I have to admit that this thing is starting to look pretty scary. The number of cases that have been reported in the past couple of days have grown from 7000-9000+. Delta and American airlines just shut down all of their flights to and from China. Wuhan Coronavirus has spread to India, Nepal, Dubai, and virtually every Asian country as well as France, Canada, Australia, and the USA. So far it has not spread to any country in Africa or Indonesia yet – but it’s really just a matter of time. If you are planning to travel internationally any time in the next few months – it is likely that this will affect your travel plans – if it hasn’t already.

We in Hawaii are further from everywhere than anywhere else in the world – but the entire world comes here – including multiple daily flights to and from China. The chances of Wuhan not being here – are probably lower than the chances of it being here. That’s a big worry – the Honolulu International Airport only started screening for the virus yesterday – and frankly, that’s too late. How many thousands of visitors have come and gone from our airport since this started? How many from China? From Wuhan?

And, in our airport, everyone from everywhere encounters everyone else from everywhere else.

But, let’s hope that I’m wrong about all of that. Let’s hope that they find a solution soon. Let’s hope that a vaccination and a cure are imminent.

Personally, I’ve got plans to go to Australia in late February. Given the rapid spread of this virus – I’m not sure what the situation will be like at that point. There are currently nine cases in Australia – in some of the cities I plan on going to. There is a possibility that the virus will grow over that amount of time. There is a possibility it will surface here. Flights to other places may be cancelled.

The thing with a pandemic is that it happens very fast – so we have to be ready for plans to change.