With Trump censuring information through Mike Pence, what do we have to worry about?
16
Why can Iran test their people, and the US cannot?
18
Can you believe that Congress is “throwing” billions at Trump for this but not for The Wall. Ugh! The virus, of course, is coming from China through airports/ports, but the Mexicans! Also, Javanka and Stephen Miller are also making sure the poor stop spreading the virus by cutting the low-income home energy program that subsidizes people so they can afford not to freeze to death in he winter and boil to death in the summer. Mexicans and poor people! Oh wait, in Trumpworld they’re one and the same.
5
This answers a lot, if you don't test how can there be any new cases. Boy, trump has all the answers.
15
China bought us time and we squandered it.
15
Call your governor, mayor, state elected officials to get private bio-science labs to start testing independently and bill private insurance. Without this crucial step we will be at the mercy of the WH. CA peeps I am looking at you.
9
VP Mike Pence, leader of the coronavirus response will mobilize all of our resources for massive nation-wide prayer services to neutralize the virus.
14
On a related note, whatever happened to our Surgeon General? Was that position eliminated by the WH, too?
Just wondering. It would seem now would be a perfect time to hear from that person, if that's OK with Pence.
11
Is anyone else taking a close look at that white board photograph and seeing numbers WAY higher than world news has been reporting?
Kuwait 43? So many more countries than I’d read before.
These numbers are stunning!
9
“strict Federal criteria.”
When read aloud, and listened to, carefully, this almost
sounds as if these are generalizable, empirically-based
criteria. Valid in their certainty and predictability. Not
flawed by sightable/siteable “outliers,” within a replicable
scenario of total control. For each of our efforts.
ALLis known! Really?
A flawed human’s description, systemically rooted, and
garbed as a reasonable explanation, in
which humanly- created statistical “likelihood-”
a concept-confronts a medical team’s need for
certainty about a SPECIFIC person who
can’t breathe on her own. NOW!
When will “ What if I am wrong” infect US ALL,
enabling each of US to “Fail better?”
1
Why no mention in the NY Times about Scotland launching a wealth probe into Trump's possible money laundering through his purchase of his golf courses. they wonder just how a bankrupt real estate guy who couldn't get a legitimate loan managed to pay for these courses.
6
.. to all who are anti-vaccinations because it "causes " autism or other urban legend explanations- I wonder when the affective vaccine is available if you are going to want one....
7
Not only is the US not ready, but the Trump administration’s massive, bumbling coverup and complete opacity over the real state of the country’s coronavirus infection has done the world irreparable harm.
All you have to do is compare our absolute lack of reporting from the CDC to the statistics available from every other country in the world.
It’s as if the CDC’s only purpose now is to obfuscate and confuse people about what’s really happening here.
Not only is this going to compound the panic internally within our country; but it is also going to turn every country outside our borders against us.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the rest of the world enacted a ban against US citizens traveling into their countries from anywhere.
We are complete unknowns, and because of our wholly untested status, must all be considered potential carriers of COVID-19 until resoundingly proven otherwise.
Nancy Messonnier and the other Chief Propagandists of the CDC have lost all credibility in their acquiescence to this coverup.
It is yet another Crime Against Humanity committed by this administration.
Trials should begin immediately in the World Court, and the criminal conspiracy running the US should be rounded up, and put away for good.
There are no words resounding enough to describe this abject failure!
9
It would help if we had a President who believed in and valued science.
7
I have two questions: 1) why did the CDC make this decision re: its policy on who to test? Was this a top-down (from the WH) decision? I’ve never been one for conspiracy theories, etc., but because of how Trump has been running his Administration, this question needs to be asked. And, 2) who made the bonehead decision to NOT use the CDC to evacuate people coming back from overseas? That was a huge mistake, ahem.
6
@Wolf201:
As reported in the NYT and everywhere else, the State Department -- Mike Pompeo -- overruled the CDC in bringing back U.S. citizens from abroad. There was actually an argument on the tarmac outside the airplane before they loaded everyone up. The CDC said that infected people shouldn't be included on the same flight with uninfected. But they lost the argument.
It was so bad that the CDC then demanded its name be taken off the press release announcing the evacuation.
Again, this was well covered in the press.
12
This Trump's FEMA moment, only that the situation is much more dangerous, and requires a much more sophisticated response. It is shocking that the US is less well equipped to deal with the Covid-19 threat than Italy.
