My op-ed entitled “Travel bans can’t stop this pandemic” was published in The Hill. You can read it here.
An air #travelban isn't an effective way to stop #coronavirus transmission, @uwisye's @lauraalbertphd writes on @thehill.https://t.co/cutS5bJpAh#COVID19
— UW-Madison Engr (@UWMadEngr) March 18, 2020
The US airport situation is not being managed well.
Screening everyone very thoroughly only works if there are ade… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
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𝕃 𝔸 𝕌 ℝ 𝔸 🏰 𝔸 𝕃 𝔹 𝔼 ℝ 𝕋 (@lauraalbertphd) March 15, 2020This is extra dangerous in a pandemic when those waiting in line for #COVID19 screening get infected while waiting.… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
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𝕃 𝔸 𝕌 ℝ 𝔸 🏰 𝔸 𝕃 𝔹 𝔼 ℝ 𝕋 (@lauraalbertphd) March 15, 2020Allocating enough resources is critical.
Without enough resources, more infected travelers will enter the US by im… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
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𝕃 𝔸 𝕌 ℝ 𝔸 🏰 𝔸 𝕃 𝔹 𝔼 ℝ 𝕋 (@lauraalbertphd) March 15, 2020A better approach: do less screening, focusing resources on the riskiest travelers. For others, quickly collect inf… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
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𝕃 𝔸 𝕌 ℝ 𝔸 🏰 𝔸 𝕃 𝔹 𝔼 ℝ 𝕋 (@lauraalbertphd) March 15, 2020
Punk Rock Operations Research 
March 15th, 2020 at 4:54 pm
A key approach to controlling a pandemic is to lower R_0. Limiting the number of people (and time) people are near each other clearly lowers R_0. It follows that crowded airport wait lines and long flights hurt R_0. Given early signs of overtaxed medical resources in parts of the world I would argue that the costs justify the benefits.
The structural difference between terrorrist attacts and pandemics is that the latter is a multiplicative process: it is nearly inconceivable that the number of attacks could increase by a factor of 200 in month (a daily 20% growth rate) but not for a pandemic.