How a country handles a pandemic apparently depends more on history, politics, and assumptions about life than on the physical properties of viruses. Thousands of Chinese died during the SARS epidemic of 2003, and this is fresh in everyone's mind. More importantly, the Chinese concepts of personal freedom and the legitimate role of the state are different from ours..
The United States never attempted to close its border with Mexico, even though it was clear that it was the source of swine flu. By contrast, China scans international passengers for fever at airports.
When an elevated temperature is detected, the person is quarantined, along with all passengers in adjacent rows. This happened to the mayor of New Orleans and his wife on a recent visit to China. Even Chinese epidemiologists say the gesture is futile, for people are contagious several days before symptoms appear and would thus slip through the border control.
With the formal announcement by WHO that H1N1 is actually a pandemic, the controls both sensible and senseless will increase. This will affect international travel here and exchanges of all sorts.
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