U.S. will suspend all travel from Europe for 30 days • Hacker News Board

Re: U.S. will suspend all travel from Europe for 30 days

#111

Post by tssva » Thu, Mar 12, 2020, 1:55 AM UTC

wpietri wrote: post #59

scottLobster wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Watched the broadcast live, yes it includes cargo shipments. Something tells me the markets are going to react badly to that one

Including cargo doesn't make much sense to me. Did they include a justification for this? In contrast, the CDC's take is that "in general, because of poor survivability of these coronaviruses on surfaces, there is likely very low risk of spread from products or packaging that are shipped over a period of days or weeks at ambient temperatures." -- https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/faq.html

What cargo it does and doesn't cover isn't really clear from the announcement. What Trump says often doesn't completely match what the policy turns out to be. When agencies release the actual rules we will know more. I wouldn't be surprised if cargo only meant air cargo.

Re: U.S. will suspend all travel from Europe for 30 days

#112

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Mar 12, 2020, 1:55 AM UTC

[deleted]

Re: U.S. will suspend all travel from Europe for 30 days

#113

Post by stale2002 » Thu, Mar 12, 2020, 1:55 AM UTC

o_p wrote: post #15

What if.. You travel to UK by land and take a plane to the USA?

This is possible. But less likely.

The point of travel restrictions is not to be 100% effective, but instead to reduce the number that travel.

Re: U.S. will suspend all travel from Europe for 30 days

#114

Post by dcolkitt » Thu, Mar 12, 2020, 1:56 AM UTC

moosey wrote: post #58

I feel like there are some particular cultural attributes in the United States that make this useless at this point. The United States has a very individualistic attitude. Sure, we can pause travel from Europe, but the current administration is very anti-europe. Can we pause travel in the US? I strongly doubt that we can effectively given the strong anti-expertise attitudes as well. My guess is that the United States…

On the other hand, Americans have much larger and more comfortable homes than Europeans. Americans have big garages to stockpile supplies, which means less trips to the store. Very few people use public transportation regularly. Most people have private back yards. Many more meals are take-out or drive-thru. More Americans use e-commerce for shopping than Europeans.

In Europe by contrast, much more of life revolves around public spaces, like the park, cafes, the city square, and public transport. Americans tend to spend little time in restaurants, whereas Europeans relax and enjoy the meal, thus increasing their exposure time.

Think of the areas in the US that seen the worst outbreaks. Seattle, the Bay Area, New York, Boston. These are the metros, where the average resident is least likely to live a typical middle-American lifestyle. San Francisco in many ways is closer to Copenhagen than it is to Jacksonville.

Overall, social distancing is probably easier for Americans because our way of life already involves a good deal of social distance to begin with.

Re: U.S. will suspend all travel from Europe for 30 days

#115

Post by mbil » Thu, Mar 12, 2020, 1:57 AM UTC

unlinked_dll wrote: post #30

Regardless of the ability of people to travel to the UK or Canada and get here (which people have done for a long time with other nations we don't take kindly to) it's absolutely going to reduce the number of people who will travel across the pond. Which is the goal, reduce infection rates. My concern is how economies are going to respond to the US being cut off from Continental ports for a month, which as far as I c…

Air freight rates skyrocketed due to fewer passenger flights between US and China. Presumably there will be similar impact to air freight rates between US and Europe https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-airlin...

edit: air cargo flights between US and Europe also suspended

Re: U.S. will suspend all travel from Europe for 30 days

#116

Post by kingofpandora » Thu, Mar 12, 2020, 1:57 AM UTC

ceejayoz wrote: post #63

bdcravens wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More like closing the gate so the coyotes don't keep attacking your cows.

Except there are already dozens of coyotes inside the fence.

I think the analogies have run their course.

Re: U.S. will suspend all travel from Europe for 30 days

#117

Post by maxerickson » Thu, Mar 12, 2020, 1:57 AM UTC

paxys wrote: post #102

maxerickson wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are lots of individualists that will flout advice, but there's also lots of people that will isolate themselves in quite a paranoid fashion. I think there's more of the latter.

More or less doesn't matter. It's a classic case of "one person can ruin it for everyone", which is why in many countries there is strict enforcement rather than just recommendations.

It isn't a classic case of one person can ruin it for everyone. When I choose not to go to the bar, the guy at the bar that ignored the advice about not going out in public still doesn't infect me.

So less dramatically: individuals can (and will!) reduce their exposure to infected people that make poor choices.

Of course the more people that do the right thing the better, but it isn't a situation where the outcome is controlled just by the worst actors.

Re: U.S. will suspend all travel from Europe for 30 days

#118

Post by anigbrowl » Thu, Mar 12, 2020, 1:57 AM UTC

Causality1 wrote: post #86

Is there a point to this? The virus is already everywhere.

Depends on how imaginative/paranoid you are. It sure seems odd that this week has included an oil price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia, a pandemic declaration, and now the biggest disruption of international travel/commerce since WW2. https://twitter.com/RusEmbUSA/status/1237048071223160833

Re: U.S. will suspend all travel from Europe for 30 days

#119

Post by corel_ » Thu, Mar 12, 2020, 1:57 AM UTC

andbberger wrote: post #88

corel_ wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure where this level of panic is coming from. Numbers are about to spike everywhere pretty much no matter what anybody does, because better testing and funding has become available. Quarantining an entire continent, and even worse than this badly doing it, seems to be an astonishing overreaction. The average age of death for coronavirus victims is 83. The mortality rate seems to be as low as 0.6% in South Ko…

Exponential growth doesn't seem like a problem, until it is. A primary concern is reducing peak load on medical services. https://www.flattenthecurve.com/

This website doesn't contradict anything I've said and I cannot see the relevance to the point.

Re: U.S. will suspend all travel from Europe for 30 days

#120

Post by lurquer » Thu, Mar 12, 2020, 1:58 AM UTC

corel_ wrote: post #80

nugget wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The situation in Europe will be much worse a month from now than it is today, unfortunately. I'd bet on this ban lasting closer to 90 days than 30.

I'm not sure where this level of panic is coming from. Numbers are about to spike everywhere pretty much no matter what anybody does, because better testing and funding has become available. Quarantining an entire continent, and even worse than this badly doing it, seems to be an astonishing overreaction. The average age of death for coronavirus victims is 83. The mortality rate seems to be as low as 0.6% in South Ko…

There is a panic. Doesn't matter if its justified (its not, imho).

But it is real and it has the potential to seriously damage the economy.

A tanked economy will harm far more people than this virus.

If the ban gives sufficient reassurance to the chicken littles to induce them not to sell their stocks and invest in toilet paper, it will be a success.