W.H. Spox Morgenstern: Already Have ‘Stringent’ U.K. Travel Restrictions, ‘No Reason to Believe’ Vaccines Aren’t Effective Against New Strain

On Monday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “The Story,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Brian Morgenstern said that the United States has “had very stringent travel restrictions in place” on the United Kingdom since March and that there isn’t any reason to think the vaccines “would not be effective against this strain, and the guidance remains the same in terms of socially distance, wear your mask, wash your hands.”

Morgenstern said, “Really, a lot of these other countries are sort of catching up to President Trump. He’s had very stringent travel restrictions in place, for months since March, in fact. U.S. citizens, family members, certain other individuals who can get special dispensations for necessary travel can come in here from the U.K., but we’ve had very strict travel restrictions in place already. What I can say about this mutation of the virus is, we’ve been aware of it for a number of months. It’s apparently appeared on a number of continents, but the guidance for the American people remains the same. We have no reason to believe our vaccines are — would not be effective against this strain, and the guidance remains the same in terms of socially distance, wear your mask, wash your hands. So, the American people’s behavior really shouldn’t change, and the president’s had travel restrictions in place for months.”

He later added that “the president’s insistence on creating the leading testing system in the world, from scratch, has allowed a number of private entities, like airlines, to put in testing regimes, so that if you want to fly, for example, using British Airways to come to the U.S., they have a private company doing testing so that the passengers are tested. That’s another layer of assurance for the American people.”

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