As a layman who has no education, training or experience in epidemiology, immunology or any other medical field, I’m offering my take on the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, B.1.1.529, and what it means for travel. Being clearly unqualified to speak on this issue hasn’t stopped others so I feel comfortable adding my non-scientific evaluation of the situation.
Travel Ban
President Biden announced travel bans on certain countries in Southern Africa. Some question the benefit of such a ban because the Omicron variant is already in the United States in all likelihood. Probably so. However not instituting a travel ban or some very tough restrictions on travel that would be tantamount to a travel ban from places where Omicron spread is known would, in my lay opinion, just be adding fuel to a fire.
So far, the ban has just applied to a few countries in Africa. This closure will affect few Americans. The administrations commitment to this policy will be tested when countries in Europe experience Omicron spread.
What Is Known About Omicron
In short, currently not much. According to a World Health Organization statement dated November 28, 2021, at present it is not yet clear if Omicron is more transmissible, causes more severe disease, or if vaccines are more effective or less effective with this variant. WHO thinks PCR tests are equally effective at identifying SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.529 (Omicron) as they are with other variants. Studies that are currently underway or underway shortly include assessments of transmissibility, severity of infection (including symptoms), performance of vaccines and diagnostic tests, and effectiveness of treatments.
What Omicron Could Mean for Travel
The biggest takeaway for me is simply the fact that the future is uncertain. The assumption for many has been that, over time, the Covid-19 threat will subside. But as long as SARS-CoV-2 circulates anywhere, there is the possibility, and maybe even the certainty, that the virus will mutate. Mutations could be harmless or unleash strains that are more deadly.
All travel plans are risky. The farther in the plans are in the future, the more uncertain they maybe because there will be more time for the virus to mutate resulting in new travel restrictions.
My Travel Plans
It seems to make sense to make hay while the sun shines and travel while it is possible. Of course, no matter when I travel, there is always risk of being stranded in a foreign country if an outbreak of a new strain occurs. Purchasing medical insurance is a good idea. You can get policies that cover Covid and any other health issues by the trip or to cover all travel within a year. I must have been feeling optimistic because I purchased an annual plan before traveling to Greece last month.
What Will It Take For A Return To Normalcy?
Testing and vaccines are great. I’ve been vaccinated and boosted. Unless there’s something I’ve missed, vaccines and testing won’t eliminate Covid. It will persist and mutate. Covid may remain a hindrance to travel until treatments are developed for those who contract it that make Covid no more serious than ordinary flu.
How Omicron Got Its Name
The WHO names variants after letters of the Greek alphabet. When Omicron was identified, the WHO was only up to the 12th Greek letter. It skipped the next two letters, “Nu” and “Xi” because “Nu” could be confused with “new” and “Xi” is a common last name and happens to be the name of the President of the People’s Republic of China.
Does the emergence of Omicron affect your travel plans?
Salsaworldtraveler'sblog 
‘While we can travel it makes sense to make hay while the sun shines…’
I’m sorry to be a buzzkill, but any unnecessary contact with others increases transmission of covid, making the problem worse. It puts people at unnecessary risk. I’ve spent the last 18 months working in respiratory wards and ICU and I’ve watched people die of covid pneumonia; it’s an awful way to go.
Can I suggest that alternatively, where we can, we scale back on travel plans and try and find whatever travel gives us closer to home, just for now?
I think that would be the most compassionate thing to do.
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You raise a serious issue but have you investigated the state of travel lately? I care about others (and myself), and I try my darndest to not get Covid. If I don’t have Covid I can’t spread it. I’ve been vaccinated and boosted with the Pfizer-BionTech vaccine and encourage everyone to get vaccinated. In addition, because of travel I’ve had four PCR tests and one antigen test in the last month and answered a couple of health questionnaires and had my temperature scanned countless times. International travel is one of the safest things you can do. The percentage of people you’ll come in contact with during international travel who have been vaccinated and or tested recently and repeatedly is much higher than the population generally.
