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The US administration has a problem. It has been telling everyone who is prepared to listen that its Covid policies are driven “by the science” but it now finds itself in a position where that’s patently untrue. There is absolutely nothing scientific about the current ban on travelers arriving from the UK, Ireland, or the Schengen Area but instead of addressing that situation, the administration appears to have decided to stick its head in the sand and do nothing about it.
Historically, it has always been a clear indication that a political body doesn’t really want to deal with something that the public wants it to look into when it sets up a “task force”, an “advisory group” or an “investigatory body”. These groups are normally designed to do as little as possible (an easy thing to arrange as they’re normally filled with people seeking to curry favor with those at the top of the political food chain) and to drag out their remit for as long as possible in the hopes that the public will eventually move on to a new issue and forget that the original issue was ever a thing.
Now, in the time of Covid, we have governments “developing plans” for dealing with various issues arising from the pandemic and it’s important for us to realize that this is often just another code for “we don’t really want to do anything at all” or “we don’t really have any idea what to do”. They may as well tell us that they’re setting up a task force.
This is beautifully illustrated by the recent revelation that the Biden regime is “developing a plan to require foreign visitors to be vaccinated” so that transatlantic travel can resume in both directions. What nobody appears to be asking the US government is what, exactly, is there to develop?
We already know that the government’s excuse for the partial transatlantic travel ban is utter nonsense, but what’s equally idiotic is the idea that there’s anything here that needs to be “developed”. If the White House wishes to only grant entry to fully vaccinated travelers originating in the UK, Ireland, or the Schengen Area it simply has to say as much and then require all airlines to check a passenger’s vaccination status before they’re allowed to travel. The government could even require a further vaccination status check upon arrival.
The UK already has a government app that allows people to demonstrate their vaccination status and people residing in the European Union have access to the EU Covid-19 Vaccine Passport, so there is nothing stopping people who are currently banned from traveling to the United States from proving that they have been vaccinated…so what is the US waiting for? What does it need to develop?
If a tiny island country like Cyprus (it has a population smaller than that of Delaware) can manage to run an entry program whereby a passenger’s vaccination status is checked before they’re allowed to board their flight (to Cyprus) and whereby vaccinated and unvaccinated visitors are treated differently upon arrival (vaccinated passengers go straight to immigration while unvaccinated passengers are diverted away for Covid testing), it can’t be too much to ask for a country like the United States to open up its borders to vaccinated Europeans.
The simple fact is that the Biden administration’s statement that it’s developing a plan to allow vaccinated travelers to visit the United States from countries that are on its banned list is nothing more than a delaying tactic. The premise that there is something to develop is ridiculous so the government either needs to stop treating us all like ignorant imbeciles and get on with opening up transatlantic travel, or it needs to tell us why it really doesn’t want travel opening up just yet.
They’re just too busy dealing with the unvaccinated undocumented immigrants on our southern border who are frequently released into this country without any tests. And, those Europeans are unlikely to turn into U.S. Democrat voters. Have to get the priorities straight.
Maybe the US doesn’t want to whipsaw like the EU is about to.
https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/news/eu-considers-removing-us-from-epidemiologically-safe-countries-list-plans-to-introduce-entry-ban/
Have you cc’d the White House on this post so they know how you feel? Otherwise, what’s the point?
This White House has never been about the science. They are about control. Control your money, control how it’s spent, control what you read, how you can act. Elections have consequences and we are reaping what we voted for.
Grandiose assumptions.
You guys left China off the list. There is absolutely no reason to ban travelers from China; one could still argue that there are fair number of infected travelers from Europe and now that the vaccines are not preventing infections, one’s vaccination status is totally pointless anyway.
You raise some very good points. My take is slightly more charitable: The U.S. is – presumably – actually willing to let in people who are properly vaccinated but the U.S. knows that there are a lot of second or even third rate vaccines out there, including ones that we sponsor through COVAX. If the vaccines that we’re handing out aren’t even good enough to get you into the country, why is the U.S. handing them out? No administration wants to admit that they’re handing out shoddy goods and the Biden administration is using convoluted logic to avoid answering that question. Then there’s the issue of picking which vaccines you count as effective, which is a political atom bomb. If you think relations with mainland China suck now, try essentially saying that their vaccines are ineffective to see how that works out. Likewise for Russia.
In short, while I don’t love the U.S. stance, I do see some reasons for acting this way. When all options are bad, you just try to take the least bad.
I asked my doctor how much longer for this Covid thing. He said, how should I know? I’m doctor, not a politician.
There you go: You tell all the families of the hundreds of thousands of American dead that this is all just made up, just a joke.
The joke was on the US on January 20th. A absolute intentional disaster at our southern border, no other country in the world runs it borders like this. Runaway inflation, employers unable to hire employees that would rather sit home and collect the government freebies, rampant crime waves because thugs are not being arrested or prosecuted. Your now judged solely by your skin color – not by your contribution to society or sacrifices you have made in your life to be successful. Harris said NO WAY she was going to get the vaccine if Trump had anything to do with it, but now that they are in charge your killing other people if you don’t get it. Makes sense doesn’t it?