European Union Countries May Block Americans When Reopening Borders Due to Poor U.S. COVID-19 Response

Thanks to our continued fumbling of COVID-19, which way too many people are treating as a hoax, the EU is said to be considering an American traveler ban.

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Image via Getty/Nicholas Kamm/AFP

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Thanks to the U.S. approach to COVID-19 containment efforts, which largely consists of just pretending none of it is real, European Union countries may be prepping to prevent Americans from entering as it puts together plans for reopening borders.

Per a report from Matina Stevis-Gridneff for the New York Times,that's the takeaway from drafted lists of "acceptable travelers" as of Tuesday. With a final call on reopening borders expected early next week, European nations have been busy debating over a pair of possible lists of acceptable visitors, both of which apparently exclude the U.S. 

The quoted draft lists were made available thanks to what the Times says is an official who's "involved in" the border discussions.

Of course, it's difficult to blame the European Union for such a move. After all, Trump has spent the better portion of the COVID-19 era alternating between being downright dismissive of the virus' seriousness to showing public support for reckless conspiracy. And just this month, he moved ahead with plans for a (hilariously ill-attended) campaign rally despite COVID-19 numbers still stacking up in a number of states.

Florida, for example, recently entered the 100,000 Cases Club while bagging headlines centered on virus-related idiocy like that guy who tried to strong-arm his way into Walmart without a mask. The total number of cases for the entire U.S., according to the latest update from the CDC, is 2,275,645. A study that made the rounds on Tuesday, however, made it quite clear how vastly under-estimated those numbers may have been for months now.

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