You have left out "life experience". I would stack my knowledge of Micro/Molecular biology against the majority of those 2,000 WSJ reporters. (I have a degree in the subject (including epidemiology, virology, various biochemistry studies, pathological micro, microbial genetics, ect.))
Furthermore, I was born and raised in South Texas. I had a first hand seat at the cross border healthcare flows during the 1982 and 1994 peso collapses. Plus I had colleagues who lived in the Rio Grande valley and one has retired there. Going across the border (both ways) for just about anything, as day trips, is a common practice.
Finally, consider the following. Why did New York City get hit so hard initially? Could it be that the early stage hotspots in Europe, were flying into NYC? After all, NYC is a the most common arrival point into the US from Europe, is it not? Of course, if that was the case, how did the virus become so prevalent in the early European hotspots? (I leave that research as an exercise for the student.)
Does this mean I am parroting some "celebrity hollywood

lawyer" or that I had already come to the same conclusion independently, based on my early training and life experience?