It's security theater, just like airport security screening. The politicians nee...

jvm___ · on March 12, 2020

It's also on message. America First. You stop coming here. You're the problem, I alone can protect you from the bad hombres/virus people...

Don't look into yourself and see what can be fixed, always blame the other.

triangleman · on March 12, 2020

Yep, notice how in the speech how many times he mentioned China and blamed Europe for not closing off to China.

Unfortunately this kind of measure is going to increase the R0 of the virus, because some people will think "oh I see, the virus is over there, and now the president has closed off that vector."

Dirlewanger · on March 12, 2020

Part of that message isn't wrong. The virus didn't originate in the US.

ajross · on March 12, 2020

Statistically, it did. The overwhelming (!) majority of COVID-19 cases in the US are domestically transmitted. Who cares where patient zero came from at this point? Banning travel is going to do nothing.

KarlKemp · on March 12, 2020

Don't put this on "The Politicians". There is exactly one politician in the world that sees closing the borders as the solution to all their problems.

anigbrowl · on March 12, 2020

To be fair there's quite a few of them, but I get our point.

hellotomyrars · on March 12, 2020

What?

I can't even tell if this is supposed to be about Trump. Also it doesn't matter.

There are thousands of borders and even more politicians on this planet and if you don't think borders are the scapegoat for problems the world over, then you're really thinking very small.