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

nbcnews.com

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

#661

Post by hcknwscommenter »

rsj_hn wrote: post #542
jacobwilliamroy wrote: post #508

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My personal theory is that someone in the executive branch wanted to secure an exclusive contract for a personal friend. Something similar happened in the first few months of the Kuwait oil fires, with certain american fire fighting firms being given exclusive contracts to fight the fires, despite lacking the technology and expertise to extinguish them. But I'm just a cynical man. It could very well be something else…

Even with an exclusive contract, a nation such as the US should be able to quickly ramp production of all the test kits, masks, latex gloves, respirators, oxygen concentrators, antibiotics and other pharmaceuticals that we need. Yet we can't. That's crazy and it has to change.

Oh we certainly can. "We" have decided not to, for now. One day we might find out the who/why/how of this decision. That will be an interesting day.

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

#662

Post by FartyMcFarter »

dx034 wrote: post #607
himalayan_yak wrote: post #604

Trying hard not to be political. But POTUS speech seems to make things lot worse than better along anything. The efficacy of this travel ban is questionable (given all these exceptions such as one for UK. Can people coming from other parts just have a layover in UK and be get permission to enter the US?). But lets give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that they did so in good faith. It is what's not in the sp…

> Can people coming from other parts just have a layover in UK and be get permission to enter the US? I believe anyone who's been to the Schengen Area in the past x days faces the ban. Excluding the UK and Ireland surely had political reasons (the UK now also has >400 cases) but it's hard to define Europe if you don't use either Schengen or EU (both of which the UK isn't a part of).

> Excluding the UK and Ireland surely had political reasons

Or maybe it's because Trump owns golf resorts in both countries?

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

#663

Post by unishark »

endorphone wrote: post #414
unishark wrote: post #399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 US can't restrict its own citizens from returning (although it could certainly impose a quarantine), and I didn't claim or imply that they should. The point is that the action is farce . Those flights to and from Wuhan were always full of primarily Americans, and continued unabated. Just as Americans can still fly to and from Europe, though obviously carriers are going to drastically cut the flight counts. Regard…

I agree we are maybe 1.5 weeks behind Italy. Though hopefully it never explodes quite as fast in most of the US due to lower population density and other cultural differences. But as for travel bans, the complaint is that they only slow the spread, in return for economic and other downsides. But I'll take that. The flatter the curve is the better.

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

#664

Post by dx034 »

Symbiote wrote: post #641
dx034 wrote: post #607

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Can people coming from other parts just have a layover in UK and be get permission to enter the US? I believe anyone who's been to the Schengen Area in the past x days faces the ban. Excluding the UK and Ireland surely had political reasons (the UK now also has >400 cases) but it's hard to define Europe if you don't use either Schengen or EU (both of which the UK isn't a part of).

I wonder about British/Irish people. Passports for EU citizens aren't stamped anywhere in the EU. I live in Denmark. Would the USA know if I flew to the UK, then the USA? (I don't intend to do this.)

The details are unclear anyway. What about Schengen citizens living in the UK? I can imagine they'll generally let people in from UK and Ireland but question them about travel history and maybe proof of residence. Lying to a border agent gets you banned for life, that should be a decent deterrent.

In the end, it's not like a terrorism threat where the ones trying hardest are the ones you need to catch. Here, keeping 99% out can suffice easily, esp if the others are also questioned and are getting temperature checks.

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

#665

Post by hcknwscommenter »

gwright wrote: post #555
astronautjones wrote: post #481

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

The president didn't say that the virus is a partisan hoax. His actions clearly indicate he doesn't believe it is a hoax. The president did claim that some criticisms about his handling of the situation were a "new hoax" in the same way he has labeled previous unfounded criticism and accusations as hoaxes.

"His actions clearly indicate he doesn't believe it is a hoax."

Huh?

He called Fox News and said on air ""So if, you know, we have thousands or hundreds of thousands of people [with COVID-19] that get better, just by, you know, sitting around and even going to work, some of them go to work, but they get better,""

His whole schtick until just about a few hours ago was that the risks were all hugely overblown.

