World governments are reacting to the coronavirus outbreak in China and Beijing is upset about it.
It’s not that the commies want to pretend that everything is normal. They just think that preventing Chinese citizens from stepping foot in many countries is an overreaction.
Except it isn’t. The death toll in China has reached 259 with no sign that the disease has stopped spreading. More significantly, the number of cases in China has now surpassed the number of SARS cases from 2003 — and the disease was only discovered two months ago. The rapid spread of the virus from nation to nation has forced the World Health Organization to declare a global emergency.
“Countries need to get ready for possible importation in order to identify cases as early as possible and in order to be ready for a domestic outbreak control, if that happens,” Galea told The Associated Press.
This led to the current U.S. policy that has angered the Chinese government.
On Friday, the United States declared a public health emergency and President Donald Trump signed an order barring entry to foreign nationals, other than immediate family of American citizens and permanent residents, who visited China within the last 14 days, which scientists say is the virus’s longest incubation period.
The Chinese doesn’t believe there should be a travel ban.
China criticized the U.S. controls, which it said contradicted the WHO’s appeal to avoid travel bans, and “unfriendly comments” that Beijing was failing to cooperate.
“Just as the WHO recommended against travel restrictions, the U.S. rushed to go in the opposite way. Certainly not a gesture of goodwill,” said foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying.
Realistically, the WHO management does not have to answer to anybody — much less voters — of this thing spirals out of control.
In truth, China has taken extreme measures in their own country to try and keep the lid on.
China’s increasingly drastic anti-disease controls started with the Jan. 23 suspension of plane, bus and train links to Wuhan, an industrial center of 11 million people. The lockdown has spread to surrounding cities.
The holiday, China’s busiest annual travel season, ends Sunday in the rest of the country following a three-day extension to postpone the return to factories and offices by hundreds of millions of workers. The official Xinhua News Agency said people in Hubei who work outside the province also were given an extended holiday.
The party decision “highlighted the importance of prevention and control of the epidemic among travelers,” Xinhua said.
But the U.S. is unhappy with the level of international cooperation that China has shown, leading to unfounded conspiracy theories that the virus is much worse than previously thought. In fact, the mortality rate of the disease is falling even though more and more people are diagnosed with the disease.
The administration is taking common-sense precautions in a difficult international situation, but what this coronavirus has done is highlight the mortal danger the world is in because of its vast interconnectedness. This disease has effortlessly spread to 23 countries, largely due to international air travel.
Globalization carries with it threats as well as promises.
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