That Pleasure, Leisure Vacation Choice Abroad

"Can this [international travel] be done safely? The real answer is, 'look, in this era, there is going to be nothing that's without risk-- everything is going to be tied to some element of risk."
"People are going to have to make their own risk assessment to determine if this is worth it for them or their family, or not."
Dr.Isaac Bogoch, infectious disease scientist, Toronto

"So, unless you are going to screen every traveller immediately before each trip, then mass transit of any form comes with an inherent degree of risk."
Dr.Matthew Oughton, attending physician, division of infectious diseases, Jewish General Hospital, Montreal

"Even though I could screen completely negative and have a normal temperature today, I could be infectious and coughing and febrile tomorrow."
"If the symptom screening does pick up a couple of people, well, fine, that's helpful. But it might still miss 70 to 80 percent of people that might have COVID."
"If you're paying a lot of money for a transatlantic flight, there's a negative incentive for people to lie on those symptom screens, and get on the plane."
"But we know with this virus, even with good air exchanges, closed contacts and droplets are still a mode of transmission."
"We pose less of a threat to Europe. That doesn't mean Europe doesn't pose more of a threat to the average traveller."
Dr.Zain Chagla, associate professor of medicine in infectious disease, McMaster University, Hamilton

A family with members from North Carolina and Pennsylvania visits nearby Myrtle Beach, S.C. Domestic trips are expected to rise as people get comfortable with traveling again. (Jason Lee/The Sun News/AP)

To go, or not to go, that is the question. And the answer? Elusive at best. Troubling at the very worst, given the realities of today. The closed skies of today are verging on the opening skies of tomorrow. Travellers from selected countries are considered safe enough for the European Union to deem them welcome in European Union countries. The United States of America is not among those to be welcomed in those countries, not as long as COVID-19 infections continue to rage in various states.

Anthony Fauci, America's top infectious diseases expert has issued a forbidding warning that "if this does not turn around", cases in the United States could reach the dread figure of 100,000 daily. Canada, on the other hand, passes the criteria mounted for the 27-member EU bloc to represent a safe/er country to beckon as a visitor with its "stable or decreasing trend of new cases" over the past two weeks; citing as well the country's testing and contact tracing, and data reliability.

Those countries whose visitor status has been endorsed are to undergo review and update bi-weekly. And while EU member-states are now given an overall go-ahead to re-open their borders some may choose, like Denmark and Ireland, to forego the opportunity for the time being. Airlines everywhere are in deep financial straits. Now prepared to abandon social-distancing seating to resume using middle seats rather than have them vacant, may give some travellers pause for thought.

British Columbia's Health Minister did pause to issue this thoughtful statement: "What I'd like to hear from Transport Canada, from Health Canada is do they agree with this" move on the part of the badly beleaguered airlines, Air Canada and WestJet. Canadians are still being recommended by the federal government to avoid international non-essential travel. Any who enter or return to Canada are required to self-impose a 14-day quarantine. Failure to do so can result in a fine of up to $750,000, with a six-month imprisonment, or both.

A hotel in the Spanish island of Mallorca. (Jaime Reina/AP)

Thee is the reality that people expressing no or few symptoms are still capable of spreading COVID-19. Airlines have adopted some reassuring protective measures, such as pre-boarding temperature checks, health screening and masking requirements, but data appears to suggest that few people appear to take their flight with the first symptom of COVID-19 -- fever -- being present; in the commonplace actuality of pre-symptomatic transmission.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, most viruses tend not to spread on flights as a result of the way air is circulated and filtered, which seems reassuring, but balanced against the probability or possibility of contracting the virus exposed to the presence of those shedding infectious droplets without being aware of having contracted COVID, decision-making represents a calculated and perhaps fraught decision to proceed.

And as Dr.Chagla points out, travel should be restricted to immediate or reasons related to urgency, setting aside visions of travel linked to pleasure, as a measure of pure self-preservation in risk-potential.

Passengers are distanced on this flight from Vancouver to Calgary, but that is unlikely to last as more people start flying again. (Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press/AP)