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Covid makes your country worse. It’s like having endemic malaria. No one wants endemic malaria in their country, and costly government intervention was required

Covid makes your country worse. It’s like having endemic malaria. No one wants endemic malaria in their country, and costly government intervention was required to rid the developed world of it. Similarly, it’s disheartening to see so many people — especially on partisan lines — promulgate the talking point that we just need to “learn to live with it”. This is insanity. Annual mRNA booster vaccines ad infinitum, with continuous vaccine passports is a wholly inadequate vision for the future. Melbourne, Oz — a diverse, international city of 5M — demonstrates it’s very possible to eradicate Covid with international, interregional and interstate border closures, with hard lockdowns plus federal financial support. Four months later, zero covid.

greenwich26 5y ago
You literally can't close the American brder. As a strict lower bound (based on CBP encounters) 3000 people walk through the desert or jump the fence every day, and statistically many of them have Covid. This is a constant source term to the growth equation that precludes a Melbourne solution, even if the borders were officially closed and optimal lockdowns.
- atweiden 5y ago
  > You literally can't close the American brder. As a strict lower bound (based on CBP encounters) 3000 people walk through the desert or jump the fence every day, and statistically many of them have Covid. This is a constant source term to the growth equation that precludes a Melbourne solution, even if the borders were officially closed and optimal lockdowns. That doesn’t sound like a long-term problem given the imminent rise of drone patrols, and is likely short term correctable by bolstering security along the US southern border. Like many aspects of the US’ abject failure in managing the pandemic, this seems like a “lack of political will” problem more than anything else.
  - thehappypm 5y ago
    It's mostly a cost thing, in reality. Closing the Southern border -- "building a wall" if you will -- is an absolutely gargantuan task. The border is huge, many parts it extremely harsh and remote terrain unfriendly to construction projects. Trump made it a huge part of his platform, had a majority, and in four years got a pitiful amount of wall actually built.
refurb 5y ago
Unless Australia wants to remained closed to all international travel forever, they are going to have to learn to live with it.

greenwich26 5y ago

You literally can't close the American brder. As a strict lower bound (based on CBP encounters) 3000 people walk through the desert or jump the fence every day, and statistically many of them have Covid. This is a constant source term to the growth equation that precludes a Melbourne solution, even if the borders were officially closed and optimal lockdowns.

atweiden 5y ago
> You literally can't close the American brder. As a strict lower bound (based on CBP encounters) 3000 people walk through the desert or jump the fence every day, and statistically many of them have Covid. This is a constant source term to the growth equation that precludes a Melbourne solution, even if the borders were officially closed and optimal lockdowns. That doesn’t sound like a long-term problem given the imminent rise of drone patrols, and is likely short term correctable by bolstering security along the US southern border. Like many aspects of the US’ abject failure in managing the pandemic, this seems like a “lack of political will” problem more than anything else.
- thehappypm 5y ago
  It's mostly a cost thing, in reality. Closing the Southern border -- "building a wall" if you will -- is an absolutely gargantuan task. The border is huge, many parts it extremely harsh and remote terrain unfriendly to construction projects. Trump made it a huge part of his platform, had a majority, and in four years got a pitiful amount of wall actually built.

refurb 5y ago

Unless Australia wants to remained closed to all international travel forever, they are going to have to learn to live with it.