Trump's European travel ban might be backfiring

(Image credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

published 15 March 2020

President Trump was hoping to fight the spread of the novel COVID-19 coronavirus when he implemented a travel ban from several European countries last week, but it might be hurting more than helping, at least in the early stages.

People returning to the United States have been subject to long wait times and large crowds in 13 U.S. airports as they await required medical screenings. Delays at Chicago's O'Hare international Airport, for example, reportedly reached up to eight hours, prompting Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) to say the Trump administration was "unprepared" for the ban. Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said they are aware of the delays and are working on adding screening capacity to expedite the process.

But it's not just the delays that have people agitated — many travelers are upset because the overcrowded spaces are creating the exact situations people are told to avoid in the hopes of curbing the virus. A woman in her 70s, per The Washington Post, texted her daughter that she felt safer in Germany than she did waiting in the crowd at O'Hare. "This is unacceptable, counterproductive, and exactly the opposite of what we need to do to prevent COVID-19," Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) tweeted. Read more at The Washington Post and The Associated Press.

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.

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