U.S. issues 'Do Not Travel' warning for Canada

[Smellytele]

U.S. issues 'Do Not Travel' warning for Canada

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and U.S. State Department on Monday advised against travel to Canada because of a rising number of COVID-19 cases.

www.yahoo.com

 

[deadheadskier]

Please baby Jesus issue the same for Mexico. We have our national meeting in Cancun scheduled for the last weekend of January. Employees including myself are livid about it because of current international travel rules. If you test positive you have to isolate alone in your hotel room for 5 days. The hotel brings you food and water. If you still test positive, you have to continue to isolate in your room for another 5 days. Can't leave your room to walk the beach or for any reason. So basically a five star prison experience.

300 employees in meetings and banquets together for 3 days. No question there will be many people stuck down there.

 

[Hastur]

Please baby Jesus issue the same for Mexico. We have our national meeting in Cancun scheduled for the last weekend of January. Employees including myself are livid about it because of current international travel rules. If you test positive you have to isolate alone in your hotel room for 5 days. The hotel brings you food and water. If you still test positive, you have to continue to isolate in your room for another 5 days. Can't leave your room to walk the beach or for any reason. So basically a five star prison experience.

300 employees in meetings and banquets together for 3 days. No question there will be many people stuck down there.

That seems dumb to not have a virtual attendance option

 

[deadheadskier]

That seems dumb to not have a virtual attendance option

Last week 15 people in senior leadership had a meeting in Miami. 4 now have Omicron. So extrapolate that out to 300 people and there will be about 85 employees stuck in Mexico for 5 to 10 days.

Yup, pretty dumb.

 

[abc]

Perhaps the advisory isn't so much to protect Americans but to protect the Canadians from Americans bringing more Omicron into Canada?

 

[thetrailboss]

Please baby Jesus issue the same for Mexico. We have our national meeting in Cancun scheduled for the last weekend of January. Employees including myself are livid about it because of current international travel rules. If you test positive you have to isolate alone in your hotel room for 5 days. The hotel brings you food and water. If you still test positive, you have to continue to isolate in your room for another 5 days. Can't leave your room to walk the beach or for any reason. So basically a five star prison experience.

300 employees in meetings and banquets together for 3 days. No question there will be many people stuck down there.

We have a friend that was supposed to go to Mexico this month. She cancelled because she does not want to get stuck there. The testing requirements are not at all clear.

 

[2planks2coasts]

Last week 15 people in senior leadership had a meeting in Miami. 4 now have Omicron. So extrapolate that out to 300 people and there will be about 85 employees stuck in Mexico for 5 to 10 days.

Yup, pretty dumb.

The CDC already has Mexico at Level 3: "Reconsider Travel.". I can assure you though, the CDC advisories on travel have very little impact. For every person who opts not to go, two more jump on the cheap fares and hotels.

I've been hotel quarantined for short periods over the years, and while it sucks, the hotel bring you whatever you order from room service, and it's usually not water
Your employer should contract with an evac company that can fly your positive cases back to the US though. If they don't, you can purchase such insurance yourself through outfits like Covac.

https://thepointsguy.com/news/qa-covac-global/

 

[deadheadskier]

The CDC already has Mexico at Level 3: "Reconsider Travel.". I can assure you though, the CDC advisories on travel have very little impact. For every person who opts not to go, two more jump on the cheap fares and hotels.

I've been hotel quarantined for short periods over the years, and while it sucks, the hotel bring you whatever you order from room service, and it's usually not water
Your employer should contract with an evac company that can fly your positive cases back to the US though. If they don't, you can purchase such insurance yourself through outfits like Covac.

https://thepointsguy.com/news/qa-covac-global/

Interesting. So $675 gets you home same day if you test positive.

My feeling is that if the vaccines and masks were more effective at preventing infection, it wouldn't be a big deal. That has proven to not be the case with Omicron. I personally know several people who are boosted and gave gotten Omicron. All mild cases thankfully. No one I know is worried about getting too sick (though getting a bad case and being on a ventilator in Mexico doesn't sound good); people just don't want to be held against their will in a foreign country just to attend a damn meeting and awards banquet.

 

[2planks2coasts]

Interesting. So $675 gets you home same day if you test positive.

My feeling is that if the vaccines and masks were more effective at preventing infection, it wouldn't be a big deal. That has proven to not be the case with Omicron. I personally know several people who are boosted and gave gotten Omicron. All mild cases thankfully. No one I know is worried about getting too sick (though getting a bad case and being on a ventilator in Mexico doesn't sound good); people just don't want to be held against their will in a foreign country just to attend a damn meeting and awards banquet.

Without getting too far down the Covid rabbit hole, it's definitely become more about using masks and vaccines to prevent severe illness and hospitalization rather than infection. Unfortunately, the travel rules for coming back to the US don't reflect this new reality.

On Mexico, there are actually some pretty good hospitals. PM me if you're unfortunate enough to need a recommendation. They're quite expensive though and you have to settle the bill before you leave. ALWAYS have travel insurance when leaving the US, even if it doesn't have "fly you home as a non hospitalized positive" benefit like Covac does.

