These options are so soft that they really are equivalent to doing nothing. Sick people have always been told to stay home; trips abroad and on ships might caus

These options are so soft that they really are equivalent to doing nothing. Sick people have always been told to stay home; trips abroad and on ships might cause visible clusters early on, but they're a drop in the bucket later when the disease is already at home. The real issue is that a strong response causes people to take things seriously, and a weak response causes them to not take it seriously. In other words, just like the model, we have a situation where predicted results inform the actions taken, which affect popular opinion, which in turn change the predicted results. Yes, the optimal outcome is to somehow have the government do nothing, thus restricting nobody's freedoms, but simultaneously have society take it so seriously that they eradicate the disease themselves in two weeks. But that is not a genuine policy option.