Imposing a travel quarantine on a city the size of 11 million is a big deal. Understandably, some people will not want to stay. During SARS, the party had to mobilize citizens to report on each other and set up roadblocks to check people for fevers. nytimes.com/2020/01/22/wor…
A big challenge is that we know so little about this new coronavirus, how it is transmitted and what the early signs are. If the symptoms are less severe, as they seem to be, it will be more difficult to detect and contain.
During SARS, they basically tried to confine everyone with a fever. I remember driving across northeastern China and seeing roadblocks at every highway exit and the entrance to every village. People were afraid and wanted to keep strangers out.
At the same time, people were confined to apartment buildings where they had been outbreaks, and they were angry at the lack of information. Given the coverup, trusting the government was a huge problem.
WHO experts have been in Wuhan. Being open with them — instead of trying to hide patients by putting them in ambulances and driving around, as happened in Beijing during SARS — could help a great deal with the Chinese public.
As these travel restrictions are imposed, I’m guessing there may be as many people trying to get into Wuhan as trying to get out given the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday. Imagine trying to cordon off Chicago a few days before Thanksgiving.
