Friday, March 20, 2020

Papers ≠ No Virus; Conversely, No Papers ≠ Virus -- Simply No... Common Sense.


It is time to speak out. The virus is present in every North American nation. The virus cannot be contained by closed borders. People, with or without papers should limit non-essential risk taking, and that includes. . . non-essential travel.

But if a human without papers takes the monumental risk of fleeing an oppressive state, and arrives to take the additional risk of seeking an entirely uncertain asylum, there is no reason to assume that human is more likely carrying the virus, than any other human.

And it is plain beyond peradventure that that travel is. . . essential, to their very survival. So Canada, Mexico and the US shutting their asylum doors. . . Is unwise, from a human rights policy perspective — and unwarranted, on the biological science front. From the Washington Post, of moments ago then, bit:

. . . .At a news conference in Washington, acting U.S. secretary of homeland security Chad Wolf said the agreement will go into effect at midnight Friday night.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention order “directs the department to suspend the introduction of all individuals seeking to enter the U.S. without proper travel documentation — that’s for both the northern and southern border,” he said. “Tonight at midnight, we will immediately execute the CDC order by immediately returning individuals arriving without documentation to Canada, Mexico, as well as a number of other countries.”

The agreements with Canada and Mexico suspend all nonessential travel at the U.S.-Canada and U.S.-Mexico borders. . . .


In sum, no virus declares a nation state; no one afflicted is more likely to jump a border than anyone not so afflicted, and perhaps less physically up to the rigors of such travel. So we demonize our fellow humans. . . to achieve no discernible rational policy goal. I dissent from this descent — into little more than. . . jingoism. End, rant.

नमस्ते

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