Results: EU Travel Bans

The European Union is planning to reopen it's borders on July 1, 2020. People from all over the world will be able to visit Europe again, with the exception of three countries--the United States, Brazil, and Russia. No firm decisions have been made yet, but they are discussing it further during the last week of June. Were you aware of this news?

The reason for this ban is that these three countries have had comparably poor responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. The US, with nearly 2.4 million confirmed cases and more than 123,000 deaths, has for some time now been the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, while Brazil is second with more than 1.1 million cases and more than 51,000 deaths. Russia's containment appears better than the US, with under 10,000 reported deaths and a little over half a million confirmed cases. Did you know that citizens from the United States are considered the most unsafe to visit Europe?

Trump, like Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro and Russia's Vladimir Putin, fumbled the early response to the virus, downplaying the severity and refusing to enact public health and safety measures that could have contained the virus early on. COVID-19 has continued to spread through these countries due to poor government coordination, planning, and messaging. Do you think it's just a coincidence that these leaders are right wing authoritarians?