Hello, I blog!

I hate how almost all of my recent posts are about the pandemic, and I especially hate how this pandemic has turned me into a judgmental old fart.

But I just had to put this unpopular opinion out here.

Even though there are VTLs (Vaccinated Travel Lanes) open, I do not personally think it’s right to travel overseas for non-essential purposes when we are still in a raging pandemic.

There are just too way many unknowns, with new variants springing up (Omicron and “stealth Omicron”, anyone?). And air travel is just too efficient a method of transmission since it connects two cities that can be thousands of kilometres apart in mere hours.

In rich developed countries, people be like “ooh look at me, I am vaccinated, I can finally travel again for leisure!”

Being vaccinated does not mean you are no longer a vector of transmission. It prevents severe illness but you can still transmit the virus. As long as there is human movement across vast distances, you may end up being the one bringing a new variant into the country you’re visiting, or transmit a new variant back to your home country.

Meanwhile, while the vaccinated from rich countries traipse around the world on VTLs, vaccine inequity continues and the countries with lower vaccine coverage struggle to even reopen their economies.

And we also have our foreign healthcare workers still stuck here fighting on the frontlines for nearly 2 years on end and unable to visit their own families back home. My helper too, has not flown home to be with her loved ones for four years. VTLs have not opened for most of their home countries because the vaccination rates are just too low.

It just… doesn’t sit right with me.

Meanwhile, I’ll just do my part by staying put until this pandemic is over. Because as long as human movement continues over countries and continents, this virus will never stop spreading and mutating, and we’ll never see the end of it.

Of course I crave travelling again. So very much. But I wouldn’t put my personal desire for leisure travel over public health. At least, not this point.

P/S: If you are reading this and are intending to travel for family reunions, I am not referring to you. Reuniting with family IS essential.