Travel restrictions and business closures aimed at stopping the spread of a new virus that has killed more than 300 people in
China could end up causing ripple effects that harm the global economy, experts say.
“When you stop planes and ships, trains and and motor vehicles from moving, it starts to shut down the
economy — and that can have a cascading effect throughout society,” Dr. Eric Toner, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said Saturday, after multiple airlines announced that they would suspend or cut back on flights to and from China, and several countries, including the U.S., imposed travel restrictions.