"Are the principals prepared, themselves?"
"Are the principals prepared, themselves?"
Two days ago, Feb. 26, the government imposed a temporary ban on travel to South Korea except for permanent residents in that country, enrolled and/or enrolling students in Korean schools, and OFWs. The entry of travelers from Daegu City, considered the epicenter of the wildly spreading COVID-19 virus in South Korea, and the entire North Gyeongsang province was also temporarily suspended.
The ban comes in the wake of earlier travel bans imposed by the government on travel to and travelers from China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan which was imposed days after Chinese authorities locked down Wuhan City in Central China, considered the epicenter of this novel corona virus, and banned bus and train travel across a vast swath of China. This was a move which shocked the entire world, coming as it did on the eve of the celebration of Chinese New Year when millions of Chinese all over the world, not just China, travel all over the place.
That move effectively signaled to other countries to impose their own travel bans which cascaded later on to airlines doing their own flight cancellations, which in turn degenerated into all kinds of impositions restricting people-to-people contacts, trade and travel until the World Health Organization said that such initiatives may do more harm than good. But even with this WHO advisory, there is hardly any way that countries affected by the spread of this novel coronavirus can be dissuaded from issuing such harsh restrictions—probably until such time that the provenance of this increasingly deadly virus can be ascertained and its possible cure graduates from experimentation to massive commercial availability.
Take the case of South Korea and, lately, Italy and Iran. In South Korea, authorities were alarmed as cases of infection over a period of just five days spiked from 104 to nearly a thousand and counting. And infections were being reported not just from Daegu City, the country's fourth-largest city where half of the cases came from, but in other places as well. Added to this, the source of the new infections remained indeterminate after it was reported that almost half of those infected belonged to a church in Daegu.
In Italy, the authorities had to impose a travel ban in Venice and adjoining areas after a sudden increase of reported cases from 11 to 124 in just a matter of days. And, get this, these reported cases were without any connections to the virus' site of origin—China. That ban limited the number of participants in that city's annual mask festival and delayed the scheduled shooting of some films including Tom Cruise's latest Mission Impossible movie due for release toward the end of the year.
In Iran, the death toll rose to 12, one of the highest outside China, which came as a surprise since the regime reported its first casualty just a few days before. This prompted no less than US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to say that the Islamic Republic was not being transparent with its reports on the outbreak—an indictment reinforced by the fact that its very own Deputy Minister of Health finally admitted that he was himself infected by the virus.
There are reports that more and more countries have now reported cases of infection, some of which were unrelated to travel to and from China or other affected countries. This prompted experts to suggest that the spread of the virus may no longer be attributed to just travel and people-to-people contact. There are undetected cases passing across borders which even the most stringent travel restrictions cannot simply control. Indeed, modeling studies have shown that travel restrictions may simply slow but cannot prevent the spread of viruses. Apparently, restrictions to international travel and harsh border closures did not suffice to prevent the spread of the virus. Fresh reports now suggest that while the reported cases in China has somewhat abated there is a spike in COVID-19 cases in countries outside of that country. In a word, there is now local transmission within countries which did not have any previously reported cases.
Indeed, experts now insist that travel restrictions and border closures can delay but can hardly stop an outbreak. Historians note that during the world's deadliest pandemic—Spanish Flu—which occurred in the last stages of World War I in 198 and 1919, border closures did protect certain "farming villages"in Spain but "also kept countries such as Portugal…from obtaining health resources…needed to fight the virus and prevent its transmission in country."
This historical fact coupled with the increased need for exchanges of resources, personnel and related necessities between and among countries as the world prepares for a possible pandemic necessitates the review of the restrictions on travel and trade. These have been which have been put in place thus far.
On our part, given these developments, it is incumbent upon the authorities to review the protocols, if any, which have been put in place thus far to prevent any unwarranted restrictions. These may limit our ability to cope with any outbreak as and when these happen. In fact, as we write this piece it is now necessary to finally get each and every citizen and each and every institution, public and private, to be put on notice with the needed advisories so the preparations can already be set in before we get caught with our pants down. The question is: Are the principals prepared themselves?