January 29, 2020

expert reaction to Foreign Office advising against ‘all but essential travel’ to China

The UK Foreign Office has advised against ‘all but essential travel’ to China.

Prof Ben Neuman, Chair of Biological Sciences at Texas A&M University-Texarkana, and Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Reading, said:

“I think there is a balance to strike between allowing economies to function and what amounts to effectively quarantining a nation to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus.

“It is a difficult challenge with no real roadmap, and there will likely be major economic consequences that ripple out beyond the people immediately affected by the coronavirus.

“These are timely, commonsense precautions aimed at slowing the spread of the novel coronavirus.  In the short term, it probably makes the most sense to direct maximum effort into stopping the spread of the coronavirus now, while the number of cases is relatively small and the chance of eradicating the virus is high.”

* https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/china

All our previous output on this subject can be seen at this weblink:

http://www.sciencemediacentre.org/tag/wuhan-coronavirus/

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