US Will Require International Travelers To Quarantine

Scenario: We go to Cancun. Already have our vehicle parked at a park and fly hotel for the week. We visit Cancun; we test negative, fly back to the states. Mind you, that test alone is mandated by the government.

We return and are shuttled off for two weeks to a hotel, again, mandated by the government. Meanwhile, our car parking is now getting billed, and we're stuck in some hotel for two weeks.

Point being, I feel that since all of these new regs are in place, the government should be funding our stay in a hotel during THEIR quarantine mandate. It's either that or we would simply NOT PAY for our 2 week stay. I really don't care about credit scores.

Experienced traveller - You said "It is one way to prevent the spread of the virus."

Please provide any proof that it is preventing any spread of the virus.

IMO extraordinary burden on citizens requires extraordinary proof by the government - and they have none that they work, nor masks work, or really ANYTHING they've done works. Social distancing, washing hands thoroughly and cleaning counters are the only thing we know for certain that works to prevent the spread and those can be done without any draconian action at all. Florida, despite having a significantly older population than NY/NJ (which should massively increase the death rate, has very few limits and has lots of tourist still coming in, yet has a low death rate per capita (less than half NY/NJ) and a significantly lower infection rate over the last 12 months than every state that has had draconian government regulations. I predict the history books will not be kind to these government actions all over the world.

(PS even if quarantines made since back in March, that ship has long since sailed since the virus is everywhere and given they will have *just* had a covid tests, makes no sense.)

More political theater... The WHO has already updated their criteria this week for what Covid-positive means admitting that false-positives are creating a problem (https://www.who.int/news/item/20-01-2021-who-information-notice-for-ivd-users-2020-05). A positive test does not mean you have Covid. The WHO now states Positive Test + Second Positive Test + Clinician seeing symptoms = Covid infection. Which begs the question why anyone would have the quarantine if they are negative. And the US is back in the WHO now...so hopefully, our travel rules will align with the new guidance.

From someone who has had Covid, you dont want to catch it, also some folk are plain(Plane) Stupid, that they will get on flight knowing they have it? anyway I think, to have pre test to show you are negative,(72 hours prior) is good, they 3/4 days after you arrive from abroad, do anothe test, which is what they do in Barbados,,so you arrive in USA and isolate , till tesyt come back negative,. Now also ifr you have had the Virus, (with in say last 6 months)no need to isolate more than a couple of days,or you have had the Vaccine . Its going to be difficult, but soon as Vaccines roll out the better, but still safeguard, with masks wahing etc, staying apart, till covid gone,as we don,t need a new strain, that the vaccine doesnt work against, gertie

According to a study by Rand, during the initial phases of the pandemic, cases in China were likely 37 times higher than the Chinese Govenrment had stated and sick people were allowed to travel by air, spreading the virus internationally. However, since that time, research in Europe has only documented 44 cases of COVID-19 tied to air travel.

Florida which has not significantly locked down has a death rate per million a bit over 1000. New York and New Jersey, which have basically locked down most of the year, have more than twice that rate of mortality. This quarantine order will have ZERO impact on the rate of mortality in the US, just as hard lockdowns have done nothing to prevent Belgium from having the highest overall mortality rate in the world.

You simply cannot compare the actions of an island nation in an equatorial climate that already is minimally impacted by seasonal flu to the rates of transmission in the US, Europe, and Asia which have large annual rates of flu transmission in winter.

Further, there is no statistical impact tied to quarantines, lockdowns, masks, or travel restrictions in the US and Europe. If anyone tells you there is they are lying, or citing an observational study that is not statistically driven.

Simply, warmer climates where people spend more time outdoors in the northern hemisphere with sunlight have lower rates of transmission. Period. Some of this does seem to correlate to vitamin D concentrations, along with 85% of transmission occurring due to long term exposure in doors, and the virus being susceptible to UV light outdoors.

California is locked down, Florida is not. California, despite draconian measures putting millions of business owners out of work, is now having its first spike of outbreak despite the lockdown and quarantine. Yet, California has overtaken Florida in daily deaths per million last week.

Statistically, being in a 1/2 full business class section with a plane only flying people with clear PCR tests is one of the safest places in the world for Covid infection.

This quarantine for international air travel is theater. It will accomplish nothing to manage the pandemic.

@Timo bruh... you haven’t seen nothing yet. Not the first time he pops on here to spew his anger and disdain at the world in the toxic-est shape possible.
If there was an award for the most entitled dramatic and salty person in the world - this kind soul would take it by a margin previously thought statistically impossible and I guarantee you that’s without any voter fraud.