As only about 5% of those infected become critically ill, there are at least 20 times as many infected as there are patients rushed to the hospital for not being able to breathe.
Trump and his gang of incompetent grifters won't be able to hide this for long, because the disease is so highly infectious, and will affect everyone.
6
After the horse was out of the barn the officials in charge of the operation said they will now definitely be closing the barn door.
5
It says everything one needs to know about today's America that both Trump's HHS secretary and Nancy Pelosi agreed on one thing: when there is a vaccine, Americans will have to pay for it. We simply cannot let silly things like pandemics get in the way of corporate profits. USA, baby.
7
Yet, for at least two weeks, the comments section of the NYT has been inundated with angry criticism of the Chinese government for NOT calling in the CDC-USA to manage China's Covid-19 crisis on their behalf. It's starting to look like Beijing made the right call.
And in another striking Corona volte-face, sources in the British government are now being warmly positive about China's Covid control strategy - and beginning to discuss how their model of compulsory control could be applied in the UK. Jeremy Hunt, ex-Foreign and (and previously Health) Secretary pointed out today: "The WHO is now talking about possible infection rates of 70% - and China managed to keep theirs at 5%..."
5
There will be (and most likely already are) many people infected with the corona virus who will get sick and will recover without ever knowing it was the corona virus because .... it’s a virus who gives you cold like symptoms! Most infected people won’t be severely ill. Take precautions like washing your hands, not touching your face and not going to places where there’s an outbreak, but don’t panic. This will pass soon.
3
There is one and only one person ultimately responsible for the federal government's repeatedly-demonstrated incompetence: President Donald John Trump. Based on what his government has done so far, it's impossible to not suspect that Covid-19 will rapidly spread in the U.S. Unfortunately for DJT, the subsequent breakdown of society would probably lead to a crippling, albeit temporary, recession, likely dooming his re-election prospects.
3
Is it possible that the Corona virus could end up being Trump's undoing? So many of the things that he has done since he became our president, and is continuing to do still now, aides and abets the spread of the disease. Our government is doing as poor, if not a poorer job handling the disease so far as China did.
4
This virus is being spread by people who travel, especially people who travel internationally.
If governments were actually serious about stopping the spread of this virus, or at least slowing it down, the way to do so is simple. Stop all travel, especially all international tourism, worldwide. Cancel all tourist visas. Close all tourist attractions. Cancel all sporting events and conferences. Ban all political rallies and voting. Ban all cruise ships. Shut down all venues where large numbers of people gather and mingle with each other, including places of worship, restaurants and movie halls. Seriously consider shutting down all schools, colleges and daycares.
Or else, just accept the fact that this virus will spread and do nothing of actual use. Occasionally send out messages that there is nothing to worry about, the situation is under control and there is no need to panic, emulating Nero who fiddled while Rome burnt. And wait for millions to die.
3
However Trump blames China for its delayed response to the coronavirus or the lack of transparency in its handling, the absence of testing protocols for the coronavirus infected cases and delayed treatment on such an alibi in the US too do clearly reflect Trump administration's Ill preparedness rather criminal neglect to meet the global health emergencies such as caused by the new coronavirus epidemic/pandemic. However, given Ttump administration's low priority to the public healthcare, let alone his disdain for science, and the mess he created in the public health system after killing the Obama built Affordable Care Act this was obviously expected of him. That is why he shouted down the media also when questioned the other day.
3
Solano County also happens to be where Travis Air Force Base is located, which welcomed the over 200 US citizens recently repatriated from Wuhan. If HHS workers were in contact with these people without proper training or protective gear, and then went back into the general population, this seems a possible vector of transmission. As regrettably and avoidably unfortunate as this scenario would be, I find it more plausible and less alarming than the scenario where this woman was infected by the coronavirus “out of nowhere”. If this hypothesis is correct, then all 13 of those workers should be traced, as apparently they used commercial airlines and services once they left Travis, and more cases should be expected.
9
By not (or hardly) testing, the number of infections remains very low for the USA. I fear that soon you will be confronted - like so many other countries worldwide - with a widespread occurrence of this virus.
The fact that no media are allowed to publish anything about the evolution of the virus without prior consent of VP Pence, is a very bad sign of infringement on the freedom of press and/or speech.
Only in countries with a dictator have I seen this kind of restrictions. Scary.
