Checking that guests have had the Covid19 vaccination

[Bryan10]

It looks like there will be a few workable vaccines within the next few months. Yay!  Have you thought about asking if future guests have had the vaccine, so you know that you and co-guests will be safe? Will you insist they've been jabbed before they come? Is there a way for them to prove they've been vaccinated (certificate etc)?  Is it necessary for all your guests to have had the vaccine, if you're not sharing a space?  Should there be a centralised Airbnb certificate for this (like getting verified)? Your thoughts & opinions please! 

[Melodie-And-John0]

@Bryan10 , The most successful offense begin with the best defenses!  I think I will worry more about getting the vaccine myself and ensuring everyone I care about gets it.  There will be many that think twice before they get it, rolling the dice against Darwin is a bad idea in my opinion!    Besides, delving deeper into my potential guests medical or personal lives is a bridge I'm not ready to cross, privacy is important.   Just my 2 shillings for what thats worth!, Stay well, JR   

[Emilia42]

Nope, business as usual for me. I wouldn't be hosting if I thought otherwise.

[Shaun69]

@Bryan10  I would not be surprised if "Boris" makes it a mandatory requirement for hospitality providers in the future. It is clear that lots of people will be afraid of the vaccine, a number of my friends have already expressed reservations regarding take up. (Personally i am not in that camp). My view is that I will not ask guests unilaterally for proof but if it is a government requirement then bring it on I do not have an issue!

BE SAFE AND HAPPY SHAUN.

[Laura4558]

No, no and no.  Privacy is a huge issue with requiring the vaccine. Personally, I don't understand why it's acceptable to skirt HIPPA laws for Covid-19. I get that it's contagious, but so are many other illnesses/conditions.

[Cathie19]

@Bryan10 ,

No to asking a guest.

No to delving into someone’s privacy. I’ll leave those questions to the powers that be: that is, government border arrival declarations etc. 

I still think maintaining social distancing plus some level of health and safety protocols will be the only way out of this pandemic for quite awhile to come...... There is no magic bullet/ one size fits all scenario.

All pharmaceutical findings cannot guarantee the time a vaccine will last. Even natural antibodies may not  last longer than a few months, depending on individuals. If a person is taking medication that lowers the immune system, this might also play into viability and effectiveness. 

[Anonymous]

@Bryan10  I'm hopeful that a vaccine will eventually make it safer to consider hosting in shared living spaces, and prove sufficient for hosts to protect themselves. But by no means would I support using it as a pretext to  intrude upon anyone's medical privacy. Neither Airbnb nor its hosts has any right to their customers' medical records, and neither is inherently qualified to verify their authenticity. 

My position remains that we should only be hosting if our situation is such that it would not be a danger to our families, communities, or other guests to host someone who is currently Covid-positive. A widely available vaccine would eventually open up another avenue to that (though we may be looking at closer to a year from now), and we might see vaccination records required by governments for international travel visas. But I don't envision a scenario in which Airbnb or its hosts would have the authority to act as the enforcers.

[Melodie-And-John0]

well put @Anonymous ,  We feel our privacy and our guests are of the utmost importance. The only exclusion I consider other than my new customary warning not to purposely bring a contagious disease into our home is guide dogs and emotional support dog.  I believe it should be incumbent on Airbnb to certify the dog is medically necessary, specially trained, up to date on vaccinations and cover any damages 100% if the dogs training isn't sufficient to keep our home undamaged.  That said, I still can't accept them cause I have a dog that is very territorial when it comes to animals entering our home and nobody would get a minutes rest if they did bring one.    

[Kia272]

@Bryan10  I think that "a few months" is not entirely realistic, as well as asking and relying on guests for the truth is not entirely realistic. As @Cathie19 said, social distancing and other health and safety measures need to play a large part in combatting this pandemic for many months, if not years to come. 

I have actually been vaccinated. I was lucky enough to be part of a Phase 1 trial at NIH (National Institutes of Health) in Bethesda, Maryland. For those of you wondering, there is no placebo in a Phase 1 trial, as safety is the primary concern in that phase. This was the Moderna vaccine, which has now come out with very positive news as to efficacy (95%) and safety. 

While participating in the vaccine trial, we are told that there is no presumption of immunity (they obviously did not know at that point), but even now that I know, I am making zero change to my habits. 

I am masked and practicing social distancing, as well as limiting my public exposure. Obviously, there are still unknowns as to how long-term the immunity is, as well as the possibility of being in the small percentage of those for whom the vaccine doesn't work. 

