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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky on Monday defended her agency's decision not to endorse travel for vaccinated Americans, saying that, even as the CDC says they can socially gather without masks, increasing travel would add to the number of COVID-19 cases and pose a risk to the majority of the country not yet vaccinated. Walensky said the agency's guidance has not changed, saying that travel has increased COVID-19 cases and that, even though people who are vaccinated are less likely to become seriously ill, CDC doesn't have enough data yet to know if they can transmit the virus to others. (Ebbs, 3/8)

An earlier draft of the guidelines included a travel section but senior health officials decided not to release that portion of the recommendations at this time, one senior administration official told POLITICO. Advice on whether vaccinated people need to quarantine after exposure to someone with Covid-19 also sparked debate at a White House meeting Friday, one day after the guidelines were originally set for release. (Banco, Cancryn and Owermohle, 3/8)

Leading airline and business groups are asking the Biden administration to develop temporary credentials that would let travelers show they have been tested and vaccinated for COVID-19, a step that the airline industry believes will help revive travel. Various groups and countries are working on developing so-called vaccine passports aimed at allowing more travel. But airlines fear that a smattering of regional credentials will cause confusion and none will be widely accepted. (Koenig, 3/9)

U.S. airlines, joined by travel groups and labor, urged the Biden administration to take the lead in developing standards for temporary Covid-19 health credentials that would help reopen global travel by documenting vaccinations and test results. The U.S. “must be a leader” in efforts already underway in other regions to implement such travel passports, groups including Airlines for America said in a letter Monday to Jeffrey Zients, the head of President Joe Biden’s Covid-19 recovery team. It’s essential for the government to partner with carriers and the travel industry “to quickly develop” standards, they said. (Schlangenstein, 3/8)

Vaccine passports could become available soon to help people resume their lives — but they face numerous scientific, social and political barriers to being accepted. Reliable and accessible proof of vaccine-induced protection from the novel coronavirus could speed international travel and economic reopening, but obstacles to its wide-scale adoption are so great it may never fully arrive. (Walsh, 3/6)

Just because flights are more affordable and vaccines will be more widely available doesn’t mean travel is going to feel normal, says Dr. Panagis Galiatsatos, a pulmonary and critical care medicine specialist at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. “Travel can happen now,” he says, “if it’s allowed and if the [case] numbers look OK. If you’re vaccinated, it buys you a sense of self security, but you still have to practice proper hygiene interventions.” This means it’s important to socially distance, wear a mask, and wash your hands often. (Shrikant, 3/6)