How People Defied Trump's China Travel Ban, And Why It Was Always A Complete Joke

Once in the US these same people went through customs and border control with zero screening.

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Guest Post by Nicole Perry

Americans are glued to their computers and TVs watching as more and more people are infected and die, while our government struggles to get control of the COVID-19. Looking down the road there is a real possibility that massive breadlines and homelessness, images of which we’ve all seen from the Great Depression, could be the norm. This is not an exaggerated doomsday scenario. This is a real possibility.

It is human nature to learn from past experiences to improve future actions. However, in order to do this effectively and prevent this from happening again, we need to have the facts about what actions our government took to prevent this catastrophe.

There was no real China travel ban

Despite the Trump Administration’s claim that they issued a travel ban from China, the fact is that people were not stopped from coming in from China and screening was not done. I know this because my associates traveled from Asia in February, and they saw it.

I work in the design industry with clients all over the world. In February, after the China travel ban, two of my associates traveled to and from the Philippines. They flew on Cathay Airlines. Half of the people they spoke to had either came from or been in China. They were using airports outside of China to get to the US. As long as you got out of China anyone could hop on a plane and book a flight to America. Once in the US these same people went through customs and border control with ZERO screening. My associates were shocked. They knew this was bad. They watched as people walked right through the airport and out into Los Angeles with no quarantine, no temperature taking and no testing. This was even after doctors had warned that the virus could be spread by people who were asymptomatic. The level of effort to prevent the disease from entering the US was a joke. There was no a real travel ban with China. There was only an attempt to create the perception that there was. We were all being gaslighted.

For Trump, this was always PR

The goal of the China travel ban was never to stop people from coming in from China. It was a PR move designed to give the American people the impression that the government was doing something. President Trump, as we’ve seen from his own statements, did not believe the threat was severe. Despite doctors and intelligence professionals telling him otherwise, he chose not to believe them. It never occurred to him that he needed to do more.

Trump only believes Trump. In his mind, everyone is out to get him, so when experts tell him something he doesn’t want to hear, he doubts them, distrusts them, and overrules them. This is true about everything from intelligence, to economics and science. As far as he is concerned, he is the smartest person in the room. He is all knowing. Remember, he really gets this stuff.

Trump is also consumed with getting reelected. His ego needs it and it drives every decision he makes. Because losing for him is not an option. It is human nature to use denial to cope with our worst fears, but we must expect more from our leaders, particularly in dangerous crises like this. Trump knew that the Coronavirus would, in his words, be a “game changer” for his reelection. So he chose to gamble on the virus miraculously going away. One day it might just “disappear”, he said. It didn’t, and America is paying the price for it.

In an effort to get the facts, the media needs to press the administration on how exactly they enforced the travel ban. The people who were able to scoot around the ban need to tell their stories. We need to know exactly why Trump’s ban was ineffective. We need to explore why and how it was lacking so this mistake never happens again. And this government needs to be held accountable for its mistakes.

Trump can continue to call this the Chinese Virus, but his lack of early action means whatever virus came into the US is now the Trump Virus. And we need a cure, badly.

(Photo by Bambi Corro on Unsplash)

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