8
"The C.D.C. operates two laboratories that test for the coronavirus and can handle approximately 400 specimens per day."
Seriously? That's it? Sounds like a plan a "stable genius" would put together.
5
The cynic in me says maybe the federal government just doesn’t want a flood of positive tests coming in because of, you know, the economy, the election... or is it really that hard to ask China how they tested so many people so quickly?
4
The virus is going to spread via the homeless who walk through the New York City subway system begging for money, food, etc. a closed area where everyone is packed together like the proverbial can of sardines. Those who inhabit the streets in cities San Francisco and Los Angeles are also going to be vectors. No one is going to want to walk to work and offices will shut down. The virus is going to go viral.
1
It almost seems deliberate. If CDC can’t or won’t test for covid-19, the number of confirmed cases will remain low. And, the Trump administration can make the evidence support their lies.
5
From the NYT's own reporting:
"Pence Will Control All Coronavirus Messaging From Health Officials
Government health officials and scientists will have to coordinate statements with the vice president’s office, one of three people designated as the administration’s primary coronavirus official."
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/27/us/politics/us-coronavirus-pence.html
How is this any different from the censorship in China??
7
The fish stinks from the head down.
2
Every bureaucracy tends to operate with similar flaws and blind spots . The CDC and US government is now experiencing the same issues the Chinese bureaucracy has recently gone through.
The Toronto Canada region went through this with SARS . Health care workers and others were exposed and some died because of initial protocol management that was bureaucratically flawed.
1
A CT scan of the lungs is the most effective way to test for Covid-19, according to a doctor I know. If that’s the case, the hospitals already have a way to test without the CDC kits.
I hope the New York Times investigates this question.
I am on side of CDC when it comes to being cautious about testing for virus outside its criteria.
Why have this center specifically dedicated for a control of disease if you don't respect the folks there.
This being America – I would not be surprised if folks who were tested but failed the test that is they were free of Wuhan – would sue for damages.
And before long, it would be a class action lawsuit. And then, a cosmic injunction – and the whole politics of it.
This discussion brings to mind what Churchill has famously said, ”America will try everything wrong before it finds the right thing” or words to that effect.
I am following news from England since I have to travel to Spain in a few weeks. It’s in mainland Spain now, so people who travel from there should also be tested.
The United States is woefully behind. The Trump administration’s decision to gut programs that deal with infectious disease was irresponsible. I live in California in the San Francisco Bay Area near Solano County, and I am angry about what HHS staff did, but the administration doesn’t care about what people like me think.
4
I feel safer knowing that Pence is in charge and the number of confirmed cases cannot grow rapidly since we can only test 500 people a day.
1
I’ve been saying it for 6 weeks, the US has been taking a reactionary vs a proactive role in containing this virus. I think part of the problem is that we have never had SARS or MERS scares on our soil and so our federal public health officials are not prepared or can’t even rationalize an outbreak of this magnitude. (And let’s not even talk about budget cuts to the CDC).
I think the CDC is following orders from WH officials to not roll out more tests kits to states because that would derail straw man’s (Pence) capacity to frame the situation since the CDC has to get his permission to make public announcements. States with kits would be able to test and report individually and that is a scary predicament for the WH.
Where is private enterprise in the US to help innovate on test kits? I am sure private labs have the capacity to develop something quickly and roll it out? They’ve developed a vaccine for it right? Why has S Korea been so good at testing and we cannot even start testing. Let’s bring some Korean counterparts to help.
5
I have a comment and a question.
1. One problem that is now becoming obvious is that despite the enormous wealth of the country, the U.S. health care system lacks the capacity to handle a surge of cases, such as are bound to accompany a new epidemic. Even testing, let along treatment. Why? Because health care in this country is treated first and foremost as a profit-making enterprise, like sellilng automobiles. Excess capacity doesn't make much sense if the main motivation of health care providers and insurers is to make the largest profit possible. Would we expect a car dealership to stock a lot more cars than they normally sell?
2. My question is, how long after a person become infected does he/she become contagious. For example, if a person is infected today and without knowing it gets on a plane tomorrow, are the other passengers of the plan already at risk?
There might not be a simple answer, but I suspect that no one knows for sure. By far the largest number of cases are still in China and that regime has shown more interest in controlling the news than in reporting everything that their medical experts are discovering about the virus.
Unfortunately our own government in the U.S. seems to be following suit, at least at the highest level. Mike Pence has to give his ok to public statements by the medical expert!
