No More Flights Between US and Europe for 30 days! $3 Billion Impact. How is this affecting you?
Yesterday, Donald Trump announced a massive travel ban for flights between US and most of Europe (except for UK and a few other countries).
The restriction is an effort to contain the spread of the latest coronavirus COVID-19, and it is effective from next Friday March 14th at midnight, and the economic impact is estimated to be $3 billion US dollars.
COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic yesterday by WHO.
As a frequent traveller and an aviation lover, of course this saddens me. The situation has been more and more complicated for airlines since December 2019. They are cutting down on routes and frequencies, and many of them are struggling to see how they stay in business.
On the other hand, of course this is insignificant when we are talking about people’s lives and how drastic the situation is when an outbreak happens. COVID-19 is an aggressive thing. I was one of the ones that thought to myself “There are a million things that are far worse, and kill way more people a year than COVID-19”. However, later I understood that, even if you are outside of the risk group: it is our responsibility to prevent the virus from spreading, and to not carry it to the risk group.
I’m not writing this to show paranoia, or to spread panic. I’m writing to raise awareness that this is a serious situation. This virus is so aggressive, that most of the outbreaks completely saturate the healthcare systems. That’s why it is so important to contain it.
And yes, while it is true that there are a million other things that also kill people (maybe far worse, and far more lethal, including humans), and that we have to actively fight and raise awareness against those as well, COVID-19 is yet another. It is not that we have to choose between one or the other. We have to deal with all of them.
I recommend you do this exercise. Think of your loved ones and inner circle, and how mane of them are over 50/55. Now imagine that a handful of them die. How would you deal with it? If you knew that there is something accessible to you to prevent it, wouldn’t you be cautious? It is our responsibility, so be prepared for a quarantine, and if you can, don’t travel. Don’t be a transmission agent and minimize risk for a few weeks, especially for people in the risk groups.
Would love to hear your comments and your experience? Did you have to cancel or postpone a trip? I will post soon my experiences rebooking all my travel in the upcoming 2 months!
How is Trump’s travel ban affecting you?
