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Covid Requirements
I am surprised that Tauck still requires proof of Covid vaccination. It seems to me that it should be dropped as most places do not require it any longer.
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I am surprised that Tauck still requires proof of Covid vaccination. It seems to me that it should be dropped as most places do not require it any longer.
Comments
There have been positive Covid cases on tours. If Tauck drops the vaccine requirement, I might need or find another company to travel with
I agree with British but given Tauck's brand and commitment to excellence, I doubt they will drop the vaccination requirement. I hope they summarize the results of the survey they recently conducted on the topic.
Is this requirement on all tours or just for those where the countries you are visiting have the requirement? We are going to Ireland in June and hadn't thought about uploading our information.
Kathy M- we just booked a tour to Europe today and it’s a Tauck requirement.
Yes, still a requirement to travel with Tauck and they will ask to see your CDC vaccination card. I was on a U S tour last October and we had to show our card at the reception party/dinner. We keep our cards with our passports. Actually, I'm surprised Tauck only requires one booster. Hopefully that will change once they tally the results of their survey. Regardless, I will continue to wear masks and social distance where I deem it to be necessary. My choice.
It’s not necessarily about country requirements. The people you are nearest to are your fellow tour members in enclosed spaces. Even before Covid, we have found that fellow travelers pass around colds etc.
I'm curious about what did the survey ask, and when did it come around? I received one a year or more ago.
What I think I am hearing is that I need to take my vaccination card with me but don't need to upload anything prior to traveling. We had gone to a college reunion this fall and actually needed to upload the card before being permitted on campus.
I would never travel without my ORIGINAL Covid card, it stays in my Passport along with my yellow fever card. But I don’t carry it around with me, I carry a copy and I have a photo on my phone, the latter two are the ones I have shown the TD at the start of my tours. Tauck has never asked for a digital copy. The other tour company we travel with requires digital copy and a list of my medications and health history.
Wan,
If my memory serves me correctly, I received the survey via e-mail around the start of 2023. It wanted to know confidence levels of continuing to travel with Tauck should they remove their vaccination requirements. For example, would you be concerned if Tauck removed the requirement? How concerned? Would you continue to travel with Tauck if the requirement was lifted? I thought it was well written and comprehensive, especially since it allowed for comments, albeit not very lengthy comments.
Their surveys are always quite random and I do not know the population size of those surveyed. Hopefully they will release their findings once the results are tallied. I hope this helps.
Kathy M,
Yes, you should travel with your original CDC vaccination documentation and carry a copy with you, as was already mentioned.
I completed that survey and I indicated that I was very much in favor of the required Covid vaccination and would be uncomfortable if it were no longer a requirement.
Others will disagree but at 77 I want to do all that I can to keep myself healthy and don't want to be around others who are cavalier about their own health and those of others.
I also did that survey, but it was a long time ago,maybe they did another one this year, but I didn’t get it.
I filled out that survey when Tauck was figuring out what their policy should me. Some time early 2021? It was shortly after the vaccines came out. Seems like ages ago.
The survey I completed was within the past few months so relatively recent. I was one of those who was late to return to travel so maybe it was sent to a subset of travelers.
voikk32 - I believe the surveys are completely random.
I couldn't agree more with your comment about doing what it takes to stay safe and healthy. As I have said many times, I can't control the behavior of others so I make sure I do what I can to protect myself. Happy and healthy travels!
I took the original vaccinations and the subsequent boosters to decrease the severity. I did this knowing that it would not stop me from contracting it(efficacy was not 100% and the mutation rate was too fast to keep up.) and that it would not stop me from transferring it to others. Basically the same reasons I don't smoke, watch what I eat and get regular exercise.
Although they didn't reference the survey, Tauck sent out an e-mail today stating they will remove vaccination requirements for 2024 travel. Oddly, they reiterated that guests will still need to sign a "pledge" in 2024, details of which have not been established yet.
They asked for feedback (nice gesture), so I readily and politely offered mine.
I didn't get this email but they are clearly bending to the wishes of the many. I would not be one of the many but I will do what I need to do to protect myself.
I'm not sure what the point of the "pledge" is if they aren't requiring vaccinations and they don't enforce the mask requirements anyway so it seems like a CYA move to me.
Having said that, I have 4 tours booked with Tauck for 2024 and 2 this year plus another 2 this year with a competitor. It's time to get back to living.
We are living life and doing tours aplenty but I’m extremely disappointment with Tauck. I wonder if this time I really can sign my next pledge with some made up name. we’ve had coughing on all our tours but one since Covid began, but there is no testing now, so who knows what people are passing around. In this case , I think Tauck must be short of customers or why would they change the policy?
Thankfully, so far, the other tour company we have two tours booked with requires vaccination.