On a flight to Bangkok in November I was very confident that that I wouldn’t get or spread Covid because 100% of the passengers wore masks when not eating or drinking. 100% were fully vaccinated with top vaccines. 100% had received a negative PCR test no more than 72 hours ago, and 100% would be tested on arrival with information to contact trace those they may have come in contact with. I’m much less confident about safety when I go to the neighborhood grocery store. Not even a hospital can claim that level of vaccine compliance and surveillance testing for patients, staff and visitors.
It isn’t traveling that spreads Covid. Covid spreads because of what people do everyday regardless of how close or far from home they are — activities like going to the grocery store or gym or eating indoors or going to bars, being in large gatherings. When people do these everyday things without following the proper precautions Covid spreads. I wish vaccines and testing was required for domestic air travel. The more people that are vaccinated and tested the harder it is for Covid to spread.
Compassion should also go to the workers in the travel industry in tourist dependent countries that don’t have the resources for massive stimulus programs doling out “free” money. Many of these people have lost their regular income and have no support. There must be ways to travel and protect the population. Thailand seems to have a good system. It will be interesting to see if and how its programs that encourage international tourism and travel under strict requirements may affect spread in that country.
Thanks for reading my post and contributing your perspective. Keep up the good work. It is needed.
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Thanks for taking the time to reply!
Though I take your point about testing and vaccination being a pre-requisite for muh international travel, what happens when you get to your destination? People don’t travel in order to sit around in their hotel rooms. People travel to explore, to see the sights, to meet the locals, to visit the shops, parks, stadiums, bars and restaurants. I would warrant that a lot more public mixing with new people goes on during a trip than it would at home. In addition to which, the negative PCR test only tells you that you probably don’t have covid at the point at which you take it; it doesn’t make you immune from picking up the virus from the taxi driver on the way to the airport, from a queue at check-in or from a luggage-handler.
I do of course feel for people in tourism and travel industries. I can’t imagine how difficult a year it must have been for the many millions of struggling businesses over the past 18-24 months. Of course I’d like to see income support programmes worldwide for those whose incomes have been affected by covid. But at the end of the day it comes down to, how much should we be doing to prevent avoidable deaths and disability? Unfortunately, I think holiday travel should be one of the first things we scale back on.
You can’t have a healthy travel sector when there are high levels of staff sickness and disability from long covid, for example. We’ve seen the impact of this across a variety of sectors from health and social care to manufacturing, hospitality and transport. We’re at a point where we need to protect our core industries, those who keep us alive, healthy and fed, before we can indulge in luxuries such as holidays and hospitality. I think at the moment we’re a million miles away from striking a sensible balance between those things, which is why (in the UK at least) our healthcare system isn’t working, we have record sickness absence of hospital staff, patients waiting longer than ever for cancer treatment, and a scarcity of social care which is keeping well older people stuck occupying hospital beds.
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It is not travel that spreads Covid. It is what people do at home or after arriving at a destination and if safe public health practices are employed, the risk of spread is minimized. You are claiming travel necessarily leads to more spread than if people didn’t travel. I disagree. I think people are more careful when they travel than when they stay at home and do routines tasks.
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Of course travel spreads Covid! How else would the Omicron variant have spread from South Africa to pretty much everywhere else in the world in a matter of weeks? We know that transmission via contaminated surfaces is an extremely rare mechanism of spread, leaving the only explanation being that the movement of people, and their circulation within new groups of people, is the dominant method of spread. And if that isn’t a good description of what travel is, then I don’t know what is!
The travel industry are doing everything they can to reduce risk I’m sure, but there’s no amount of mask wearing, hand washing or PCR testing that can make sitting in a cabin with 100+ other people, most of whom you don’t know, for hours at at a time, with limited handwashing facilities and no recourse to ventilation, NOT a high-risk activity. I’m sorry if you have been misled to thinking otherwise.
We’re living in a moment where a highly contagious new variant which seems to evade detection by standard PCR tests and double vaccination provides inadequate protection from, is on the rise and threatening to cripple economies. Ultimately it is up to the individual to decide whether the benefits of their travel outweigh the risks, but let’s not pretend that domestic travel is not a high-risk activity.
