Today, President Biden announced that he will ban travel by non-US citizens from several countries, including Ireland, the UK, Brazil, and over 20 other countries in Europe. Just one week ago, President Trump had signed an order to remove those bans, which have been in place since Spring 2020. The Biden Administration criticized Trump's decision, saying that now is "not the time to be lifting restrictions" and suggesting that they plan to increase travel-related restrictions, not loosen them. Biden also introduced a new ban, this time on travelers from South Africa (where a new variant of COVID-19 has been spreading over the last few weeks). The primary factor behind the decision was the fact that new coronavirus variants have been circulating in other countries, several of which are thought to be more contagious - and perhaps even more deadly - than the original strain.
The prospect of travel restrictions is interesting because of how closely it ties into the constant struggle between the ideals of freedom and security. Personally, I think that in this situation the travel bans are a good idea and should help to limit the influx of new COVID strains into the US. After all, the primary responsibility of the US President is to protect Americans, not necessarily to protect the freedoms of people from other nations. At the same time, I recognize that for people currently outside the US who want or need to enter the country for whatever reason, the restrictions may seem annoying and unfair. Still, I believe that the science points towards travel bans being an at least partially effective way to stem the rise in cases, so I support them.
1. Do you think the expanded travel restrictions are necessary to protect Americans, or are they unfairly discriminatory to people from certain countries?
2. How concerned are you about the possibility of new COVID strains circulating in the US?
3. What do you think of President Biden's approach so far to combating the pandemic?
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/24/politics/biden-coronavirus-travel-trump/index.html
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/24/biden-ban-travel-south-africa-461983
I do think these travel restrictions are necessary to protect Americans. Because the restrictions are based on fact, like case numbers and the spread of new strains of COVID, I don't think they are very discriminatory. Because the US has the highest case numbers and deaths and one of the highest infection rates, I also think that the restrictions will protect potential travellers to the US. I am very concerned about new COVID strains, because so much is unknown about them. If the vaccine doesn't work against the new strains, that would be especially awful. However, I am relieved that we have a president who is working hard to combat the pandemic, and is basing is his policies on science and fact. Biden really cares about saving the lives of Americans and ending this pandemic, and I think that's so important. Although his strategy does sacrifice freedom for security, I believe that is absolutely necessary given the situation.
ReplyDeleteHi Ella,
DeleteInterestingly enough, reading your comment reminded me again of how FDR sacrificed some freedom for security in order to implement the New Deal, creating stricter economic regulations for the sake of stability. I totally agree with you that Biden's similar choice to save lives despite temporarily restricting people's freedom is necessary. Both FDR and Biden were inaugurated just as the country was facing a major crisis; there are many similarities between back then and the present day.
I think that the travel bans were definitely a good idea, and very necessary to protect Americans and foreigners alike. Like you said, I understand that it might be annoying and inconvenient, but I believe Americans should not be traveling in general during this pandemic, especially because case numbers are so bad. I am pretty concerned about these new variant strains circulating because they are more contagious and we know even less about these strains than we do about the original virus. Moreover, there's no telling how effective the vaccine will be against the strains and how much more harmful they may be. I think Biden's approach has been appropriate given the dire circumstances that came from the relaxed and frankly ignorant previous administration. Our priority right now should be containing the virus and circulating the vaccine to American citizens, not traveling.
ReplyDeleteExpanded travel restrictions are definitely necessary and could be even more restrictive. Americans and the rest of the world should not be able to travel much and people have to understand that. Whatever freedom comes with travel should be put on hold because lives are at stake. I'm deeply concerned about the new variant strains as the more contagious this gets, the more people are going to have to restrict society again. The vaccine isn't 100% effective and when that is the case, there will be more infections. I would like to see Biden take more action against the virus, imposing even stricter restrictions that would control the pandemic.
ReplyDeleteAs others above have stated, I completely agree with Biden's travel restrictions. I think they were extremely necessary given the current health condition of our nation. Thousands are dying by the day and it's extremely critical that we save as many lives as possible. As the president of the US, it's Biden's job to protect Americans and their health- the need to travel for immigrants is not a priority with our current situation. Especially with the detection of new strains, which seem to be even more contagious, the worst possible case for the US is for a new strain to enter our country and begin killing far more lives. It only takes one person, and Biden's limitation of travelers from other nations is key to our safety.
ReplyDeleteSimilar to the responses above, I agree that travel restrictions are necessary in order to control the spread of covid-19. Given the high number of cases, this travel ban is for the safety of both Americans and foreigners. Biden has definitely taken the right approach in combating the virus. I think it is especially important to tighten safety precautions now because the new variant is much more contagious than the original strain. Although a vaccine has been released and people are starting to get vaccinated, it will still be a lengthy process before enough of the population is safe. In the meantime, it is essential that people continue to follow guidelines including social distancing, wearing a mask, and staying at home as much as possible.
ReplyDeleteI think expanded travel restrictions are necessary to control the spread of the virus, airplane travel is a major way that the virus spreads so mitigating that is key. Additionally, the restrictions are focused on the hardest-hit countries, so they are not overly discriminatory. I am very concerned with the possibility of new COVID strains in the US. Viruses have very little machinery to facilitate the proofreading of DNA as it is replicated, so mutating is very easy for Viruses, and the more the COVID virus multiplies the higher the chance of a new, deadly strain that could set us back to square one. However, we seem to be able to produce vaccines very quickly, so that is reassuring. I think Biden has done a good job so far with the pandemic, he has had almost a year to learn from Trump's mistakes and his vaccine rollout system is successful so far, despite its delays.
ReplyDeleteHi Darshan,
DeleteBiden's effort to combat the pandemic does seem quite successful so far, as you pointed out. Still, I do feel like a lot of that so far is due to policies already set in place by the Trump administration - we already hit 1M vaccinations a day (on target with Biden's 100M in 100 days goal) even before Inauguration Day. It will be interesting to see what additional measures he takes in order to further speed the vaccine rollout.
I think that the expanded travel restrictions are absolutely necessary. People are becoming more antsy about wanting to travel, and I understand that they want to visit places and family. I understand the desire to travel and visit, but it is in no way worth the risk of spreading the virus and killing more people. Now is not the time to be so persistent about wanting to travel or visit places. For months now, there has been an on-and-off of “things are getting better,” and while that may be true at times, it is this kind of thinking that sends us back to square one. Especially now, with the new, dangerous, variants of the virus, things are getting worse, not better. We have recently developed vaccines for the original strain of the virus, and should the new variants enter the country, it would make our efforts ineffective. Preventing these strains from entering the U.S. is crucial and we must do our part to do so.
ReplyDeleteHi Simran,
DeleteI agree that if these new strains enter the US, the vaccine rollout effort would be severely complicated. I heard on the news that some scientists believe COVID might start to return on an annual basis in the form of new strains, similar to the flu - then a new vaccine would have to be made available each year. Still, if we can at least get as many people vaccinated as possible right now, I do think a return to normalcy is possible in the near future. The "things are getting better" aspect you mentioned seems finally close to being true now - of course that doesn't mean to let down our guard, but I am cautiously optimistic.