PD Editorial: New travel restrictions beat closing the border

On Thursday, President Joe Biden announced new travel restrictions for people entering the United States. They won’t stop the COVID omicron variant from reaching America (it’s already here), but they are reasonable precautions to slow spread of the disease.

All air travelers from abroad now must test negative within one day of departure. That had been the rule for unvaccinated individuals already, but now it will apply to vaccinated people as well. The latter had had a few days to test before.

The administration also renewed the requirement that travelers on domestic flights, trains and buses wear masks. Mandatory masking now will continue at least through March 18.

Let’s take those in turn.

Requiring a negative test the day before an international flight to the United States will limit importation of the virus. That will disrupt travel for some people who test positive, but such is the cost of defending domestic health. Having such a policy in place also will help slow how quickly new variants reach America, giving the nation more time to prepare when one emerges abroad.

Aggressive testing is preferable to the alternative, which would be shutting down international travel again. The Biden administration imposed travel bans on several African nations in response to the omicron variant. It reached America anyway. The first case was identified in San Francisco, a second in Minnesota and still more as the week continued.

South Africa was transparent with the world about omicron. It shared details immediately, but it still wound up facing travel restrictions. That might be inevitable when a new variant emerges, but full travel bans should be the rare, temporary exception when other measures like testing before travel can accomplish so much and still allow people to move freely around the globe.

The Biden administration had been considering tougher international travel restrictions, such as mandatory quarantine and stiff penalties for violators, but it prudently held off on those for now. While such steps are preferable to closing the border completely, they would be much more disruptive. Save them for if the testing regimen proves inadequate against omicron or whatever comes next.

Meanwhile, the mask requirement on domestic flights and public transportation is simple common sense. As long as too many Americans opt out of vaccination and as variants have the potential to bypass immunization, it is not unreasonable to make travelers don a mask. Masks in contained spaces minimize the risk of spreading a virus that people might not even know they are carrying.

That there have been so many incidents of people fighting wearing a mask on a plane is a sad demonstration of selfish disregard for other people’s health.

The timing on these travel policies couldn’t be better. Medical experts say that COVID — like cold and flu viruses — will spread more easily during the winter. And as courts freeze federal vaccine mandates, herd immunity will remain elusive. Businesses could voluntarily require employees to vaccinate, but many remain hesitant given the explosive anger of the anti-vaccine crowd.

As Biden said the other day, “The (omicron) variant is a cause for concern, but not panic.” Sensible precautions should be the response to concern, and that’s what the administration is enacting with stricter travel rules.

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