On the subject though - agree this doesn’t make any sense at this point in time. With the amounts of virus in the US right now, quarantining the very few(relative to local sick #s) people who get there by the safest transportation means just won’t make a difference. Somebody said US just needs to focus on vaccinations at this point and sadly it looks like the only option.

Like a few others above, I’d also like to see what happens on the legislative/court level. I’m in favor of some kind of reasonable control measures, but I don’t see any legal basis at all to blatantly deny entry to US citizens. This sounds as unconstitutional as it gets. For those of you who believe it’s doable and who know more on the subject - honest and serious question, can you explain how this would work? What law/provision allow for it?

@Matt Smith

As @Azamaraal has said, the success in Australia and New Zealand is largely a result of immigration policies and the impact of those policies and internal lockdowns have been mitigated by government assistance, However, you also need to appreciate the cultural differences between the those countries ( wherethe populations have made sacrifices for the greater good) and US individualism.

I appreciate policy makers must balance economic and health impacts, but an economy can never fully recover while the virus is running out of control. In WWII, 1 US soldier died every 5 minutes, while 4 US citizens die every 5 minutes from COVID.

It is astounding that the US, as one of the wealthiest and most developed countries in the world has achieved such a dire outcome.

I

@derek There's a huge difference between patient zero introducing the virus to a population and today's environment where the virus is running rampant throughout our country. If you can prevent it from ever being introduced, sure, travel restrictions make sense. But once it's introduced, is there any evidence that COVID is more likely to spread via air travel than a trip to the grocery store, or a family gathering? All evidence I've seen indicates that former is a much more likely means of spreading the virus. Place international travel restrictions now is not going to make any difference.

All talks and no action. Incoming travelers need to be quarantined in government sponsored hotels for minimally 14 days (although 21 days will sure catch all of the positive ones as places like Taiwan are realizing 14 days are not catching everyone which lead to community spread right now). That way you can be sure there will be no one coming into US with covid because as if we don’t have enough people infected here already! Short of that, it’s all talk and no action.

@ Ziggy A negative test doesn’t mean you don’t have Covid. A lack of symptoms doesn’t mean you don’t have Covid. Scientists have been saying this over and over again for months so it’s more than a little concerning that it needs saying again.

Perhaps on some level, neither a negative test or a lack of symptoms eliminates some mathematical possibility that you still have covid. But it does mean that the chances that a returning traveler has Covid or will infect others is certainly less than that of the population at large - who don't have a recent negative covid test - and we aren't locking those people up (even if they have symptoms). The burden is upon those imprisoning healthy Covid negative citizens to demonstrate that it is worthwhile to take away their human rights, and the spectre of remote possibilities doesn't come close to satisfying that standard.

The issue is the new administration is doing something trump should have done but failed to initiate months ago. As for enforcement, the US is huge and it’s difficult. Los Angeles County has a mandatory 10 quarantine for international arrivals. Do people follow it ? I’m sure the majority do , for their own health however there are , as we know , always idiots who don’t care.

I’m South Korea it’s rigorously enforced with very efficient checks. In Japan too and the vast majority of people are respectful.

The issue in the Netherlands is the second rapid test requirement 4 hours before departure. In a large number of cases it’s impossible if flights depart before 9am or the airports don’t have on site facilities. Most governments give crew exemptions, but the Dutch won’t. Night stops are impossible and if crew are positive they risk being stranded

Unless the quarantine is enforced in specific, enumerated quarantine hotels, this is worthless. Look at the countries that have actually implemented true enforced quarantines like Singapore or Taiwan more than a year ago. First of all you cant even fly to these countries as a foreigner without an actual emergency reason (some short-term business travel excepted) - and even then you must test negative with a real, PCR-RT test (none of these rapid tests that are shown to be significantly less accurate). Then when you land at the airport you go through extensive health screening again, are placed into a government procured quarantine taxi which takes you to one of dozens of government approved quarantine hotels. Once at the hotel you stay inside the room for 14 days. Many hotels provide food dropped off outside your door three times a day, or you use the ubiquitous delivery apps to order food from outside. The government calls and or visits you every day to check on your health. That is a real quarantine. There have been a few people who have gone outside during their quarantine (including somebody who walked out on a balcony for 30 seconds - and was fined the equivalent of about $1,000 USD. As a result of these strict measures (and detailed contract tracing efforts) a country like Taiwan has had fewer than 10 deaths. The US has an equivalent (adjusting for population) number of deaths EVERY HOUR. For some reason the US government and people are not willing to do what is necessary to bring this under control.