Americas Pandemic Travel Bans No Longer Make Sense

A thoughtless, unscientific policy of closed borders—even to vaccinated travelers—does a little more damage every day.

Many countries around the world, concerned over the economic and human costs of the lengthy shutdown of international travel during the pandemic, are busy experimenting with how to reopen their borders while protecting their citizens. The United States, in stark contrast, is locked down even more tightly than it was when the Trump administration first put travel restrictions in place at the start of the outbreak. Against all common sense, fully vaccinated travelers from many countries with much lower case rates than the United States remain blocked.

Amid the tribal fights that roil American politics daily, liberals and conservatives seem to have found strange common ground on closed borders. The left fears the virus; the right fears foreigners. The result has been a policy gridlock that is increasingly isolating the United States, especially from its closest allies, while doing nothing to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

Many countries that have endured several COVID-19 waves are nonetheless trying to re-open their borders as conditions permit. European Union member states have for many months regularly updated their lists of restricted countries based on the latest epidemiological data. Most have now opened to foreign travelers, generally requiring proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test before arrival. The EU recently removed the United States from its safe travel list due to the surge of the delta variant, but Germany, France, Spain, and most other EU member states are still permitting travel by fully vaccinated Americans or those recovered from COVID-19 and naturally immune. Only a handful of European countries, such as Norway and Bulgaria, have opted to close to U.S. visitors, while some others allow only limited essential travel.

Canada, for many months, took a hard line by Western standards. Ottawa barred most non-essential incoming travel and forced both returning Canadians and international visitors into costly quarantine hotels. But it still experimented during the pandemic with reduced quarantine times for some travelers who tested negative for COVID-19 (a short-lived experiment) and created broad exemptions for family members and long-term partners of Canadians. And in early September, Canada opened its borders to all international travelers who are fully vaccinated and pass a COVID-19 screening test before arrival; the country had already opened to vaccinated Americans in August and unveiled a screening app for gathering health data from travelers.

If protecting Biden’s political flank is the criterion, as it may very well be, these and other border restrictions could remain frozen until the 2022 U.S. midterm elections.

Even those places pursuing a zero COVID-19 strategy through sealed borders and aggressive contact tracing have shown occasional flexibility. Hong Kong, which had been requiring a 21-day quarantine for the rare traveler, recently began permitting up to 2,000 visitors per day to enter from China and Macau with advanced testing. New Zealand and Australia earlier this year briefly opened a quarantine-free travel bubble with each other, before shutting it down due to rising delta cases and very low vaccination rates.

While each country might balance the benefits and risks of open borders a bit differently, the basic elements of a border policy that protects public health are becoming clear. For countries not trying to stamp out the virus entirely using draconian measures, policies generally work to implement travel restrictions based on careful, facts-based risk assessment. We know that fully vaccinated individuals pose a significantly lower risk of catching and spreading the virus, and a pre-travel test adds another layer of protection. Some countries also require an additional test after arrival. Digital systems like the EU’s digital COVID-19 certificate, which the bloc launched in July, help ensure that travelers are complying with the regulations. Other countries are now adopting the EU model. Even with those measures in place, it may sometimes be necessary to further restrict travel from countries experiencing very high outbreaks or new virus mutations. But those restrictions should be regularly monitored and adjusted based on current data, as the EU does with its biweekly updates of the safe list.

In comparison, U.S. travel and border policies have barely budged since the start of the pandemic. Some rules have tightened under U.S. President Joe Biden, even as many of the countries whose citizens remain banned have significantly outpaced the United States in controlling the pandemic. In February and March 2020, the Trump administration barred travel from China, Iran, the Schengen countries of the EU, Britain, and Ireland—all places that had significant early outbreaks. Trump later added Brazil to the list of prohibited countries, and this year Biden added South Africa and India following outbreaks of new variants in those countries. For the land borders, the United States agreed with Canada and Mexico in March 2020 to block all but “essential” travelers. Given a long history of close U.S.-Canadian cooperation, Ottawa was caught off-guard last month when it lifted the land border restrictions for vaccinated Americans only to have Washington extend its shutdown and refuse to reciprocate for Canadians.

The lack of U.S. progress cannot be laid at the feet of Trump, who was certainly eager to use the pandemic as an excuse for closing the borders, especially with Mexico and the EU. But in his final days, Trump had decided to lift the travel restrictions on Europeans and Brazilians, only to have Biden extend the bans during his first week in office.

Even those of us with reasons to monitor the border measures closely (I was cut off from family in Canada for many months) have been left scratching our heads trying to make sense of the Biden team’s approach. U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas was of little help last week, telling Buffalo News that although he had hoped to loosen restrictions by now, “regrettably because of the delta variant, we’ve been delayed in doing so.” In the annals of disingenuous government double-speak, that one deserves a place on the podium: Until Biden’s announcement last week of expanded mandatory vaccinations, Washington had done little to stem the spread of the delta variant domestically other than urging Americans to get the jab. Republican governors in Texas, Florida, and elsewhere have actively encouraged the spread of the disease by outlawing mandatory masking and other preventive measures. The U.S. case rate is now the third worst among the advanced economies, behind only Britain’s and Israel’s.