All through the pandemic, Donald Trump has repeatedly sought to take away safeguards supposed to stem the unfold of the coronavirus. Now, on his method out of the White Home, he’s attempting to eliminate yet one more. On Monday, the president issued a proclamation rolling again restrictions on journey to a number of nations, together with the UK and Brazil, regardless of the rise of a brand new COVID-19 variant that’s believed to be extra transmissible. “It’s within the curiosity of the USA,” Trump stated within the order, “to terminate the suspension of entry into the USA of individuals who’ve been bodily current in these jurisdictions.”
The reversal, which he ordered to take impact subsequent week, would loosen restrictions on vacationers to the U.S. from the Schengen Space of Europe, the U.Ok., Eire, and Brazil, whereas preserving them in place in opposition to China and Iran, which Trump stated “have failed to cooperate with the USA public well being authorities and to share well timed, correct details about the unfold of the virus.” Whereas the coverage, which was beneficial by outgoing Well being and Human Companies Secretary Alex Azar, would nonetheless require worldwide vacationers to check unfavourable for COVID-19, easing the restrictions may lead to elevated unfold of the virus, together with the mutations which have pushed a surge of infections within the U.Ok. and elsewhere.
However the coverage seems to be a non-starter, because it doesn’t take impact till January 26, almost per week after Joe Biden assumes the presidency. The incoming administration has made clear that, somewhat than loosening restrictions, it plans to tighten them. “With the pandemic worsening, and extra contagious variants rising around the globe, this isn’t the time to be lifting restrictions on worldwide journey,” incoming press secretary Jen Psaki tweeted. “On the recommendation of our medical staff, the Administration doesn’t intend to elevate these restrictions on 1/26. In reality, we plan to strengthen public well being measures round worldwide journey so as to additional mitigate the unfold of COVID-19.”
There are arguments to be made in favor of loosening the restrictions; Marty Cetron, director of the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention’s international migration and quarantine division, informed Reuters final week that the entry ban Trump imposed early within the pandemic ought to now “be actively reconsidered.” However the Biden administration has promised a extra aggressive method to the virus, notably as infections and deaths soar. Ronald Klain, Biden’s incoming chief of employees, urged over the weekend that greater than 100,000 extra Individuals might die within the coming weeks, which might put the U.S. dying toll at 500,000 by the top of February. “The virus goes to worsen earlier than it will get higher,” Klain stated on CNN. In imposing extra stringent rules, the incoming administration is hoping to decrease the harm the virus may cause earlier than vaccines can convey the pandemic to heel. It’s additionally sending a message that after almost a yr of negligence on the a part of the federal authorities, it’ll take a drastically totally different method to the disaster.
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