Chinese students

who did not return home for the summer break are, rightly, concerned about their fellow students now stuck in China.
    "They should just allow them to return here if they are not sick," one of the girls told me yesterday. 
I explained what the problem was and she looked even more worried, indeed close to tears.
    "I do not know Cat. It is bad."
Officials in China are apparently trying to put pressure on authorities here to once again allow travel to occur. I hope that the relevant authorities here will not succumb to pressure and put more lives at risk. The cost of succumbing to that pressure might well be much higher than remaining firm.
We have had two reported cases in this state. They were Chinese nationals who attended a house sale. The real estate agent had to close for at least a fortnight. Other people at the same sale had to be traced. There has been no more news - yet. I hope there isn't.
We have a good healthcare system here but it would be quickly overloaded. Unlike China we could not build a "hospital" in a week.
The woman who comes to help the Senior Cat shower is Chinese. We like her very much. Her brother is a doctor in China. She has told us something about his working conditions and they are not good. She has told us something about the health care available in China. It is limited, especially for the poor - of whom there are many. Life expectancy is lower - although not as low as many people might think. (It is around 76 and here in Downunder it is around 82.) The number of people who use tobacco in China is much higher than it is here and that too is likely one reason the death toll has risen so quickly there.
But we would still be very vulnerable here. We wouldn't be cured with a course of antibiotics.
Yes, the financial implications are huge - but what is a human life worth compared with that?