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Japan is also not 'an island in any meaningful sense'. Yet it seems like when it came to coronavirus, it was an advantage. It's obviously easier to control bord

Japan is also not 'an island in any meaningful sense'. Yet it seems like when it came to coronavirus, it was an advantage. It's obviously easier to control borders when everybody needs to go through passport control to enter or exit.

unfocussed_mike 5y ago
Japan is surely far less of an international transport hub, for one obvious difference? Many things in Japan were advantageous (a culture that leans more towards collectivism and social thinking) but considering it's now abundantly obvious that SARS-CoV-2 is an airborne virus, I suspect it will come down more to pre-established habitual mask-wearing and the higher-tech air conditioning that Japan needs to function. We could never have closed our borders in a meaningful sense for any meaningful length of time, and this is mirrored in the fact that most of Europe kept its borders open to us for long periods of time. We could have been isolated from the start, but in practice that was selective.
- pasabagi 5y ago
  > We could never have closed our borders in a meaningful sense for any meaningful length of time I've been traveling in and out of the UK throughout the pandemic, and my observation is: - You don't have to close borders to have strong controls. The 'PCR test before travel' + 'test on day 2 and 8' would have been pretty robust if implemented at the right time. - These measures were consistently implemented at the wrong time. For instance, when the delta wave was starting, there were no restrictions. When it was peaking in the UK, there were strong controls, even when you were coming from a country with a low incidence rate. My general opinion is that the UK did the right measures[0], but consistently with the wrong timing. It's generally been the case that border controls have been harsh when they were most unnecessary, and weak when they were most needed. It's stupid to have to quarantine for ten days when you're traveling into a country that has multiple orders of magnitude higher infection rates, and no mask mandates - but that's what I was doing last year. [0]: across the board, not exclusively in regards to travel.
  - unfocussed_mike 5y ago
    > My general opinion is that the UK did the right measures[0], but consistently with the wrong timing. Absolutely this. The reason is Boris Johnson. I mean, quite literally. There is a cycle of him lurching between different Churchillian aspects -- freedom-and-damn-them-all-to-hell to fight-them-on-the-beaches and back. And he only ever changed to the latter position after the evidence was unavoidable, because he's psychologically incapable of thinking about anyone but himself and how history would perceive him personally. He is absolutely the fundamental reason why this country can only act out of expedience and urgency.

unfocussed_mike 5y ago

Japan is surely far less of an international transport hub, for one obvious difference? Many things in Japan were advantageous (a culture that leans more towards collectivism and social thinking) but considering it's now abundantly obvious that SARS-CoV-2 is an airborne virus, I suspect it will come down more to pre-established habitual mask-wearing and the higher-tech air conditioning that Japan needs to function. We could never have closed our borders in a meaningful sense for any meaningful length of time, and this is mirrored in the fact that most of Europe kept its borders open to us for long periods of time. We could have been isolated from the start, but in practice that was selective.

pasabagi 5y ago
> We could never have closed our borders in a meaningful sense for any meaningful length of time I've been traveling in and out of the UK throughout the pandemic, and my observation is: - You don't have to close borders to have strong controls. The 'PCR test before travel' + 'test on day 2 and 8' would have been pretty robust if implemented at the right time. - These measures were consistently implemented at the wrong time. For instance, when the delta wave was starting, there were no restrictions. When it was peaking in the UK, there were strong controls, even when you were coming from a country with a low incidence rate. My general opinion is that the UK did the right measures[0], but consistently with the wrong timing. It's generally been the case that border controls have been harsh when they were most unnecessary, and weak when they were most needed. It's stupid to have to quarantine for ten days when you're traveling into a country that has multiple orders of magnitude higher infection rates, and no mask mandates - but that's what I was doing last year. [0]: across the board, not exclusively in regards to travel.
- unfocussed_mike 5y ago
  > My general opinion is that the UK did the right measures[0], but consistently with the wrong timing. Absolutely this. The reason is Boris Johnson. I mean, quite literally. There is a cycle of him lurching between different Churchillian aspects -- freedom-and-damn-them-all-to-hell to fight-them-on-the-beaches and back. And he only ever changed to the latter position after the evidence was unavoidable, because he's psychologically incapable of thinking about anyone but himself and how history would perceive him personally. He is absolutely the fundamental reason why this country can only act out of expedience and urgency.