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

#481

Post by astronautjones » Thu, Mar 12, 2020, 4:22 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.

you could start with getting the president and his sycophants to stop claiming its a partisan hoax and that it's going to go away in a few days

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

#482

Post by gip » Thu, Mar 12, 2020, 4:22 AM UTC

dcolkitt wrote: post #114

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 a…

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

While that's true, behavior trumps lifestyle I think. I had a dentist appointment scheduled for this morning in San Francisco. I called my dentist office and explained that my wife has some mild-flu symptoms and asked if we should reschedule. They said that's since I don't have symptoms myself it's not necessary to postpone the appointment. That may happen in Jacksonville too.

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

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Post by monksy » Thu, Mar 12, 2020, 4:23 AM UTC

FireBeyond wrote: post #309

rsj_hn wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My 2 cents. All reductions in (non-essential) travel are good in a pandemic. That doesn't mean it's sufficient, but it's something positive. I think we would all like to see stronger social distancing rules domestically (in the US), but here the US has a problem as it granted the President broad discretionary powers to suspend international travel but not domestic gatherings, which can't be banned via executive order…

> I'm declaring that the MLB season needs to be delayed The NBA just suspended their season "until further notice".

During the Blackhawks game, the announces claim that the official NHL stance is unclear and they will be making an announcement tomorrow. They had 21k in attendance at the game tonight.

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

#484

Post by cavisne » Thu, Mar 12, 2020, 4:24 AM UTC

sjg007 wrote: post #458

rtkwe wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Doesn’t matter if there’s no flights or boats.

I suspect there will be flights, from the UK (which is why it was left off).

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

#485

Post by vanniv » Thu, Mar 12, 2020, 4:25 AM UTC

namibj wrote: post #477

vanniv wrote: post #408

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can sail across the Atlantic in 4-5 days on an ocean liner

Containers seem to take >=7 days from Germany's closest international port to Newark, NJ (practically NYC), last time I looked at routes and prices.

Oh, that's probably true. They're optimized for throughput rather than speed.

Ocean liners that carry passengers take 4-5

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

#486

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Mar 12, 2020, 4:25 AM UTC

anigbrowl wrote: post #307

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

Misspoke? It was a prepared statement read off a teleprompter. Please don't excuse it like a slip of the tongue.

[deleted]

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

#487

Post by kelnos » Thu, Mar 12, 2020, 4:25 AM UTC

allsystemsgo wrote: post #478

mnm1 wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah it's clearly a token move to pretend like they're doing something. The cv19 test is free but all the other tests they will undoubtedly and necessarily run before that are not. And if you end up in the er as a poor person, you'll likely go bankrupt or take a massive hit even with insurance. That'll keep people away. Who knows how long it'll be before we have massive testing like Korea. Maybe never.

Just because CV19 is a thing now doesn’t mean the US magically has Medicare for all.

No, but it is in the nation's interest to get as many people tested as possible (assuming we can solve the pesky test kit shortage). If people aren't getting tested because they can't afford it, that hurts the country just as much as it could potentially hurt them.

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

#488

Post by rsj_hn » Thu, Mar 12, 2020, 4:26 AM UTC

jacobwilliamroy wrote: post #470

rsj_hn wrote: post #436

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I sympathize with this view, but it does make it harder to respond quickly with nationwide lockdowns, which is the flip side of living in such a connected world. Long term, I think some mechanism to mandate more social isolation is going to be needed. For example when travelling from California to Arizona, there is currently no quarantine area or checkpoint, and that's fine if you want free movement, but then it's ha…

Practically, yes, the states these days won't do anything until the federal government tells them to. It'll work out in a nationwide lockdown, but such obedience hurt us in february when the CDC had a monopoly on test kits and nowhere near enough capacity to supply the whole country. We seem to be making all the wrong decisions in this emergency.

Those are valid points. As to the test kits, I keep hearing conflicting info -- e.g. that there was a shortage of ingredients, too much FDA red tape, etc. There will plenty of root cause analysis in the future, but I think we have to reshore critical infrastructure and there is lots of red tape to cut in both CDC and FDA.

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

#489

Post by kevin_thibedeau » Thu, Mar 12, 2020, 4:27 AM UTC

allsystemsgo wrote: post #471

benzible wrote: post #465

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another theory: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/08/what-if-donald-t...

Blindness? Seriously?

He seems more like a dyslexic who's always over compensating with bluster to avoid reading.

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

#490

Post by Proziam » Thu, Mar 12, 2020, 4:27 AM UTC

jimktrains2 wrote: post #468

Proziam wrote: post #452

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can hire a whole team of perfectly competent people and all it takes is one slip-up to ship the wrong version of a file. I have no love for the administration, but I find it frustrating that people are so eager to attribute every single error, regardless of impact, to one name. If you go back one administration and search 'Obama clarifies' on google, you find the same thing. Turns out that press machines involvin…

I feel that this administration is actively hostile to the well-being of the United States, but I've been telling people since day 1 that it's counter productive to make fun of Trump and nit pick at every error regardless of how tiny or inconsequential. At the very best it diverts attention from the actual problems with this administration and at worst deepens into the political chasm we seem to have in this country.

I completely agree. It's objectively counter-productive to over-exaggerate every little thing.