The U.S. border will remain closed to Europeans and the United Kingdom for the time being, with President Joe Biden and health officials citing delta variant concerns. Some European leaders are expressing impatience with the lack of reciprocity, especially as the trends in Europe closely resemble those in the USA.
U.S. Travel Restrictions For Europeans Are Not Science-Based
The delta variant now accounts for the majority of known cases in the Untied States; it is already present and widespread. Furthermore, Europeans are quickly catching up to Americans in terms of vaccinations. While 49% of Americans are fully vaccinated, a number that has dangerously stagnated due to a concerted misinformation campaign on the part of vaccine skeptics, 46% of European Union residents are now fully vaccinated.
There’s a also a political element at play: many countries with weak healthcare systems and much higher per-capita coronavirus numbers are allowed to enter the United States without restriction. It’s that imbalance that is particularly frustrating.
In Germany, for example, COVID-19 numbers are lower and the percentage of fully vaccinated people is higher than the United States. So why aren’t Germans allowed to travel to the United States?
Radoslaw Sikorski, who is the Chairman of the European Parliament’s delegation for U.S. relations, told the Washington Post:
“I think reciprocity makes sense. We have opened up the Schengen zone to American travelers, and the U.S. has not done that to our citizens.”
That’s putting it politely. There is no science behind the transatlantic border wall. There’s no reason that testing could not catch most cases coming into the United States.
While principles of reciprocity are generally reasonable when it comes to foreign policy, including international travel, I applaud the European Union for not taking a “cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face” approach to the imbalance.
Still, there will be a day of reckoning if the imbalance continues. Damien Regnard, a French Senator, noted:
“We just want some kind of fairness and logic. The U.S. is making life impossible for people, and it’s going to be terribly costly.”
Indeed. Over 100,000 French citizens with certain work or student visas are trapped in the United States. While they can return to France, there is uncertainty as to whether they can return to the Untied States if they leave.
Thus, the U.S. policy is not just bad for tourism and business, but in many cases inhumane in our inner-connected world.
CONCLUSION
It’s time to let European and British citizens back into the United States who are vaccinated. They should not have to spend two weeks in a third country before coming to the USA. Green card holders should not be afraid to visit friends and family because they do not know if they will be allowed to come back to the United States. The policy is nonsensical and I hope that European leaders will continue to put the pressure on the Biden Administration to reciprocate border policies for international travel.
Why would green card holders be afraid of leaving the country? They’re exempted from the travel bans.
I’m a green card holder myself, have traveled to Europe multiple times during 2021, and haven’t been worried about re-entry at all – but perhaps I’m missing something.
As I said below, I meant certain visa holders. Thank you.
Totally agree. I really think politics are at play with this. Perpetual pandemic state.
Green cards can enter the US Matthew, so I don’t think your example is valid (but overall point is fair)
You’re correct. I should have said visa holders, not green card holders.
This virus is inhumane and knows no borders. Having said that does one think the EU has a better percentage of vaccinated people, I think not, England does but their infection rate has risen of late and now we are hearing that fully vaccinated are being infected. So we open the borders and let everyone in lets see what happens.
What we need to be concerned about is this fall and the annual flu infections what form is it going to be this year? Flu is a killer as well,
“While 49% of Americans are fully vaccinated, a number that has dangerously stagnated due to a concerted misinformation campaign on the part of vaccine skeptics,”
Holy goodness, please read science data instead of repeating what CNN tells you to think.
I’ve hit 40 countries since Jan ‘20.
Not Covid vaccinated (vaccinated from lots of other stuff)
No way I’m touching Covid vaccine. Neither is fiancé.
Risks far outweigh rewards. Seriously, just look at the side effect data. Look at any science. It’s really really clear (unless you are one of those people who thinks everything in life is binary, and if people don’t agree, they are the enemy)
(Also, Masks going on again too in places? Lol, no thanks. So happy I left the USA. Africa and central and South America are so much more free.
A truly ignorant comment if there ever was one…sure, a few minimal side effects in a tiny minority of people is somehow far far worse than 600K+ US deaths and over 4MM globally.
Ugh, not this “statistic” again. 600k isn’t much in a population of 320MM. 4MM in 8 billion isn’t that much either, especially if you consider that these figures are probably inflated.
As Matthew said, what’s super annoying (as an EU citizen) is that the US happily welcomes unvaccinated travellers from countries with MUCH, MUCH higher infection rates, such as Russia, the UAE, Turkey, and so forth. I myself had to visit the US due to a medical emergency and had to fly to Turkey, stay there for 15 nights, and then travel to the US, which just makes so sense at all. I’m fully vaccinated with Pfizer, will happily undergo several PCR tests and wear new FFP2/N95 masks wherever I go, so one has to wonder if it really makes sense that I can’t travel to the US but an unmasked, unvaccinated Russian (for instance) can? The Biden admin. is certainly not following the science – if anything this makes MUCH less sense than the Trump admin’s travel restrictions.
This post is a bit silly. When the CDC is re-establishing mask mandates and a decision on extending US domestic mask mandates at airports will need to made in the next 60 days, allocating time to issues largely impacting non-citizens is not a priority. I recognize the ban has a real impact on certain families but government in all countries is/should be focused on delivering services to the greatest number of citizens. That a French Senator is advocating for access for French citizens is neither surprising nor particularly meaningful in discussion about US policy. If France blocks access for Americans, do you expect the US government to suddenly change its policies? Not going to happen. Politics are local. US needs to get its deeply dysfunctional domestic house in order first. On this one, I actually think Team Biden has their priorities in the right place.
I guess I don’t understand why the USA cannot get its house in order (agreed, this needs to be done) while still allowing vaccinated Europeans and Brits access to the USA. Why single them out when so many other high-risk nationalities can freely travel to the USA?
Completely agree. The irony being that our travel bubble is with Russia. How is this even a thing?
The UK just announced it is open to vaccinated people from the US and EU. Great news for the UK tourism industry.
No quarantine
Biden is doing a great job on behalf of ALL Americans. If he let the loonies have their way, half the rednecks/hillbillies/ MAGA deplorables/fruitcake Trumpists in the country could be killed off via their profoundly dumb , unvaccinated behaviour .
Another few months of tight border controls should see the situation improve. There’s no need to rush.
@Paolo, You must be a xenophobic since you seem to have people coming legally with COVID negative test from Europe but have no issues with illegals who disrespect our laws and carrying COVID virus with them.
Why is it that leftists have such contempt for those who don’t agree with their politics? Why do they want the state to coerce people to do things they don’t want? Do they think that they will never be on the losing side and know what is best for everyone? COVID-19 kills fat people. The media doesn’t want to be seen as fat shaming, so it concentrates on MAGA-types instead. By not emphasizing how dangerous COVID-19 can be for fat people, they are enacting white supremacy and helping to disproportionately kill off black folx.
Of course we should be concerned about fat people…and old folks, and immune compromised ones, and many other categories vulnerable to COVID. That’s precisely why we shouldn’t let the dim-witted ‘freedom’ freaks put them at risk. Those declining vaccination should be denied all public services, including airline travel. If they put others at risk, they should be rounded up and put in prison ( as has happened in Sydney this week, with some scumbag now detained for slapping a police horse during one of these nutcase ‘freedom’ protests; he’s declining to be tested for COVID, so he’ll stay in prison indefinitely….a decision supported by 99% of the population, ie 100% of the sane ones)
Coercing people into getting injected with an experimental therapy is not what free societies do, especially when there is no existential threat. Contrary to the hysteria in the media, this is not some Ebola-like plague. You are simply an authoritarian and your talk of the majority wanting something being justification for coercing the minority should scare people. If the vaccines work as advertised, they should protect the most vulnerable from the worst effects of the virus. I wish more people behaved in pro-social ways, but I don’t think that I know what is best for everyone else and that they should have to bend to my will. Fat people largely chose to be that way, and the rest of society pays for the consequences of their fatness (including lockdowns). Forcing people to comply for the good of society at whatever cost is how the communists established their workers’ utopia. How well it worked out for everyone involved.
Just get the effing jab and quit editorializing, you anti-vaxxing twat
This ban has nothing to do with COVID, but everything to do with politics.
On one side Biden admin ban’s Europeans even though every one traveling(legally) is required to show proof of COVID negative test, on the other side, his admin let illegals walk into our borders with COVID Positive.
https://siouxcountyradio.com/news/2021/07/27/texas-police-learn-covid-positive-illegal-immigrants-sent-to-local-hotels-after-
Oh geez not this nonsense again…
This travel ban against europeans is absolutely pathetic. As well the administration “czar” of the virus. This is not about covid, it’s 100% about politics (against our biggest allies in theory, UK and EU).
These Europeans need to calm down and take a hard look at the science. Joe Biden understands the science. This is a virus that doesn’t know borders. Therefore we should only re-open when it’s safe to do so, and with the rise of new variants, probably at least a year at the earliest.
@joe chivas
A year?! You clearly don’t know what you’re talking about. Gave me my laugh for today though, thank you. 🙂
@Joe Chivas, Does science also say if you cross the border illegally even with COVID positive, you won’t spread it?
But if it’s science-based, then how come the ban does not apply to Russia, Turkey, Mexico, Colombia and numerous other places where 1he situation is far worse than in the EU? Indeen even the non-Schengen EU countries (like Romania, Croatia or Bulgaria) are exempt but Germany somehow isn’t?
@Joe Chivas
Did you read the article? We are already open. But for countries much more dangerous about covid than all european nations. Visitors from Turkey, Mexico, Argentina, Bolivia, UAE, Russia, etc, big covid hotspots, can freely visit US with a negative PCR. In this scenario, keeping the borders close for europeans doesn’t make ANY sense. It’s pathetic.
Old man biden is a clown! I will be voting for another party and I’m a democratic in texas. His policy don’t make any sense, he should have been campaigning for vaccination day one and not stopped till it was over 50%. I’m in Italy getting free tests every 3 days while I’m here and haven’t had one issue. These people are mostly wearing kn95 masks which many in Texas don’t wear if they don’t wear a mask at all.
Matthew, could there be a constitutional reason prohibiting the US from requesting vaccination status for inbound travelers? Much like the lack of exit immigration in the US, I would assume there is a legal issue at play here. While the administration cold certainly rescind the mandate or allow it to expire, could they potentially be on shaky footing asking Europeans to show vaccination status?
While transatlantic links are crucial, inter-American links are fairly crucial as well. So many Central and South American economies depend on US remittances, and for people in many of these countries, they may not have access to the vaccine for quite some time, so arguably a travel ban for them could cause more suffering than it might for Europeans.
BlackHill thanks for the news link very interesting…Illegals running all over our country with ++ Covid with symptoms !!It makes no sense to close our Borders to Canada and EU…. while we let 188,000+++ illegals walk into our country in June with no testing to disperse anywhere they want to go and the federal government is funding their travels after they arrive!!And we wonder why Delta Covid numbers are rising?? and we now need to re-mask.. thanks Joe and company
get vaccinated already and stop tuning into Tucker C each night dee
Wow, you didn’t hope that she would die from Delta. Have you started taking your meds?
She’s just ignorant, not an anti-science, anti-vaxxer prick…may still be hope for her
So, to be clear, you can’t refute what I stated about COVID-19 death rates for children in the other post about masking children and want me to die from the Delta variant, right?