More than 40 per cent of travellers that took part in a survey conducted by StudyinPoland.Info believe that it is a good idea for the governments of countries worldwide to make COVID-19 vaccination an obligation for travellers.

While exactly 41.35 per cent of the respondents believe that vaccination should become mandatory for travelling, another 58.65 believe it is not a good idea to impose such a requirement.

Through the survey, in which participated 8,205 travellers, 5,472 female and 2,733 male respondents, from February 20 to March 20, StudyinPoland.Info has also found that only 19.2 per cent of the participants have never heard of the COVID-19 vaccination certificates before.

On the other hand, 80.8 per cent of the respondents have heard of these documents, which in recent months has been called different names, including vaccine passports, Coronapas, Digital Green Certificate, etc., but they all serve for the same purpose, to revive travel.

COVID-19 Vaccine Certificates & the ‘Obligation’ to Vaccinate

By the end of last year, governments of countries worldwide had started to warn they would soon begin to issue documents to those vaccinated against COVID-19, which documents could also serve as a way to abolish travel restrictions for their holders.

Throughout the very first months of 2021, the governments started undertaking concrete steps to launch such documents, most commonly known as vaccine certificates and vaccine passports.

In the European Union, the Member States and Schengen associated countries started to create vaccine passports individually, with Denmark, Iceland and Greece, among the first to do so. In order to create a unified approach, the EU Members agreed on the creation of the Digital Green Certificate, which among others, will be issued to those fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

While there has been a lot of debate going on around whether COVID-19 vaccination should become mandatory for travel, countries worldwide have refused to do so.

In Europe, only this week, two of the highest bodies of the European Union, the parliament and the Council, have called on the EU Commission to be careful for the certificates not to become a pre-condition for travel.

Yet, there is a history of governments worldwide making vaccination obligatory for other diseases, including measles, tetanus and polio, mandatory vaccination rules for which exist in as many as 105 of 193 countries in the world.

In these countries, penalties are imposed against individuals who do not comply with the obligation.

The obligation to vaccinate is also present in many schools, including in schools located in seven European countries and all 50 states in the United States.

According to Neena Gupta, labour and human rights lawyer in Ontario, Canada, the governments and companies must try to balance people rights and public immunity when considering making a COVID-19 vaccine obligatory.

“You’re balancing people’s rights to make their own medical decisions versus mandating public immunity,” Gupta said while pointing out that the anti-vaccine movement has fuelled conspiracy theories, which has made it more difficult for the governments to convince the mass that the vaccines are safe and necessary.

Anti-vaccine groups have, in particular, pressured the governments to refrain from making vaccination against COVID-19 obligatory, insisting that such a move would be a violation of civil liberties. Privacy lawyer Allan Richarz agrees with them.

According to him, the requirement to obtain post-vaccine certificates in order to participate in a re-opened society is “an unacceptable violation of civil liberties.”

“Such requirements are ripe for backsliding towards discrimination and stigma, as well as creating inequitable outcomes globally, with the harms arising far outweighing the purported benefits,” Richarz says.

Yet, while governments may hesitate to make vaccination obligatory, travel agencies seem more confident about what they want. In the US alone, three smaller American cruise lines already plan to require a vaccine once cruising resumes.

Is It a Good Idea to Make Vaccination Obligatory for Travel?

No matter how alluring the idea of reviving travel through vaccination may seem, travel experts fear that making such a move would only bring the already devastated travel and tourism sector “to its knees.”

According to Luis Felipe de Oliveira, the director-general of the Airport Council International (ACI), making vaccination mandatory for travel would have the same effect as the requirement of quarantine

“Just as quarantine effectively halted the industry, a universal requirement for vaccines could do the same,” he said while still welcoming the rapid development and deployment of vaccines.

The survey carried out by StudyinPoland.Info shows that travellers are eager to take a trip abroad more than ever since the start of the pandemic, with 95 per cent saying that they would consider travelling as soon as the travel restrictions are lifted.

87 per cent of the total number of respondents claim that they desperately need a holiday abroad right now, while 54 per cent of them believe that it is not very risky to travel abroad right now, in spite of the spread of the virus and its mutation all across the world.