Freedom to travel. From my European perspective, COVID deaths suck, but we cannot return to hard borders. It risks reigniting old nationalist conflicts and it u

Freedom to travel. From my European perspective, COVID deaths suck, but we cannot return to hard borders. It risks reigniting old nationalist conflicts and it undermines Europeans’ ability to join together and meet 21st-century global challenges. We need people frequently crossing the border for work, shopping, and leisure, so that they interact with their neighbors. We need young people starting relationships with people in other countries and raising families. While there have been some restrictions on movement in Europe in the last months, they have generally never been too strict. And thankfully they are being lifted now, much earlier than the aforementioned extreme wing of public-health advisors advocates. Australia’s policy of a hard lockdown followed by strict hotel quarantines worked for Australia, but it wouldn’t work here, and it is always tone-deaf when Australians recommend it as some kind of universal solution.