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

#391

Post by nerfhammer » Thu, Mar 12, 2020, 3:30 AM UTC

rtkwe wrote: post #381

BryantD wrote: post #152

Important updates: a) This does not apply to US citizens or their family members[1]. b) This does not apply to cargo[2]. It appears that the President misspoke regarding point 2. [1] https://www.dhs.gov/news/2020/03/11/homeland-security-acting... . [2] https://twitter.com/AnaSwanson/status/1237921160500830208

a) is because as I understand it it's /very/ hard to legally refuse to readmit a US citizen. You can seize all their stuff at the border but besides arresting them for a crime you can't really keep them from coming home.

immigration law does not apply to citizens, basically at all. customs does, but immigration does not.

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

#392

Post by Jommi » Thu, Mar 12, 2020, 3:30 AM UTC

zamfi wrote: post #342

Jommi wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would assume that any flights booked in under 30 days before travel will be expensive no matter what the situation.

Dangerous assumption -- most domestic and international flights are the cheapest I have ever seen them.

I mean generally, if booking flights for the next week (in general) they are expensive.

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

#393

Post by Proziam » Thu, Mar 12, 2020, 3:30 AM UTC

slg wrote: post #378

tunesmith wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But they don't literally expect 20-60% - that's if no mitigation happens.

Where do you see that because that didn't come from the article and video of the full interview that I linked in that original post?

I put the sources above. If you read through, you see that not only did the numbers change but also that he specifically made predictions based on a scenario where zero attempts to mitigate infection were taken.

I mentioned that here - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22552973

> [0]The source of the 40%-70% figure has since dramatically altered their estimates, and added several qualifiers.

> [0]https://twitter.com/mlipsitch/status/1234879949946814464?s=2....

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

#394

Post by adventured » Thu, Mar 12, 2020, 3:31 AM UTC

wpietri wrote: post #77

refurb wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's all about flattening the curve at this point. You can do your best to identify those infected and have them self-quarantine, but if the gates are open and infected people are streaming into your country, you're not going to get far.

But doesn't that require the notion that infection rates are higher in the excluded place? Given the US's incredible failure to test widely, I am not seeing why flights from Sweden or Ireland are any more dangerous than flights from Seattle at this point.

> I am not seeing why flights from Sweden or Ireland are any more dangerous than flights from Seattle at this point.

I'd favor grounding most flights at this point. However, the reason to restrict people from eg Sweden or Ireland or anywhere, is because those people in Seattle are our people (legally, citizenship-wise), which are the ones we should be concerning ourselves with and attempting to control/restrict/observe/test/treat. The US is about to enter mass quarantine, as numerous other countries are. It's better if people from other countries stay outside of the US / stay in their own countries.

And further, it's dramatically better to only have to deal with our own people as a vector, not foreign persons. It's obvious that the fewer people that are infected within the US, the better.

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

#395

Post by Frost1x » Thu, Mar 12, 2020, 3:31 AM UTC

chasd00 wrote: post #214

penagwin wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO the only reason we aren't reporting large numbers of new cases is because of the lack of widespread testing currently being done compared to other countries at this moment (other countries are performing magnitudes higher tests a day). Even if you think you have it, there's still not enough test kits available yet - even if you're swabbed it can be days for a result(Saying this from west michigan).

yes, the case count is about to sky rocket because wide spread testing is coming online but hopefully the fatality count doesn't. I think the authorities need to do a better job communicating that a steep rise in cases detected doesn't mean a steep rise in severe or lethal cases.

I think a steep rise in infection counts due to increased testing/detection would be a great thing. More data is always better in these situations and more confirmed infections with confirmed recoveries would probably ease everyone's minds a bit more.

To be clear I'm not saying more infections are a good thing, simply that if there are a lot more cases that already exist, knowing they exist and having more accurate data that shows us COVID19 is less harmful than currently perceived/projected would be good for everyone.

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

#396

Post by jupp0r » Thu, Mar 12, 2020, 3:33 AM UTC

Does anybody know how temporary work visas are handled? I’m on an L1-B and thankfully rebooked my flights 2 weeks ago when in a business trip to Germany (in anticipation of something like this).

Edit: I’m back in the US with my wife and kids, wasn’t clear enough above.

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

#397

Post by tdhoot » Thu, Mar 12, 2020, 3:33 AM UTC

Scoundreller wrote: post #60

From the NYT article: "He [Trump] said he would instruct the Treasury Department to “defer tax payments without interest or penalties for certain individuals and businesses negatively impacted.” Why deferments for businesses? Don't they only pay tax on profits?

On last year/quarter's profits, which they might need for opex now.

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

#398

Post by godzulu » Thu, Mar 12, 2020, 3:35 AM UTC

ceejayoz wrote: post #68

allovernow wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you really think some moron bumbled his way into the most powerful office in the world? Have you stopped to think about how unlikely something like that is? You may not agree with his style (I don't) or his personality (hate it) but the guy has to be minimally intelligent to make it as far as he has. At the very least he knows how to work a crowd and spot opportunity.

It's entirely possible to have a charismatic moron. Political instincts and intelligence aren't the same thing.

the previous President was just that...a charismatic moron.

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

#399

Post by unishark » Thu, Mar 12, 2020, 3:35 AM UTC

endorphone wrote: post #210

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…

To reiterate what others said, it is long past containment in the United States. In Canada early on the cases were people who came from known hot spots. Now it is almost entirely people coming from the United States, from places with no known cases. Clearly there are clusters throughout the United States. Unconfirmed, unrecognized clusters. And with the adversity of many to utilizing health care, it seems impossible…

> It's also worth noting that this flight ban applies only to non-Americans, just as the Wuhan restriction before did. During the prior travel restriction dozens of flights a day were going to and from Wuhan -- they just had Americans on them, who apparently aren't susceptible to the foreign virus. This new restriction is identical, allowing Americans to march the globe with their COVID-19, but at least they kept out the foreigners.

Well presumably they'll always allow non-Americans to leave. As for americans, they would still have to wade through quarantine or whatever restrictions the other country requires.

For entry into the US, does the govt even has the power to keep americans and permanent residents from entering? Seems like every country will at worst only quarantine its own people.

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

#400

Post by vharuck » Thu, Mar 12, 2020, 3:35 AM UTC

koyote wrote: post #232

sumofi wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The chance right now that you will know someone you love being killed by Corona is really realistic. I'm not sure how you think how critical it is. I personally have never had this issue and do not mind at all to lay still for a whole year to try to reduce the risk of this happening.

> The chance right now that you will know someone you love being killed by Corona is really realistic. Unless all the people you love are over 80 (in which case the chance of them dying before Corona hit was not much less realistic than it is now) that sentance is just completely false. Why spread such fear and misinformation?

My wife is a pre-kindergarten teacher and has asthma. I'm very worried.