I personally know someone coming here from China who was disallowed end of January.
That he didn’t go all the way and ban US nationals is only because that would have probably been untenable politically and legally.
Travel restrictions absolutely prevent spread to argue against that shows fundamentally you’re willing to make silly arguments to win, I won’t engage further.
You’ve been fooled by fake news. Just google and you’ll find the truth. Here’s an article from February 2 “All over the world, countries are imposing travel bans on visitors who’ve been to China“ https://qz.com/1795615/coronavirus-travel-bans-on-china-impo...
So it’s the exact opposite of what you said - politicians all over the world were doing just that.
According to a later analysis at https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/apr/13/joe-biden/...
“ By the group’s count, Biden is correct about 45 nations restricting travel from China before the United States.That number covers variations of travel restrictions in effect up to and including Feb. 1.”
First, US closed late Jan before they are citing many others than closed right after that, I know someone who was disallowed before the 31st but they wouldn’t be straightforward on why, so the admin was restricting travel even before the announcement.
And I was referring mostly to within the US there, and with the WHO. Here’s Biden right after the ban:
> We need to lead the way with science -- not Donald Trump's record of hysteria, xenophobia and fear-mongering.
And before you reply saying he didn’t mean directly at the ban, I don’t buy it. It was sent directly after the announcement specifically saying “xenophobic” and suggesting the alternative was “science”. That isn’t someone who is signaling they support it.
Saying "The WHO did things similarly shockingly bad three times or so during the pandemic" and then pivoting to praise Trump on his COVID handling is pretty hilarious.
Editing here as I can’t reply. I’m not debating on failure vs success in the US in this thread, you seem to be caught up in that. I’m simply completely refuting that the WHO was even close to doing well.
Here’s a decent summary of multiple mistakes and pandering to China: https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/04/02/china-coronavirus-who-h...
The WHO themselves even said they made a “huge mistake”. So I guess you’re out there on your own in defending them.
But more than that, anyone paying attention saw they were in China’s pocket. You’re grossly misinformed.
What's your definition of failing?
We didn’t even do that properly - American citizens were allowed to return, weren’t screened, and were asked to observe a “voluntary” quarantine.
We wound up mostly getting it from Europe, where we similarly didn’t restrict until it was far too late.
This leads some credence to the theory that the various restrictions on travel were, and continue to be more politically, than medically motivated.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/10/01/debate-ear...
> The measure that the Trump administration implemented could not be described as a “ban” that “closed the country”: It only prohibited U.S. entry to foreign nationals who had visited China in the last 14 days. Americans and U.S. permanent residents returning from Hubei Province were still allowed, subject to a 14-day quarantine. After these policies were enacted, hundreds of thousands of travelers continued to arrive in the United States via direct flights from China. Until Feb. 27, no other travelers to the United States faced such travel restrictions and quarantine requirements — even if they were arriving from other nations that were reporting coronavirus cases.
> Restricting flights from China did nothing to prevent the virus from arriving from other parts of the world. Genetic analyses have shown that the large epidemic that unfolded in New York was linked to travelers from Europe. In the early days of the U.S. epidemic, testing was restricted to people with a travel history to China, which limited the ability to detect locally the cases and infections among travelers from other countries.
> By the time Trump expanded travel restrictions to Iran on Feb. 28 and to European nations on March 12, it was largely too late. By mid-March, the United States was approaching 2,000 confirmed cases and experiencing severe shortages in testing capacity that meant many infections likely went undiagnosed. The travel restriction did not initially apply to the United Kingdom, which already had hundreds of reported cases. And, implementation caused chaos. Photos showing large crowds of Americans stranded together in long lines and tight corridors for hours at airports may have increased virus transmission among those travelers who eventually made their way back to the United States.
https://apnews.com/article/0dc271ad7f7917374a5a0cfb49273783
> A recent study from the journal Science found China’s internal crackdown modestly delayed the spread of the virus. It cast doubt that travel restrictions elsewhere will do much compared with other preventive measures, citing in part the likelihood that a large number of people exposed to the virus had already been traveling internationally without being detected.