Several weeks into a mass effort to socially distance from people in order to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus, many aspects of daily life feel markedly different than they did less than a month ago. For those lucky enough to be able to work from home, pants have largely gone by the wayside, and if they haven’t, the only kind getting any action contain an elastic waistband. Outside of the individuals you’ve been living with, much, if not all, of your human interaction has taken place over the computer or phone. The idea of one day getting to go into the office or ride mass transit now sounds like an absolute treat for which you’d pay good money. In the place where your hands used to be, two sandpaper hooks now dangle. And whereas during the B.C. (Before Coronavirus) era, you might have paused to ask yourself “WTF is wrong with Donald Trump?” three or four times a day, it has now become an hourly practice.
Yes, whether it’s empowering his idiot son-in-law to lead the government’s response to the crisis, suggesting that the epicenter of the virus would have a better shot at getting the ventilators it needs if its governor would start kissing the ring, comforting scared Americans by telling them the media sucks, or rating his disastrous performance a perfect 10, the president of the United States just keeps the hits coming. And on Tuesday, the moment that probably stood out most was when he took to Twitter to trash the World Health Organization in the middle of a global disaster, suggesting that maybe he’ll pull U.S. funding. “The W.H.O. really blew it,” he, a man who should be forced to get the phrase “really blew it” tattooed to his forehead, tweeted. “For some reason, funded largely by the United States, yet very China centric. We will be giving that a good look.”
Obviously, this is extremely rich given the fact that WHO declared COVID-19 an international health emergency on January 30 and Trump spent the ensuing six weeks downplaying the whole thing as no big deal. But let’s specifically look at the travel-ban issue, shall we? As Politico notes, WHO did caution that ”‘travel bans to affected areas or denial of entry to passengers coming from affected areas are usually not effective in preventing the importation’ of coronavirus cases,” warning that “In general, evidence shows that restricting the movement of people and goods during public health emergencies is ineffective in most situations and may divert resources from other interventions.” But the group also acknowledged that travel restrictions “may have a public health rationale at the beginning of the containment phase of an outbreak, as they may allow affected countries to implement sustained response measures, and non-affected countries to gain time to initiate and implement effective preparedness measures.”
While Trump—perhaps you’ve heard?—did put a travel ban in place, like most of his initiatives, its implementation was sloppy and ineffective. For one thing, it wasn’t announced until the coronavirus had engulfed China; for another, it wasn’t paired with any major federal efforts to prep the U.S. for what it was about to face. Also: