Posted on 01/30/2020 7:39:46 PM PST by DoodleBob
A Maryland doctor familiar with highly infectious diseases says U.S. residents should be more concerned about catching the flu rather than the coronavirus that’s making headlines.
“We’re in the middle of flu season,” said Dr. Brian Garibaldi, medical director of Johns Hopkins Hospital’s biocontainment unit. “It is much more likely that you’re going to come in contact with the flu than you are with the novel coronavirus at this stage of the game. I hope it stays that way.”
The same precautions taken to prevent the flu can also help avoid coronavirus, Garibaldi said. He urges everyone to wash their hands often, only cough and sneeze into a tissue or the inside of an elbow and stay home when exhibiting flu-like symptoms.
The biocontainment unit at Johns Hopkins was created in 2014, along with only nine others nationwide, in response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
The unit, formally called the Region 3 Regional Ebola and Other Special Pathogens Treatment Center (RESPTC), can be ready within eight hours to receive a patient with confirmed Ebola from its region, which includes D.C., Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
It’s a negative-pressure unit with three separate rooms for patients and the built-in ability to sterilize all the waste coming out of it.
The unit at Johns Hopkins has never been used to treat a confirmed Ebola case, but it has been the site of frequent training over the years, making it a valuable hub as new viruses evolve.
“The training and the procedures that we’ve developed have really led to an improved awareness and opportunity to enhance infection control throughout the hospital, so I think the entire health system is better prepared because of our efforts,” Garibaldi said.
Based on current information, coronavirus patients can be treated in airborne isolation rooms that all hospitals have, so they don’t need to be sent to a biocontainment unit, Garibaldi said.
“But since we have this resource, and we don’t know how likely it will be that we’ll have sustained person-to-person spread, our posture has been we’ll take care of the first patients as needed in our biocontainment unit,” Garibaldi said. “Then we have contingency plans, not just at Johns Hopkins Hospital, but all other hospitals through Maryland have the capability to provide care for patients if it becomes more than just a handful of cases in Maryland.”
For the 2017-2018 flu season, the CDC estimated that 45MM people got the flu ("Symptomatic Illnesses"), 21MM sought traetement, 810k were hospitalized, and 61k died.
As of this writing, the 'official' numbers globally this Johns Hopkins site (whether or not they're real numbers) is 9,776 confirmed cases, 213 confirmed deaths, and 143 confirmed recoveries.
I love the contrast of this article with a Tweetstorm from Dr. John Inglesby, the Director of the Center for Health Security of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. I guess Dr. Garibaldi didn't get the same memo received by Dr. Inglesby.
As I've said before, there are lots of people who think this is The Big One based on "authorities" telling us so or the actions of the Chinese government, or this web video or some other new media source of intel. There are some people who seem to think this is a fake, like the people who think Sandy Hook was a crisis actor play. Others think there IS something going on - we can't tell if it's a bad flu or SARS-like - but they smell the same smelly smells that accompany "climate change" scientists and activists, and see "experts" like Dr. Inglesby here who also think having a gun in a pandemic isn't a good idea , and recommend we adopt a cautious approach to monitoring.
I pray the sick souls get better, and the souls of the departed gain entry to Heaven. America should protect her borders and her citizens until this thing clears up or we get some credible intel. Let's not be insouciant, but as Dr. Garibaldi suggests, this likely isn't TEOTWAWKI.
1. Wow - 3 entire separate rooms....hope is not a method.
2. The problem will be absenteeism from the 30% sick, their caregivers, and the worried well. Just in time economy does not do well with half the labor force out.
He is well informed but he still has no idea how bad this virus is going to be. It may spread quickly but he doesn’t know. Nobody knows.
Well, that's a comforting statement.
My limited medical experience has shown me that one is far more likely to contract the Crown Royal virus. But it usually only lasts 12 hours or less.
Let’s hope it stays that way.
I suspect there were lots of health care professionals 'out sick' during that high water mark.
There is a lot of fear around what MAY happen, but not a lot of focus on what is LIKELY to happen. If the MAY becomes likely, then it's a cause for concern.
The challenge is that this will occur over a 6-8 week period simultaneously with all the currently existing demand, way overstressing a system with minimal excess capacity fir the intensive respiratory care that will be required for the sickest people. All of those health care workers also had their flu shot, reducing the incidence and severity of their illness. There’s no shot for this one yet. We will also close the schools, creating a childcare requirement that will take parents out of the workforce. The loss of labor pool participants will impact across the key nodes of every system in the country.
What ever happened to the wonder drug of decades ago, INTERFERON!
‘Draconian measures’: China allegedly cremating coronavirus victims in secret
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/draconian-measures-china-allegedly-cremating-coronavirus-victims-in-secret
Oh boy! 1918 Spanish Influenza sounds so much better!
As I said above, there are lots of really horrible scenarios that MAY happen. I remember during 9/11, we worried about the next shoe that would drop. In the days following the attacks, every low flying airplane was the Next Hit. I was driving up the West Side Highway and, literally, EVERY DRIVER slowed down when a low flying airplane flew low over the Hudson. Penn Station and Port Authority closed down a few times because of bomb threats - what we learned was that on any given day in NYC, several wackjobs call in threats to many major buildings; we just never knew about it but now, on the razor's edge, everything was closed.
Even on Sept 11, I remember listening to 1010 WINS and politicians were saying that 10,000 people died in the Towers. Of course, the real number was much lower...that didn't negate our FEELINGS of what MAY happen. The night of 9/11-9/12, a really nasty thunderstorm rolled through the NYC/NJ/CT area...a super loud thunderclap woke me and Mrs DoodleBob up; we thought it was a bomb. Everyone was on edge...but...by the Grace of God (and Giuliani...) the Really Bad Stuff never came to fruition.
Again, I don't doubt the fears. The PRC isn't noted for their honesty, and several Americans are wondering WHY we're still not protecting the borders. If one, really, really badly infected person coughs in the ICU of Columbia Presbyterian, it could get bad.
But, for now, I'm not willing to let my Worst Case Scenario drive my expected daily activity. This Nation has weathered many storms, external and internal. I suspect we'll see some bad things pop up here, but my gut tells me this won't be TEOTWAWKI, and I say that as someone who DID think 9/11 was TEOTWAWKI. Thanks for the post.
It may not be TEOTWAWKI, but it will probably be a 100 year suck-ex that few of us have experienced.
By the end of September, more than 14,000 flu cases are reported at Camp Devens—equaling about one-quarter of the total camp, resulting in 757 deaths.
That's a 5.4% Case Fatality Rate, which is lower than the percent of influenza deaths in America in 2017-2018 to influenza hospitalizations. Or, put more bluntly, the Spanish Flu was less deadly in a Camp one hundred years ago than the flu was to those so hospitalized one hundred years later.
Eh. Needs garlic.
Actually, you're much more likely to stub your toe.
But stubbing your toe doesn't kill you.
Regards,
Ask the med establishment what to do about viruses
I say colloidal silver
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