I’m sorry to put it in such blunt terms. I love international travel and I’ve been enjoying your beautiful travel blog and the many ideas it’s given me for future trips. But I will personally be avoiding domestic travel as much as absolutely possible in order to protect myself and my friends and family, and help out my colleagues and patients in the workplace until we have better global vaccine coverage and the pressure is off my local healthcare system (which is currently overwhelmed with a quadruple-whammy of Covid, influenza and other winter respiratory viruses, staff short- and long-term sickness due to Covid and a backlog of patients waiting for our under-resourced social care system).
(Perhaps some of this post is misdirected frustration about the UK Government’s long-term mismanagement of our healthcare system, and I’m sorry if this is the case!! Perhaps this is not the case in your local healthcare system. But it might be in the area you’re travelling to.)
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Contact with other people spreads Covid. Every time you have contact with someone you risk getting it or spreading it. You and I take the chance of getting Covid and getting someone else sick everyday. The risk has nothing to do with how close to or far from home we are. Commercial airliners have ventilation systems with operating-room-grade HEPA filters that combine cabin air and outside air and completely recycle the volume of air onboard every two to three minutes. Air travel, when people follow standard precautions, is very low risk. If it was high risk every flight attendant would have gotten it.
Thanks for your thoughtful comment. Be well!
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And the same to you friend. Stay safe and healthy, whatever your plans!
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I plan to travel although not as much as I did before the pandemic.
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We also don’ know how well the vaccines work against Omicron yet…
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Great post! I really enjoyed reading it and listening to your thoughts about this new variant and its impact on travel. I have also recently published an article on my blog about Omicron. However, mine was very much a criticism of the media coverage on the new variant which I have found really disappointing. I would be really interested to hear your thoughts on my article if you get the chance! Take care 🙂
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Your post is very well written and accurate. Thanks for referring it to me. Media (and political parties) seem to thrive on fear and sensationalism. Covid is scary enough without the hype. More facts and less speculation seems like the best reporting.
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Thank you very much for your feedback, it’s much appreciated! Absolutely, it has very scary similarities with the media campaigns that took place during the “war on terror”
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You are very welcome. You can follow if you’d like. 😄👌
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Will do!
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Thanks for shedding some light to the WTF now scenario John.
I so loved your line here “Being clearly unqualified to speak on this issue hasn’t stopped others so I feel comfortable adding my non-scientific evaluation of the situation.”
🤣🤣🤣
Everyone these days is an expert on everything.
I’m gonna hit Hawaii in Feb I think if things look good. the prices are too good to pass up!💖🙏🌷
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Hawaii will be outstanding! Do you have room in a suitcase for me?🤣👌💖 Hawaii has been extremely protective of its population but I bet you’ll have no problems. Low prices in some travel markets are one of the few bright sides of the pandemic.
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I know and just a quick Honolulu. I used to poo poo that island but I actually love staying at the tip of Diamond Head so I can hike it everyday.. Of course I do! but do you collapse? haha. Yeah, let’s hope things hold up ok! 💖
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I wouldn’t worry about it much, same as I haven’t worried about Covid much up to this point. It’s safe to assume that government mandated travel will be in our near future, but it’s likely to be in a crowded train car. Don’t live in fear, or give up your rights as a FREE American.
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Because Covid is invisible some people seem think it doesn’t exist or isn’t dangerous. Nearly 800,000 Americans have given up their lives. If that is not reason to “live in fear” as you say, or to “live cautiously” I say, I don’t know what is. It sounds like you believe your “rights as a free American” include the right to ignore Covid safety precautions and cause others to die or become seriously ill.
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I suppose it affects me in that I’m not making plans. Usually head off straight after Christmas but had nothing sorted. Also March/April but I’ll hold off for a while on that.
My thoughts are going out to all those planning on travelling home for Christmas. We have family and friends coming home from Canada, US, Australia and UK for 2 weddings (both already postponed 3 times). Its such a tough decision to make….
Meanwhile, stay safe y’all.
