> Travel bans are not evidence-based: It may seem like travel bans for individual countries are a necessary step, but I cannot stress enough that they do not work.
This one point compromised the article for me. The standard for “working”, like all measures, is to slow down the spread. We all know travel bans got a bad name because you-know-who proposed them. But all countries imposed travel bans and we ought to be concrete about the level of delay they create or not. Let’s not hold any measure to a different standard due to political signaling. If travel restrictions are good on a risk adjusted basis to buy time for the “weeks” of analysis needed that could help with further reducing risk, let’s talk about it not write it off as “not working” which is non-sensical. Masks “don’t work”, vaccines “don’t work”, nothing “works” if that is taken to mean a silver bullet.
This one point compromised the article for me. The standard for “working”, like all measures, is to slow down the spread. We all know travel bans got a bad name because you-know-who proposed them. But all countries imposed travel bans and we ought to be concrete about the level of delay they create or not. Let’s not hold any measure to a different standard due to political signaling. If travel restrictions are good on a risk adjusted basis to buy time for the “weeks” of analysis needed that could help with further reducing risk, let’s talk about it not write it off as “not working” which is non-sensical. Masks “don’t work”, vaccines “don’t work”, nothing “works” if that is taken to mean a silver bullet.