There was a point at which draconian restrictions on travel made a certain sense. But, as our closest allies have shown, that time passed long, long, long ago. The rules for Americans who wish to visit Britain are relatively straightforward: Vaccinated travelers are obliged to take a pair of tests while in the country but do not have to quarantine, while unvaccinated travelers are obliged to take a pre-arrival test, take tests while in the country, and quarantine for ten days. There is no good reason that the United States could not impose a similar set of rules on incoming Brits — or even require COVID vaccinations of them outright as it sometimes requires vaccinations for other viruses. Can it really be the case that we mistrust the British?

This issue is no mere abstraction. As a first-generation immigrant, I am among the millions of Americans who have close family-members in another country and who, for nearly two years now, have struggled to get together with those loved ones. My youngest child was a year old when he last saw his grandparents; now he goes to school. My five-year-old was three, and he has grown so much since then that he wore out the pajamas they got him for the trip we had to cancel. My parents are not elderly, but they are not young, either. We are wasting precious years.