Posted on 02/26/2020 5:35:03 AM PST by Kaslin
With outbreaks raging in Italy, Iran, South Korea and other countries, U.S. authorities now predict coronavirus will strike Americans here, causing "significant disruptions to our lives." The warning came from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official Nancy Messonnier at a Tuesday briefing.
If the virus -- now dubbed COVID-19 -- starts to infect large numbers of people inside the U.S., here's what you need to know.
Is the virus spreading here now?
The only known U.S. cases are travelers to China, their spouses and cruise ship passengers. But people carrying the virus entered the U.S. before the Trump administration imposed travel and quarantine restrictions on Feb. 2. Those early arrivals are likely spreading the disease to others. As of Tuesday, the CDC insists that the virus "is NOT currently spreading in the community in the United States." Maybe, but the CDC assessment is based on a lack of testing and actual information. They're flying blind.
In six locations, including New York, federal labs are starting to test specimens from patients with flu-like symptoms to try to identify where in the U.S. the virus might already be.
Even that testing won't tell the whole story. People with no symptoms spread it, explains Marion Koopmans of the World Health Organization. It could become a "pandemic," meaning a disease that causes widespread death on several continents. Or it could fizzle out.
What should people do to protect themselves?
Stay out of hospital emergency rooms unless you are severely ill or injured. For now, it's the likeliest place to catch coronavirus.
Anyone unknowingly suffering from coronavirus is likely to go there. That's what "patient zero" in Italy did. When another coronavirus -- SARS -- struck Ontario, Canada in 2003, an infected man waited for 16 hours in a crowded ER, infecting those around him and launching an outbreak that killed dozens.
Some countries are canceling public events, closing businesses and schools, and urging people to stay home. Not so in the U.S., though Messonnier sees that coming and warns families to plan accordingly.
Meanwhile, if you take a subway or bus to work, wash your hands afterward and avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. The virus is transmitted mostly through coughs and sneezing, but also by touching surfaces like subway poles or chair rails after being touched by an infected person.
If it spreads, the CDC will recommend large-scale environmental cleaning. Think daily disinfection of subway cars and buses.
Are most U.S. hospitals prepared?
No. In the understatement of the year, the CDC tells health care workers to "take care of yourself and follow recommended infection control procedures." Truth is, those procedures don't work.
Even at Johns Hopkins -- one of the highest-rated hospitals in the nation -- research published last week shows doctors and nurses frequently spread bacterial infections from patient to patient, despite following CDC procedures.
Across the nation, 72,000 patients a year die from hospital infections -- spread mostly by unclean hands and equipment. If hospitals can't stop that carnage, how are they going to control a virus that can also spread in tiny droplets in the air? The answer is, they're not.
Health officials should be conducting boot camps to train hospital personnel in more rigorous infection control, similar to what's done in Israel.
Who is most at risk? Health care workers and their families.
This virus is so hard to contain that even top medical personnel are falling victim, despite access to protective gear. Iran's deputy health minister, spearheading the battle against coronavirus, now is infected. Messonnier conceded that in the U.S. there may be a problem supplying health care workers with protective gear. A stunning admission of health bureaucrats caught unprepared.
On Friday, Israel, which has no local spread so far, barred foreigners from participating in the Tel Aviv marathon and blocked foreign travelers from affected regions from entering. Here in the U.S., CDC officials dodged questions on Tuesday about expanding travel restrictions and screening. The next few weeks will show which country is making smarter decisions.
CDC’s Messonnier is Rob Rosentein’s sister and the WHO is a corrupt organization. This is a move to panic the US and crash the markets.
The author seems to seek to malign healthcare by hyping nosocomial infections.
Hospitals and staff work REALLY hard on this, in part to keep the staff from getting infected as well as protecting patients.
I get it this virus is easily spread, but not convinced it’s any more lethal than the flu.
“Not a word about how serious the virus is.”
Did say that 72,000 people die from various infections gotten in a hospital.
Agree. The CDC is also, if not corrupt, wildly incompetent and a day late and a dollar short.
But this stunt by Messonnier was purely political.
The flu is (in actuality) around 0.1%; the CDC, with their usual blend of incompetence, chicanery, and stupidity, likes to lump in the flu with other things like pneumonia, in order to puff up the numbers and push vaccines.
Because they can't spend ALL their budget violating the 2nd Amendment and spreading globull warming propaganda.
They are very strict about the cleanliness At the Blanchfield Community Hospital at Fort Fort Campbell, Ky.
At some point you’d have to bar travel from and to anywhere. Not good. Hopefully this virus will peak and things will get back to “normal”. But the lesson from this fiasco is to end globalism.
I take the PATH to work every day. I carry a few small hand sanitizers in my bag and disinfect my hands as soon as I get off the train. It’s prudent to do whenever. But you can’t let this thing rule you. You go to work and live your life. There’s been 3000 cases worldwide outside of China. People need to keep that in perspective right now.
Looks like it runs in the family! Zero (0) cases acquired in the US and it is time to close schools. Reminds me of a radio personality in DC who at the first mention of snow in the forecast would shout “ABANDON YOUR CARS NOW!!”
This is hysterical hype. Its flu season of course you should stay out of the ER and wash your hands 10 times a day. Not a word of panic over the thousands of people who have already died from the regular flu here this year while nobody has died from the coronavirus here. Most people who catch this virus recover completely.
Good article, thanks.
Processes that involve humans often show “fat” tails. This is because human processes are not random. Humans do not as a population act completely in random ways. There is always a small segment that is trying something different, based on experience and knowledge.
TIME TO PANIC!!!!!
.00000016 percent of the US is infected!
Look your doors and get the bunker ready!
Not proven. But studies of the cheap, well studied, and readily available compound are under way in China, with patients getting 400 milligrams a day for five days.
Bookmark.
I saw one of the fatality numbers at 0.7% for those outside China - well within bounds for a Flu that has no past history.
Is the USPS spraying all the mail? Think of what kind of Petri dish those places are.
I remember reading that one of the ways the Spanish Flu of 1918 spread was the mail system.
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