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Fauci says AZ vaccine should be fine
There has been a lot of speculation since the announcement yesterday that the US will reopen in early November for those fully vaccintaed. Currently, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which regulates vaccines in the country, does not recommend the AZ jab for use in the US.
Dr Fauci, the US’s Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the Chief Medical Advisor to the President told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that he expects it to be accepted.
“I don’t believe there’s any reason to believe that people who have received the AZ vaccine should feel there’s going to be a problem,” he said.
“I can’t account for every vaccine that has been approved by the UK. I’m not sure about all of them, but the specific one about AZ, given that we have a substantial amount of information on it, again, without being definitive about it, I would predict that there would not be problem there.”
Exceptions will be given for children ( we don’t know the ages yet) or those medically unable to have the vaccine. The plan is to have a uniform policy for vaccines for all countries.
Aer Lingus confirms US launch
After the announcement yesterday from the United States that the ban on entry of European citizens into the USA is to be lifted in November, Aer Lingus has confirmed the launch of its Machester flights The Aer Lingus September Seat Sale which runs until the end of the month has US destinations on sale for as little as €149 each way in economy,
Fly direct from Dublin to New York; Boston and Washington from only €149 each way, to Orlando and Chicago from only €169 each way, and to the West Coast from only €259 each way. Canada is also on sale with Toronto starting at €149 each way.
Speaking following the White House announcement today, Susanne Carberry, Chief Customer Officer at Aer Lingus, said:
“Aer Lingus is delighted to finally be re-uniting Ireland, Europe and the United States. Often referred to as the ‘51st State’ the connections between Ireland and the US are rich and deep, and we can now can once again connect families, friends and businesses on both sides of the Atlantic.
“This is an ideal time for customers to book as our September Sale runs until the end of the month – it’s a great time to get amazing value on travel to the States – and we are putting on thousands of seats to accommodate the anticipated demand.
“Safety remains our priority at Aer Lingus and we continue to implement measures such as mask requirements and additional cleaning, as has been in practice across the airline for the past year. We are also committed to making the flight experience as comfortable as possible and customers can enjoy our in-flight food, drink and entertainment services on board.”
Aer Lingus also has launched a new online travel support tool to search by destination and get up-to-date tailored travel information based on their specific circumstances including vaccination status, return travel and flight connection requirements. Should plans change, customers can also use the ‘Book with Confidence’ flexible bookings until 31 December 2021.
Booking period – now until 29 September
Travel period – 01/10/21 – 17/02/21
Aer Lingus offers some fairly decent fares in Business Class from Manchester:
- New York £1266
- Boston £1582
- Washington £1795
- Orlando £1773
- Chicago £1797
- Denver (connect onto Jet Blue) £1453
You can, of course, earn and redeem Avios on Aer Lingus.
I realise it’s semantics, but “does not recommend the AZ jab for use in the US” is a bit different from “the AZ jab is not among the list of jabs that were given emergency approval for use in the US”
‘You can, of course, earn and redeem Avios on Aer Lingus’ – but crucially no TPs on Aer Lingus, is that right?
You only get tier points when it’s booked on a BA codeshare with a BA flight number.
Michele is of course right on Tier Points. When EI first advertised the Manchester flights (including to BGI) I checked on BA’s website to see if they would be codeshare flights, but they didn’t feature on BA’s booking engine. Having used EI from Bristol via Dublin to the US and Canada (pre-COVID), I found that the BA codeshare fare was usually at least twice the EI fare.
What is bizarre is that EI is a wholly-owned subsidiary of IAG. It was stated that EI would re-join OneWorld when IAG bought it, but that seems to have disappeared into the sand.
Canada is using the Astra Zeneca vaccine and they are having no problem accessing the US now so I don’t understand why UK citizens either should have a problem or indeed are wondering about it. The US has also approved entry from China so presumably they are accepting the Sinopharm vaccine too because China has used it almost exclusivly.
I think because they are completely overhauling the whole system and you don’t need a vaccine to get into the US so the fact that a Canadian is vaccinated makes no difference. Given the scale of the reopeoning, I’d be very surprised if they didn’t recognise AZ.