Next time a MAGA-hat tries to deflect from Trump's mishandling of the Coronavirus by screeching "But he banned all the flights/travel from China!"
Here are a few things to discuss (if possible) with said MAGA-hat:
- He did not ban all the flights from China. On January 31 of this year, he issued a proclamation that reads in part:
NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States, by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including sections 212(f) and 215(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), 8 U.S.C. 1182(f) and 1185(a), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code, hereby find that the unrestricted entry into the United States of persons described in section 1 of this proclamation would, except as provided for in section 2 of this proclamation, be detrimental to the interests of the United States, and that their entry should be subject to certain restrictions, limitations, and exceptions.
Section 1 reads:The entry into the United States, as immigrants or nonimmigrants, of all aliens who were physically present within the People’s Republic of China, excluding the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau, during the 14-day period preceding their entry or attempted entry into the United States is hereby suspended and limited subject to section 2 of this proclamation.
And section 2 lists the exceptions which include US Citizens, non-citizen children/spouses of US Citizens and so on.
Furthermore, the restrictions were not placed on anyone traveling from China but simply those who'd been in China in the previous 2 weeks. Take a look:Consistent with applicable law, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Transportation, and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall ensure that any alien subject to this proclamation does not board an aircraft traveling to the United States.
See that? It "any alien...does not board an aircraft traveling to the United States" regardless of their departure point - the only limit are those non-section 2 folks who'd been in China.
Not a ban on travel from China. - 40 days later, on March 11 he issued a similar "ban" on travel from Europe.
- By then, it was too late for NYC.
To limit SARS-CoV-2 introduction, the United States restricted travel from China on February 2 and from Europe on March 13, 2020. By March 15, community transmission was widespread in New York City (NYC).
And:The sequence from March 2, 2020, (the earliest positive sentinel specimen collected) clustered with early sequences from Europe and United States (Group B), which also cluster with sequences from China. No sentinel sequences were directly connected to sequences from Wuhan, China, where the outbreak originated. This was unanticipated, given that most sentinel EDs were used by patients residing in ZIP codes with a high proportion of Chinese speakers. Rather, the sequence analysis suggests probable introductions of SARS-CoV-2 from Europe, from other U.S. locations, and local introductions from within New York. Domestic airport screening and bans on foreign nationals traveling from China were implemented on February 2;*** however, similar travel restrictions from the Schengen Area in Europe were only implemented March 13.††† Although travel restrictions are an important mitigation strategy, by the time the European restrictions were implemented, importation and community transmission of SARS-CoV-2 had already occurred in NYC. [Emphasis added.]
