What’s old is new — the United States is adding new travel restrictions for those coming from China.
In this post:
White House adds China travel restrictions
China is transitioning its coronavirus response from “zero tolerance” to “let it rip,” which represents a major policy change. China will be reopening its borders as of January 8, 2023, and will eliminate the concept of having to quarantine for international travel. This means that international travel will once again be practical for those in China.
In response to this, the Biden administration is adding new travel restrictions as of January 5, 2023:
- Anyone arriving by air from China will need to present a negative coronavirus test within two days of travel
- This applies to any traveler two years of age or older, regardless of vaccination status
- This applies to travelers from mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau (so while Hong Kong is fully reopening, some may want to hold off on visiting)
There were previous reports that the Biden administration was considering adding other travel restrictions, as testing on arrival and health monitoring had both been mentioned. I’m not surprised to see neither of those be introduced (at least for now), since that wasn’t even something the government could pull off at the start of the pandemic.
The concern is that China isn’t transparently reporting its data on the pandemic, including the viral genomic sequence data that’s needed to assess the spread and identity of variants.
We’ve already seen other countries impose restrictions on travelers from China, including India, Italy, Japan, and Malaysia.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson is accusing western media of smearing China’s anti-coronavirus efforts, and is downplaying the epidemiological situation in China. The spokesperson stated that countries should “fight the epidemic in a scientific way, work together to ensure safe travel between countries, maintain stability of global industrial and supply chains, and restore healthy growth of the world economy,” and claims that the situation in China is “generally within expectation and under control.”
It’s interesting to see that three years into the pandemic, China is suddenly interested in restoring “healthy growth to the world economy.”
Unfortunately data so far doesn’t seem to support the current situation in China not being so bad. A flight this week from China to Italy required passengers to test on arrival, and 52% of passengers tested positive for coronavirus.
My take on new China travel restrictions
Admittedly there’s no perfect pandemic response approach. It’s a bit odd to see countries no longer viewing the pandemic as a public health emergency, yet still adding restrictions when other countries choose to ease restrictions.
On the one hand, China’s borders have very much been closed for nearly three years now. The country uses vaccines that aren’t terribly effective, and the population has very low immunity. Now that China is taking a “let it rip” approach, the country will likely see an outbreak like we’ve never seen before, especially with how contagious the omicron variant is.
Furthermore, there are a lot of unknowns when it comes to the epidemiological situation in China. The government hasn’t exactly been transparent about the reality of the pandemic, so I can appreciate how other countries might be skeptical.
On the other hand, I think we’ve largely learned that mild travel restrictions don’t do a lot to stop the spread of coronavirus. It’s one thing if you’re willing to totally close your borders, and even then it only works for so long. But one has to wonder what the point is of only somewhat restricting travel.
Now, it’s believed that China’s main coronavirus outbreak is an offshoot of existing strains of the omicron variant, which is highly contagious, but not as deadly as some past variants that we’ve seen. At least that’s what we believe, though who knows what the reality is.
I’m not surprised to see the United States add a pre-travel testing requirement. I suppose it’s better than nothing, though:
- Test results can easily be faked
- If the United States doesn’t trust the government of China to be honest about the pandemic, should the government trust these tests to be authentic?
- Pre-travel testing does nothing to tell us about the exact variant of the virus, as there’s no way for US officials to analyze positive test results
Bottom line
The White House is adding new travel restrictions for those arriving from China. As of January 5, 2023, the United States will require a negative coronavirus test result within two days of travel for all people two years of age or older.
This comes as China is changing its pandemic response, and opening its borders without any sort of quarantine requirement for travel. While this new restriction is better than nothing, I don’t think it will make a meaningful difference one way or another.
What do you make of the United States adding a testing requirement for China travel?
I remember that fully vaccinated Europeans were not allowed to enter the US while everyone else could. So they could keep out vaxed Europeans but not unvaxed Chinese? Lock the borders please until China has Covid under control.
Once again the US is showing how weak it is. Take a stand and close the border completely to people coming from China. End of story. Their government is hiding what the truth is and there is no way to know what type of extreme variants may come out of such a large scale surge. These half measures will only push the world towards Covid 2.0. Enough of this crap. Don't let China drag the world once again back into a full pandemic.
There will be no Covid 2.0. The worst part of Covid was the way in which governments locked their own people down. That won't happen here again. Only beta males like you are worried about catching another cold. Stay in your house forever wearing N95's and ordering Uber Eats. The rest have lives to live.
