Ryan Bourne

At last, Biden’s cruel travel ban is ending

An airport reunion (Photo: Getty)

For many Brits and Europeans with ties to America, human relationships have been put on hold for an insufferably long time during the Covid-19 crisis. Today, at last, that changed.

White House advisor Jeffrey Zients announced that anyone fully vaccinated from anywhere in the world will be able to enter the U.S. with a negative test result from November. To say this was a comfort to millions who felt trapped in or outside of the US seems to trivialise the consequences. Look at the Twitter hashtag #LoveIsNotTourism to see the real-world effects of enforced separation. 

Upon hearing the possibility of the ban’s lifting, I booked a UK trip for November, almost two years since my last visit. I will now be in Kent as my sister gives birth to her second child and my first nephew, while spending time with my 2-and-a-half year old niece. When I last saw her, she was nine months old.

Even as domestic restrictions eased, travel measures from spring 2020 were kept rigidly in place

The Biden administration’s crude bans on non-Americans entering the country from Britain and the EU were senselessly and stubbornly maintained. Even

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