6
Chinese government won't cover bad news until overcome the virus, because enemies such as the USA all over the world focus on Wuhan and China. In the contrary, no one could superior Mr Trump, so may be he could forget ease the bad thing occuring in his authority.
"The C.D.C. had distributed diagnostic testing kits to state health departments, but they turned out to be flawed."
How can we be "ready" if the CDC test kit doesn't work? The kits sent to CA had a "bad component" which is like saying your car had a missing wheel. They were useless. So until the information about how and why a "bad component" could have been allowed to get through the QA/QC process, before being distributed to the public, is made public, this gives me no confidence in the diagnostic test manufacturing process the CDC uses. What company is responsible? What corrective measures have been instituted?
I realize this may be "noise", but without some clarity here, the hand waving by Azar, Pence and the "miracle" guy, there's no way to assess our "readiness", especially after the genius fired the pandemic response team put in place by his predecessor and nemesis, the man who cared about the health and safety of American citizens.
17
Unlike the US, the South Korean government put together a task force mid-January in anticipation of this epidemic. Their approach was to develop an effective testing protocol, as well as to isolate those who tested positive.
Virus detection kits were developed and these kits received approval in Europe and South Korea. They also certified testing facilities and put together a system of multiple sites for testing. In other words, the government actually implemented its plans. Unlike the tests that take days for results, I learned that these tests take 6 hours - drastically improving the opportunity to isolate the person.
It takes time and effective managers to implement such plans.
20
Consider: In addition, it takes a living culture of
personal accountability by policymakers, elected and selected.
At all levels! Daily.
It takes a personally accountable diverse people,
citizens as well as not, to choose to
BE, by words and deeds actively responsible.
Both for what IS, which shouldn’t BE, and
what ISN’T, which is needed. Daily.
It takes the effective containment of viral complacency.
It takes isolating infectious “complicity.”
It takes ALL of US in order to create a sustainable difference.
This is a question for anyone who can answer it and I have asked in the past, with no one willing to answer. COVID-19 has made it imperative to ask again.
Can we, the American people, sue Donald Trump for breach of oath and imperiling our health and safety?
The list of crimes committed by tRump and his appointees is entirely too long to recite, but the current attempt to withhold data from the American public regarding potential life and death information on the Coronavirus is beyond what is allowed in a Democratic Republic.
10
@2manyhorsez
As was pointed out in the UK's Daily Mail (in response to a leaked document proposing possible treatment triage for Covid-19 cases that prioritised state healthcare to the young and economically active), if Corona gets as bad as some fear, there will be no courts to sue in or judges to hear, post-apocalypse. You'll probably end up seeking compensation at the point of a crude home-made spear.
3
Health insurance, including single-payer universal insurance, is of no use if there are no doctors available, and no candidate, let alone Trump, is talking about that reality in many parts of our country.
For instance, an article in the Albuquerque Journal awhile back noted that the largest health care system in New Mexico did not have a single primary care doctor accepting new patients. Lest you on the coasts simply dismiss this as the price one pays for living in flyover America, I would note the same article stated that in Massachusetts, with the highest doctor to population ration, the average wait for a patient to see a new primary care doctor was fifty-seven days.
For those who think free medical school would solve the problem, I would note that most doctors (and most readers, I would bet), when starting out, want to go to a place that they view as cosmopolitan, safe, and with good schools for their kids, not rural and poor urban communities.
Again, no candidate is talking about this, making universal insurance a largely empty promise even if fulfilled.
9
I'm very concerned that the difference between the US and other countries that they are testing more people. NYC may have a potential case, but it has to be confirmed by the CDC in Atlanta - why can't we test cases locally, and therefore have a speedy response? In about a year, we'll see how well our expensive and imperfect healthcare system compares to "socialist" (cue the screams!) healthcare systems in Europe.
15
We've just had our first case of corona virus confirmed in New Zealand. The 60 year old NZ citizen had returned from Iran and tested negative twice and on the third test was tested positive. Animals can also get the virus and that would include chooks, cows, and all those animals that are bred to export and get the nations debt down. This is nothing like the flu and is worse and can have a worse effect on the economies of nations.
10
@CK Interesting that there is a verified report of a pet animal testing positive for caronavirus in Hong Kong. How did that happen? How were test kits available to veterinarians in Hong Kong? What symptoms prompted the vets' response to test for caronavirus?
