Travel restrictions bought Taiwan and South Korea lots of time in the beginning. Other countries who usually follow scientific guidance have implemented them (israel).

There seem to be no real papers linked to the base of this guidance, except that they feel like a attack on the freedom of movement for a globalist elite and the tourism industry. I rather prefer to be healthy and safe, then to put a blind eye to some elite favoured cultural blind spot.

>Reply: Families are even less a reason to visit internationally in a global pandemic. Why should it be a right to bring a potentially deadly disease to your loved ones? Others cant visit there dying family in a hospital, why should one be granted exemption to visit the living?

I'm a little confused by that article, to be honest. The Science paper they link seems to confirm that travel restrictions can have effect. Eg, from the abstract: " The travel quarantine of Wuhan delayed the overall epidemic progression by only 3 to 5 days in mainland China but had a more marked effect on the international scale, where case importations were reduced by nearly 80% until mid-February."

My impression is that travel restrictions aren't a panacea, but can reduce or delay spread. (Whether or not they're appropriate with Omicron in particular seems to be a slightly different issue).