The COVID-19 pandemic, which apparently is never going to end, has now entered a new phase as the virus produces yet another strain, designated omicron, and it has prompted Joe Biden to make a decision for which his predecessor, Donald Trump, was branded a racist - by Biden himself, among many others. This new strain, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), is a “variant of concern,” prompting Biden to suffer a fit of xenophobia and ban travel to the United States from eight African countries. Will politicians never learn that, in this electronic age, they cannot prevent their words from coming back to haunt them?
In February of 2020, Biden – or whoever writes tweets for him – accused then-President Donald Trump of imposing an “African Ban.” He claimed Trump's decision to suspend travel to the U.S. from certain African countries was designed to “make it harder for black and brown people to immigrate to the United States.” The presidential hopeful called it “a disgrace.” In a later tweet, he stated banning travel from any part of the world would not stop the virus. If he was right about this, then one can only assume Mr. Biden's goal now is to prevent black and brown people from immigrating to America.
(Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Who’s the Racist Now?
Trump's decision, back in early 2020, to suspend travel into the U.S. from various countries was panned by Democrats and the establishment media as xenophobic and racist. Presumably, these same people are currently trying to decide whether to pretend they never made such allegations or concoct an explanation of why Biden’s travel ban is entirely different.
But what of this new restriction? Does it really signify that Mr. Biden is a racist? Surely if one is to apply the left’s own standards – the ones used to judge Trump – to the current occupant of the White House then, yes, banning entry to the U.S. from African countries proves that Biden is a racist and a xenophobe. That's nonsense, of course, but it's a fun game to play – and since Democrats and left-wing journalists invented this game, they should be forced to play it.
In reality, Biden's decision, like Trump's, was the right one to make but, in all likelihood, it will be ultimately futile. Tens of thousands of illegal immigrants – whose health status is entirely unknown – are crossing the southern border at will and being transported by the Biden administration all over the country. In light of that state of affairs, banning a few hundred flights from Africa is not really going to make any difference at all.
Permanent Pandemic?
In the third installment of the iconic Godfather movie franchise, Michael Corleone, played by Al Pacino, famously laments, “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.” This is probably how most rational Americans are feeling right about now in the wake of renewed hysteria over this new COVID-19 strain, originally identified in southern Africa but now detected in a handful of countries beyond the continent.
Thus, a renewed enthusiasm for restrictions on movement and mask-wearing and vaccine mandates – and we’re going to need new vaccines – is likely to take hold in certain parts of the country. New York Governor Kathy Hochul has already issued a state of emergency order that allows the New York Department of Health to limit access to non-essential and non-urgent hospital procedures. This is quite odd, considering Democrats often claim that equal access to healthcare is a basic human right.
No doubt, a lot of people are currently wondering whatever happened to “15 days to slow the spread.” Have we entered the age of permanent pandemic? Perhaps when the WHO has run through all the letters in the Greek alphabet things might return to normal. This humble scribe would advise you not to put a wager on that, though.
~ Read more from Graham J. Noble.