Did the animal become infected from other animals, or from humans (a different and more serious situation)?
We know the virus likely originated from virus-ridden bats in China, butchered/handled and/or consumed (look up "jenbu") by locals around Wuhan.
200 kits in California? Gonna need a bigger boat, asap. But this is a global problem. In Japan, where we're farther down the spreading path, official government guidance is "for the first 4 days of High fever, self care, don't visit any facility. If on Day 5 the fever is still high, call this hotline and they will direct you regarding next steps." Not exactly comforting, that. But the fact of the matter is that there just isn't capacity to deal with anyone that is not severely ill. Just like in the Fukushima disaster, where they completely downplayed the accident because they couldn't move 20M people in Tokyo if they needed to. The CA woman definitely qualified as severely ill, but if anything this near pandemic shows how unqualified almost any country is to deal with what is a reality of life in the 21st century.
9
The relative of a friend traveled from Africa through both the Singapore and Hong Kong airports, landing at JFK yesterday. JFK was the only airport that did not screen all passengers and crews. I hope Dr Pence can contain this virus.
9
For the U.S. to be "ready" it would require a network wherein everyone can communicate into a real-time data base. This does not exist. All the many jurisdictions lack a coordinative principal. However, this can be fixed.
4
Travis Air Force base (where US patients were being quarantined) is in Solano county, and there’s reporting that quarantine procedures weren’t rigorously followed. I don’t imagine it’s a coincidence the first US case without prior travel risks originated there
18
that may have raised index of suspicion and is the reason doctors pushed for testing. but the reason that was the first such case detected was because it was the first such case tested. cdc has its head in the sand and the testing situation is a disgrace.
3
Two points. No one has told us what to do if we become ill. There aren't now nor will there be enough test kits. This test should be given to anyone with symptoms.
7
The C.D.C. remind me of the drunk who looks for his lost keys under the streetlight.
C.D.C. Director Robert Redfield says that "the risk to the American public is low.... Until the last case that we just had in Sacramento we hadn’t had a new case in two weeks."
Someone tell Refield that if he doesn't test there won't be new cases -- until there is a deluge of them.
25
CDC officials "unaware" that doctors had made an urgent appeal, "faulty testing kits"--we are now officially a third-world country.
34
In a 20 person office, 2 individuals left to vacation in Paris tonight. Each in their 30's. Why? "Gotta live your life" ok but I work here too and I have no say on this. I have to breathe the same air, touch the same surfaces as you and I'm 30 years older than you? Go, live your life but what if it seriously harms me and my family? Your other co-workers? Just NOT right. You should be quarantined when you come back.
On a separate note, if Katrina didnt wake us up to the utter incompetence of the government, nothing will. This is not a Hollywood movie yet we believe in the government to behave seriously. Hogwash.
18
Everyone should listen to Laurence O'Donnell's interview today with Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA), whose district includes Solano County. He said the entire state of CA has only received 200 test kits. Labs in CA are NOT ALLOWED BY THE CDC to test for corona virus, even though they are quite capable. South Korea has been producing test kits and COULD provide the US with thousands within a day or so.
29
@M H Now we see the result of cutting CDC budgets and, much worse, the insanity of firing the pandemic response team the previous administration had wisely put in place after the Ebola and SARS epidemics.
Those kits the CDC sent to CA were useless, as they had a "bad component". No word on how that happened (critical information!), nor on how we can be confident the "new and improved" kits are effective, no word on production capacity nor delivery specifics.
The lack of information, and the obvious WH throttling of that information is making this situation worse than it should be. Incompetence at the national level, as we're witnessing, cannot be allowed to continue in this country.
4
If you don’t test, you can say there aren’t any cases. Simple!
4
In 2017, I published an article about the Trump Administration's actions which would retard our ability to detect, prepare for, and prevent a pandemic. The anti-science nobs involved in his administration are not competent. A political appointee ambassador with no medical training handled the ham-fisted evacuation of cruise-shippers. The only way this situation is going to improve is for the medical community to band together and make demands and also create some other testing sites. Pence who was responsible for an HIV epidemic in Indiana while he was out to prayer. will be of no value.
18
This is a perfect example of the incompetence that riddles the administration.
10
If I read news reports correctly, A whistle blower reported potentially infected individuals were quarantined on Calif. air force bases and health care workers there came and went into contact with them without proper exposure gear or preparation and then flew commercial flights!
