Racist Joe Biden Admin To Set Travel Ban For South Africa

[Gondwanaland]

Just shy (by less than two weeks) of a year ago, Donald Trump added the country of Nigeria to a list of countries with travel bans in the midst of the early developing threat of Covid-19, just a few short weeks after being declared racist for placing a travel ban from China (not long after the WHO had been assuring us there was no evidence of human-to-human spread......

The NYT declared that 'Racism' was at the heart of his travel bans and that adding Nigeria "Adding Nigeria to the expanded list of excluded countries just makes it more obvious."

Now, almost that year later, ole China Joe has declared his intentions to place a travel ban on all non-Americans from South Africa.

Will the NYT come forth as a champion for the black race and denounce CHina Joe's virulent racism at the heart of his ban? Nah, didn't think so.

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/0...-africa-461983

[Starlight]

Presumably the NYT opinion writer's point (and please do distinguish between random opinion writers and the view of the NYT itself) was that the Nigeria ban wasn't sensible from a scientific/medical point of view. He might have been right or wrong, I don't know, and since it's paywalled I can't read his argument.

Last I checked, South Africa had one of the highest rates of covid in the world AND has a dangerous new variant of covid that medical experts are particularly concerned about.

You could, of course, make the argument that since the US has so much covid that trying to put any limits on incoming travellers is pointless. But if the new South African strain is deemed to pose a serious threat, I can see why Fauci and co might advise this for medical reasons. There's certainly concern in my own covid-free* country about the South African and UK Covid variants and whether our current border quarantine facilities will be good enough to block those from entering the country. There is currently political debate in my country about how to handle these more infectious variants and what additional rules should surround travellers from those destinations.

*Covid-free status pending as there may have been a quarantine breach yesterday and investigations as to whether anyone was infected are underway.


P.S. I do agree that countries should have fully banned all travel from China at the start of the pandemic. I am very critical of my own and other countries for failing to do so fast enough and early enough, and also very critical of the Chinese government for using political pressure at that time to try and prevent other countries banning travel from China, and also very critical of the WHO for recommending against border closures early in the pandemic. Everyone closing their borders with China was an obviously necessary move that would have saved untold lives, and nobody did it. Trump's half-measures to restrict some of the travel with China were too little and too late, similar to the rest of the world's response. Those that criticized him for those measures were absolutely wrong to do so though (unless they were criticizing them for not being strong enough).

[rogue06]

Just shy (by less than two weeks) of a year ago, Donald Trump added the country of Nigeria to a list of countries with travel bans in the midst of the early developing threat of Covid-19, just a few short weeks after being declared racist for placing a travel ban from China (not long after the WHO had been assuring us there was no evidence of human-to-human spread......

The NYT declared that 'Racism' was at the heart of his travel bans and that adding Nigeria "Adding Nigeria to the expanded list of excluded countries just makes it more obvious."

Now, almost that year later, ole China Joe has declared his intentions to place a travel ban on all non-Americans from South Africa.

Will the NYT come forth as a champion for the black race and denounce CHina Joe's virulent racism at the heart of his ban? Nah, didn't think so.

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/0...-africa-461983

Come on man! It isn't racist by definition if it's a Democrat who does it. You oughta know that by now.

Last year when Trump ordered a travel ban from China old Joe was one of its loudest detractors calling it racist and xenophobic. Even after St. Fauci said the moved likely saved thousands of lives and bought us much needed time Biden was still expressing his opposition to it.

But this is different. Biden isn't good buddies with South Africa.

[Gondwanaland]

Presumably the NYT opinion writer's point (and please do distinguish between random opinion writers and the view of the NYT itself)

We both know that's not the case.

was that the Nigeria ban wasn't sensible from a scientific/medical point of view. He might have been right or wrong, I don't know, and since it's paywalled I can't read his argument.

Nope, he wasn't arguing that. He argued it was racist.

Last I checked, South Africa had one of the highest rates of covid in the world AND has a dangerous new variant of covid that medical experts are particularly concerned about.

Correct. And Trump was declared racist back when he set up a travel ban on THE country with the highest covid rate in the world (i.e., it's place of origin - China).

You could, of course, make the argument that since the US has so much covid that trying to put any limits on incoming travellers is pointless. But if the new South African strain is deemed to pose a serious threat, I can see why Fauci and co might advise this for medical reasons. There's certainly concern in my own covid-free* country about the South African and UK Covid variants and whether our current border quarantine facilities will be good enough to block those from entering the country. There is currently political debate in my country about how to handle these more infectious variants and what additional rules should surround travellers from those destinations.

See above. Literally, after Trump placed a China ban into place this time last year, he was called a racist for doing so, was told not to, and litearlly the WHO itself went and changed its own advice on travel bans from what it was before his ban (i.e. they supported them before), and changed it to oppose travel bans.

*Covid-free status pending as there may have been a quarantine breach yesterday and investigations as to whether anyone was infected are underway.


