On April 13, GSL Director Steven Hoffman was quoted in a Hill Times article, which attempted to analyze the Canadian government’s timing of closing the border to all non-essential travel to curb COVID-19 spread on Canadian soil.
In the article, Hoffman explained that not all travel bans and border closures are the same. There is no evidence that a total travel ban works in stopping a viral outbreak, simply because there is no precedence before COVID-19. There is, however, a wealth of scientific evidence that travel bans against certain countries do not work. Early on, a number of countries around the world restricted travel to and from China. This would not have stopped any further spread of the virus since people who want to travel would just travel through other countries and channels.
Further, Hoffman explained that the total travel ban, which Canada implemented in the first week of March, is not a tool to stop the spread of the virus, but rather to slow it down.
Read the full article here.