[usaar333]

I never argued it was xenophobia - it's that geopolitical factors (S. Korea strong ally; China rival) are heavily influencing this decision.

I definitely agree that the numbers are being less massaged in Korea than China, but there's a questions of how off they can be.

> . Still, if the virus continues to spread you can expect that travel to be restricted as well.

S. Korea has 1700 cases and 13 deaths from Covid-19 at this point. On the day the US issued its travel ban on China (Jan 31), China had 12k cases and and 259 deaths. China has 25x the population, meaning S. Korea is already more infected than China (going by official numbers) when the ban was issued on China -- and in particular, almost certainly more infected than China outside Hubei.

More to the point, it is not credible at this point that the spread/person in China (esp. outside Hubei) is faster than Korea (Chinese citizens have been quarantining themselves for weeks now). I am far more worried about a random traveler today coming from S. Korea than say a tier-1 Chinese city (Shanghai, Beijing) - we're talking a 10x risk multiplier realistically - but we aren't even recommending self-quarantines for visitors from Korea.

Note that Israel (which has less geopolitical opinions on East Asia) has bans on basically all of East Asia.