EU to impose entry requirements on travellers From US (updated 30 Aug)

I'm more interested to know if it will take immediate effect. They can't kick me out once I'm at my hotel on Thursday morning!!!

Vaccinated people are still way less likely to be a problem. Combine vaccination with some testing and the risk is tiny.

A year ago the CDC said they'd approve a vaccine that was 50% effective at preventing death. We ended up with multiple 95%+ vaccines and that just seems to have moved the goalposts for some from "strong protection" to "perfect protection in all cases and circumstances." Well that's not going to happen, and life just isn't risk free.

Keeping the US closed to vaccinated Europeans because they might bring in delta makes zero sense.

To add to the confusion it is not clear (Surprise!) how this may/would apply to people only flying through staying airside enroute to elsewhere in EU.
Example LAX>LHR>ATH Can one stay airside and transfer on? Sheesh...

Last I checked LHR was not in the EU. You know Brexit and all that.... :-) . But to your point yes transit may be more complicated going forward. That is why I booked my flight later this week to Greece direct from US. In COVID times I place a much high premium on not transiting third-countries if possible. Now hopefully Greece will still be welcoming Americans come the end of the week. But if not most of what I have other than two intra-country flights is refundable so if there is no clarity by say Wed I'll just pull the plug to a staycation.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/eu-set-...-s-11630270180

A better source

Mod addition - to comply with FT rules, a summary is required.

I think the only reason they are doing it now is because summer travel is tapering off. If they were truly concerned about the rising number they would have done it a couple of months ago. Of course they have the right to do so. It will be interesting to see how quickly this takes effect.

I was about to say, why not just change the rules a bit instead of closing off completely. But there you have it. Makes far more sense to apply these rules to unvaxxed people. They could even demand a PCR/Antigen test for vaccinated people until things calm down a bit more.

Wouldn’t solve anything. These countries are afraid of foreigners clogging up their hospitals and running up medical bills they don’t pay. Not having Covid on arrival is only a minor part of the overall problem.

I'm sure a lot of this is politics, but I think, politically and practically, the White House has this backwards. Given the cockamamie politics of covid-19, those who would usually criticize more immigration (even from the EU) would probably applaud, or at least not complain about, any effort to reduce restrictions. (Certainly, Florida's tourism industry would be on board.) Meanwhile, I have a strong sense that the president's base is on board with more EU tourism � their talking point is that we should be worried about Pensacola, not Paris. And I promise that barring EU visitors will not placate those who are angry with the White House's handling of the border.

Gosh keeping an eye on this thread. Thanks for all the posts so far. Hopefully will have more clarification tomorrow Monday, August 30. I�m ticketed to travel in a few weeks so I�m gonna closely monitor as well

It has been both frustrating and predictable to see the antivaxxers � and, paradoxically, many of the most pro-vaccine people � drag the goalposts to the far side of the field by claiming that any breakthrough infection "proves" the vaccines aren't good enough and/or a failure and/or "they" lied to us and/or horse dewormer.

One year ago, the hope was that we could make covid-19 manageable, or at least reliably survivable, for most higher-risk people. We were hearing jubilant stories about mildly promising results of various trials in Japan, about monoclonal antibodies for $50,000 a pop, about hydroxychloroquine possibly having a statistically significant benefit.

Now we have a $20 vaccine regimen that might knock you out for a day and has a 70-90+% efficacy rate against a dramatically worse variant, and the Western world, driven by social media largely distributed from the United States, is determined to complain about it. Meanwhile, it appears that a single-shoot booster every six months (bummer, but really) could essentially restore your protection to early-2021 efficacy. Better yet, the mRNA platform, now proven, allows easy tweaks to adapt to new variants.

If you doubt the efficacy of these vaccines, even as their protection wanes and the delta variant spreads, compare the infection and vaccination maps on the NYT website. They look like negatives of one another.

All of which is to say: The U.S. should start welcoming back vaccinated Europeans, the focus should be on promoting boosters, and vaccine mandates are going to become a de facto imposition for international travelers � imposed by foreign governments and U.S. travel providers � whether the U.S. government or certain states agree or not.

I think my wife would lose it if we lost out on our trip this week and next! Hopefully all remains the same and those of us who had to get the shot so we can see the world will remain open for us.

This is extraordinarily cynical; accepting the very worst of conditions because the money's so good, but when the money becomes less significant, you put in place measures that would have made a much bigger difference during peak season. I'm skeptical, but maybe.

Folks, we have removed a very large number of posts which were taking the conversation very firmly in diversionary/off-topic directions. We’ve had to take a very broad brush on this to return the thread to its intended purpose and focus.

If confirmed, this is a very significant development that could affect a large percentage of the FT community, so we need to keep the thread tightly focused on the subject - Covid and EU entry restrictions for US passengers - rather than diving off into already disproved theories about vaccine efficacy and death rates, amongst others.

Recognising this thread was transferred here from a US airline forum, we are leaving in place early posts which discussed whether or not the US Presidential Proclamation on European entries had an impact because they were made in good faith at the time. Going forwards though, as the thread is hosted here, let’s concentrate on any practical aspects of the change so this can be a useful information and help resource. We have an opportunity to showcase the very best aspects of FT here - let’s not waste it, please.

/mod

What is taking them so long? Wake up, Europeans! It's like noon over there already! Daddy's got a hotel reservation he needs to cancel if y'all can't get your act together.