Sloppy Joe, politicians are supposed to do what gets them the most votes. This concept is called democracy.
Additionally, reason means judging a situation independent from your own situation. Your claim that an affected pilot with "above average intelligence" can't support border closures makes therefore no sense.
It also doesn't make sense to quote the low infection rates in Hong Hong and elsewhere as argument against border closures, these low rates are of course the product of border closures.
The comparison with the flue also do not make sense. Piles of dead bodies in cooler vans because the morgues were already full, as it happened in New York and elsewhere, should be a small hint. It is not the flue, and to claim it is even less deadlier than the flue is absurd.
There is of course no glory in prevention, but the simplicity of the arguments in here are really astonishing.
Have a quick glance at the situation and death rates in Brazil, that is what you get without action. I am very glad Hong Kong and (eventually) the UK reacted differently.
Note then that the economy in Brazil is suffering even worse presently, without a lockdown. The belief people would have just carried on with their lives, their businesss trips and exotic holidays, all in the midst of a global pandemic with overflown hospitals is of course an illusion. Note then that in countries with the most strict lockdown the economy actually recovers quicker then in those with more relaxed rules.
Nobody of us has any medical training, any experience, any qualifications in fighting a pandemic, any knowledge in the field of virology whatsoever.
Nevertheless, not unlike the global warming discussion, a lot of people don't let this complete lack of expertise be in the way of declaring a solution. Note that this "solution" is almost always radical, easy and simple. Which makes sense, because without expertise that is of course all one can offer. The ignorance and complete disregard for reason and science effectively contained in this perspective is really quite astonishing.
So let's have a look from a bit of a distance.
On the one hand, thousands of experts, doctors, scientists from the best universities and institutions, among them nobel laureates and distinguished professors , thousands of virologists with decades of work and research experience,all recommend more or less the current strategy.
On the other hand, Prof cxorcist and Dr mngmt mole on pprune think it is all a hoax and borders should open up immediately because it's just the flue and a big conspiracy...
Nobody can presently say what the best strategy is with absolute certainty. It may well be other strategies would have worked better, but we simply can't say for sure at this point.I personally would not be surprised if in hindsight an actually even stricter lockdown wouldn't have been better, but it will be a question for historians to decide that. But if I have to decide now between a few disgruntled pilots and the global scientific community I think I might just go for the latter this one time.
Last edited by Sam Ting Wong; 22nd Jun 2020 at 01:59.