even consider it.

The last two times I flew on a plane I got deathly ill. In fact the second time the sickly mal-air of the cabin was so overwhelming that I remarked to my wife that I was sure to get ill from the flight.

And if you look at how cabin air is handled, there is very little chance that you can sanitize the plane effectively.

Auto travel is out too, unless you camp or have a trailer or RV, think of how deeply embedded the virus is in the pillows, carpeting, and bedding in hotels. And our second wave is just getting started as well.

I give it 2-3 years.

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