90% of Seattle coronavirus infections came from a single introduction from China

When President Trump restricted travel to and from China nearly two months ago, the outcry from the left was deafening. Everyone from Democrats to the World Health Organization to mainstream media panned the move as racist and xenophobic. Now, information stemming from genome sequencing of those infected indicate the President’s unpopular move was not only correct, but may have happened too late.

This is fascinating, it looks like 90% of the COVID transmission in Seattle is from a single introduction in late Jan from China.
The NY intro is from Iran and San Diego intro from Europe. https://t.co/ZBbzrtgU5u

— PoliMath (@politicalmath) March 16, 2020

The Wuhan coronavirus may not be as fatal as it was initially believed, but its spread is far greater than the flu or anything major we’ve seen in decades. This is due in part because asymptomatic people can be contagious for over a week. As the disease spreads across the country and around the world, one political assessment cannot be disputed: The left’s love for open borders has, is, and will continue to exacerbate the problem.

We, as a nation, must control our borders. That means three things need to change as soon as possible. First, we need to stop the flow of illegal immigrants into our nation. Any thoughts that this is not the case need only to learn about the masses of people coming from nations where the infection is already bad, entering the United States illegally through the borders made porous by Democratic policies.

Second, we must allow for instant actions by the White House that are above reproach from legal objections. The President has always enjoyed wide powers when it comes to who can enter the country and how they do so, but during the Trump administration there have been floods of legal challenges to every single travel restriction and border security move that he’s made.

Third, we need to overhaul the process for entering our nation legally. Better screening and more importantly better tracking of those who come here from foreign lands must be brought forward in the form of legislation. This cannot be an executive order. It must be codified.

By sequencing the genome of the #SARSCoV2 / #HCoV19 virus, we can see which infections are connected to which other infections. See here for background https://t.co/TaH7yonZP1 and @nextstrain https://t.co/JHWNUOwchc for latest analysis. 2/8

— Trevor Bedford (@trvrb) March 16, 2020

The other four viruses appear as one-off introductions of either immediate travel cases, or as recent steps in a newly arrived transmission chain. Given genetic proximity, these appear to be related to viruses from Europe and Iran. 4/8 pic.twitter.com/PJdzoDR8ee

— Trevor Bedford (@trvrb) March 16, 2020

Other states have fewer recently sequenced viruses. NY has two, one with direct travel history to Iran (and which has a genome consistent with this travel history) and another that appears to be a recent travel introduction from Europe. 6/8 pic.twitter.com/YvTs58TcfC

— Trevor Bedford (@trvrb) March 16, 2020

I don't know exactly how to square the finding of a large community cluster in Washington State with these 4 apparently recently introduced viruses in other states. My strong suspicion is that more sequencing will reveal growing community clusters elsewhere in the US as well. 8/8

— Trevor Bedford (@trvrb) March 16, 2020

For now, the focus is on stopping the coronavirus from spreading and mitigating the damage from it. But changes need to be made to prevent something like this from happening in the future. That starts with immigration and travel restrictions.

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