Scale of China’s Wuhan Shutdown Is Believed to Be Without Precedent

So China is bad for quarantine, China also bad for the virus spreading on Chinese New Year travel, China also bad for previous SARs cover up - According to this piece, there's not an ounce they've done right to try and quickly combat an unknown disease that's rapidly spreading. Fair and balanced per Fox? Just isolate the sick ones you say: Yeah, that doesn't seem to be working, probably because a consensus among scientists is that the incubation period makes this very difficult before the disease is already spread to new carriers in mega cities (dwarfing medieval numbers). So based on the writers instructions let's ask the authorities in Beijing to open Wuhan up and welcome all travelers to international destinations.

A cordan sanitaire is a draconian policy and is being taken only out of morbid fear. Unfortunately the cat is already out of the bag and infections will occur throughout China, probably all of East and Southeast Asia, and most likely beyond. The issue is how severe this virus is and how well it can be treated. We should prepare for a serious problem to develop here in the US while hoping that human to human spread of the virus is not as easy as feared. People, such as myself, with a long history of fighting hairy cell leukemia, need be especially concerned because exposure to a new serious virus can be deadly.

Wuhan China has 11 million plus people. Manhattan Island alone is over 16 million. Please help us with information that seems incorrect. With today’s resources for information, this should be easy to determine. Does anyone do ANY research before making incorrect statements?

What are the international Best Practices, including travel bans and other precautions? Are we leaving it up to individual airlines to take temperatures, or local governments? I’d like to see a researched article on what was learned from recent SARS, Ebola and other epidemics, I’m sure a lot has been learned and educating the populace on how to behave when sick should be emphasized.

Something just doesn't add up. With around 600 sick, 17 or maybe a few more dead in a city of 11 million, in a country of over 1 1/4 billion, we now have an international crisis, and on the surface, shutting down transport and trying to close off a populated city seems like a gross over-reaction, given these numbers. Instead, I get the feeling that there's a whole lot more to this story that is being kept under tight wraps. If it's true that of 600 sick, 17 have died, then we are looking at a death rate of 2.9%. But we need to consider, too, that often people don't seek medical care unless they think they need it. So the real number of sick may be underestimated, in which case, the danger could be overstated. On the other hand, perhaps China is aware of a real danger and is under-reporting deaths. Or maybe they do know the source of this new coronavirus and are just not sharing. Maybe these extreme measures are essential for health reasons, or just to control the flow of information.

What has backfired really? The infected people all over the country had recently been to or has contact with people who's been to Wuhan. I don't see why limiting personal travel to the city is too much to ask. The government just cancelled flights and trains. You can still drive out if you want. It's so easy to spread the disease all over the world, especially during the lunar new year travel season. A lot of Chinese are canceling their trip to stay home. They're sacrificing their long-desired holiday to keep themselves and everyone around the world safe. Sometimes we have to sacrifice for the common good.

Well, the framing of this situation depends on whether you lean more towards the deontological ethics of Immanuel Kant or the utilitarian ethics of John Stuart Mill.

A prime example of how China’s system is far better prepared to deal with the challenges of the 21st century.

Only would people who abuse freedoms of all kinds in such gross and self-centered manners would consider the quarantine of an area, a populace, in order to protect the larger good, if you will, an issue of ethics. Indeed, human rights are sacrosanct, yet when one is a potential threat to others, even if by mere misfortune, one *ought* be responsible and honorable enough to do whatever is required to ensure the safety of others. So, were a number of individuals sick in a certain region, those individuals including those potentially infected ought remain where they are, not travel, not mingle, and let the sickness (and yes, even death) pass. But...people do not do that. They fear, they rage, and they act with no regard to the lives of others. So, a quarantine is necessary, and if the use of force is required, that is best for all until the issue passes. We do it for livestock, so regardless of that being a distasteful analogy (we are all just animals, fyi), there is no reason to not do it to human beings, presuming medical care, etc., is being provided. Again, if individuals would simply realize that they may have to sacrifice for the sake of others, then perhaps strong measures would not be required. Mind you, in the US, we'd all just get sick really fast and, if death was the probable end, we'd die really fast, because we would be all running amok with our collective heads cut off, weeping and wailing. Myself and mine, we'd be self-quarantined. Best to not knock.

Comparing this to quarantines in the 19th or 15th centuries isn't a very relevant approach to what is happening, it lacks both an understanding of modern epidemiology and the cultural competency of talking about the travel that's being restricted. The Chinese New Year is upon us, and there just is not a travel holiday in the United States that rivals the shear numbers of people who will travel on that holiday.

Anyone who has read Albert Camus' novel The Plague and the complete quarantine of Oran will wonder what the fuss is.

Interesting reporting. Many quotes concerned with individual rights, few to none focused on the common good. A good example of Americans’ lopsided ethics.

This is such a misleading article. The so-called "shutdown" is only to reduce personal travels, and I don't see anything wrong with that, especially during the Spring Festival travel season. If you want to argue quarantine is a misuse as a social tool, please provide concrete examples in which the practice of quarantine backfired, instead of telling us some well-known facts with zero insight

Some people walked out of Wuhan city proper all the way to the airport to catch the last planes leaving. One of those people caught a plane Beijing bound. But when he arrives in Canada there will be a surprise because he bragged about his action and his Chinese-Canadian travel agent informed Canadian border authorities.

Flight China Southern Airlines 8419 landed yesterday in NYC from Wuhan. That'd be a shame of it spreads there, too.