Biden’s Travel Restrictions Don’t Follow the Science By Joel Zinberg
https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/12/bidens-travel-restrictions-dont-follow-the-science/
The rules should apply to everyone, regardless of citizenship or residency status, and use all the scientific tools available.
J oe Biden never tires of saying his COVID-19 policies follow “the science.” He recently pontificated that he would battle the emerging Omicron coronavirus variant “with science and speed, not chaos and confusion.” So why is he relying on policies that he earlier criticized as xenophobic and ineffective and that are being condemned around the world as racist?
Back in January 2020, little was known about the emerging disease COVID-19 and the virus that causes it, SARS-CoV-2. Tests, vaccines, and treatments were unavailable. All that anyone knew for sure was that the disease seemed to have started in Wuhan, China, and that is where nearly all the known cases were. The Trump administration announced on January 31, 2020, that the United States would temporarily suspend the entry of foreign nationals who had been in China during the prior 14-day period.
Later that day, Biden accused Trump of “xenophobia” and “fear mongering.” So-called “fact checkers” labored mightily to claim that Biden wasn’t specifically referring to the China travel ban when he made his remarks because he might not have been aware of the travel restrictions. But he certainly was aware of the ban when he tweeted the next day, “We are in the midst of a crisis with the coronavirus. We need to lead the way with science — not Donald Trump’s record of hysteria, xenophobia, and fear-mongering.” On March 12, 2020, after Trump expanded the travel ban to include Europe, Biden tweeted, “Banning all travel from Europe — or any other part of the world — will not stop it.”
Biden campaign adviser and now White House chief of staff Ron Klain was certainly aware of the travel restrictions when he testified to Congress on February 5, five days after they were announced. Klain labeled the restrictions an ineffective “Band-Aid” because they did not cover American citizens traveling from China and were based on “the color of the passport someone carries.”
Fast-forward two years. In contrast to January 2020, we know how the virus spreads and its genetic sequence. Testing is readily available. We have multiple highly effective and safe vaccines that have been utilized by 60 percent of the population. Among the most vulnerable, people 65 or older, 86 percent are fully vaccinated, 99.9 percent are at least partially vaccinated, and 45 percent have already received boosters. Tens of millions more have natural immunity resulting from recovery from COVID-19. Monoclonal-antibody treatments are available, and two antiviral pills are poised for approval.
So, what was the first response of the Biden administration to the new Omicron variant? On the morning of November 26, the day the World Health Organization labeled Omicron a variant of concern, Biden’s chief science adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, told CNN that the U.S. wouldn’t impose a travel ban until more was known about the new variant and how well vaccines work against it. “You don’t want to say you’re going to do it,” he said, “until you have some scientific reason to do it.” But by that afternoon, despite the lack of new information, the president had restricted entry of noncitizens who had been in any of eight southern African nations during the preceding 14 days. Like the Trump China restriction from two years earlier, the restriction did not cover U.S. citizens, citizens’ noncitizen family members, or any lawful permanent resident of the U.S.
This is hardly leading with science. U.S. travel regulations already call for travelers from overseas to provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test within one day before departure for the U.S. and proof of vaccination for noncitizens. Instead of travelers from certain countries being suspended from entering the U.S., travelers from countries with high levels of Omicron could undergo additional rapid tests at the airport before departing for the U.S and upon arrival in the U.S. The few cases that had escaped earlier detection but tested positive upon U.S. arrival could be detained, retested with the more accurate PCR test, and isolated if they prove to be positive.
As Ron Klain complained two years ago, restrictions and testing requirements should apply to all travelers to the U.S., regardless of citizenship or residency status. Travelers from southern Africa can be as safe as American citizens and permanent residents. Maybe Biden’s advisers didn’t get Klain’s memo.
Perhaps most distressing about the Biden Africa ban is that it unnecessarily stigmatizes African people and discourages nations from being open and transparent about new variant outbreaks. African travelers can be easily tested and pose a much lower threat to the heavily vaccinated U.S. population, which has access to effective treatments, than Chinese travelers with unknown disease status did in January 2020.
As South African president Cyril Ramaphosa stated, “The prohibition of travel is not informed by science, nor will it be effective in preventing the spread of this variant.” Malawi’s president, Lazarus Chakwera, wrote that “Covid measures must be based on science, not Afrophobia.” WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus complained that such travel restrictions are “not evidence-based” and that African countries that raised the alarm are being “penalized by others for doing the right thing.” And U.N. secretary-general António Guterres labeled Biden-type bans “travel apartheid.”
President Biden talks a lot about following the science and restoring American leadership. His Omicron response does neither.
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