[2006alum]

Mick, FWIW, we obviously don't agree on a lot, but if there's one area of foreign policy where I've been gratified (in the broad direction, if not always the specific implementation), it's the Trump Administration's pivot on China. Just as it took Nixon to open China, I think it had to take someone outside the political mainstream to make that pivot. So in a broad sense, 100% agree with you.

That being said, here's what galls me: per Fox News, 40,000 people have flown from China to the U.S. since the travel ban was implemented. It's one thing to declare a travel ban, it's another to execute it. IMHO, if Trump et al. had not tried to use the "China Virus" as a blatant rally-around-the-flag technique, then the Administration would have more credibility in arguing that the ban was motivated by public health best practices and not xenophobia and scapegoating. 

But even in mid-February, I was seeing stories from folks who travelled from Asia back to the US and who said that US Customs was doing zero screening - no fever checks, no inquiries about every prior travel stop, etc. They compared their experiences having been in Hong Kong, Singapore, and South Korea, where there was abundant attention to this, fever checks everywhere, and constant advisories about handwashing, mask wearing, etc. 

So what good, ultimately, did the travel ban do? And it's not like the virus was only going to come from China. And it's pretty freakin' clear it didn't stop the virus from decimating the U.S. anyway.

[2006alum]

Mick, FWIW, we obviously don't agree on a lot, but if there's one area of foreign policy where I've been gratified (in the broad direction, if not always the specific implementation), it's the Trump Administration's pivot on China. Just as it took Nixon to open China, I think it had to take someone outside the political mainstream to make that pivot. So in a broad sense, 100% agree with you.

That being said, here's what galls me: per Fox News, 40,000 people have flown from China to the U.S. since the travel ban was implemented. It's one thing to declare a travel ban, it's another to execute it. IMHO, if Trump et al. had not tried to use the "China Virus" as a blatant rally-around-the-flag technique, then the Administration would have more credibility in arguing that the ban was motivated by public health best practices and not xenophobia and scapegoating. 

But even in mid-February, I was seeing stories from folks who travelled from Asia back to the US and who said that US Customs was doing zero screening - no fever checks, no inquiries about every prior travel stop, etc. They compared their experiences having been in Hong Kong, Singapore, and South Korea, where there was abundant attention to this, fever checks everywhere, and constant advisories about handwashing, mask wearing, etc. 

So what good, ultimately, did the travel ban do? And it's not like the virus was only going to come from China. And it's pretty freakin' clear it didn't stop the virus from decimating the U.S. anyway.