The Prime Minister of Jamaica is getting worried about Brits flying into his country. Two of them, he said yesterday, have already brought the coronavirus and he might consider a travel ban. The public reaction to his announcement was one of outrage. Consider a ban? What’s to consider? The Brits have the lurgy, so stop them arriving: put country first. Donald Trump made a similar point and, typically, was lambasted for it. But look around, and we see a lot of leaders behaving in the same way.

From Brussels, Guy Verhofstadt reached for the moral high ground by telling Trump to focus on American healthcare and not a travel ban for Europeans. But how much European solidarity is on display right now? The Italians are facing their worst peacetime crisis, but Angela Merkel has decreed that Germany’s supply of medical protective equipment is not for export. Her government stopped shipments of masks to Austria, Hungary and Switzerland. So much for the sanctity of the single market.

Christine Lagarde, now head of the European Central Bank, doesn’t even pretend to be willing to help Italians whose government bonds come under pressure: not her job, she said yesterday. Her remarks sent Italian government interest rates soaring. It’s as if the world is learning a new EU motto: in discrimine, stas solus. When crisis strikes, you’re on your own. But not completely alone. China has dispatched a team of medical experts — along with masks and ventilators — to Italy, in what seems to be a kind of virus diplomacy.