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Flying into LAX from Asia last week, I had expected to spend a few hours at the airport before officially entering, but alas, it was worryingly expedient only b
by tlobes 7y ago
Flying into LAX from Asia last week, I had expected to spend a few hours at the airport before officially entering, but alas, it was worryingly expedient only being asked “did I travel to China in the last weeks?”
- jcriddle4 7y agoWell I am glad nobody is going to lie. /S
- soared 7y agoI came japan -> SF on 2/1 (prior to major outbreaks) but they didn’t have temperature scanners, no one asked if I’d been to China, and with the mobile passport app I was through immigration in <30 seconds. Kind of crazy.
- companyhen 7y agoWhat's the mobile passport app called? I have a global entry card, but just got it so I'm not too familiar with my options.
- turrican 7y ago“Mobile Pass”, blue and white icon. Takes maybe 10 minutes to configure the first time, but is really useful.
- companyhen 7y agoThanks, do you just use the free version? Looks like there's some subscription plans inside.
- turrican 7y agoI personally have only used the free one. To me it isn’t even entirely clear what the paid version gets you.
- usaar333 7y agoAt this point, the voluntary self-quarantines if you came from China (ex-Hubei) aren't even defensible for health (as opposed to political) reasons. Or at least they aren't defensible if you believe we also shouldn't be quarantining people coming from S. Korea, Italy, or Iran. [In Koreas' case I'm seriously surprised no CDC self-quarantine rules have been issued]
- allovernow 7y agoChina is ground zero and as far as anyone knows has 3+ orders of magnitude more cases than any other nation. Turning this into a political or identity political game will be our undoing. It is statistically prudent to focus on monitoring of and restriction of movement for Chinese Nationals. I would expect the same if the virus broke out in the U.S. and you bet your ass China would have shut down travel just as soon. This is not xenophobia, it is prudence; the fact that the infection currently aligns along national and racial lines is incidental to the steps that we must take as a nation to avoid the chaos that is gripping China.
- usaar333 7y agoHubei is ground zero. China has locked the province down and other provinces are doing better than South Korea, Italy or Iran at this point. The ban was justified weeks ago - less so now. Why is South Korea, etc. not under similar travel restrictions?
- allovernow 7y agoChina has not been forthcoming as to the true scale of the epidemic. It has spread far past Hubei and is not likely under the degree of control that they claim - it is simply impossible to mobilize the manpower and resources required in such a short time. It is possible for both political reasons and containment to play a role in the ban. Meanwhile the outbreak in SK has just started in earnest and as a democratic nation with ostensibly more relaxed freedom of speech and close government cooperation, as well as local U.S. bases, there is less uncertainty regarding the status of spread in SK which places less of a priority on closing off travel. Still, if the virus continues to spread you can expect that travel to be restricted as well. In any case, shaming officials for xenophobia is absolutely inapropriate in this time of crisis. All travel restrictions are going to line up by national and racial lines, because national borders do as well. You can't keep your borders open during a pandemic in order to preserve political correctness.