5 ms·
So Italy having an arguably uncontained cluster is probably the most troubling part. The EU has extremely porous borders. The chances of this spreading to the o
by cletus 7y ago
So Italy having an arguably uncontained cluster is probably the most troubling part. The EU has extremely porous borders. The chances of this spreading to the other EU members (and the UK) got a lot higher.
At least in the US you largely have to come in by air. Yes of course there are land borders. Canada is one but fits the same description of most cross-border travel (apart from to the US) is by air. The border with Mexico is... probably more of an issue.
Anyway, the benefit of this is that it gives you a central screening point. Given that carriers can be asymptomatic it's not impossible someone will slip through but it's more difficult for someone to convince themselves they just have a cold and they need to go home, to work or otherwise move across a border and spread the infection.
The Northern hemisphere summer really can't come soon enough.
- blisterpeanuts 7y agoSummer = fewer colds? It could be problematic, though, because lots of people travel during the summer. There are probably millions of people queued up to visit Italy, Spain, Britain, etc. The Europeans take long vacations, so populations will be particularly mobile in July and August. I wonder if the U.S. might be slightly less vulnerable to contagion, since Americans tend to visit beaches, national parks and other less crowded places, whereas in Europe the tourist attractions are in crowded cities. It's going to be an interesting few months before a vaccine is hopefully found.
- monadic2 7y agoSummer = better air flow, both inside and because people spend more time outside.
- gnulinux 7y agoNot an expert, but it's been stated by experts that coronoviruses, in general, spread slower during summer. This has not been proven for COVID-19, but presumably there will be some nontrivial affect on this virus as well.
- AstralStorm 7y agoThis is likely due to hotter temperatures having an effect on humidity. Very cold and very hot temperatures would reduce range of droplet transmission and viability of fomites. (contamination)
- brutt 7y agoShould I take risk of downvotes and explain it?
- pier25 7y ago> The border with Mexico is... probably more of an issue. AFAIK there are no confirmed cases in Mexico. It wouldn't surprise me if that was because of the inability of the government to detect it. I live in Mexico and I believe if it gets here it will be unstoppable. The government doesn't have the resources China has to contain and track infected people.
- ASalazarMX 7y agoMexico did well in containing the H1N1 flu in 2009. Granted, COVID19 seems much more infectious, and our current government has repeatedly cut funding to public health, so you're maybe right.
- pier25 7y agoHopefully I'm wrong, but COVID2019 is a much different beast than H1N1. Time will tell.