Just FYI, I'm posting here to let others know of my experience, so that if it changes the mind of one sceptic or someone fearful of the vaccine, I would be happy. I was lucky enough to have participated in a number of medical trials at NIH, so I had the benefit of past experience, as well as high confidence in their science, protocols, and practices. 

In case anybody is wondering, I had a few very minor side-effects. 

[Alon1]

@Kia272 

How long ago did you get vaccinated?  And have you had another test since to check immunity?

[Kia272]

@Alon1  Hi- 

I was vaccinated on June 2 with a second shot on July 2nd. I have had a series of blood draws at NIH since that time. For study/trial purposes, I am completely anonymous, and therefore nobody at NIH knows or can tell me anything about my personal results as to antibodies/immunity, or anything else. I actually have had to follow the news just like the general public with regard to overall vaccine progress and specifically Moderna's vaccine. I've known for some time that they were getting positive results, and knew some minor specifics because they made some changes to the study protocol after some early results in Washington state, where the study was slightly ahead of NIH.

They had started the study with 3 different doses of the vaccine, and by the time NIH started our group, they had cut the higher dose, because the lower doses were producing just as many antibodies in the study participants. So, given the news with regard to Moderna's vaccine, I have some presumption of immunity at this point, but of course these studies are too new to have established how long the vaccine immunity will last. My last blood draw at NIH will be in July of 2021. 

[Katrina79]

@Bryan10 It is nice to start envisioning the end of so many changes the world has seen since the pandemic! I’m sure everyone around the world wants to get back to life pre-Covid.
You should not ask your guests these questions in the future. 
1) Is it illegal in your country to ask? In our country it would be against the law to ask because of the privacy laws. Asking this question may possibly lead to a discrimination lawsuit. What if the answer is no they haven’t received the vaccine, would you not accept their reservation request? One of the main reasons for the privacy laws regarding health information is to protect people from discrimination. 
2) Because of the privacy laws, our government would not hand out little badges for people to carry around and prove to others they have been vaccinated. Therefor, if you ask the question and you receive an answer from the potential guest, you do not know if it is the truth. It would be dangerous to assume you, other guests and your family have no risk of contracting the virus from a self declared vaccinated guest. 

[Helen350]

I think American/Canadian privacy laws are ridiculous! 

Where is the harm in knowing a vaccination status? It's not the same as disease & health status. People have travel injections all the time, and Yellow Fever vaccination is a condition of entry to some countries. I had all manner of injections when I worked with VSO in Papua New Guinea, and of course VSO checked we had the paperwork to prove our vaccinations. Why would anyone object?

I think it's perfectly acceptable, as a home share host to ask pertinent questions of potential guests. 

At present I DO still welcome people into my home, (within current gov. regs re workers only), but once the vaccine is available those who currently won't risk it could start hosting again with vaccination certs - and the UK says it will start vaccinating health & social care workers any day now, before rolling through the generations starting with the very elderly.

I tried to goo gle the law in UK re whether you can ask re vaccination status. I'm sure you can; I was asked by Occupational Health when I worked in hospitals, and well as providing my Vaccination certs/HIV neg status/chest x-ray to VSO.

[Anonymous]

@Helen350  I'd expect that even in a country with strict medical privacy laws, employers of health workers would be able to require medical examinations that are relevant to the profession. (it's not like a shift supervisor at Starbuck's can just up and make a barista take an HIV test). But governments and health institutions are also subject to regulations about what they do with the records, and are at least supposed to have the people receiving them properly trained and bound to the protocol. 

None of that can be said for an Airbnb host.

The distinction I'm making here, if I haven't made it clear enough, is between asking and demanding evidence. In the UK of course you can ask as one private citizen to another whether someone has had this or that medical procedure, but that  doesn't necessarily mean you get to inspect their documents. And if you can't, then you have to allow for the possibility that they're lying - which makes the question rather pointless.

@Lisa723  It does occur to me that if the main concern is your cleaners' exposure risk,  their employer (be it you or an agency) is in a better position to require them to be vaccinated than you are to make this demand of guests.  

[Christine2786]

Thank you Helen for your common sense as I was becoming somewhat depressed reading so many replies about 'privacy' etc.  These are our homes where we welcome responsible guests and I don't think it's unacceptable to ask about Covid-19 vaccine.  I don't require their medical history.  A guest can choose to stay elsewhere if they prefer.