Travel Insurance Providers to Make COVID-19 Vaccination a Requirement for Coverage, If EU Makes It Obligatory First

Posted date: 23 Jul 2021

The European Union Commission has authorized the first safe and effective vaccine against COVID-19 developed by BioNTech and Pfizer, last Monday on December 21.

While vaccination of EU citizens is expected to start before the end of the year, the Commission is planning to have 200 million citizens vaccinated by September 2021, and is currently working to activate an additional 100 million doses on the meantime.

However, with the high volume of fake news and conspiracy theories that have been going on for months now on the pandemic and vaccination, the real challenge for the EU will not be to purchase the necessary vaccine doses, but rather to convince people to be vaccinated.

And while it may be a bit harder to convince each EU citizen to be vaccinated, the EU countries may have it easier to handle incoming travellers.

In an exchange of emails with SchengenVisaInfo.com, Elvio Chilelli from Europ Assistance, a company that provides Schengen travel insurance for individuals, families, groups, leisure and business travellers, with no pre-screening or medical exams required, said that currently, vaccination is not a requirement for the EU and thus not a requirement for purchasing their policies.

However, Chilelli noted that if the EU makes vaccination obligatory for travellers to be eligible to enter its territory, then Europ Assistance would update its policies in compliance with the EU regulations.

Imperial College London’s Institute of Global Health Innovation (IGHI) and YouGov have recently conducted a survey on the willingness of people to be vaccinated, carried out in 15 countries – including, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the UK.

The results show that only about 51 percent of 13,500 participants were willing to get vaccinated in 2021.

According to the survey, which was conducted in November, French citizens were the least willing to be vaccinated – only 35 per cent. At the same time, 66 per cent of French citizens surveyed showed great concern on the possible side effects of the vaccine.

Back in May, protesters in Germany had accused Chancellor Angela Merkel and pharmaceutical companies of inventing COVID-19 to “impose dictator-ship like conditions on the country.”

Conspiracy theorists, in Europe and further in the world, have targeted Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who is known as a supporter of vaccination, claiming he is responsible for the Coronavirus pandemic.

Posted By

GSP Admin