@Vinay
I agree. After Chinese New Year by March 1 2023 the COVID cases will plummet to almost zero.
@D3kingg, it'll be gone by Easter?
Most countries do not want to have increased variants. The question is really about enforcement. Will it actually be checked. Earlier in the pandemic mostly there were requirements but a lack of checking.
Do Biden knows how to protect Americans from life threatening Covid ? This will be biggest fault of Biden administration to set Jan 5th, 2023 to do Covid test on the flight from China.
Today (12/28), Italy already found 60% Covid test shows positive in two flight from China. All the flights from China must start Covid test ASAP before it’s too late.
Too late to what?? The virus getting into the country?? That happen three years ago...
We saw how “effective” this policy was at stopping Covid the first go-around back in early 2020… so let’s try it again, shall we? I’m sure this time it will work. /sarcasm
Build a wall and isolate the hell out of them, let them rot.
The restriction per se may be reasonable (meaning that it may have some though very limited benefit to public health), but it can easliy be interpreted by the public as legitimizing or even encouraging discrimination. This is no different than many remarks Trump put forward. The harm it will do to our society completely overweighs its limited benefit to public health it may or may not have.
I don't think that's true. Additional requirements that are only imposed on Chinese people would be discrimination, requirements that are only imposed on those leaving China (including Americans) could hardly be called discrimination. These bans have happened to clusters of countries over the course of the pandemic: most recently a few African nations with the Omicron variant, but also on the US when things were pretty terrible in the States. China (including HK) certainly had...
I don't think that's true. Additional requirements that are only imposed on Chinese people would be discrimination, requirements that are only imposed on those leaving China (including Americans) could hardly be called discrimination. These bans have happened to clusters of countries over the course of the pandemic: most recently a few African nations with the Omicron variant, but also on the US when things were pretty terrible in the States. China (including HK) certainly had no qualms about restricting entry from the US.
To what extent do you believe that the public will be aware of the subtle difference between "Chinese people" and "people from China"? All your analysis is logically correct but falls into "politicians' justification" -- it is simply nonsense when it comes to how average people process information.
No just no. I'm sick and tired of people trying to bring up the discrimination argument. You have a country with a government that lies about its covid situation which is going to set records in terms of the number of infections which may produce new variants that vaccines have no effect on. The chinese government isn't going to share information about those new variants and they are at risk of being exported across the...
No just no. I'm sick and tired of people trying to bring up the discrimination argument. You have a country with a government that lies about its covid situation which is going to set records in terms of the number of infections which may produce new variants that vaccines have no effect on. The chinese government isn't going to share information about those new variants and they are at risk of being exported across the globe setting the entire world back. So will all due respect please give it a rest about crying about discrimination and don't bring up Trump. If anything the US should be totally shutting the borders to anyone coming from China until the dust settles. This half-ass approach puts us all at risk and is probably only being done to avoid claims of discrimination.
Nonsense - this will not accomplish anything.
Mexico provides an excellent test case. Compare Mexico to the USA and there is not much difference yet Mexico has never had any entry restrictions
You are right it won't do anything because they are still letting people in from China. They need a complete and total ban because you can't rely on tests to catch covid cases. Just takes one person with a new variant slipping into the country.
Dude - you can't stop this virus. Have you not been awake for the last 3 years? Even small island countries like NZ which had completely closed borders eventually got infected. Putting a total ban on Chinese makes as much sense as looking for your keys outside in the dark only in places where there are lamp posts. The virus will always get in through some indirect way.
"Dude" - who is advocating to "stop the virus"? Point that official out by name, we'll wait.
The flagrancy with which you (and those like you) attempt to equate cautionary measures, with vain attempts to "stop the virus!", is rather remarkable to witness.
You types do the same with vaccine efficacy: because none are particularly effective against transmission, you utterly ignore their effect on death, hospitalization, and long-term disability; equating them with having zero effect...
"Dude" - who is advocating to "stop the virus"? Point that official out by name, we'll wait.
The flagrancy with which you (and those like you) attempt to equate cautionary measures, with vain attempts to "stop the virus!", is rather remarkable to witness.
You types do the same with vaccine efficacy: because none are particularly effective against transmission, you utterly ignore their effect on death, hospitalization, and long-term disability; equating them with having zero effect at all.
