But just as not every suspected infection in a patient should be treated with an antibiotic, not every rise in COVID cases needs a public health policy change. Not every identification of a new variant needs one either.

It’s hard to do nothing, but travel bans are likely to cause more harm than good. They will keep people apart, impact livelihoods, and disincentivize future transparency about findings. Meanwhile the variant has unfortunately probably already spread far and wide.

@ShiraDoronMD I said long ago mask mandates are done out of fear that “we have to do SOMETHING “ even if it doesn’t help.

@ShiraDoronMD @bergerbell And not just act, but act in highly visible —indeed often purely symbolic — ways regardless of actual impact.

@ShiraDoronMD Doing nothing is always an option. It’s part of the BRAIN acronym for informed consent that predates The Virus (rule books and memory being tossed): Benefits, Risks, Alternatives, Indication, Nothing.