When’s a good time to travel in a pandemic? | Source
Nowadays, since we can now travel, we see a lot of people rushing off to book flights. I sometimes find myself gravitating towards certain airline websites as well. But I just wanted to look, nothing more. *side eye emoji*
We used to see videos of people on TikTok with green screens of their desired destinations and pretending to be having a good time there. But now we can actually do that! In the flesh!
I know we all miss the outdoors. The smell of airplane seats, the debate on whether or not airplane food actually tastes good or if our taste buds are just weird on air. The sound of KLIA/klia2’s announcement system calling on you to get on the flight before your gates closed. Oh, those were the times!
But I put forward a question, even if they deem it safe to travel now, is it really advisable for you to actually do it so soon?
Should Travelling Wait?
Because of the rise in numbers of COVID-19 infections and the general uncertainty around the subject of the virus, it’s probably safer if we pushed back our travel dates, maybe two or three years into the future.
Since vaccinations were invented, people have started making plans on travelling again. They’ve started to look up places where travelling is permitted, given that you’re fully vaccinated. And things are starting to look up!
Right…?
The thing is, we’ve seen places where the numbers drop to a manageable amount but a few months or so later, they rise back up again. This virus is so adaptable and untraceable that it’s very scary to want to just leave it alone and do whatever we want.
Trust me, I’ve also been dreaming of the day I get to go outside and travel again. On a good year, I’d put aside money to go travelling at least three or four times. Either to domestic or international places. Just as a chance to get away and experience something different.
I’ll admit, I was also one of those whose hands shake in excitement at the thought of having to do that again. I was all aboard the travelling train!
But let’s be real here, with COVID-19 being such a new virus and cases can spring up at the drop of a hat, I would be very cautious when it comes to travelling again. There are other variables that also play a huge part in deciding whether or not to travel.
Get Vaccinated, Worry Less
One of them being the case of anti-vaxxers in the country. If there are a high number of anti-vaxxers in your state or country, I don’t think it’s a safe place for people to travel. Even if I know that I’m vaccinated, there’s still a chance of me contacting the virus when I’m there.
But as there are a lot of anti-vaxxers as well, will we ever be truly free of this? Unless the vaccine is to be made mandatory, we can kiss our travel dreams goodbye.
I wouldn’t know if the people around me are vaccinated or not, or if they carry the virus with them. What if I catch it in that country and bring it back to my own, making the cases even higher?
I’m not about to go through another lockdown, I can barely even survive this one as it is.
There’s also cases of unknown variants. There are multiple species of human coronaviruses known to date, with one species subdivided into two different strains. I don’t know much science talk but that seems like a lot, considering there’s also talks about new variants surfacing.
And to think, during the beginning of the pandemic, we only had one “type”.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “depending on where the changes are located in the virus’s genetic material, they may affect a virus’s properties, such as transmission (for example, it may spread more or less easily) or severity (for example, it may cause more or less severe disease)”
With it being controlled in some areas one day and then suddenly spiking up the next, nothing is really set in stone when it comes to information about this virus and its strains.
The answer to that fear has always been to get vaccinated and worry less about the spread of the virus. Which is very true. The more people that are vaccinated, the less likely it is for the variants to spread.
But that doesn’t mean that the moment you’re fully vaccinated, you go off and travel. You should wait a minimum of two weeks before deciding to travel anywhere. And even then, there are a ton of paperwork to complete before you’re actually cleared for travel — like your vaccination certificate, your PCR test results, an invite letter (if needed), your public health declaration, quarantine declaration, MySejahtera vaccine details and maybe a lot more.
Phew. Isn’t that a journey in itself?
A Hassle To Travel
Another reason why it’s best you should wait a few years to do some actual travelling, is the whole 14-day quarantine thing.
Say you book a flight to a country, you’re fully vaccinated and you’re in high spirits to just have a good time. But low and behold, the country you’re going to requires you to quarantine for a full 14 days before you can enjoy yourself.
So you book a room in a shady hotel that’s way too expensive and spend the majority of the 14 days binge watching Netflix, having cold food delivered to your door at odd times.
By the time you get out of the hotel, your mood is gone because now you only have three more days left of your holiday before you have to go back home. And surprise, surprise — your home country requires you to quarantine for 14 days too!
By the end of the experience, you’re exhausted, unmotivated and you just want to go home.
As a side note, take into account that the only valid reason for you to be travelling during a pandemic is because of an emergency. You’re either going back home to visit your family during term break or for health purposes. Other than that, your reasons are questionable.
There’ll Be Peace When You Are Done
Although you’ve been vaccinated, maybe it’s a lot safer for you to stick at home for the time being. After all, we don’t know what’s going to happen in the future. Is it better to travel now and risk your safety just for a few days of “fun in the sun”, or wait for it to die down before enjoying yourself fully?
Ultimately, it is always up to you. But I urge you to think very carefully before clicking the “book flight” button.
In the meantime, if you have questions or thoughts about what a post COVID-19 economy would look like, we recommend you try this for a read:
What Does the Post-COVID Economy Mean For Malaysians?
