Photo of Jeffrey D. Zients, the White House COVID-19 response coordinator courtesy of Flickr.
By Aditi Parashar ’22
A&E Editor
On Sept. 20, Jeffrey D. Zients, the White House COVID-19 response coordinator, announced that the United States will be lifting its travel ban for most international travelers as long as they are fully vaccinated and have a negative COVID-19 test 72 hours before flying, The New York Times reported. The new rules should come into effect by early November. According to CNN, everyone traveling into the United States, including both foreign nationals and American citizens, will also have to take a COVID-19 test three to five days after their arrival.
The U.S. will be following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s definition of “fully vaccinated.” This includes two doses of vaccines approved by the World Health Organization for emergency use, such as the AstraZeneca vaccine, and U.S.-approved vaccines, CNN reported. Unvaccinated foreign nationals will remain barred from entering the U.S.
Anouk Alquier, visiting instructor in French, spoke about how her mother, who usually visits every other year, was unable to visit due to the travel ban.
“It is tough, you know. You’re stuck in a pandemic and you hope you’re going to be able to connect with your loved one and it doesn’t happen,” she said. “My mother isn’t getting younger, and the older you get, the easier it is for disappointment like this to take an emotional toll. Visiting us was something positive she was looking forward to. It’s been difficult in that regard.”
According to the Atlantic, the decision to lift the ban is a foreign policy measure to alleviate the current tensions between the European Union and Washington. Natalie Sabanadze, visiting professor in international relations, said, “The EU opened up its borders when the number of cases started going down and vaccination rates were increasing in America. However, when America did not do the same, it created a lot of bad feelings. In diplomacy, reciprocity is a big thing.”
“The lifting of the ban now is definitely being interpreted as a gesture to ease tensions as the tensions have peaked due to the sequence of events that have taken place. By the time Biden was arriving for the UN General Assembly, they had to do something,” Sabanadze added. “The EU had high hopes to improve the relationship with the new administration in Washington but it has been a bumpy start.”
However, Jen Psaki, the White House spokeswoman, told reporters on Monday the timing of the travel ban being lifted had nothing to do with diplomacy. “If we were going to make things much easier for ourselves, we would have done it prior to June, when the president had his first foreign trip, or earlier this summer. This is when the process concluded,” she said. “We’re basing it on science.”
Sabanadze stated, “The U.S. would never admit it was a political move, even when it clearly is.”