Virus — Blog — Healy Chen

The longest January

I’ve been seeing on twitter people complaining about how this January have felt insanely long. It led me to think for a moment, and yes, January have indeed felt like it has gone on for a very long time. In fact, I thought the beginning of this week was February, not realizing there’s yet another week of January to go. Today’s only the 30th! This month does seem rather endless.

It’s been well over two weeks since I’ve returned from my usual travel stint back home to China at the beginning of January, and I think being on the road sort of stretches out the time relativity, contributing to this month feeling like it’s gone on forever. When I’m on vacation, time seems to go by really slowly, which I guess is a good thing because those are the precious days you get to be away from your normal everyday life - last thing you’d want is for it to feel like it’s over before it starts.

With the news of the Wuhan virus getting more serious by the day, I have to say once again I’m really glad I came back to the States before things got to a critical level on an international scale. Much of China is effectively under lockdown, with large public gatherings and events cancelled, and citizens are staying home as much as possible to limit the risk of exposure. I’d imagine it would be troublesome under these circumstances to be traveling through China and needing to return home to America, or any other country.

Linger any longer in China and there might not even be a plane for you to get on. Just yesterday, British Airways cancelled all future flights to and from China, and surely other airlines would follow should the Wuhan virus continues to escalate catastrophically. While China hasn’t yet officially banned its citizens from flying abroad, the possibility is certainly there should things turn for the worse. What’s the next step after quarantining entire cities? The whole country, naturally.

Before any of this mess started, my cousin from China made plans to travel to America in March. With only a month in between now and the time she gets on the flight, there’s a high chance she may not be able to come if the world is still dealing with this coronavirus. My fingers are crossed for her sake, and for all of us.

I'm glad I came back early

Just yesterday evening I was chatting with my family about the Wuhan coronavirus situation, and how the government there really should shutdown the entire city: hold everything in static until the appropriate authorities can figure out exactly what’s going on. The spread of the virus is too prolific to not take this extreme step, though we recognize China is currently right in the middle of the great Chinese New Year migration, so restricting access to a city of 11 million would have tremendous ramifications for what is the biggest holiday for the country.

Conversely, I’m sure the annual migration plays a part in how fast the coronavirus have spread outwards from Wuhan, if person-to-person transmission is indeed confirmed. It represents a real Sophie’s choice for the powers at be.

I was quite surprised then to read this morning that Wuhan is now effectively under quarantine: air and train traffic in or out of the city is completely shutdown, and public transportation within the city have also ceased operation. It’s a necessary move that I didn't think the Chinese government had it in them to make. A few weeks back when this whole coronavirus issue has yet to proliferate into a concern for the World Health Organization, the only Chinese media reporting the few cases was all in Hong Kong - there was a de-facto blackout of the news in the mainland.

I know this, because I was there, and was initially baffled at why the Guangzhou media wasn’t reporting anything on the Wuhan situation. Of course, I quickly remembered exactly what sort of governance China is under, and it seems Beijing is keen to keep a lid on the problem for as long as possible.

Until travelers started to bring the virus back to their home countries from China. I’m low-key glad I returned to the States well before the issue exploded to an International-level crisis, because last thing I want is any hiccups going through immigration. CBP would and should carefully screen passengers on planes originating from China, even those not directly from Wuhan. Now that the whole city is under quarantine, I would not be surprised if countries of the world would do the same for travelers coming from China. With the direct cause and factors about the coronavirus still unknown, the stakes are too high.