justaguy
Unplugged ....
Re: 2019 Coronavirus (COVID-19)
There's an easy solution for us here in NZ. We can shut down the airports. Let no one in and become a self sufficient country for a bit. We have everything we need except for maybe oil. Will it happen? No.
The good news with this virus is that while it's far more transmissable between humans than originally reported, it does not appear to have a common non-human reservoir (at least not that they have found yet).
The reason influenza is a continual bane with constantly changing properties and nearly annual pandemics is that it moves between pigs and birds - animals that humans have frequent contact with- and then back to humans. This movement between species changes the virus and allows it to avoid our immune systems and it also prevents us from eliminating influenza in humans.
Because there doesn't seem to be a non-human reservoir for COVID-19, in theory if countries could greatly reduce or stop human to human transmission, the epidemic would be stopped.
The bad news... two problems: 1) international travel and 2) countries like the US don't respond to government mandates well. Trying to force Americans to stay and home, not get paid for weeks and forcing healthcare workers to risk contracting the virus... well, that probably won't work.
There's an easy solution for us here in NZ. We can shut down the airports. Let no one in and become a self sufficient country for a bit. We have everything we need except for maybe oil. Will it happen? No.

