Wuhan shut down two days before the Lunar New Year. According to the city officials, it was an effort to “resolutely contain the momentum of the epidemic spreading.” Millions of people should have walked the streets celebrating the biggest festival of the year, but instead, they were advised to stay at home, avoid crowds, and minimize gatherings. As ramen, rice and salt went out of stock one by one, the future of the epicenter of the new Coronavirus (nCoV) outburst went blurry.
Currently, there are over 75,000 infected cases with a death toll above 2,000 people. The WHO-announced global emergency is creating a so-called pandemic across the globe and countries have been taking extreme prevention such as travel bans. On Feb. 1, U.S. Health Secretary Alex Azar announced the country’s decision to deny entry to all foreign nationals who had been to China in the past two weeks. U.S. citizens returning from the Hubei province would face 14 days of quarantine while those returning from other parts of China would be allowed to monitor their own condition for a similar period. U.S. citizens in the country are advised to not travel to China.
Similar to the U.S., Australia is also barring foreigners who recently visited China, and it has evacuated citizens from Wuhan to remote Christmas Island, according to a report done by Axios. Japan and South Korea are denying entry to foreigners traveling directly from China; Indonesia, the U.K., and Italy have suspended flights from China, as stated by the BBC. Russia and Mongolia closed its border to China, and more.
However, according to the head of the WHO, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, “travel restrictions can cause more harm than good by hindering info-sharing, medical supply chains and harming economies.” China recently reacted strongly against the U.S. decision and denounced the travel ban as a violation of WHO advice and it would only spread fear. Yet, China National Health Commission Vice-Minister Li Bin said “basically, do not go to Wuhan. And those in Wuhan please do not leave the city.”
I find that to be desperate. As Dr. Ghebreyesus said, you cannot prevent people from simply driving away. Closing a city of 11 million people in the festival season to prevent the disease that was circulating for almost two weeks seemed to be far too late of an attempt. Furthermore, the government tried to silence Li, a Corona whistle-blower doctor who then died because of the virus, by making him sign the “false statement” paperwork. It is fair to say that the suffering in China right now could have been prevented if the government had made a better attempt to sound the alarm.
However, as the disease is circulating, it should be required that every government provide the people with adequate healthcare and supply such as food and face masks to prevent the contagion. They also need to assure the people of ways to stay safe, instead of censoring them or closing doors when they need to be heard and helped. Extreme acts along with fears would only result in increased xenophobia and hate crimes.
The past few days, I tried to ignore the gruesome facts like the increasing cases day by day, and that countries, amid the disease, are closing their doors. Or that some are kicked off public transportation in Wuhan for not wearing masks. Or that my friends in Vietnam are still enjoying their “virus” break until the end of February or even until March (this I am just envious). Or, when I call my mom, that reckless woman doesn’t have a mask on. And there I was, thinking about the facts, and getting upset over them. My sincere wishes go out to the Chinese community on campus, along with those from countries being infected. May we all unite to fight this disease “that does not respect borders or ideologies.”