But one has to wonder, do you SERIOUSLY not comprehend the difference between opening the floodgates to millions in a specific populace, prior to the peak of their likely transmission high, carrying variants for which current treatments *ACTUALLY* might have no effect............... versus waiting for Chinese transmission to peak, figuring out what if any new variants may be circulating and how effective current doses are in combating them, and THEN letting them spread around the country?
Do you? Or do you not? Tell us.
So does this mean that the Big Bad Orange man was right some 34 months ago? Does it mean that after all, he was not a Nazi, at least not for implementing similar rules when we knew far less about China's duplicity?
This is NOT a polítical post, just a question. I am NOT one of his supporters.
Almost 3 years later and knowing what we now know, these measures are too weak and won't be efficient. Texting must be done State-side.
No, it means Big Bad Orange Man was a complete idiot, with an idiotic policy. How stupid was it? Well, he restricted Chinese nationals from entering the US. He didn't restrict the movement Americans, or other nationalities, even if they were Americans coming directly from China. I was one of them: I was in Harbin, China, one of the affected areas, in winter 2019/2020, and when I arrived back in the USA the American Customs...
No, it means Big Bad Orange Man was a complete idiot, with an idiotic policy. How stupid was it? Well, he restricted Chinese nationals from entering the US. He didn't restrict the movement Americans, or other nationalities, even if they were Americans coming directly from China. I was one of them: I was in Harbin, China, one of the affected areas, in winter 2019/2020, and when I arrived back in the USA the American Customs officials welcomed me right back, unmasked, into my country.
The virus didn't care about citizenship and was quite happy to hitch rides on Americans, Italians, folks returning from Europe, and so on.
How bad was Trump and Trump's CDC, which is supposed to be America's professional scientific organization? Well, my wife is a surgeon/MD. At the height of Trump's stupidity, she started seeking out COVID-related primary research that was coming out of South Korea, because she lost confidence in the objectivity and professionalism of what was coming out of our own CDC. I can't think of a more searing indictment of Trump's handling of this and the management of the CDC.
You are angry that the USA allowed you back into your own country? You are angry they granted you your constitutional right as a citizen? It's amazing how many beta males want to be tied up and told what to do by big daddy governments!
Of course he is married to a surgeon so we know who's wearing the pants in that house!
"You are angry that the USA allowed you back into your own country?"
Reading comprehension isn't your strong suit, is it?
what a joke!
years later the US has demonstrated that they can't act quickly if they think they should be doing something to block
All arrivals Dec 29 Dec 30 Dec 31 Jan1 Jan2 Jan3 and Jan4 will have 50% or passengers who are positive. That's how many thousand positive cases being welcomed? The doubling rate in China is 2-3 days, so it is quite likey that by the time the US requirement goes into...
what a joke!
years later the US has demonstrated that they can't act quickly if they think they should be doing something to block
All arrivals Dec 29 Dec 30 Dec 31 Jan1 Jan2 Jan3 and Jan4 will have 50% or passengers who are positive. That's how many thousand positive cases being welcomed? The doubling rate in China is 2-3 days, so it is quite likey that by the time the US requirement goes into effect, the positivity rate would have already been way down
How about require testing starting for every flight from China that arrives TODAY. If the plane was not airborne by the announcement time, facilitate testing on arrival free of charge.
Other countries could do this; Abu Dhabi did rapid on-site PCR testing of EVERY arrival passenger, in addition to having passenger provide their own results.
It's all political theatre. There is no epidemiological proof for this and policy is entirely racist.
We let it rip for 3 years, created numerous mutations and killed 1 million people, and now you tell me we care?
The policy applies to all arrivals from China regardless of ethnicity or race. Yet you call it racist? How?
Cos he's an idiot.
Everytime anyone says anything about china or the middle east some clown comes out with some 'waaa racist' bs.
China has probably dropped its covid restrictions, pretty much overnight after 2 years of locking people in their buildings, in the hope it causes another plague to the rest of the world so they look better!
China zero covid: oh my god they are so strict, impacting supply chain, covid is over, please open up. Bad china
China open up: oh my god china so irresponsible, stay away. Bad china
But actually yes.
Extreme strategies are rarely good, and this is no exception. A phased reopening from China post-vaccination is what the world wanted.
This is hilarious that the first country to have the virus are now the last country to be impacted by it.
Sort of feels like a fitting punishment.
So does this mean that the Big Bad Orange man was right some 34 months ago? Does it mean that after all, he was not a Nazi, at least not for implementing similar rules when we knew far less about China's duplicity?
This is NOT a polítical post, just a question. I am NOT one of his supporters.
Almost 3 years later and knowing what we now know, these measures are too weak and won't be efficient. Texting must be done State-side.
Test on arrival that will give us the opportunity to sequence as well. What you’ve left out of the equation is that the situation in China now is encouraging new variants, which our vaccines and prior infections may provide no defense against. This could be disastrous. If flights are arriving with over 50% infected, we could review decisions to allow air travel to and from China. This is epidemiology, and protecting the American people, not politics.
Enter only if you've been vaccinated with pfizer/moderna/JnJ.
Even as someone who has received 4 covid shots, its still doesnt prevent covid. So absolutely no good if people had 2 shots 3 years ago in 2020.
Had 4 jabs plus the seasonal booster and still got cv19 back in May on a biz trip to SFO, stuck in Hyatt @sfo for 5 extra days then developed pneumonia on my return and off work at home for 3 weeks
May be, just may, the vaccines could have done something to our inmune system (no sacarsm)
I jabbed myself with 3 Pfizer, yet I confirmed.
I’ve had COVID twice, Alpha back in Feb 2020 before vaccines and Omicron in Oct 2022 after receiving five vaccines/boosters, both times following international travel. Omicron was with no symptoms. Clearly, I had no issues with the virus either time but I could have easily transmitted it unknowingly, causing perhaps severe illness in others. Testing is a better approach to the current problem.
Recent studies show that the AstraZeneca/Oxford and Covaxin are better at protecting against a multitude of variants whereas the Pfizer/Moderna are better against specific variants. Let's not even discuss the JnJ. By your logic, we should ban anyone who has not taken the Astra Zeneca/Oxford or the BBiotech jabs.
Many don't understand how vaccines work. No vaccine eliminates an infection. Vaccines prepare the body to fight the threat quickly upon infection. All of the major...
Recent studies show that the AstraZeneca/Oxford and Covaxin are better at protecting against a multitude of variants whereas the Pfizer/Moderna are better against specific variants. Let's not even discuss the JnJ. By your logic, we should ban anyone who has not taken the Astra Zeneca/Oxford or the BBiotech jabs.
Many don't understand how vaccines work. No vaccine eliminates an infection. Vaccines prepare the body to fight the threat quickly upon infection. All of the major vaccines have shown to lessen the occurrence of life-threatening symptoms should a person get infected. It is entirely possible that you are able to comment here today simply because you were inoculated. Your experience in dealing with the infection is irrelevant to another person, therefore vaccinating, testing and isolating are still the best way to prevent spread.
I have had Covid once (omnicron) which presented itself as a mild cough and fever after having received three jabs of the Astra Zeneca. In contrast, a person similar to my fitness and age, developed pneumonia and is living with only 50% of lung function today. They were not vaccinated. Not a statistically significant data, but does compel me to believe in the efficacy of the vaccine.
I think that it’s ironic to consider restrictions for China while not testing the 1000s crossing our own Southern borders daily from about 100 countries ♀️. I’m pretty sure that’s a higher number of unvetted persons who may come from places with lax healthcare provisions than international visitors.
You are so right!! We let anyone one in illegally but those who are coming thru with proper paperwork need testing etc!!! What a crazy administration!!
@susakajo: "I’m pretty sure that’s a higher number of unvetted persons who may come from places with lax healthcare provisions than international visitors."
... the *whole* point of the USA initiating these procedures in respect of China (as a destination - not a racial division) is to ensure that the USA doesn't adopt "lax healthcare provisions". It's called responsible management.
Oh how the tables have turned.........
At MXP (Milan, Italy) on 26 December, nearly one in two arrival passengers from China tested positive for COVID. At the least, testing is necessary.
Wasn't a Chinese travel ban considered "xenophobic" in March 2020?
Funny to watch people come flip a full 180 on issues like this, lockdowns, vaccines, etc.
The difference was that was an outright ban.
This is simply a neg test w/in 48hr before travel, similar to the US requirement for all of 2021.
But to the bigger question, is a test really necessary when the US has already moved post-COVID in terms of little or no restrictions?
Huh? The point is China with their massive number of cases will produce new variants. Some of those variants may circumvent vaccines or be more deadly. Tests won't catch all of those. if one in two passengers of china are coming in covid positive its time to slam the door shut on them. Why are we importing covid cases? It puts the entire US at risk of another setback if a new and worse variant comes in.
