Biden Administration Thinking About Imposing Domestic Travel Restrictions on This US State
The Biden administration reportedly is considering imposing domestic travel restrictions on the state of Florida, citing fears of a contagious COVID-19 variant from the United Kingdom.
The Miami Herald broke the news Wednesday after speaking to a person identified as a White House source. That person said fears of a rash of cases of the U.K. coronavirus variant called B117 in Florida has the administration concerned.
According to that individual, President Joe Biden might take aim at the Sunshine State in the interest of public health, even as he essentially opened up the country’s border with Mexico to potentially infected immigrants, guns, drugs and human trafficking victims.
NEW: The Biden administration is considering whether to impose domestic travel restrictions, including on Florida, fearful that coronavirus mutations are threatening to reverse hard-fought progress on the pandemic. https://t.co/DoZO9pbV37
— Miami Herald (@MiamiHerald) February 10, 2021
“There are active conversations about what could help mitigate spread here, but we have to follow the data and what’s going to work. We did this with South Africa, we did this with Brazil, because we got clear guidance,” the White House source told the Herald.
“But we’re having conversations about anything that would help mitigate spread,” the source added.
The idea of a U.S. state being closed off to other Americans hoping to enjoy its sunshine, recreation and business opportunities is absurd, of course.
Florida, under the leadership of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, has been a sanctuary for common sense.
Masks are optional in Florida, as they should be everywhere. The state is also open for those who wish to conduct business — so much so that the NBA and the NFL each chose to hold their respective championships in the state. It has even launched a bid to hold the Olympics later this year should the deal with Tokyo fall through.
Floridians have certainly carved out their own path this past year.
Could the state’s refusal to abide by the talking points of the country’s so-called health experts and Democrats be drawing some sort of retaliation? It isn’t so far-fetched.
Florida is the country’s third-largest state, and the state’s leadership has navigated the pandemic as well as possible while balancing protecting the vulnerable with not putting citizens through prolonged shutdowns. That is in contrast to states such as California and New York, which have put people who aren’t elected Democrats on a short leash.
Florida has fared similarly or better with regard to some COVID metrics while not killing its own economy and targeting people for daring to venture outside of their homes. For example, Florida has fewer reported deaths per capita than New York and fewer reported cases per capita than California, all while remaining in business.
It’s almost as if Florida’s decision to not shut down privately owned businesses and allow people to live their lives as they see fit has had a similar or in some case more favorable reported COVID case outcome than states that killed jobs and have driven people to suicide with no discernible benefit for overall public health.
Beyond statistics, where California and New York are failing, Florida is thriving. People are enjoying the benefits of going out, receiving paychecks and having the security of good governance. The largest Democratic-run states have become locked down “super spreaders,” to borrow some of the mainstream media’s terminology. Florida just successfully hosted the Super Bowl.
DeSantis the renegade vowed in December that Florida would have no more lockdowns or mask mandates.
Wouldn’t that all be inconvenient if you were a person or people motivated to use a public health crisis as the pretext to forever alter election protocols and strip people of their civil liberties? Not to engage in any conspiratorial thinking, but it’s certainly interesting how Florida apparently found itself on one of the Democrats’ lists.
Biden certainly didn’t campaign on closing down a large portion of the country. Quite the opposite, in fact:
Biden: “I’m going to shut down the virus, not the country. It’s his ineptitude that’s caused us to” #Debates2020 pic.twitter.com/KpoC2X2lRP
— Bloomberg Quicktake (@Quicktake) October 23, 2020
If you were an authoritarian Democrat seeking to impose a draconian shutdown on a populace and a people proved that your mandates were worthless, wouldn’t you want to shut them down?
It doesn’t appear as though taking the unprecedented step of segregating Florida from the rest of the country will come to pass. But the White House source who spoke to the Herald said the conversation has been had, and that’s scary. Presumably, such a measure won’t be taken without an agreement between Florida and the federal government.
“No decisions have been made, but we certainly are having conversations across government,” the White House official said. “This is a war and we’re at battle with the virus. War is messy and unpredictable, and all options are on the table.”
Arguably, the most infectious thing coming from Florida is the inconvenient reality that people can lead normal lives amid a public health crisis, should they choose to do so.
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