Just weeks before Shelby Kalma left for Germany and the Czech Republic in late December, federal health officials issued a red alert warning: avoid travel to both countries due to COVID-19.
The guidance didn’t stop the Tacoma, Washington, resident and her husband, and they spent three weeks in Europe. The trip was a last-minute decision, but the couple was itching to travel and the two countries allowed them in with proof of full vaccination.
“It was a risk we took,” Kalma said. “In our heads, COVID’s not going anywhere. Tomorrow’s not promised. For us, it’s like – do we live in fear or do we keep putting our dreams aside because of the pandemic?”
She’s not the only one. Every week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updates its list of countries that should be avoided due to COVID-19 risk. After nearly two years of living in the pandemic, travelers are ignoring the agency’s guidance.
“There are a lot of people in this country who don’t feel confident in CDC messages,” Mark Dworkin, professor and associate director for epidemiology at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s school of public health, told USA TODAY.
► CDC level 4: Australia, the Bahamas and 20 other countries added to CDC’s ‘avoid…
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