I'm Asian-American and see absolutely nothing racist about requiring proof of a negative Covid test prior to entering the United States from China. The Chinese government (CCP) has frequently lied and given false data regarding the spread of Covid for the past 3 years, and now/suddenly they do an about-face (two-faced?) 180-degree turn on their Zero Covid policy, which has led to their nation's hospitals and crematoriums being overrun in recent weeks.
Given this explosion...
I'm Asian-American and see absolutely nothing racist about requiring proof of a negative Covid test prior to entering the United States from China. The Chinese government (CCP) has frequently lied and given false data regarding the spread of Covid for the past 3 years, and now/suddenly they do an about-face (two-faced?) 180-degree turn on their Zero Covid policy, which has led to their nation's hospitals and crematoriums being overrun in recent weeks.
Given this explosion of Covid cases in China, it is both wise and appropriate to test all travelers (regardless of nationality) arriving in the U.S. (or anywhere) from China. Requiring a simple test is far, far less onerous than the mandatory quarantining that China and other Asian countries have imposed on travelers entering their own countries.
See today's (12/28) story that half of passengers arriving in Milan, Italy on two flights from China tested positive for Covid. Yikes.
You don't trust the CCP on case counts, but you trust the validity of their covid tests for people departing China? Makes total sense.
Turns out nothing works to stop this virus besides total lockdowns and travel bans - and these in turn kill way more people.
"Let it rip" is the only way to succeed.
I'm a liberal and strongly support very tight restrictions on travel to and from China, Hong Kong, and Macau, including negative tests, and a severe limit on frequencies until the COVID19 wave there passes.
China is not to be trusted. Three times already it has unleashed deadly diseases on the rest of the world, first with Avian Flu, in Hong Kong, which has all but been forgotten, next with SARS, and in 2020, with COVID....
I'm a liberal and strongly support very tight restrictions on travel to and from China, Hong Kong, and Macau, including negative tests, and a severe limit on frequencies until the COVID19 wave there passes.
China is not to be trusted. Three times already it has unleashed deadly diseases on the rest of the world, first with Avian Flu, in Hong Kong, which has all but been forgotten, next with SARS, and in 2020, with COVID. The country's government is clearly in a struggle to remain in charge. It cannot be trusted. It misled the world on the original pandemic and for the time being, the country should be sealed off completely.
Enough already. No restrictions.
I’m fully aware China has 3-4 million cases of COVID out of 1.5 billion people since re opening >1%.
If you project from Milan's statistics, 3-4 billion people are positive right now! You're 1,000 times off!
Except that there's nowhere near that amount of people in the PRC, in Greater China, nor in the entire SinoSphere....
I dont see the problem with restrictions for China for a little bit. Everyone knows covid is about to spread rapidly in china as the lockdown only delays the inevitable . Let it spread a bit in China and it will die down quickly like it has in rest of the world and then you can remove the restrictions after this surge. I dont see the problem at all in this. Most people traveling from...
I dont see the problem with restrictions for China for a little bit. Everyone knows covid is about to spread rapidly in china as the lockdown only delays the inevitable . Let it spread a bit in China and it will die down quickly like it has in rest of the world and then you can remove the restrictions after this surge. I dont see the problem at all in this. Most people traveling from China to the US are going to have vaccines and means to test anyways so whats the big deal.
I agree. Test them prior to departure just like I had to do for 2020, 2021 and the first half of 2022 traveling internationally.
There should be randomized Covid testing on arrival for those arriving from China so that we can get a sense of what kind of strains are circulating in China. Surely we have the manpower for something like this.
I don’t think there needs to be anything beyond that.
You are assuming testing will actually catch all the covid cases. You would be very wrong. Once its in the US its in the US. Only thing that works here is a total ban until China becomes more transparent about what is happening there.
And so it begins…. Italy just announced covid screening for all arrivals from China
Expect more of this -- a LOT more.
Given the world's experience over the past 3 years, can you blame anyone for being wary about China?
Before this announcement, flights arriving in Milan were already testing passengers flying from China.
On one flight from China , which landed at the city's Malpensa Airport on 26 December, 52% of passengers were found to be positive for Covid, la Repubblica reports.
Valid proof of vaccination and/or negative test within 48 hours of travel. What would be so tough about that?
Define proof of vaccination - is it the 5th booster. What about babies and kids ? Should they also have to go through primary + boosters ?
Ha ha -- if you need definitions you might want to check out a legal blog.
