20% of the global population infected is a conservative estimate? How do these nameless smart people you refer to explain the course that it’s taken in several countries where it has been extant the longest, which now have virtually no new cases appearing?

Easily: the extreme measures they have been taking for months. Italy is just now figuring out it's what they have to do. Sadly, other countries are just watching and doing nothing, we won't be ready when the time comes.

I actually agree to a certain extent (though many of my colleagues almost certainly do not).

Some of the travel restrictions being implemented ranging from private companies to sovereign states are quite frankly bizarre. Much of it is either driven by fear or secondary to strange historical relationships between (historically feuding) states. Very little is driven by evidence based public health.

There is a difference between social distancing and arbitrary travel restriction which is quite subtle and which world leaders/CEOs/the general public do not seem to understand.

I think that some cultures deal better with disruptive events that need everyone to look out for the common good than others. Very few people in China would be boasting about how they will travel no matter what and it’s only a flu. They did well in containing after the initial outbreak. There are lots of individuals in the USA/west who place their wants and needs above the collective good. Hence the “What’s the cheapest mileage run to a virus hit country” thinking.

I think overcoming these culturally ingrained barriers to collective thinking will be one of the key things we’ll need to do to stop the virus in the west as they have in China. Otherwise it will continue to spread.

Arbitrary in what way? Asking this from the perspective of someone in Singapore where travel restrictions and corporate work from home encouragement and corporate travel bans seems to be paying off in slowing, not stopping, the community and imported spread.

Fully agree...
To answer your last question, if some western country mandates every single person to wear a GPS tracker to track quarantine measures, you can bet there would be people who support it saying "public health trumps individual rights"

I would have understood if it was something like leprosy or rabies which would cause fatalities in a horrid way, but its just pneumonia which affects elderly people quite strongly

Let them die, correct?

So, are you saying it is better that Taiwan is excluded from the WHO so people are more aware?

There is no doubt that Taiwan (officially the Republic of China) should be part of the WHO, IACO, etc. - if the "One-China" thing can't be resolved on the UN level, put it aside and let the participate in these important sub-organizations. However, I don't agree that the average Taiwanese are more aware or careful because they are not in the WHO. The reason they are is because the painful experience from SARS and the public health system the government has built over the years.

On the subject of WHO: - no wonder things are so screwed up.

Alas, in a few short weeks you are going to start understanding what that actually means and why it will affect people you know as well as you.

Brace yourself!

Years ago, I was waiting in line for an attraction in Singapore. An American woman who lived there was behind me. I asked her what she thought about all the rules they have in Singapore and freedom. She said she had no fear going out at night in Singapore and that is freedom - fine with all the controls.

Everything is relative. The important thing right now is to put some of our political agendas aside to get this thing under control.

Another example from Taiwan. They started adding people's international arrival/departure records to their national health card. So, for people who have travelled to certain areas, a warning will pop up when their cards are swiped at the hospital / doctor's office. In the US, there is no way this can be done and done this quickly. In Taiwan, which is a democracy, there was really no objection to this move because people saw this as necessary and practical.

I am worried about catching this and get sick but I am more worried about me carrying it and giving it to people who are not healthy enough to survive this.

Some slightly off-topic humour. GF is a doctor, and most of her friends are doctors too. One doctor friend wanted to cancel his trip to Switzerland (I think it was) a few days ago (something about quarantine either when going there or going back), and apparently flight was cancelled ok, but his hotel booking (through booking.com) was more problematic. Hotel refused to cancel with refund, as non-refundable rate booked. Doctor friend was a bit miffed about this, but perused booking.com's rules, and saw that if it is the hotel that cancels, refund will, as is logical, apply.

Doctor friend subsequently contacted hotel again, and said he had changed his mind and had no desire to cancel. He also informed them he was suffering a bit from covid-19, but apart from some coughing, he felt fine and was looking forward to his stay. A few minutes later he got email from the hotel that his reservation had been cancelled with a full refund.

A few weeks ago, a betel nut vendor was being robbed in TW. She said she had Covid-19 and scared away the robber. https://tw.news.yahoo.com/%E6%AA%B3%...043740106.html

Thanks in advance for everyone’s thoughtful contributions. We plan to fly to OGG on Thursday. We booked on points out of PDX. These flight prices out of SEA are incredible though, and I’m thinking of canceling out if PDX and booking SEA. (Same driving distance for us).

Looks like PDX are near sell outs and SEA are flying empty. Am I missing something? I don’t see SEA as a greater risk. Should we stick to PDX? Thanks in advance!

That's a pretty callous statement. So first of all, to represent those "elderly people", they are human beings too. They don't want to die coughing up crap on a trolley in a school gymnasium, to be buried in a mass grave with no funeral.

People seem unable to understand the impact of this sort of disease. If it's not the black death people assume it's "just another flu".

This disease is novel to humans. We have no antibodies. That means infection rates, if left unchecked, will be extremely high. So, if 70% of your population gets it, around 1% of the population will die and about 5% of your population will need hospital treatment. That doesn't sound much until you look at the numbers involved. No health care system can cope with that in a short space of time. The efforts of countries like China, Italy and Iran are not to STOP the virus, they are to slow it down. They're not buying time for a vaccine to be made so you don't get it, they're slowing the spread so WHEN you get it, you can get treatment if needed and don't die a needless death, untreated in a converted school gym. They're buying time so people can have a decent funeral. They're also buying time because if this doesn't taper up we're going to see a sizeable proportion of the population sick and unable to work. Believe me, no politician wants to preside over an economic slowdown, so you had better believe that they have made the calculations and realised that they have a LOT more to lose from an unchecked infection of the global population than a temporary halt of industry and education.

I find the flippant attitude from the US bizarre. Rather than understand that this is a serious threat to their way of life, though not an extinction level event, we get conspiracy theories and disdain for the efforts of China. It important to understand the sacrifice the people of Wuhan have made for the world. They bought time for us all
No need to mandate it, you already do. And you paid handsomely for the privelege.

I agree with most of your post but not with this statement. I would argue that the only thing they've done is give us the virus to begin with.