I am also curious to know exactly which "previous unfounded criticisms" you are referring to.

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

#666

Post by dx034 »

FartyMcFarter wrote: post #662
dx034 wrote: post #607

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Can people coming from other parts just have a layover in UK and be get permission to enter the US? I believe anyone who's been to the Schengen Area in the past x days faces the ban. Excluding the UK and Ireland surely had political reasons (the UK now also has >400 cases) but it's hard to define Europe if you don't use either Schengen or EU (both of which the UK isn't a part of).

> Excluding the UK and Ireland surely had political reasons Or maybe it's because Trump owns golf resorts in both countries?

That is obviously also gonna be a reason. But I could imagine that his staff feels more comfortable with Schengen as a zone with (usually) open borders and high infection rates rather than specifying single countries. The latter would probably be harder to keep up in courts.

FWIW, without making this political, I don't even think it's the golf resorts. US and UK have very close economical links, there's a lot of business traffic. Esp by wealthy people flying NYC-London regularly. I would rather think he didn't want to affect those. I can imagine a lot of his friends would've been angry if NYC-London gets shut down. Most visitors to his resorts in Europe will be from the continent anyway. But that's obviously pure speculation.

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

#667

Post by hcknwscommenter »

FireBeyond wrote: post #318
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).

> Even if you think you have it, there's still not enough test kits available yet The messaging on this has been pathetic. The other day UW in Seattle announced they had a capacity to test 1,000/day. Not adequate for the nation, but for the PNW, sure.

That is not an adequate number for the PNW. Full stop. You have no idea what you are talking about.

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

#668

Post by hcknwscommenter »

irq11 wrote: post #231
divbzero wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does this mean we need a more robust domestic response to contain coronavirus, instead of or in addition to restricting travel to the US? Akin to how securing a network is more than setting up a firewall at the perimeter.

It cannot be contained. That’s what the pandemic declaration means (even though the WHO should have done this weeks ago). At this point, the only rational thing to do is to try to slow the spread. The good news is that this is a very mild virus, and the vast majority of infected people will have minor symptoms. The fatality rate in Korea is currently 0.6%, and becuase of the comprehensive nature of their testing, thi…

"the upper bound on CFR"

I think you mean that this should be considered the goal upper bound on CFR. It's really the lower bound on CFR if you do everything right. If you do everything wrong, like the US is heading towards, you get overloaded health systems, critical shortages, and a 12% CFR or higher.

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

#669

Post by hcknwscommenter »

divbzero wrote: post #211
kortex wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There were just 2 cases detected at the gym down the street from me. I'm in a medium town of about 40k in upstate NY. Not podunk, but hardly bustling. I'm considering the USA fully seeded at this point.

Does this mean we need a more robust domestic response to contain coronavirus, instead of or in addition to restricting travel to the US? Akin to how securing a network is more than setting up a firewall at the perimeter.

"Does this mean we need a more robust domestic response to contain coronavirus, instead of or in addition to restricting travel to the US?"

YES! Restricting USEU travel is just about the least useful thing we need to be doing right now.

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

#670

Post by hcknwscommenter »

nl wrote: post #536
irq11 wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It cannot be contained. That’s what the pandemic declaration means (even though the WHO should have done this weeks ago). At this point, the only rational thing to do is to try to slow the spread. The good news is that this is a very mild virus, and the vast majority of infected people will have minor symptoms. The fatality rate in Korea is currently 0.6%, and becuase of the comprehensive nature of their testing, thi…

It cannot be contained. That’s what the pandemic declaration means That's the exact opposite of what the WHO said when they made the pandemic declarations: "We cannot say this loudly enough, or clearly enough, or often enough: all countries can still change the course of this pandemic," reads a statement from Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of WHO. [1] South Korea has shown this to be correct. [1] https:…

It is not the exact opposite in any way. Your quote does not support your assertion. The truth is that it cannot be contained. It can be slowed down though.
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