I have mixed thoughts about this.

Border controls should’ve been imposed early in the pandemic. That could’ve worked. Now, it’s mostly too late. And I, like many people, have friends overseas that I very much want to visit. At least one of those friends is more like family to me. This is the case with millions of people, some of whom have not seen family or partners for an entire year. It’s just not tenable or compassionate to people’s mental health or actual needs to have mostly-closed borders for years at a time, which is what the (mostly) liberals will demand. In this era, international travel isn’t some bizarre luxury for many, many people.

Weird how the “open borders” push has reversed now, especially among liberals, and might have for all time. That’s not clear yet but it sure is trending that way.

Unlike a lot of people, I will even defend the right to have a holiday as vital to mental health. We can’t allow the pandemic to remove all freedom and joys of life — and I say this because I see people talking (even in the comments of that Guardian article) about how we can never go on holiday again because “variants,” even with widespread vaccination, and too bad if your friend or partner is overseas. Why, just throw them in the garbage, and too bad for you that you listened to my “open borders” claptrap last year!

I always knew that this pandemic would become the excuse for many people to force others to go into full pod mode. I even wrote about it on this blog months and months ago. I just expected more people to resist.