That European Travel Ban? A Day Late and a Dollar Short
Anyone following the news the weekend of March 12-14 could see it coming, and come it did – the return of travelers from Europe (Ireland and England initially excepted, later included), packed like sardines (after enduring 7-, 8-, or 9-hour full flights) in airports at passport and security and – theoretical – health control checkpoints. Waits were as long as five hours at O’Hare.
Every major airport in the U.S. was overwhelmed between March 12 and 14 on the shortest notice in travel ban history: it wasn’t announced until March 11, and nobody knew it was coming. Confusion, panic, a rush for tickets and a crush of bodies – many of them carrying back European strains of COVID-19 – ensued, and we’re still witnessing the consequences two+ months later, as New York (Kennedy Airport home) and Chicago (O’Hare home) struggle to flatten the curve on the mass of cases which erupted after the travel ban.
We turn it over to the Washington Post, which has done some very good investigate work:
“The images showed how a policy intended to block the pathogen’s entry into the United States instead delivered one final viral infusion. As those exposed travelers fanned out into U.S. cities and suburbs, they became part of an influx from Europe that went unchecked for weeks and helped to seal the country’s coronavirus fate.
“Epidemiologists contend the U.S. outbreak was driven overwhelmingly by viral strains from Europe rather than China. More than 1.8 million travelers entered the United States from Europe in February alone as that continent became the center of the pandemic. Infections reached critical mass in New York and other cities well before the White House took action, according to studies mapping the virus’s spread. The crush of travelers triggered by Trump’s announcement only added to that viral load.”
The idea here is not that a travel ban wouldn’t have helped somewhat – it might have helped had it had been imposed over the course of a week, announced well in advance, and if the procedures for health checks (and mandatory quarantines, and contact tracing) had all been mapped out and put into place. But in fact, it came too late to do anything but harm, and it harmed on a major scale.
About China: the travel ban was imposed in late January – but here’s the thing: the airlines forced the President’s hand because they’d already planned to cease service to China in any case (by then, most planes were flying near-empty). Had he not announced the ban, it would have happened de facto, anyway.
Neither the Department of Homeland Security nor the Department of Transportation were in on the planning – if it can be called planning. Major airlines servicing European – U.S. routes had no advance notice. And of course, travelers were caught completely off-guard.
Nowhere was that more evident than at Chicago O’Hare, where photos of total chaos – and unbelievable crowding which made homecoming for those returning to the Midwest the super-spreader event which sealed the region’s – especially, Chicago’s – COVID fate over the next two months.
More on the back-and-forth between Illinois’ Governor JB Pritzker and the Administration, which made the Governor the President’s firm Twitter foe::
“But the most disturbing scenes emerged from Chicago’s O’Hare. By late evening, the conditions had become so unsafe that Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) began delivering broadsides on Twitter.
“’The crowds & lines at O’Hare are unacceptable and need to be addressed immediately,”#’ he tweeted at 10:50 p.m. ‘Since this is the only communication medium you pay attention to,’ he said, taking explicit aim at the president, ‘you need to do something NOW.’
“He ended with one final blast: ‘The federal government needs to get its s@#t together.’
“Pritzker’s aides had struggled to get answers from the administration earlier in the day, but the Twitter outburst got the White House’s attention. Within minutes, Douglas Hoelscher, director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, phoned Pritzker. But instead of vowing to fix the problems at O’Hare, Hoelscher began criticizing the governor for insulting the president and said Pritzker should have just contacted the White House.
“The conversation grew heated, with the governor saying the White House had failed to communicate or properly implement its plans, according to two people familiar with the exchange.
“’There was a lot of yelling,’ one of them said.
“Others responded in more productive fashion. At 12:30 a.m. on March 15, Chad Wolf, the acting DHS secretary, tweeted that his department was 2aware of the long lines for passengers who are undergoing increased medical screening requirements.’ He said the department was ‘working to add additional screening capacity’ and pleaded with the public for patience.
[Note: What actually happened: Chicago Police Department officers were deputized to serve at O’Hare.]
“The next day, DHS officials identified procedural problems at O’Hare that helped explain why waits and lines there were worse than at other airports. Acting on instructions of supervisors, CBP agents were holding up passengers until all the screening data collected from them had been entered into department computers. Other airports had scrapped the paperwork, putting it off until later, soon after lines began to bulge.”
In which we learned two interesting details:
1) The situation at O’Hare (which was a lot worse than at any other domestic airport) was caused by CBP employees trying to do their jobs.
2) Governor Pritzker actually yelled – and he’s generally a low-key, civilized man. But he yelled because he knew what was coming, and he was trying to protect innocent Illinoisans and other Midwesterners.
In any case, it was way too late by mid-March. The virus was already firmly established in Europe, and 1.8 million people traveled from Europe to the U.S. in February alone. It’s estimated that by March 1, New York City already had around 10,000 cases. (The Governor and Mayor of NYC were also late in imposing measures.)
This forms the second in today’s running theme of “A Day Late and a Dollar Short ” COVID-19 stories.