Why a valid proof of vaccination?? The vaccine will not prevent the transmition, neither will avoid them getting sick
President Biden said that Trump was racist because restrictions on passengers from the People's Republic of China. Now he's considering to be racist, according to that criteria.
I don't think it's racist.
No travel should be allowed from the land of the CCP until they are transparent and trustworthy. Never forget what they did to the world in 2020 for eating bats and lying.
I would argue the US government will not do anything to limit the travelers from China because US people have already had herd immunity by large numbers of Covid infections. With that said, US should enforce a stricter vaccine check before passengers boarding from China (applies only to non-residents). For people who do not have enough vaccine, they will need to quarantine after the arrival of US for like 5 days. Agreed that on arrival...
I would argue the US government will not do anything to limit the travelers from China because US people have already had herd immunity by large numbers of Covid infections. With that said, US should enforce a stricter vaccine check before passengers boarding from China (applies only to non-residents). For people who do not have enough vaccine, they will need to quarantine after the arrival of US for like 5 days. Agreed that on arrival PCR in the US border and pre-travel PCR negative tests might not work in the US.
It's nice to see the government being proactive but realistically whatever strains they have in China will make it's way to the USA one way or another.
That said, given the estimated COVID numbers in China right now, it won't be long before there just aren't many Chinese nationals left to get COVID
Given how China is now being overwhelmed with COVID, there's a very real risk that new variants (possibly more lethal) will emerge from the masses who are currently (and about to be) infected -- Chinese New Year is a few weeks away, the largest movement of humans anywhere, which is sure to make infections spike. In 6-8 weeks we could be back to Square One of the next iteration. Time to start hoarding toilet paper again. Here we go again.
SARS-CoV-2 is a cold, and will only attenuate to become weaker over time. It's long past time to move on.
Yeah, no. The speed at which they are able to tweak mRNA vaccines to specific variants, and the fact that production facilities are already up (so no need to ramp up significantly again), means it's very unlikely we'll have anything like what we had before.
All the more reason to just keep the doors shut to them and wait it out. Eventually either the government will have to share info with the world or people in China will have immunity and won't be as likely to spread it around the world.
If testing on arrival is implemented, what happens if a US citizen returning home refuses to take the test?
Legally, they can’t be denied entry to their own country.
These restrictions are xenophobic and ineffective. The genie is out of the bottle.
I'm pretty sure the US can require someone to take a test before they get on the plane. They did it all thru the pandemic US citizen or not.
Some governments will never learn... Travel restrictions don't work, it should be pretty obvious to everyone by now.
Disgustingly racist Biden admin. Shameful.
... but NOT as shameful as 'Carrot-top' and his policy of allowing 1 million Americans to die outright, due to woeful lack of intelligence and ignoring solid scientific, medical advice.
Perhaps someone in Govt could organise for Mr Trump to stand at each airport immigration hub and hand out glasses of bleach for international visitors to drink on arrival? That would fix the problem, wouldn't it [sarcasm off].
Samuel's taking the tried-and-true approach of "I disagree therefore you're racist".
The policy applies to anyone traveling from China, including US citizens. Stop clutching your pearls.
We have at least learned that outright bans on travel from a specific region do nothing. Virus is still going to find a way. Not sure if pre-testing is even effective as it's way too easy to get fake test results or PS them yourself. We have all done it and airline check in staff could care less about authenticity or how to recognize a fake from a real one.
We are out of...
We have at least learned that outright bans on travel from a specific region do nothing. Virus is still going to find a way. Not sure if pre-testing is even effective as it's way too easy to get fake test results or PS them yourself. We have all done it and airline check in staff could care less about authenticity or how to recognize a fake from a real one.
We are out of options. Other than the Australia approach way back which is to close the borders completely to the world and impose strict adherence. And that's never going to happen.
Any travel from China should be banned, until the Chinese government provides transparency as to the origins of the virus and details the measures they will take to provide a future reoccurrence.
Nonsense.
Travel bans don't stop pandemics. They didn't work in early 2020, and they won't work in the waning days of 2022. How can you be so stupid to think otherwise?
@ Robert, they don't stop but they don't spread them.
Regarding your last question, I would say, try a decent school.
100%. The CCP are pathological liars, and this new "anything goes" policy of theirs is only because they saw the "zero covid" lockdowns as a potential threat to their dictatorship. Until we actually know what's going on over there, they should all just stay home.