Thread by @kurteichenwald

1. As always, GOPrs ignore experts & instead are adopting "Fox News/Ann Coulter/Sounds Good to Me" rules for dealing with a spreading virus, thus escalating chances for coronavirus to explode in an epidemic. It's not just stupidity that someday will kill us all - its arrogance..

2...consistently, epidemiologists tell Republicans that shutting the border from certain countries to deal with a virus escalates the probability of epidemic. They had to do it during ebola, when Fox & GOPrs screamed endlessly about shutting border to East African countries...

3...while epidemiologists said "NO! NO! NO!" and the Obama administration said "Hey, GOP - rather than listening to college dropout Sean Hannity, we'll rely on experts." Spread contained.

Why does the "sounds good to me" standard not work....

4...why do the experts have to constantly fight GOP stupidity?

Here is what the experts - not me, I'm not qualified - but the experts say. Historically, *every* attempt to block out a disease at borders have backfired. This part of why health experts were unanimous in 2014 on..

5...why shutting border during ebola was stupid (which is why the GOP was so convinced it was good. Hannity and Coulter said so, after all.)

Without exception, shutting borders has led to people who would have taken traceable transportation to instead take land. That makes it..

6...that the chanches of an untraceable spread escalates. Which means we do not know where it is coming from.

Even worse is travel laundering. Someone in China who is fleeing goes home to, say, India. Is there for a week, wife gets on a plane to England to see son...

7...son is hanging out with girlfriend, who is having an affair with someone else who travels to the USA. Each has kissed the other. By now, the father has corona, but making the epidemiological trace is nearly impossible. Meanwhile, because we have attempted to seal off...

8...Chinese from getting out, the epidemic there is escalating out of control because global combating by Americans - the most qualified bunch - has been shut down. People start fleeing - anywhere, everywhere.

The person who had an affair travels to the United States....

9...he kisses his mom. She is now infected, the epidemic is spreading worldwide, and epidemiologists who may gave been able to set up global tracing and contain the epidemic are simply shrugging, saying "We have no idea where it is. It has exploded in China, which means now....

10...it's everywhere, it has gotten into the United States, *but we have not been working on how to stop it.* We can't because, if we go to China to help, we cannot get back home - as happens with every other disease. So we don't go."

So, perhaps run pre-travel screening. Nope..

11...because it incubates for 14 days, people with colds might be stopped, but people infected with coronavirus will get be let on the plane. Think of the guy who had the affair with the married woman and is infected.

As I said, don't believe me. I repeat what experts say....

12...so, given that we have a government where - if the God King says a hurricane will hit Alabama, they lie that it will hit Alabama - only the people outside of government are saying the truth. So to get US government to truthfully answer questions when we are like China now..

13...where the doctors who warned what was coming were drop-kicked because they said something the leaders didn't like - and have been proven right. So, we can't trust the government (that's why the hurricane nonsense was so dangerous. It underscores this administration...

14...lies to kowtow to Trump. If he thinks border closing will work., the government says that.

So let's go to a *former* head of the CDC, during the Ebola outbreak. In that case, the government was saying the same as the outside experts.

Here is a basic summary:

15...here is the whole thing: blogs.cdc.gov/global/2014/10…

So, here is where we are. Our environment where everyone is an expert on everything is going to kill us - if not now, someday. We cant contain a virus by following Sean Hannity. We need to listen to experts. And they are....

16...pulling their hair out, saying this is exactly the wrong thing to do, that their ability to contain the virus will fall, that their ability to trace the virus will become unworkable, and Sean and company will smile about how much smarter they are than experts....

17...could coronavirus burn out anyway? Sure. In fact, that is the most probable outcome. But someday, hopefully not this time, that will not happen. We have increased the chance of a global epidemic. And isn't government's job to *decrease* that chance, not do something....

18...because it sounds good, because it appeals to stupid people who think they are experts in everything, but to take actions that are most likely to avoid a global epidemic.

GOPrs will take credit if our luck holds out and coronavirus burns out. And they'll blame something...

19...else if their stupidity gave a leg up to the spread that an epidemic explodes.

I expect their luck will hold out, based on probabilities. But theyve made it worse. And it's another reason these people have to be out of office. Someday, their luck - and ours - will run out.