Friday the Washington Post was whining
And today
Trump administration announces mandatory quarantines in response to coronavirus
The Trump administration on Friday dramatically escalated its response to the fast-spreading coronavirus epidemic by announcing quarantines and major travel restrictions that officials said were meant to limit contagion.
The measures, which could affect thousands of people around the world, represented a marked expansion of the federal government’s response after initially downplaying potential risks.
The White House declared a “public health emergency†and — beginning on Sunday at 5 p.m. — will bar non-U.S. citizens who recently visited China from entering the United States, subject to a few exemptions. Shortly after the White House announced the new restrictions and said there were six confirmed U.S. cases, a seventh case was confirmed in Santa Clara County, Calif.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar also said the Trump administration would quarantine any Americans who had visited China’s Hubei province, where the disease originated, within the past 14 days. The government will also require screening and self-quarantines for all other Americans who recently visited any other parts of China. Officials said the self-quarantine rules would require individuals to stay in their homes for a certain length of time, monitor themselves for certain symptoms such as coughing, and check their temperatures and report them to local health officials.
The new travel and quarantine measures, which appeared to be unprecedented on such a scale, were part of a rapidly evolving international response to the growing health scare. For the first time Friday, U.S. officials acknowledged that screening tests for coronavirus are not always accurate and that people with no symptoms can transmit the virus. New cases were reported Friday in Britain and Russia, and Canada announced its fourth case later in the day.
While Democrats were whining, the Trump administration and the group that was put together to deal with Coronavirus were hard at work crafting a response, particularly since the World Health Organization declared Coronavirus a global health emergency on Thursday.
Of course, now that the Trump admin has Done Something, Democrats whine
Public health experts praised the administration’s decision to declare a public health emergency, which some said was overdue. The emergency declaration gives the government more resources and flexibility to respond to the outbreak. But some experts said that several of the administration’s other actions on Friday were extreme.
“These are extraordinary measures to be implemented at this point,†Ali Khan, former director of the Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response at the CDC, said of restricting foreign nationals. “We’re a global economy, people move, and if you have excellent public health and you are able to combine port-of-entry screening with follow-up of people, there should be no reason to put undue burdens on people around travel.â€
Now we await other Democrats to come out with “measured responses” that slam Trump for doing this, and take the side of nutters who want out of quarantine early.
