[ajsnigrutin]

So... from just driving across the border, it's got "super easy", by having to stop at every border crossing, "papers please", and "medical papers please"? I've traveled through the balkan in the 90s, and it was easier then, than now. And even during the war times, the travel was more consistent, and I didn't have to check the border crossing rules every day, because they didn't change that often.

[mr_mitm]

The balkans also didn't have a dangerous pandemic in the 90s. Ignoring this little fact is outrageously dishonest.

[ajsnigrutin]

Oh yes, surely nothing more dangerous than a pandemic was happening in the balkans in the 90s, that would make border crossings problematic at the time.

[Uberphallus]

Yeah, war is terrible but it ain't contagious.

[ajsnigrutin]

It's not like there's not covid on the other side of the border too.

[Uberphallus]

It's certainly not like you understand epidemiological dynamics, that's for sure.

[toyg]

This is not meant to be a "forever" state of things, hopefully we'll go back to basic Schengen rules when the emergency subsides. Sadly the virus is what it is, and compartimentalising systems as much as possible is necessary to fight it.

[WinstonSmith84]

This is so naive... let be honest, it's just pure nationalism, the pride of each country thinking to be better than the neighbours.

Let's take some examples of some "flagship" western European countries, such as Germany or the UK. These 2 countries have constantly classified the risk level of other countries, forbidding/warning their citizen to not travel abroad in "risk areas", despite themselves having, at times, much higher infection rates than any other country they classified at risk. It was specifically the case in the first half of 2021.

A counter example, the US is as big as the whole of Europe and they didn't "compartimentize" their states like it happened in Europe. And they just did ok (compared to Europe)

One has to realize that Europe is a patchwork of countries which have always fought against each other since history remembers, and "Schengen rules" is a new thing which is not deeply changing the culture and instincts of these countries and their citizen.

[ajsnigrutin]

Yes, just 14 days to flatten the curve.

[toyg]

If everyone had locked down hard in those fateful months of last year, like China did, we wouldn't be here. But we didn't, and so we are here.

[jokethrowaway]

There is evidence that the virus in China was leaked earlier than we think, so their lockdown was pretty tardive as well. There are also doubts on the number of deaths reported by China (according to CNN, which is pretty pro China).

People had antibodies in the states in December 19 according to the CDC. This also matches some anecdotal accounts from a girl on instagram that claimed her family had COVID in 2019 in the States after a visit from China.

We probably didn't notice because COVID mortality is pretty low.

Containing such an easily transmissible virus is also pretty much close impossible, no amount of lockdown would have killed it.

[ajsnigrutin]

Australia did just that... and then someone caughed across the border, and they did it again.. and again.. and again. And australia is an island, compared to europe, where people literally live, work and shop in different countries.

[WinstonSmith84]

Yes. And add Thailand to the list. full lockdown almost 2 years long, not a case, population goes into (even more) poverty as tourists are excluded. Then they open and... oops..

[t0bia_s]

We still don't know the origin of virus and yet you believe that China handle it well. Look at Sweeden, or Denmark. No restrictions and it is perfectly fine. Idea of locking down people at home because of virus, that has mortality 0.04% for infected people, with average of 79 years, is non acceptable and insane and definitely not healthy.