In February 2020, I traveled with Fox News to Dulles Airport to see if I could assess how President Donald Trump’s COVID-19 travel ban from China was working. While it was clear to me that this had the effect of slowing the spread of the brand new pathogen, I discovered a number of areas of concern.
First, people traveling to China looked for ways to return. (Air China was operational, and passengers told me on the counter that they’d discover a way back.) In actual fact, by talking to Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Ken Cuccinelli and customs and border security agents, I used to be capable of piece together an image of individuals leaving the People’s Republic of China and flew to intermediary countries, including Europe (where there have been no restrictions) after which to america.
Here, these travelers were allegedly screened for fever and other viral respiratory symptoms and moved to a quarantine station in the event that they were suspected of being unwell, but a CBP agent told me he was sure many escaped detection by drinking a number of Tylenols or Advils: “Nobody desires to be stopped.”
Almost three years within the blink of a watch, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced recent travel restrictions from China. This negative test requirement is to be commended because it comes when China has an enormous outbreak that is shrouded in mystery. Many tens of millions are clearly infected and hospitals and morgues are filling up. But delaying the rollout until January fifth doesn’t make any sense.
By all accounts, the dominant strain is the sub-variety Omicron BF.7, which is highly contagious and evades the immune system – meaning we do not understand how much a previous infection or vaccination will protect us here. China’s ill-conceived zero-COVID strategy clearly works against the country as this “virgin population” is rather more in danger since it has not been exposed. This is exacerbated by poor adherence to any recently released vaccines or boosters, and the refusal to make use of clearly superior Western vaccines, which is especially problematic for high-risk groups and the elderly. Since we do not know the magnitude of the chance to us, it makes perfect sense to dam entry into the US as much as possible.
Is the CDC doing enough or should we just close our borders with China – or is it too late for this to have an impact? Time will tell, but there are reasons to imagine that the brand new restrictions will again be more of a leaky strainer than an efficient barrier.
The availability of numerous rapid COVID tests is a giant improvement over 2020, even with the caveat that the travel test have to be sanctioned by a health service provider or web application. But even then, a negative rapid test in two days, as required by the CDC, does not imply you will not test positive the subsequent day, especially with Omicron, which is so contagious it will possibly spread before you test positive .
And while attempting to block entry from an intermediary country is good policy, who exactly is imagined to implement it? Will airlines be willing to share this information with the Department of Homeland Security, apart from in early 2020? Can passport control at airports in some way implement a selected itinerary?
The answer is no, and in the end China’s massive epidemic will hit here. We are able to only hope that we’re protected by the partial immunity we possess, and we do not see a brand recent, immunity-dodging variant emerge from China and threaten the world like Delta got here from India in 2020 and Omicron got here from Africa in 2020. 2021 Novelty Variants have to be more contagious to compete with people who exist already, but there is not any method to know in the event that they’ll be more virulent or deadly.
One thing is for sure: it’s high time we call it the China virus and make whatever impact now we have to make this dangerous country more responsible in the case of global health. Within the meantime, we must close our borders to the creators of SARS-CoV-2 – if it’s not too late.
Marc Siegel, MD, is a professor of clinical medicine and medical director of Doctor Radio at NYU Langone Health and a Fox News medical analyst.