The coronavirus has marked a before and after moment in the lives of people throughout the world. As reflected in various posts in www.timesofcoronavirus.com, one thing that has drastically changed is the simple act of traveling from one place to another.
After a three-month confinement period, travel between different countries very recently became possible within the Schengen Area (including the UK). Now, in July, Europe will be opening borders to a group of countries outside the Schengen Area. To decide who can enter, the EU has made a list and is checking it not twice (like Santa) but rather 26 times (number of Schengen countries).
This selective opening of borders is receiving a great deal of media hype because more visitors are urgently needed in Europe. The Eiffel Tower, Alhambra, and Coliseum are in urgent need of foreign admiration and currency. Southern EU countries (especially Spain, Portugal, and Italy), which are prime tourist destinations, evidently need solvent visitors so that their faltering economies can recover.
However, it is a Scylla and Charybdis choice because visitors from those countries where the coronavirus is out of control could re-spark a second wave of Covid-19 in Europe, like the one in March. In Spain, an influx of visitors from Italy triggered the exponential growth of the virus in Madrid, which then rapidly spread throughout the whole country.
This type of swift, large-scale contagion is something that only people in New England can understand.
A high school friend of mine, who still thinks that the flu is worse than Covid-19 (and keeps posting this opinion on FaceBook), has never seen hospital hallways filled with people waiting for an ICU bed and ice skating rinks filled with cadavers (and yes, two of my children actually have been there and seen and dealt with all that). However, I try to make allowances for her blinkered perception of reality. Some people have no understanding of the seriousness of an event unless it directly affects them.
For all of these reasons, the EU travel ban is a difficult decision. Europe wants dollars, but at the same time, needs to be careful. Two months ago, Europe was not a place where anybody wanted to be.
And to make matters worse, there is still no vaccine. Warp speed has slowed down to wimp speed. The only medicines are a few stopgap drugs that only work if the patient is at death’s doorway. The most effective measure against Covid-19 is still confinement (of the monastic variety). That is what finally stopped the spread of the virus in Spain.
The inclusion criteria for the European travel list are thus not political since Europe would love to welcome American tourists. The criteria are medical. The 15 countries on the magic entry list all have a Covid-19 infection rate similar to EU countries. The primary metric used is a measure of the average number of new cases per 100,000 people over the last 14 days. The EU bloc has an average of 14 cases.
Countries with a similar average are Algeria, Australia, Canada, Georgia, Japan, Montenegro, Morocco, New Zealand, Rwanda, Serbia, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia, Uruguay, and even China (if China reciprocates and allows the entry of EU visitors).
This list, which will be approved on Wednesday, is memorable not so much for the countries that are on it but for those that it excludes. The USA, Russia, and Brazil (along with all Latin America except Uruguay) have been deemed too risky because their coronavirus outbreaks are poorly contained. The US score is 107, while Russia’s is 80, and Brazil’s is 180.
These are numbers, which are still not even close to 14. However, this list will be revised every two weeks. If numbers go down, then the ban will be lifted. It is as simple as that.
I have friends in the USA at both ends of the political spectrum. A few have mentioned their surprise at the travel ban, and seem to think that the reasons for excluding the USA are political. I can only gently point out that on 12 March, in an uncharacteristic display of good sense, President Trump placed sweeping travel restrictions on EU countries to combat the spread of the coronavirus in the USA. In my opinion, this is one of the most sensible measures that he has ever implemented because at that time, the coronavirus was out of control in Europe. That was what had to be done, and I can only applaud.
Since these restrictions have not been officially lifted, the EU ban is no big deal. The only difference is that the shoe is on the other foot because now the ban is mutual. In June, the EU is displaying the same good sense that President Trump did in March. It is a little unfair, of course, because this means that people living in states with low scores are placed in the same category as those with huge spikes in coronavirus cases.
For example, in Florida and Texas, there are cities (e.g. Houston, Miami) that are running out of hospital beds. Republican governors in Florida and Texas have even obliged the population to return to decaffeinated confinement. In Jacksonville, Florida, the mayor has mandated the (indoor) use of masks to stem the rising rate of infection. The GOP has said that if the requirement is still in place in August, convention delegates will also wear masks. (It will be interesting to see whether the president complies with this mandate.)
Things must indeed be getting serious because last Sunday in Dallas, Vice President Pence implored Americans to wear face masks, practice social distancing and stay away from senior citizens to protect them. He even praised Texas Governor Abbott (a Republican) for scaling back some reopening measures because of the surge in patients in the state’s hospitals.
This seems to indicate that there are traces of intelligent life in the White House. Perhaps Pence will also be able to convince President Trump to follow this advice though I would not hold my breath.
