Earlier quoted context omitted.
>>And the U.S. couldn't close its land borders even if it wanted to. Given that until recently the US was quite militant in refusing to act upon the outbreak, and it's a country comprised of hundreds of million of people among which about a third showed themselves to be quite defiant towards even the most trivial emergency public health policies, I don't think it's fair to refer to border control as a relevant factor…
> Given that until recently the US was quite militant in refusing to act upon the outbreak Factually untrue. The US was the first country to shut down China travel. And we got called Xenophobic for it. The mayor of Florence even held a “hug a Chinese” day in response. https://rmx.news/article/article/fears-of-being-called-racis...
Singapore started severely restrict travel and quarantining arriving citizens a couple days before the US ban.
https://www.gov.sg/article/how-is-singapore-limiting-the-spr...
A faster travel ban for Italy and other EU countries would have done the US more good.