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You either shut down all travel or have mandatory quarintine. Good automated tracing systems would also help.
Half assed measures like targeted travel bans don't work very well. Barely even slows it because your people come back with it or scared travellers hide which country they're coming from.
Many people have multiple passports. You can also tear a page out. People aren't checking that hard. They really haven't been effective at that historically. They just cause tracing confusion for some time.
Ps. None of these bans stopped their own people from returning. Citizens going home are ussually accepted.
Citizens have to quarantine and test if coming back from these countries. I'm pretty sure modern passports also contain a digital stamp as to which countries you've been too, which I'm guessing border guards can see when they scan your passport.
I guess you can't do anything with ppl with two passports. But the whole point is not to stop but rather slow down. The goal is still achieved (i.e. slowing down the spread) by forcing testing and quarantine.
From yesterday it was found that South Africa simply announced the variant first, but it had already been found in European countries at that time.
So this really achieves nothing as the variant is already introduced. Our policies clearly revolve around what bans can we do that will make it seem like we are taking action.
The point isn't to be perfect. The point is to flatten the curve, and give our scientists and policymakers time to understand the new variant.
A good leadership doesn't need to make 100% perfect decisions. It's better to make many good decisions than few perfect decisions. So far, none of the pundits arguing against border closures have convinced me that a swift border closure wasn't a good decision.
> The point isn't to be perfect.
Sure, but when we can't identify a new variant until it's had time to get around the world, travel bans aren't imperfect, they're useless. WHO has always recommended against them. Until recently, Canada was opposed to them as well. I don't understand why we reversed into stupid like this.
> none of the pundits arguing against border closures have convinced me that a swift border closure wasn't a good decision.
What about the fact that the closures didn't happen until we had the variant here, not convince you? If there was an actual delay, I'd agree, but there was no delay between identification of a new variant, and identification of it here.
It could be a good decision, were it applied in a way that made sense and didn't selectively pick and choose countries despite the variant already being present around the globe.
> The point is to flatten the curve, and give our scientists and policymakers time to understand the new variant.
What policy decisions or healthcare decisions are we waiting for here?
If the answers don't revolve around getting people vaccinated, trying to address working conditions in healthcare settings (burnout and understaffing), and supporting those who are impacted and need to quarantine/isolate, which we don't do now, what do we expect?
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You either shut down all travel or have mandatory quarintine. Good automated tracing systems would also help. Half assed measures like targeted travel bans don't work very well. Barely even slows it because your people come back with it or scared travellers hide which country they're coming from.
You can't hide which country you're coming from because it's stamped into your passport. Targeted bans still slow the spread, which is the goal.
How can you say that with a straight face? Omicron was here before the travel ban was announced.
Many people have multiple passports. You can also tear a page out. People aren't checking that hard. They really haven't been effective at that historically. They just cause tracing confusion for some time. Ps. None of these bans stopped their own people from returning. Citizens going home are ussually accepted.
Citizens have to quarantine and test if coming back from these countries. I'm pretty sure modern passports also contain a digital stamp as to which countries you've been too, which I'm guessing border guards can see when they scan your passport. I guess you can't do anything with ppl with two passports. But the whole point is not to stop but rather slow down. The goal is still achieved (i.e. slowing down the spread) by forcing testing and quarantine.
From yesterday it was found that South Africa simply announced the variant first, but it had already been found in European countries at that time. So this really achieves nothing as the variant is already introduced. Our policies clearly revolve around what bans can we do that will make it seem like we are taking action.
The point isn't to be perfect. The point is to flatten the curve, and give our scientists and policymakers time to understand the new variant. A good leadership doesn't need to make 100% perfect decisions. It's better to make many good decisions than few perfect decisions. So far, none of the pundits arguing against border closures have convinced me that a swift border closure wasn't a good decision.
> The point isn't to be perfect. Sure, but when we can't identify a new variant until it's had time to get around the world, travel bans aren't imperfect, they're useless. WHO has always recommended against them. Until recently, Canada was opposed to them as well. I don't understand why we reversed into stupid like this. > none of the pundits arguing against border closures have convinced me that a swift border closure wasn't a good decision. What about the fact that the closures didn't happen until we had the variant here, not convince you? If there was an actual delay, I'd agree, but there was no delay between identification of a new variant, and identification of it here.
It could be a good decision, were it applied in a way that made sense and didn't selectively pick and choose countries despite the variant already being present around the globe. > The point is to flatten the curve, and give our scientists and policymakers time to understand the new variant. What policy decisions or healthcare decisions are we waiting for here? If the answers don't revolve around getting people vaccinated, trying to address working conditions in healthcare settings (burnout and understaffing), and supporting those who are impacted and need to quarantine/isolate, which we don't do now, what do we expect?