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Realizing that disruptions are possible and being flexible with our plans seems like a key. Last year the US had major spikes in cases during the holiday travel season. Omicron may or may not be worse than other strains. Regardless, vaccinating, masking, distancing will be important for everyone.
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Thanks for adding to the discussion.
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Interesting read, and thanks for your take on it all. We are meant to be going to Hamburg on 17th December, so that’s just going to be a last minute decision as to whether we go or not. Then Copenhagen in February, Estonia in April, Lithuania & Latvia in May and France in June….(can you tell I got holiday happy after my operation to cheer me up?! hahaaa). I think I’ll just take each week as it comes and go if I can.
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I’m envious of your plans and look forward to your posts from these trips. Keeping fingers crossed and taking each week as it comes is about the only thing anyone can do.
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That’s quite a list Hannah!!! Hope it works out – I’m sure it will…..
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we have plans to travel to Arizona in May; hopefully there won’t be any problems. I guess if worse comes to woorse, we could drive…
I’m glad you got to go to Thailand!
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Strike while the iron is hot they say.😃
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Just have to be careful. Good post!
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Being careful is the key. One of the reasons Covid is so scary is it is invisible.
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It’s a relief to read a sensible overview of all this John. I think we are all really tired of this to say the least, but as you say, it’s unlikely to disappear anytime soon. News of this latest variant broke just as we were putting in Sladja’s UK visa application. We intend to land on January the 3rd, so are really hoping nothing dramatic happens between now and then. Haven’t seen my family in two years and they’ve never met Sladja. Ho hum. In recent weeks we have definitely begun to question just how sustainable our nomadic lives are. Beyond our UK trip, in the summer, we have some big decisions to make I think.
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I wish you safe travels for the reunion in England. Some sources are optimistic that Omicron will turn out to be fairly benign. Your nomadic lifestyle looks great. I’m confident you’ll make the right decisions for the future. Thanks as always for your comments!
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This is the first time I have no travel plans yet for the new year. I’m guessing we will stay domestic until the dust settles a bit. I’m just glad NYC has a high vaccination rate and isn’t ant-mask
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I’m in the same boat right now with no firm plans. It feels weird. NYC is better off than many places. Be well, Lyssy.
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You too!
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It will not preclude my planned trip to California over Christmas, unless it gets much worse. It likely means another winter where, while the mask does keep my face warmer, it also means spending a lot of time taking my glasses on and off as they keep getting steamed while I’m in the grocery store or other shopping.
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I plan to travel next month because I need one or two trips to reach Executive Platinum with American Airlines for 2022. My mask also fogs my glasses but it feels a lot safer than no mask when around other people. Best of luck with the travel plans.
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Wishing you the same. Hope your next trip is as arduous as your trip to Thailand. 😉
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Thank you. I’d take the travel experience on the Thailand trip any day. With Covid (and many other things), we never know what tomorrow brings.
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Story of my life!!! I’ve been in a blur for 18 months because I can’t wear them!!!🤓😅
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i think…. from what ive heard the symptoms are not as severe. and i hope that continues to be the case. I read an article where it speculated this could actually be a good thing – a more dominant but less severe form of the virus that becomes the dominant strain worldwide, which in end lends itself to making this more of a simple cold/flu virus (which it definitely isnt at this stage) which will actually help the world return to normal. Here’s hoping at least that the vaccines still show some sort of efficacy towards fighting it – experts are saying they believe they will, but it will take a week or two to test – and that this is only a bit of a hiccup in the slow return to something like the world we knew. take care I may do an Omicron post myself in the next day or two.
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That’s a good point Andy about a dominant less severe variant being potentially a good thing. It seems though that no strain of the virus is permanent. The virus will just keep changing potentially to something more harmful. An effective treatment or cure, if possible, would make me sleep better.
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Thoughtful and well-researched post. Omicron caused closure of borders and prevented travel for a scheduled trip.
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It is great to know you liked the post but unfortunate that Omicron spoiled your plans. I’m trying to find a couple of domestic trips before year end.
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