In the EU, land crossings were re-manned on many borders and during the main lockdown (which is now mostly over) passenger travel on many land borders was stopped. On many borders (though not all) physical border checkpoints still exist even if they're widely open almost always, and the legal and administrative framework for controlling land borders is still maintained. Of course, it is now much easier to cross the border illegally outside of these checkpoints than before, but this still allows effective control of travel as most people are not criminals.
"Border enforcements have only been enforced at airports." is absolutely not true. For example, I recall the international issue of making transit arrangements through Poland when back in March many people were stranded as the Poland-German border was suddenly closed; if I recall correctly, the agreed solution to repatriate these people was a police-escorted car column that was allowed to transit through Poland without these people being allowed "proper entry", but before that they were stuck for days in their cars as they could not get through the border.
This is a key difference between EU and USA - the Schengen agreement allows member states to temporarily "opt out" of the free travel, reinstate border controls and impose travel restrictions (up to a full closure of borders) for various purposes, and many EU countries did just that due to Covid; while in USA, as far as I understand, the constitution greatly limits the right of states to prohibit interstate travel.
> This is a key difference between EU and USA - the Schengen agreement allows member states to temporarily "opt out" of the free travel, reinstate border controls and impose travel restrictions (up to a full closure of borders) for various purposes, and many EU countries did just that due to Covid; while in USA, as far as I understand, the constitution greatly limits the right of states to prohibit interstate travel.
The Supreme Court has directly addressed this in the case of disease epidemics and found that, in the absence of specific Congressional action preempting such regulations, states are free under the Constitution to respond to epidemic disease (and several other kinds of crisis) by enacting and enforcing travel restrictions, even though they impact interstate commerce.
While no state has adopted border closures for containing COVID-19, several have adopted quarantine policies affecting interstate travel and adopted border checkpoints as part of the enforcement mechanism.
> while in USA, as far as I understand, the constitution greatly limits the right of states to prohibit interstate travel.
The US States have been imposing varying levels of requirements on inter-state travel from other states. New York requires anyone entering from a set of states to quarantine for 14 days[1]. Maine requires visitors from a list of States to have been tested (I'm traveling to Maine and will be getting tested ahead of my trip)[2]. These are just a couple handy examples, but it's true across the board.
And finally this is all moot because, per my original post, the results really speak for themselves: the majority of US States have lower per capita death rates than the major EU member states, and a small handful have lower per capita death rate than the best EU member states (Germany, Denmark).
> New York requires anyone entering from a set of states to quarantine for 14 days[1].
Does it actually enforce this, or is it just an advisory? Has anyone been fined or arrested for breaking quarantine? Are they conducting papers-and-purpose-of-stay-please inspections at the interestates, prior to entering the state?
The only state that I know of that actually enforced quarantine is Hawaii, and even there, the beaches have magically filled with tourists over the past week... I'm sure all of them sat inside their hotel rooms for the entire two-week quarantine period...
> lower per capita death rate than the best EU member states (Germany, Denmark).
You repeat that a couple of times in your posts, I am curious where do you get that from? Germany and Denmark are not "the best", they are both above the median in the EU.
The main point is that any criticism you might level against the US States for its supposed "lack of strategy", ought to just as easily be leveled against Germany. Instead, Germany is widely regarded as having a coordinated/successful strategy[1][2].
Even among the EU States with the fewest deaths / M — that is Hungary, Finland, Slovenia, Estonia, Poland, Croatia, Latvia, etc — you have comparable US States in Maine, Utah, Idaho, West Virginia, Oregon, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Hawaii.
> In the EU, land crossings were re-manned on many borders and during the main lockdown (which is now mostly over) passenger travel on many land borders was stopped.
Which was one of most nonsensical measure and it is real shame that EC did not prevented that. It caused real problems for people living near borders and working in neighboring state, and for cargo transit.
Covid-19 prevalence was not homogenous inside each country and inter-country neighboring areas/districts were often more similar than far-away intra-country areas. Therefore, any movement restriction would make more sense on more fine-grained level, but doing it on country level is just political tool to mobilize nationalistic support.
"Border enforcements have only been enforced at airports." is absolutely not true. For example, I recall the international issue of making transit arrangements through Poland when back in March many people were stranded as the Poland-German border was suddenly closed; if I recall correctly, the agreed solution to repatriate these people was a police-escorted car column that was allowed to transit through Poland without these people being allowed "proper entry", but before that they were stuck for days in their cars as they could not get through the border.
This is a key difference between EU and USA - the Schengen agreement allows member states to temporarily "opt out" of the free travel, reinstate border controls and impose travel restrictions (up to a full closure of borders) for various purposes, and many EU countries did just that due to Covid; while in USA, as far as I understand, the constitution greatly limits the right of states to prohibit interstate travel.