I made a similar point to a friend yesterday - comparing the spread of a virus and ability to close borders/travel between the UK and a country 32 x larger but with only 2/5 or so of the population is a bit daft, particularly if you factor in that we're next to a large continental land mass and are more of a global hub.
The frustrating thing is the argument that we probably should have looked at quarantining visitors early on, screening etc. is a reasonable enough one, albeit I suspect no where near as simple as some like to portray, but using countries like Aus and NZ as an example is just daft as their situations are vastly different to ours. Using them as a comparison weakens the argument and seems to me to be cheap and inaccurate point scoring. Anyone who's travelled to Aus will know they already had very strict checks at the airport and a much harder attitude to travellers than the UK (or many European countries). Moving from that to quarantining all incomers isn't anywhere near as much of a stretch as it would have been for us, given they pretty much had the processes, staff and infrastructure in place already.
I think 'next' epidemic (assuming the disease is as nasty as the current one) countries will be looking at making sure:-
1) they control visitors in to the country, particularly from countries where the disease is present, probably by the 14 day quarantine at the airport (or nearby) method.
2) They have the capacity to rapidly scale up testing once a test is available if it's a new disease and for contact tracing and quarantining/isolation.
3) They identify the most at risk groups and make a proper plan on shielding/protecting those as early as possible.
4) PPE stockpiles are maintained at a reasonable level in preparation for a new epidemic and industrial capacity is there and lined up to make more at short notice if required. I.E the kind of basic planning you'd expect in a company level business continuity plan.
5) Lockdowns - I'd expect them to stay as part of the arsenal if the disease spreads too widely.
Originally Posted by: Hippydave