By Irene Casado Sánchez, Caroline Ghisolfi and Natasha Maki Jessen-Petersen Special to The Examiner
‘FaceTime, pictures, that’s good, but it doesn’t make up for a real-life meeting’
Marie-Odile Lemoine, 78, was stopped by security guards at a French airport on March 13, 2020, when the United States enforced a travel ban from Europe. Almost 19 months later, she landed at San Francisco International Airport.
Her niece Claire Towner, 32, kept checking the flight information boards. A charcuterie board, Champagne and the whole family were waiting for her aunt at home.
“How am I even going to recognize her after four years — and with the mask on?” Towner asked.
Claire Towner waits for her aunt, who bought the first flight out of France to the San Francisco International Airport. Towner had not seen her aunt since 2018. (Courtesy Natasha Maki Jessen-Petersen)
Lemoine is one of an estimated 741 million Europeans who have been blocked from entry into the United States since the beginning of the pandemic.
Despite a recent surge of infections in some European countries, including Germany, Greece and the Netherlands, on Nov. 8 the Biden administration followed through on its Oct. 15 announcement to lift travel restrictions for international visitors from 33 countries who can show proof of vaccination and a negative COVID test within three days of departure (with children under 12 requiring only the latter). Twenty six countries off the travel ban are part of the European Union; the remaining are Brazil, China, India, Iran, Ireland, South Africa and the United Kingdom.