Which covid-19 vaccine is the most widely accepted for international travel?

PERHAPS THE best litmus test of the post-pandemic world will be how much international travel returns. In 2020 international tourism arrivals fell by 74% compared with 2019, to just 380m—by contrast the fall was just 4% during the financial crisis. In recent months international travel has begun to recover. With 3.7bn vaccine doses administered around the world, many people are raring to pack their bags for a foreign trip. But not every vaccine-acquired antibody automatically allows you freely to jet off overseas.

Many governments are welcoming only recipients of certain covid-19 vaccines as visitors. This month the European Union said it would not admit visitors who were jabbed with the Covishield vaccine—even though it is identical to the AstraZeneca vaccine which is used in the EU—because it has not been approved by the EU’s medicines regulator. The government of India, where the vaccine is manufactured, threatened to retaliate. The policy may also affect Covishield recipients elsewhere in the world: 5m doses have been delivered in Britain.