 

[HowieT2]

whatever. I'm booked to go to bc at the end of the month. And since I'm driving over the border all I need is a negative test to get into canadia. no testing required to reenter the usa.
went to mexico in november. no problem other than trying to figure out how to fill out the forms which were in spanish.

 

[2Planker]

Perhaps the advisory isn't so much to protect Americans but to protect the Canadians from Americans bringing more Omicron into Canada?

Our (downtown Boston) Covid Testing line is 4 blocks long in 12F. About 30%+ and that doesn't include all the home testing.
Starting last week we ramped up our surveillance testing to 3x/week for all providers, staff, and even vendors....

 

[fbrissette]

whatever. I'm booked to go to bc at the end of the month. And since I'm driving over the border all I need is a negative test to get into canadia. no testing required to reenter the usa.
went to mexico in november. no problem other than trying to figure out how to fill out the forms which were in spanish.

Driving in is no problem. Just need your 72 hours PCR test. Only potential problem is supply chain shortage issues for PCR tests. IT is getting increasingly difficult to find a test and get results within 72 hours. I have a couple of friends stuck in Vermont because they did not get thier test results before the 72 hours deadline. I almost did not get out of Florida last week for the same reason. The 12-18 hours 150$ PCR text came back 51 hours later, just a few hours before my flight. With flights delays and cancellations, many are screwed up with PCR tests becoming invalid. Not flying out of Canada till the PCR requirement is over.

Skiing in Kicking Horse BC right now. Resort empty, and incredible snow cover.

 

[skiur]

Without getting too far down the Covid rabbit hole, it's definitely become more about using masks and vaccines to prevent severe illness and hospitalization rather than infection. Unfortunately, the travel rules for coming back to the US don't reflect this new reality.

On Mexico, there are actually some pretty good hospitals. PM me if you're unfortunate enough to need a recommendation. They're quite expensive though and you have to settle the bill before you leave. ALWAYS have travel insurance when leaving the US, even if it doesn't have "fly you home as a non hospitalized positive" benefit like Covac does.

How do masks prevent serious illness and hospitalizations? Seems to me they would have absolutely zero impact on that. They only prevent infection.

 

[PAabe]

I dont get why we are trying to prevent a disease, which exists on both sides of an imaginary political line in about equal severity, from crossing said imaginary political line

 

[drjeff]

How do masks prevent serious illness and hospitalizations? Seems to me they would have absolutely zero impact on that. They only prevent infection.

Unless you're talking abput a properly fit checked and worn N95, realistically they don't. That narrative has been blown out of the water

Now with the infectivity of Omicron, the narrative that the vaccines will prevent disease spread (and heck I was optomistic a year or so ago that that would be the case) is being blown out of the water as well. And whether or not one is vaccinated 1,2, 3 times or not vaccinated, it seems like with Omicron that the severity is generally mild, so while I do strongly feel that the most people, especially over the age of 50 and/or anyone with multiple co-morbitities should get vaccinated if they want to, and will have some benefit in risk reduction of severe disease should they get COVID, unless we get a new, much more virulent strain, I think it's pretty clear now that we can't vaccinate our way out of COVID and that eventually we all are likley to get it, and for most everyone, it's not going to be a big deal, and/or warrant the societal restrictions that have been in play for almost 2 years now

 

[abc]

unless we get a new, much more virulent strain, I think it's pretty clear now that we can't vaccinate our way out of COVID

"Vaccinate our way out of Covid" was from the get go a pie dream. At least the way people think of it, like the polio vaccine.

What the vaccine was able to do was reduce the severity of the disease so we can accept and ignore the residual damage and death toll. It did exactly that. And in time, with better treatment, it would be no worse than the flu.

So if the definition of "vaccinate our way out of Covid" was to be able to accept the death toll and ignore it, we've done it already.

Unfortunately, a lot of people are still stuck on the fantasy of eradicate Covid. A game we had long ago lost!

 

[Smellytele]

I like pie. Pie dreams are almost as good.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

Driving in is no problem. Just need your 72 hours PCR test. Only potential problem is supply chain shortage issues for PCR tests. IT is getting increasingly difficult to find a test and get results within 72 hours. I have a couple of friends stuck in Vermont because they did not get thier test results before the 72 hours deadline. I almost did not get out of Florida last week for the same reason. The 12-18 hours 150$ PCR text came back 51 hours later, just a few hours before my flight. With flights delays and cancellations, many are screwed up with PCR tests becoming invalid. Not flying out of Canada till the PCR requirement is over.

Skiing in Kicking Horse BC right now. Resort empty, and incredible snow cover.

kicking horse fucking rules. big boy skiing all over the place. 4000 foot runs that mostly start in technical chutes. love it.

 

[2Planker]

Kicking Horse was spectacular !!! and that was 8 years ago.
We hit it as a 2 day warm up for BC's Chatter Creek Cat Skiing, also Spectacular
https://chattercreek.ca/

 

[crystalmountainskier]

I highly advise everyone to follow CDC guidance and stay away from Revelstoke, Whistler, Kicking Horse and Lake Louise. Again, stay away in the name of covid.