Even minor viruses may trigger widespread lockdowns & travel bans in post-coronavirus era – analyst to Boom Bust

The legacy of the current pandemic will be government overreaction by imposing tougher restrictions in response to future viruses, according to Octavio Marenzi of Opimas LLC consultancy.

Speaking to RT’s Boom Bust, the analyst said that there is a “very real risk” that the way governments are currently reacting is set to become “the permanent landscape” even after the pandemic wanes. Some relatively small outbreaks and viruses of the past 10-15 years, like SARS and swine flu, would have been treated differently.

“In the current environment if you were to see those things again, the government would not want to appear as being complacent about it and would react very aggressively to those kinds of outbreaks,” Marenzi said.

He added that in the future governments are poised to “overreact” if there a slight chance of another outbreak after we get over the coronavirus outbreak. Regardless of its scope, we could see more border shutdowns, lockdowns and travel restrictions, he believes.

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