CDC instructs Americans to avoid risky travel to the highest vaccinated countries in the world

So much for the vaccine getting us back to normal life

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention added 16 new countries to its “do not travel” lists on Monday, bringing its COVID blacklist count for “high” and “very high” risk nations to 130, which encompasses just about 2/3 of the globe.

I spent some time thumbing through the vaccination rates of these sickly countries, expecting to uncover that they are teeming with anti-vaxxers setting the dangerous example on which American cities and corporate employers were now mandating COVID double jabs. Surely “Don’t be Gibraltar” is about to become the CDC’s official slogan.

Except Gibraltar somehow boasts a 116.4% vaccination rate, how is that possible? This 116% is of their entire 2.3 square mile population, which includes newborns. Assuming they aren’t vaccinating anyone under the age of 12 with their Pfizer vaccines, that means foreigners are either crossing over from Morocco, Spain, or Portugal to get vaccinated, or Gibraltar is well into administering third doses of Pfizer to their already-fully-vaccinated population. Either way, I’d be interested in hearing what Slate’s reporter on-the-ground in Gibraltar has to say about his country landing on the naughty list after his April 27th article gushing about his sense of relief and guilt about being somewhere so fortified against the virus.

What about Malta, then? Those Mediterranean loons with their olive oil and yogurt diets. We all know they must worship at the alter of Andrew Wakefield in Malta.

Wait, Malta earned the title of having the world’s highest vaccination rate? They don’t even allow unvaccinated people to cross the border. Fortune claims that 80.9% of their entire population received at least one shot and Reuters reports enough doses administered for 75.6% of their total population to be double jabbed.

To put this in perspective, as of today in the United States, where vaccine-ineligible children under 12 comprise less than 15% of the total population, only 49.7% of all Americans are fully vaccinated, so Malta is knocking it out of the park, comparatively speaking. Even the UK, which is on the worst no-go list, is 63.8% vaccinated and they’re not even giving the jabs to anyone under the age of 18.

Aruba, then. The happy-go-lucky nation with the crystal clear waters, surely they aren’t taking this pandemic seriously? 65% fully vaccinated. Bahrain? 70.8% fully vaccinated. Belgium? 63.3% vaccinated. Canada? 65.9% vaccinated. Chile? 67.2% vaccinated. Denmark: 63.4% vaccinated. Easter Island: 60.3% vaccinated. Faroe Islands: 65.4% vaccinated. Iceland: 65.1% vaccinated. Israel: 61.7% vaccinated. Mongolia: 64.4% vaccinated. Qatar: 66.7% vaccinated. The lovely island of the Seychelles? 72.4% vaccinated.

Granted, a lot of nations in the Middle East, Africa, and South America just aren’t having it and their vaccination rates are well under 30% but some of them are on the same list as the most highly vaccinated countries in the world, so what gives? The Gibraltar “outbreak” is currently only 20% of its January peak. The Seychelles is at 15% of its highest peak. Qatar is at 9% of its earlier peak and Canada at 5%. A nation experiencing an outbreak that’s 5% of its peak is also experiencing an infection rate that is down 95%, no? So why is the CDC trying to stop Americans from traveling there?

Look, I don’t doubt that there are breakthrough infections in the fully vaccinated and waning immunity with the injections people received January through May of this year, but when we look at the whole picture of infections, hospitalizations, and deaths in the last 17 months, only Iceland is experiencing record infections on one hand, but on the other, only 30 people have died with COVID in the whole country since the beginning of 2020.

Is any of this necessary? The restrictions, the coercion, the depravation, the isolation? One of the main driving forces for young, healthy people to take the vaccine was a return to normal globe-trotting life, and what’s normal life if you can’t Instagram your wobbly tree pose in front of an Icelandic waterfall?