New U.S. travel rule excludes Russia's Sputnik V

[mellowyellow]

A woman receives the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine. Photo: Sergei Savostyanov\TASS via Getty Images

New rules allowing fully vaccinated international travellers to enter the U.S. beginning in November will exclude those vaccinated by Russia's Sputnik V vaccine. Sputnik V's exclusion will mean millions of fully vaccinated individuals won't be eligible to travel to the U.S.

According to the new rules, non-citizens entering the country must be inoculated with vaccines approved for emergency use by either the Food and Drug Administration or the World Health Organization. These include the Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines used widely in the U.S., as well as the AstraZeneca vaccine. It also includes the Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines developed by China

 

[MrPants]

Seems the WHO recently suspended their earlier approval of the SputnikV vaccine for emergency use due to numerous 'manufacturing infringements' it discovered after an inspection of the manufacturing plant in Russia. Wasn't clear what these infringements were specifically but the term potential cross contamination was mentioned. Russia claims the issues have been resolved.

I'm going to assume this is why the US has crossed it off their 'acceptable vaccine' list for travelers entering the country.