Speaker 1: This is a very personal story for me.
I'm kind of getting.
But people know I'm supposed to go to a wedding in Italy in early September.
And I've been wondering, will Americans be allowed in?
The Washington Post is now reporting that the European Union will be reopening their
borders to the vaccinated American population very, very soon.
The European Union announced this morning that they will be opening the borders to vaccinated
Americans after more than a year during which travel has been significantly restricted.
This is a Washington Post report which says the decision will throw open Europe's doors
to tourists, business and other travel after a long stretch in which most of those from
outside the 27 nation bloc have not been allowed in.
It will hearten those.
I am feeling heartened, I admit it.
It will hearten those who have missed wandering the continent's ancient streets, as well as
Europeans whose livelihoods depends on tourist cash.
One final round of approvals is necessary in the coming days, but the sign off is no
longer in doubt.
The plan was agreed upon by ambassadors today.
The timing of when borders will actually open is not yet clear, but it could be within days
and certainly by the end of June.
The European Council, quote now recommends that that member states ease restrictions,
in particular for those with an EU authorized vaccine.
That would mean all of the vaccines authorized in the US would get the green light.
But vaccines currently manufactured in Russia and China, that's the Sputnik and the Sinovel
vaccine would not, at least at this time, qualify you for entry to the European Union.
This guidance from the European Union is not binding, meaning a country could say we're
not letting anybody in or a country could say, we'll let people in with the Sputnik
vaccine or the Sino vaccine or the BLETCH injections or whatever they want to do.
But this is the guidance from the European Union.
It has been a massive struggle in Europe.
Greece open relatively early.
Croatia is open.
Estonia, there are way I mean, listen, if the truth is if you're determined to go somewhere,
you can almost certainly go.
And I know, you know, 10, 15 people who have done it.
I have friends who wanted to go visit family in France.
France was allowing people coming from the UK.
The UK was allowing Americans with a 14 day quarantine.
So they went to the UK, hung out 14 days, worked remotely, then went to France like
you could do it all along.
But that's not going to get the tourism industry restarted.
So we are seeing a definite change at this point in time.
Now, you could you will have a situation where you will have vaccinated Americans going to
countries where the local population is not yet highly vaccinated now, per the CDC, although
they've not yet really changed country specific travel guidelines, the CDC says if you were
vaccinated, just about any activity is safe, even without a mask, although you should wear
a mask in certain situations as dictated by local law, regulation, business policy, whatever.
A third of EU residents have gotten at least one dose of a vaccine in the U.S.
About half of Americans have gotten at least one dose.
So you will have it's basically six weeks behind Europe is six weeks behind the United
States.
Given how slowly the initial vaccine rollout was in Europe, it's actually pretty good that
they're only six weeks behind and there are going to be probably significant accelerations
as more and more vaccines will flow in the direction of Europe.
Now, I've said for a while, over time, the number of people who don't want the vaccine
in the US is going to decline because they're are going to be more and more things.
You need to be vaccinated in order to do one of those things now that you will be able
to do a vaccinated as.
Go to Europe.
I don't know that the anti vaccine Republicans are that big on Europe, and what I mean by
that is a lot of the same people that still don't want a vaccine, which is 41 percent
of Republicans, a lot of them are probably the types of people who see the concept of
Europe as sort of like sissy, flamboyant and socialist.
And they don't care about Europe and they're not interested in going to Europe.
And in fact, being told you can only go to Europe with a vaccine.
It might make them more.
It might reinforce their anti vaccine beliefs.
Maybe not.
But we are seeing the decline in anti VAX slowdown last month.
Forty three percent of Republicans did not want the vaccine this month.
It's 41 percent of Republicans say it is a decline, but it's a very, very slow decline.
So great news for who is this great news for?
This is great news for would be travelers.
This is great news simply for those who want to see the world start to be able to come
out of what was a very dark winter, a winter of twenty twenty.
And hopefully we will continue to see those cases and deaths decline.
I am cautiously optimistic that we will and we will all be celebrating on Memorial Day
weekend, not only with maybe barbecues, but also with a crazy my accountant is saying,
David, don't do it.
My staff is saying, David, don't even think about it.
My lawyer is saying I would reconsider, but I'm going to do it.
On Memorial Day.
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Instructions forthcoming on May 31st, we'll take a quick break, let me know your thoughts
about the reopening.
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