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At least on the Canadian side of the border, there is a distrust of how the US has handled this and the general belief is that there are significantly more case

by starky 7y ago

At least on the Canadian side of the border, there is a distrust of how the US has handled this and the general belief is that there are significantly more cases that aren't being reported compared to Canada. Closing the border gives us a better chance of keeping tabs and controlling the spread within the country if we aren't getting additional cases from our neighbours.

adriand 7y ago
Absolutely. There is little reason to trust anything that comes out of the US administration, and the ongoing reporting of leadership dysfunction at the highest levels of the country does not lend credibility to containment efforts. There are also accounts of blatant disregard by US citizens in certain areas of the country of social distancing measures, such as reports [1] that thousands of people are flocking to beaches in Florida, which understandably causes concern among Canadians. 1 https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-thousands-florida-beaches-ignoring-social-distancing/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-thousands-florida-b...
blueblimp 7y ago
This, plus the Seattle area is of special concern because it's among the hardest-hit states and close to the border.
AncientTree 7y ago
The flipside is that the USA could recover from this in a few months, whilst the rest of the world is still at the start of their 18-month lockdowns. It is grim, but a reduced elderly and sick population would save significant amounts of federal and state money. I'm going through Coronavirus right now personally (I'm in Europe), with the typical symptoms for a young healthy person: dry eyes, tightness around the sternum, sweats, light fatigue. Its really no different from any other cold I've had. Without all the news about it I probably wouldn't even notice. It would be politically difficult, but allowing COVID-19 to take effect, with some mitigation (eg. recommending isolation for the elderly), would lead to long-term strategic benefits for the countries that can get through it. It would be like post-WW2 all over again - the USA being the only functional industrial economy. Tourism from around the world could be welcomed due to the population's herd immunity, and a baby boom would probably result from the cheap housing made available to young people.

by starky 7y ago

adriand 7y ago

Absolutely. There is little reason to trust anything that comes out of the US administration, and the ongoing reporting of leadership dysfunction at the highest levels of the country does not lend credibility to containment efforts. There are also accounts of blatant disregard by US citizens in certain areas of the country of social distancing measures, such as reports [1] that thousands of people are flocking to beaches in Florida, which understandably causes concern among Canadians. 1 https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-thousands-florida-beaches-ignoring-social-distancing/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-thousands-florida-b...

blueblimp 7y ago

This, plus the Seattle area is of special concern because it's among the hardest-hit states and close to the border.

AncientTree 7y ago

The flipside is that the USA could recover from this in a few months, whilst the rest of the world is still at the start of their 18-month lockdowns. It is grim, but a reduced elderly and sick population would save significant amounts of federal and state money. I'm going through Coronavirus right now personally (I'm in Europe), with the typical symptoms for a young healthy person: dry eyes, tightness around the sternum, sweats, light fatigue. Its really no different from any other cold I've had. Without all the news about it I probably wouldn't even notice. It would be politically difficult, but allowing COVID-19 to take effect, with some mitigation (eg. recommending isolation for the elderly), would lead to long-term strategic benefits for the countries that can get through it. It would be like post-WW2 all over again - the USA being the only functional industrial economy. Tourism from around the world could be welcomed due to the population's herd immunity, and a baby boom would probably result from the cheap housing made available to young people.