CNN recently revealed that residents of the United States are “unlikely” to be allowed into the Europian Union as the bloc reopens. The decision is not final, but the professional-wrestler-turned-governor Jesse Ventura is not happy. He sent a blistering message to Americans and criticized the reactions to COVID-19.
“Self-proclaimed greatest country in the world achieves the highest number of coronavirus deaths and infections in the world. Congratulations, America. We’re simply the best at spreading this pandemic and we’ve been rewarded with a travel ban against us,” Ventura tweeted on Monday. The current criteria for allowing travelers to enter the European Union involves the number of cases per 100,000 citizens in the past 14 days. This factor alone sets the stage for a travel ban.
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“@GovJVentura you’re the guy who can change all of this. You know the 2 predators won’t! We need you, and we’ve got your back! You could win this. Best time in decades for a 3rd party. But the opportunity is wasted on [Howie] Hawkins,” one Twitter user responded. Several of Ventura’s supporters agreed with this sentiment and pleaded with him to run for president during the 2020 election.
According to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center, the United States has the “highest number of coronavirus deaths and infections in the world.” At least 2.4 million were infected while a total of 124,891 people have died. An EU official cited the infection rate when saying that “the US’s chances are close to zero.”
The New York Times initially reported the news of the potential travel ban and said that it had seen a draft list of likely countries allowed into the EU. This list reportedly named countries considered acceptable or not based on their coronavirus situations. However, the EU told CNN that this list does not actually exist.
“We have not set the final objective criteria, so the first list of countries has not been written,” an unnamed official told CNN. “It does not exist. We have data for sure, but there is no list. The objective criteria has to be applied equally to a hundred or more third countries, so it was never about one country.”
With the United States potentially facing a travel ban due to the coronavirus, the European Union has taken preemptive measures to shut down any arguments about its reasoning. An unnamed EU diplomat has said that this decision has nothing to do with politics. “It is only ever about health. For sure, you can see not being on the list as something political, when one country is allowed in and another is not, but this is a misrepresentation of what we are doing. We are looking to open our borders, this is a positive step,” the diplomat told CNN.
