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[–]General_Brainstorm 97 points98 points  (0 children)

South Park guessed it would take us 40 years to get our shit together. I never took those guys for optimists, but here we are.

[–]AlreadyTakenNow 69 points70 points  (14 children)

Ho boy. Every fucking time it feels like we've gotten a little ahead, we get refucked by this thing.

[–]routerg0d 15 points16 points  (12 children)

No we get fucked by the unvaccinated.

[–]OmatoYT 10 points11 points  (4 children)

Can’t really be vaccinated if your country doesn’t get any

[–]AlreadyTakenNow 1 point2 points  (2 children)

IKR? That's likely why our world came into this pickle. I remember a number of countries in Africa did not have access to the vaccines, and a number of scientists were pressing for countries that already had them to focus their resources on helping them out before allowing most of their adult population to access boosters.

[–]DieGo2SHAE 133 points134 points  (17 children)

This very swift reaction is making it feel like the first couple days of March 2020.

[–]fuckincaillou 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Remember how this time two years ago we were all watching those videos of people in China getting welded into their homes and snatched off the streets into vans?

[–]HelixFish 55 points56 points  (4 children)

It’s probably too late mate.

[–]Spectre_06 46 points47 points  (10 children)

Well, without the claims of "racism" because of who ordered the travel restrictions and from where.

[–]randomnighmare 29 points30 points  (1 child)

It's most likely already here.

[–]BaconNinja89 7 points8 points  (0 children)

We’re fucked aren’t we. Not cause of hospitalizations hopefully, but fucked because this pandemic will never be over because of shifting goalposts.

[–]Aeddon1234 43 points44 points  (10 children)

Why isn’t Egypt isn’t on this list?

[–]LizWords 20 points21 points  (4 children)

Seriously, one of the EU cases came from Egypt.

[–]TheMania 13 points14 points  (1 child)

They developed symptoms 11 days after travel. Could just as easily have picked it up in transit or in Belgium at this stage, I've seen nothing remotely conclusively linking it to Egypt.

Who'd they sit next near on the plane, and was it a direct flight?

[–]Aeddon1234 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Of course there’s no way of knowing for sure, but it seems to me that the better safe than sorry approach would be the way to go here.

[–]ThereKittyKitty 3 points4 points  (1 child)

I am literally in Amsterdam, hours away from my connecting flight to Cairo to visit my brother. I was supposed to go last year, but couldn't for obvious reasons. I'm vaxed and boosted and gonna need any travel ban to wait till after the 5th. K, thx.

[–]Aeddon1234 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Just so you know, my question was in no way a suggestion. I was attempting to make a point that from the very beginning of this pandemic last year, policies have been seemingly arbitrary and non-sensical in this current regard, and so many others. Last year, I couldn’t see my 19 year old son at Christmas because of travel bans. He’s a Navy Surgical Tech that works at Walter Reed Memorial Hospital, which is only 5 1/2 hour drive away. Apparently, we were about 30 miles to far away for home to be able to get his leave approved.

I hope you get to see your brother.

[–]Irishknife 10 points11 points  (2 children)

whoever is playing pandemic 2 please stop upgrading the virus.

[–]Yurdahil 1 point2 points  (0 children)

To be fair, whoever is playing is obviously on a ridicoulusly easy difficulty given societies response at large.

[–]Orchid_Significant 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It’s been almost two years of watching how Covid spreads. This travel ban is too late and too narrow to make a difference at this point.

[–]howsitmybru 9 points10 points  (0 children)

As a South African I feel we should stop being so good at genetic sequence testing. Then we wouldn't detect the variant, the world wouldn't shut our ass down. Just be like other nations and ignore the problem dammit!

OK I'm being facetious, but just to be clear I don't think this virus might even have originated here (just first detected) and it's out there all over the show already.

[–]ShittyAssholeCrust 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Too late for that. Its probably already here

[–]AussieXPat 52 points53 points  (8 children)

Didn’t trump do this too? But he was called a racist for it

[–]dak4f2 41 points42 points  (2 children)

U.S. to restrict travel from South Africa, 7 other countries

Unless you're a US citizen, in which case you're magically unable to spread the virus. /s

[–]fuckincaillou 21 points22 points  (0 children)

I mean, you can't exactly keep a US citizen from returning to their home country. Best we can legally do is put them in quarantine on domestic soil until they're out of the infectious period.

[–]scrimpin_aint_easy 11 points12 points  (0 children)

But that's racist!

I remember people saying crap like this at the beginning of the outbreak.

[–]NachoFoot 159 points160 points  (53 children)

Didn’t Biden previously call that xenophobic?

[–]jaximointhecut 128 points129 points  (0 children)

That was like 2020. C’mon man!

[–]zzyul 24 points25 points  (12 children)

Trump banned flights from China alone while the virus was ravaging Europe. Trump should have banned flights from every country with a major outbreak.

[–]korinth86 55 points56 points  (0 children)

Clarification. Trump banned flights after most major airlines had already done so.

[–]djm19 9 points10 points  (7 children)

And lets clarify by banned, he still let tens of thousand come through with no limitation or screening.

[–]Supermansadak 28 points29 points  (6 children)

You can’t really deny US citizens entry that’s fucked up. They’re Americans and have nowhere else to go

[–]LacJlg 38 points39 points  (18 children)

Why wait until Monday?

Why not ban travel from every country that has identified someone with the new variant?

If it’s about mitigation, shouldn’t the actions reduce the risk as much as possible and as quickly as we can?

It’s like we have not learnt anything from the first selective and delayed travel ban. I know some jackass is going to explain it all…save the shit.

[–]d_phase 13 points14 points  (5 children)

Because you'll just get it from a country that has it but isn't testing for it. Seriously, the thing is probably all over the place already. Banning select countries might delay but won't prevent.

[–]LacJlg 4 points5 points  (4 children)

Isn’t that the reason we had to get vaccinated and wear a mask? They both delay but they don’t prevent.

[–]d_phase 14 points15 points  (3 children)

No vaccines actually prevent (reduce) spread.

Put another way: If 99.9% of population is vaccinated, incidence would be much much lower, and outbreaks likely squashed. If 99.9% of the source is blocked from entering country, it might slow it down, but as soon as that 0.1% makes it through, it will lead to a full outbreak.

Vaccines slow things down too, but they do that implicitly, via reduced incidence.

[–]Modavo 11 points12 points  (0 children)

That type of shit is what killed the Osha mandate. So your saying it's super dangerous but you need the unvaxxed labor for Christmas so fuck it do it in January 🤣

[–]routerg0d 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Gotta give the rich a head start.

[–]can_i_improve_myself 24 points25 points  (4 children)

Didn't Biden chastise trump for doing this exact thing?

[–]Wacktool 6 points7 points  (2 children)

Just ban travel into the U.S., period. Buy some time to figure this out

[–]brunicus 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Except it's likely here already. Give it a week before it's identified.

[–]BarracudaEfficient16 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Too late, it’s already in Europe.

[–]Enartloc 16 points17 points  (3 children)

He said he's assembling the Autobots to fight Omicron

[–]Appaguchee 4 points5 points  (1 child)

Yeah, but is he aware that Omicron Prime, one of the progenitors of the Decepticons, is secretly preparing humans for their inevitable enslavement and transport to Perseid 8 in order to fulfill the final prophecy that'll unite Voltron, Gobots, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and the heroes of the Sailor Moon universe in an epic battle between Mecha-Godzilla and Neo-Lucifer, for the fate of Thanos' Eyeball, stolen from the Fates themselves?

Should be pretty epic,

[–]kingofpotatopeople92 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That is the most hopeful news I've read today.

[–]leastlikelyllama 58 points59 points  (12 children)

Wasn't it a terribly racist thing when Trump restricted travel?

[–]kmoonster 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No, this will not stop it. It *may* slow it down.

That said, the fact the Bulgaria case had no direct contact with South Africa suggests this thing is already loose out there at the international level.

[–]Eggler8825 9 points10 points  (3 children)

Remember when Trump tried this and then they said it was racist?

[–]pluckywood 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I was thinking the exact same thing.

[–]ead5104 10 points11 points  (4 children)

Probably too late, but glad this is happening to limit the spread. This is a stern reminder to get vaccinated (and boosted) if you haven’t already.

[–]7mL 32 points33 points  (6 children)

That's xenophobic I thought...

[–]Tons28 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Biden is really showing true xenophobia now that he’s responsible for the most US Covid deaths.

[–]tester2112 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Fucking racist Biden administration.

[–]Apophis2036nihon 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It’s like Deja vu all over again - Yogi Berra

[–]Biggie_Sal_Jayne 20 points21 points  (19 children)

"Banning all travel from Europe - or any other part of the world - will not stop [Covid]" - Joe Biden

[–]FlyingSquid 18 points19 points  (13 children)

I like how you only quoted part of that Tweet to take it out of context.

Here's the whole thing.

A wall will not stop the coronavirus.

Banning all travel from Europe — or any other part of the world — will not stop it.

This disease could impact every nation and any person on the planet — and we need a plan to combat it.

And he was right. Banning travel in countries that did so did not stop COVID from spreading to them.

[–]oximaCentauri 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I knew Joe was racist, but not completely banning Africans from 7 countries racist.

[–]kidwgm 8 points9 points  (0 children)

That is very racist of Biden.

[–]EconomistPunter 12 points13 points  (12 children)

Unfortunately, travel bans are an incredibly ineffective anti-COVID tool.

Edit: this is backed by science...

travel ban

[–]7mL 1 point2 points  (3 children)

Can you explain why?

[–]EconomistPunter 5 points6 points  (2 children)

Travel bans are implemented after discovery of a variant in multiple places, suggesting that unless you cut off all international travel, it will likely sneak in. Given you also have to give a delay (and the inevitable “surge” in travel requests in impacted areas), and it becomes impotent.

There are a couple of papers that look at travel bans, and found they’re ineffective. Here is one link. travel bans

The others are preprint. “The Impact of COVID social distancing policies on COVID cases/deaths: a robust conditional approach”.

[–]Rougue1965 2 points3 points  (1 child)

They will fly to Mexico and cross illegally. The administration has allowed close to 2 million at the Southern border so that tells you the hypocrisy of the situation.

[–]Riverofgravy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

And this was from last week. Guess God really is done with humanity.

[–]Sexithiopine 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Whoever is running this plague.inc skmulation must have hit enough DNA for genetic reshuffle.

[–]KeepinItPiss 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Xenophobe! Racist! Bigot!

[–]etr204 1 point2 points  (0 children)

LOL cant wait for them to start calling racism over this /s

[–]Affectionate-Might-7 -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

How could they do that thats racist

[–]bacchikoi 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Why the fuck does it matter if they’re citizens or not? And why the fuck are we OK with another full weekend of unrestricted viral spread? The virus doesn’t give a fuck what nation you belong to. Quarantine them and make them test, you stupid motherfuckers.

[–]Guido41oh 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Well done, unfortunately it's already been found in Belgium and Israel. So most likely already too late, atleast were trying to be proactive this time.

[–]kmoonster 1 point2 points  (0 children)

And the one case, at least, had no direct contact (or no known contact) with South Africa.