I wonder how bad it would need to get for the world to agree to just shut down for a month and everyone avoid everyone. It's insane but it's a net benefit to everyone.
HOW? Serious question- how? Can’t restrict or shut down nursing facilities, hospitals, police stations, jails, fire department etc. then are people supposed to have stockpiled enough together through a month? No? Then grocery stores, pharmacies will need to be open AND people to staff them and keep all the other places running. What about places that don’t have mass transit(and still need staff for that)- need their cars, need gas- what if you need a new tire? Run out of diapers? Order from Amazon you say? Whose working the warehouse, driving the trucks doing the deliveries? Close nonessential things? No fast food, banks movie theaters etc- great- how are they gonna pay rent, for food, utilities etc. And since people still need supplies- need to get shipments in and distributed. So what IS “nonessential”? I hope people see the idiocracy of “shut everything down for weeks” and hopefully see the challenges of even quarantining for longer periods of time.
For UK travelers going to the US - The UK and US govt have clearly already had a conversation, and when Boris makes his announcement today I'd imagine it'll be a closure of the channel tunnel and no flights to Europe for anything other than goods for 14-30 days.
people really also need to read beyond the clickbait headlines, and go to the source the media is reporting on and read for yourself the studies. Take the 9day surface survival for instance, it’s not ALL surfaces and rate varies depending on surfaces. It’s also done in lab under certain conditions to seewhat difference temp/humidity make. It’s also Testing viable viral load, and it’s unclear what the threshold for the viral load is yet to actually cause disease transmission- same for the asymptomatic carriers- unclear if they are actually disease vectors. The suspension in air for several hours is troubling but also keep in mind it’s done with a nebulizer that also sprays optimally for max spread, humans aren’t that efficient. And again the others state unclear if viral load is enough to cause transmission, plus its one small study. Really need more done on this and quickly.
Purely anecdotally I’d bet the virus has been here already in greater numbers and we haven’t caught it. How many people have you heard complain they ran a low grade fever, felt awful, had a cough etc and tested negative for flu? Told it was probably “viral” and to stay home and rest? Happens every flu season too we just don’t know what to test for until a large enough population has an outbreak that it gets reported and attention drawn to it.
As for comparisons to flu- we did not have flu vaccine for H1N1 when it showed up, took 11 months. We did have some cancellations and school closings etc. Maybe the biggest difference is we had competent leadership who listened to scientists, and didn’t let ego get in way of testing to “keep the number low as it’s not our fault”, and made an effort to coordinate testing and quarantine efforts with other world leaders based in best judgement of experts. And with coherent and consistent messaging didn’t induce panic.
also BTW World Health Organization says travel bans don’t work unless at very start of outbreak and even the it just causes delays in the spread although that can give countries precious time to ramp up needed services and help flatten that hospital curve, we are way beyond that currently.