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A comment on U.S. to require negative Covid-19 tests for international air passengers. Parent comment

Re:U.S. to require negative Covid-19 tests for international... by surge on Tuesday January 12, 2021 @03:11PM (#25752785)
Tests weren't widely available a year ago. 3-6 months ago maybe.

In fact a year ago, exactly, the existence of COVID was still being denied or downplayed by the Chinese government. Very few people in the US even knew about it, and only if very plugged in to Chinese social media or non government sources.

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Re:U.S. to require negative Covid-19 tests for international... by dekhn on Tuesday January 12, 2021 @03:46PM (#25753350)
I'm pretty sure it was being widely covered (and acknowledged by the chinese) in late January during Chinese New Year. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/29/world/asia/coronavirus-ch... At the time the US evacuated ~200 people from Wuhan, flew them to LAX (well, landed at a nearby air force base), made them stay in isolation, then monitored them as they returned home for 2 weeks.
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Re:U.S. to require negative Covid-19 tests for international... by surge on Tuesday January 12, 2021 @08:41PM (#25756877)
>in late January

what I said:

>In fact a year ago, exactly

Key word is exactly, as in Jan 12, 2020.

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Re:U.S. to require negative Covid-19 tests for international... by dekhn on Tuesday January 12, 2021 @09:04PM (#25757063)
I think the times reported (in a serious article) that China reported the first death on or around that date (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/10/world/asia/china-virus-wu...). I certainly recall seeing coverage of it before that although it was very muted.

But just a few days before, the Times is a lot more rosy, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/08/health/china-pneumonia-ou...

"There is no evidence that the new virus is readily spread by humans, which would make it particularly dangerous, and it has not been tied to any deaths"

Clearly, between Jan 8 and late Jan, was the time of massive increased interest, so we're not really in disagreement.

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Re:U.S. to require negative Covid-19 tests for international... by wool_gather on Tuesday January 12, 2021 @06:07PM (#25755285)
It was on my radar in mid January; I know this clearly because it made me choose not to buy plane tickets for a big family celebration scheduled for the end of February.
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Re:U.S. to require negative Covid-19 tests for international... by surge on Tuesday January 12, 2021 @08:44PM (#25756904)
Well I'm talking about the 12th, China was rounding up and arresting doctors talking about it and making them sign apology statements. You might be thinking of a week or two later.
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Re:U.S. to require negative Covid-19 tests for international... by wool_gather on Wednesday January 13, 2021 @01:11PM (#25765836)
That's possible; I don't remember the exact dates, just that it was at the "I really need to buy tickets" timeframe for the end of Feb.
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Re:U.S. to require negative Covid-19 tests for international... by josephg on Tuesday January 12, 2021 @04:30PM (#25754036)
The USA was doing 500k tests/day back in May, and over 1m tests/day by July. Probably couldn't have happened earlier than that, but it would definitely have been feasible mid last year.

Source: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/full-list-covid-19-tests-...

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Re:U.S. to require negative Covid-19 tests for international... by makomk on Tuesday January 12, 2021 @05:28PM (#25754839)
In order for a policy like this to be workable, you need tests to be widely available in the countries people are travelling from because the whole point is to test people before departure - and they simply weren't in most non-US countries.
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Re:U.S. to require negative Covid-19 tests for international... by pishpash on Tuesday January 12, 2021 @03:34PM (#25753172)
Wrong. It was all over Reddit but people laughed over it.
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