P.S. I do agree that countries should have fully banned all travel from China at the start of the pandemic. I am very critical of my own and other countries for failing to do so fast enough and early enough, and also very critical of the Chinese government for using political pressure at that time to try and prevent other countries banning travel from China, and also very critical of the WHO for recommending against border closures early in the pandemic. Everyone closing their borders with China was an obviously necessary move that would have saved untold lives, and nobody did it.

Well that's good to hear from you. But Trump was one who did so, so your last statement is wrong.

Trump's half-measures to restrict some of the travel with China were too little and too late, similar to the rest of the world's response. Those that criticized him for those measures were absolutely wrong to do so though (unless they were criticizing them for not being strong enough).

'half measures' - I take to mean you are referring to the fact that he allowed US citizens and nationals to still come from China? Well, then I'll look forward to you declaring this a 'half-measure' by Biden, since it will be doing literally the same for South Africa.

[Gondwanaland]

Come on man! It isn't racist by definition if it's a Democrat who does it. You oughta know that by now.

Last year when Trump ordered a travel ban from China old Joe was one of its loudest detractors calling it racist and xenophobic. Even after St. Fauci said the moved likely saved thousands of lives and bought us much needed time Biden was still expressing his opposition to it.

But this is different. Biden isn't good buddies with South Africa.

Nail right on the head.

[Starlight]

We both know that's not the case.

I don't agree with you on this. I think when an outlet allows a wide variety of opinion pieces, it's important to distinguish those opinion pieces from the views of the outlet itself. TWeb hosts my posts, but my posts are not the view of TWeb.

And Trump was declared racist back when he set up a travel ban on THE country with the highest covid rate in the world (i.e., it's place of origin - China).

I think we can probably both agree that sometimes when people allege racism, they are wrong.

I think anyone who condemned the China travel restrictions was wrong to do so. Those who claimed they were racist were wrong to do so.

But Trump was one who did so, so your last statement is wrong.

Trump’s ‘early’ travel ‘bans’ weren’t early, weren’t bans and didn’t work:

The United States did not implement its travel restriction early. Nor did it “close” the country to arrivals from China...

Forty-five nations imposed travel restrictions on China before the United States did...

Between the first official report of an outbreak in China and the announcement of U.S. travel restrictions, more than 40,000 travelers from China were estimated to have entered the United States....

The measure that the Trump administration implemented could not be described as a “ban” that “closed the country”: It only prohibited U.S. entry to foreign nationals who had visited China in the last 14 days. Americans and U.S. permanent residents returning from Hubei Province were still allowed, subject to a 14-day quarantine. After these policies were enacted, hundreds of thousands of travelers continued to arrive in the United States via direct flights from China...

Restricting flights from China did nothing to prevent the virus from arriving from other parts of the world. Genetic analyses have shown that the large epidemic that unfolded in New York was linked to travelers from Europe. In the early days of the U.S. epidemic, testing was restricted to people with a travel history to China, which limited the ability to detect locally the cases and infections among travelers from other countries....

'half measures' - I take to mean you are referring to the fact that he allowed US citizens and nationals to still come from China? Well, then I'll look forward to you declaring this a 'half-measure' by Biden, since it will be doing literally the same for South Africa.

Indeed that is one of several things that made Trump's China restrictions a half-measure (see the article above for some of the other problems with it). I agree that if Biden's South Africa measure has the exemptions you say, that it is also a half-measure.

[rogue06]

I don't agree with you on this. I think when an outlet allows a wide variety of opinion pieces, it's important to distinguish those opinion pieces from the views of the outlet itself. TWeb hosts my posts, but my posts are not the view of TWeb.

I think we can probably both agree that sometimes when people allege racism, they are wrong.

I think anyone who condemned the China travel restrictions was wrong to do so. Those who claimed they were racist were wrong to do so.

Trump’s ‘early’ travel ‘bans’ weren’t early, weren’t bans and didn’t work:

The United States did not implement its travel restriction early. Nor did it “close” the country to arrivals from China...

Forty-five nations imposed travel restrictions on China before the United States did...

Between the first official report of an outbreak in China and the announcement of U.S. travel restrictions, more than 40,000 travelers from China were estimated to have entered the United States....

The measure that the Trump administration implemented could not be described as a “ban” that “closed the country”: It only prohibited U.S. entry to foreign nationals who had visited China in the last 14 days. Americans and U.S. permanent residents returning from Hubei Province were still allowed, subject to a 14-day quarantine. After these policies were enacted, hundreds of thousands of travelers continued to arrive in the United States via direct flights from China...

Restricting flights from China did nothing to prevent the virus from arriving from other parts of the world. Genetic analyses have shown that the large epidemic that unfolded in New York was linked to travelers from Europe. In the early days of the U.S. epidemic, testing was restricted to people with a travel history to China, which limited the ability to detect locally the cases and infections among travelers from other countries....

Indeed that is one of several things that made Trump's China restrictions a half-measure (see the article above for some of the other problems with it). I agree that if Biden's South Africa measure has the exemptions you say, that it is also a half-measure.

As usual when star sees something he can't refute he tries to change the subject. Standard M.O.

[Sparko]

As usual when star sees something he can't refute he tries to change the subject. Standard M.O.

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