Lyman is right here. Travel bans are an important part of pandemic response, and the more quickly they're implemented in a pandemic, the better off we'll be.
Of course, they are one part of a more comprehensive strategy that involves getting to zero transmission, extensive testing and tracing, masking, and eventually vaccines. Travel bans themselves won't do the job, but as part of a strategy to get to zero transmission, they work.
Related: The idea of "managing" respiratory pandemics is invalid. Getting to zero transmission (as NZ, Australia, and the Canadian Atlantics have done) is the right goal, and we need to remember that for next time.
Never forget. In pandemic response, speed is everything:
I want to add a subtle clarification to this thread, in which people try to answer the question on whether we should "let go of [1.5 C] as a policy goal".
The nature of path-dependent systems dominated by increasing returns to scale, learning effects, network externalities, and spillovers, like our economic/social/technical society, is that we can't actually know what is possible until we try to take action.
Much has been made of the electricity used by Bitcoin, but the question of whether to use Bitcoin is not solely (or even primarily) a function of its electricity use. What problem does it solve? Does it offer advantages over conventional approaches to the same problem?
These same questions can and should be asked of blockchain more generally. What problem does it solve? Does it offer advantages over conventional approaches to the same problem?
I don’t take a public position on these questions because my focus is on getting the numbers for electricity use of blockchain correct, but others are starting to wrestle with the use case for crypto currency, as they should.
Here's a thread documenting the epic incompetence of the Trump administration + the GOP in dealing with the pandemic. Some Democratic politicos deserve severe critiques also (Cuomo and DeBlasio being the poster children there) but a national problem requires a national response.
Remember, that for pandemics as well as for climate change, "Speed trumps perfection". Stop obsessing about "optimality". There is nothing optimal about responding to a pandemic or to climate change, just move as fast as you can.
Hey look, the GOP (not Trump) hamstrung the Obama Administration's effort to build up strategic reserves to fight pandemics going as far back as 2011: rawstory.com/2020/04/heres-…
The long lead times for vaccinating the entire population in many countries is an indication that policy makers aren't being nearly bold enough with their plans. Some of this is because of constraints in vaccine supply, but a lot of it is a failure of imagination.
Remember, that for pandemics as well as for climate change, "Speed trumps perfection". Stop obsessiong about "optimality". There is nothing optimal about responding to a pandemic or to climate change, just move as fast as you can.
What every government agency should now be doing is to set a goal of vaccinating a huge fraction of the population in the span of a few months. Study and copy previous efforts at mass vaccination. Don't assume that "normal" will do. Move fast and think big.
Most GOP folks believe in the absurd caricature of Democrats that Fox and the right-wing entertainment complex feeds them. It's time for them to start listening to us.
This thread puts forth a different view, one with which I wholeheartedly agree. It's the GOP and Trumpists who need to do the work and show us they want to live in society with us.