Recent reports indicate that European Union officials are considering excluding American travelers from its list of those allowed in, the reason being rising coronavirus infection numbers in the United States.
The proposal as reported faces a few problems — the first being its benchmark criterion. As at least part of their considerations, officials are making comparisons between the EU’s average number of new infections over the last 14 days and that of other countries. Its average being higher than the EU’s, the U.S. would be a candidate for exclusion, along with Russia and Brazil.
The going understanding is that infections are rising in the U.S. because governors decided as far back as early and mid-May to allow businesses to reopen. Most of Europe’s big players are earlier in their reopening process. France has only just allowed bars and restaurants to reopen fully. Spain just ended its national state of emergency two days ago, allowing people to travel about freely. Italy ended its lockdown in early June. Belgium allowed most of its businesses to open on June 8. If rising infection rates are inherent in reopening, as health officials have warned, it’s natural that Europe wouldn’t be seeing rising numbers like the U.S. just yet. Europe will almost certainly begin to see rises too as it opens up.
The second problem is China. According to the New York Times, EU officials are considering two lists of countries whose nationals can visit. Both include China, and both exclude the U.S. Floating a ban on Americans while offering Chinese nationals entry is beyond parody. China’s virus reporting is not credible, and if the EU chooses to believe it, it is due to motivations other than truly managing risk. Intelligence officials have been clear about China’s opacity on all things coronavirus. Who knows how many infections and deaths China has actually seen?
EU officials were warned about this very thing by their own Center for Disease Prevention and Control, which “warned negotiators that the case numbers were so dependent on the level of truthfulness and testing in each country,” according to the New York Times report. If EU and American intelligence officials are anywhere near being on the same page, they have every reason to doubt China’s truthfulness about its own testing efforts.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday that the government is working with countries all over the world to determine how to reopen international travel safely, and the EU should be making its decision soon on the matter. If it decides to bar Americans while allowing Chinese visitors, it will have done so in a fit of complete incoherence.
