The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended that people who are not vaccinated against COVID-19 should not travel over the forthcoming Labor Day weekend.
“Given where we are with disease transmission right now, we would say that people need to take these risks into their own consideration as they think about traveling,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky said during a White House COVID-19 briefing Tuesday, adding that vaccinated people should wear masks. “If you are unvaccinated, we would recommend not traveling.”
As with other recommendations from the CDC, Walenksy’s remark has no legal authority.
The current seven-day average of new COVID-19 infections in the United States is about 149,000 cases per day, according to data provided by the CDC. The number of deaths per seven-day average in the United States, the data shows, is about 985 per day as of Aug. 30.
Walensky’s comment drew criticism on social media, with some noting that people who have not received a COVID-19 vaccine haven’t listened to the CDC’s recommendations, anyway.
“No travel for you, bad little children,” wrote Dr. Robert Malone, who has self-identified as a key developer of mRNA vaccine technology, on Twitter after her announcement.
Walensky’s suggestion that those who are not vaccinated should not travel also appears to tie in with vaccine passport mandates that were handed down in New York City, San Francisco, and other municipalities. Civil liberties groups have flagged such systems as potentially creating a two-tiered society of vaccinated and the unvaccinated.
Her remarks come as a CDC panel on Monday said that COVID-19 vaccines’ ability to keep people out of the hospital is waning, albeit slightly.
The agency previously estimated that most people being treated for the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus are unvaccinated with about 97 percent not having received the shot.