My other tour company also requires vaccination but they have not published 2024 dates as yet so we will see what happens there.
Their pledge has been a complete joke from the start. Their lawyers probably told them to do it as a CYA move, then give them the wink wink.
Time to put it to bed. The pandemic presently is ‘over’. Many studies have shown that masks don’t prevent infection nor death. We wore masks before Fauci said they were good … actually when he said they were not necessary. We stopped wearing masks when it became obvious that masks do not prevent infection nor transmission. I know that anyone with a ‘handle’ ending in “MD” knows more than I know. But, I know how to read statistics. I wore masks, I have had five vaccines, but I expect that the vaccines may help me survive, but not prevent me from getting sick. So let’s move on. We are going to travel, and some will get the ‘flu’, but we will press on.
So the flagger is back. No need to flag a post that you don’t agree with. Sealord makes valid points. The world has mostly moved on from the pandemic. That doesn’t mean I’m not going to take my own precautions and hope for the best. That said, I’m not isolating anymore.
While the pandemic emergency may be ending in the USA, there is still plenty of disease out there. Health messaging from Tauck and other group travel companies needs to be loud and clear. We are talking about 20-30 people stuck together for 1-2 weeks. It is likely that a third to a half will be sick with something by the end of the trip. Those of you who are choosing not to mask at least at the airport or for take-off and landing (when ventilation systems are not as active) probably have a higher chance of showing up to the tour already infected with something. At least discuss vaccines with your doctor, not only Covid but flu, hepatitis A, etc. Pay attention to hand hygiene. More importantly in order to make these tours a little better for everyone please consider limited masking. At least put on a mask if you are developing respiratory symptoms or at the first sign of a sore throat. Let people know you may be infected so we can distance ourselves if we want. Consider wearing a mask in crowded places during the tour. Smoking is not allowed on the bus, yet somehow it has become ok to be contagious with Covid and be allowed on a bus without a mask. Mask messaging during the early days of the pandemic was indeed a mess, but I want to move forward with common sense. I know I have other travel options, but group travel is fun and Tauck tours are really nice. I am hoping we can at least demonstrate basic health courtesy to try to take care of each other. That messaging needs to come from Tauck, beyond the ridiculous “Travel Pledge” form.
Wan - Amen!
Awesome Wan!
Just this week, I know three people who have contracted Covid, it’s still around. I’m using my common sense and masking as much as I can this week before my tour begins in just over a week. I do have only a little hope that my fellow tour members are doing the same. We only ever seem to catch respiratory or stomach issues when we are on a Tauck tour, except RSV from our generous grandson last year. Going on a group tour is an extra risk but even more so these days and with no testing, even worse.
Wan, you have gotten a lot of ‘like’ votes, but your requirements for your fellow travelers are a dream. One of the few randomized studies of mask usage was done by the Danish, and it found no statistical advantage to mask wearing. One point eight percent of mask wearers got covid and two point one percent of the control group that did not wear masks got covid. We have traveled a lot during the pandemic and the requirements have changed. We just got back from a week in Hawaii. Service employees do wear masks, but the customers do not. Few on the airplane including flight attendants wear masks. In public areas no one wears masks … perhaps one in a hundred. Our Uber driver wore a mask. Virtually no one on the Arizona memorial nor the Missouri wore masks. If mask wearing is important to your travel plans, you should plan on wearing two masks or simply stay home. Our latest friend who died “with” covid was one week ago … but he also had severe injuries from crashing his car. They discovered covid when he entered the hospital.
Bravo Sealord! Let’s get back to the forum sharing the gems we learn from travel, not disease. It might be shocking to some, but there was plenty of illness and disease before Covid.
No one likes wearing masks. If you can't bring yourself to put on a KN95 or N95 properly in the airport and during take off and landing, then by all means don't do it. For anyone who is able to wear that type of well fitting mask for those periods of time, it is still a good idea. It is impossible to do a good study of masking for disease prevention. You can't follow people around to make sure they are masked properly for the length of these studies. At the very least please try to put on a mask on tour when you are sick or at least please notify others if you might be unwell. Your 3 days of mild sniffles might be my 5 days of being flattened. I don't care what you call your virus. But I'd like to at least try to avoid it while traveling. Getting sick while traveling is much different than getting sick at home. I am simply trying to raise awareness for keeping travel groups healthier. I am under no delusion that everyone can be saved. But if it helps someone get sick on day 14 rather than day 5 of their trip, that could be something. At least your whole trip wasn't affected. By the way we took 2 tours in the Spring of 2022 when you had to test to return home and due to strict masking no one got sick at all and everyone tested negative on both tours. The experience in September 2022 was much different.
Thanks for your attention.