How incredibly stupid was this?
My guess is Trump will want to immediately know the whistle blowers name, but the rest will be ascribed to fake news.
20
This is probably the origin of the California case.
3
CDC states until now - no community transfer of COVID-19. This claim must be "true" when the CDC only tests travelers from areas with significant COVID-19 cases. The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence. It's clear the logical fallacy that if you don't look for a smoking gun, you don't find one. Hello CDC - fix it now!!!
19
Sure, why not! Put Pence in charge. Same guy that looks at the NASA sign. DO NOT TOUCH> He proceeds to touch it as if... Be assured tho. He was appointed by the guy that stared at the SUN during a solar eclipse. We did tell the kids not to but.... He's Mr Man. What could go wrong?
12
Editor of NYT:
Medical journals are now allowing the public to read their articles on the coronavirus for free.
Please also allow the public to have free access to factual articles related to the coronavirus.
43
We wouldn't want to find cases and spoil the Trump narrative.
15
Our own agencies are aiding and abetting this virus to carry on it's deadly path. ...You cringe in horror at our prospects of staving off this incurable disease. ...Rapid changes in attitude and strangling regulations must be focused on to protect this nation. ...Politics must be thrown out the window. Strong leadership must come to the forefront with sane, educated procedures to be implemented now. ...300 million people have to be informed how to do the minimum of washing hands and staying alert. ...We don't need to panic but as the world-economy slows we must stock up on the things we use medically and in the household.
5
Patient is in Solano County; where Trump brought the infected Americans. Pence has his finger on the censor button; so we will hear no more
15
We know from experience that Mike Pence will say whatever the Don tells him to say. So don't listen to anyone but an experienced health care professional who doesn't have to get approval from a man who has told over 15,000 false claims since becoming IMPOTUS. Remember what the Freedom Medal winner said just a week ago i'ts just a bad cold. He councils 45 on a regular basis.
8
This sure threw a lid on the Hong Kong crisis, didn’t it?
3
Use this story as your warning. Prepare and enact preventative measures NOW! Limit your need to leave the house. Stock up on toilet paper and things you use every day. Have your meals delivered by one of the many services out there. They're not that expensive. Wash your hands. Never pick your nose.
5
Is the U.S. ready? Is anybody?
3
for those pedaling wishful thinking fueled by willful ignorance consider this...
"Even asymptomatic people who are infected may be able to spread the virus. But people without symptoms are rarely tested."
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/26/health/coronavirus-asymptomatic.html
4
Let's all panic and declare the works to be over. At least that is what our destructive and idiotic media would like us to do.
2
The ultimate irony (and a pathetic one at that) is that if the stock market wasn't crashing this would have gotten even less attention from this administration.
14
Re the new UC Davis case, assuming he uses a cell phone, his google maps track should be tracked and cross referenced to any locations, restaurants for example, where anyone one recently back from China had also been. An AI type program could probably deploy an appropriate analysis.
9
@RjW - :) And this is why my phone never leaves the house and is always off unless I need to check it for a moment or two for messages. Americans complain about Chinese surveillance yet are even more tracked than they are.
And you are making quite an assumption that a Chinese-American goes to China and runs a restaurant. One step away from Japanese internment.
1
The CDC website had complete instructions showing how medical labs across the world can test for the virus themselves. They are purifying RNA from patient samples and using a common technique called quantitative PCR to amplify viral genes. Most biotech labs across the world have this equipment. The protocol takes a few hours and hundreds of samples can be run at once.
I see how sending the samples to the CDC would be needed to confirm, but why can't medical labs with the appropriate bio-safety levels be used for checking possible local cases across the US right now?
15
It’s not good business for the WH to have widespread testing ability because it would derail their message that everything is under control.
2
The new testing criteria represent extreme irresponsibility and criminal negligence on the part of CDC and HHS. Waiting till someone is ill enough to be hospitalized, and for whom other diagnoses have been ruled out, puts physicians, health care workers, families, and entire communities at risk. One thing we do know about Corona Virus is that it is very easily spread even before symptoms occur. By the time the American public realizes how badly they've been misled, thousands will be sick, and hundreds will have died.
16
@MSC - If it was easily spread, it should be all over Seattle since the first case landed here about a month ago and is no longer under quarantine. The hospital/CDC sent him home two weeks ago.
Meanwhile, 70 folks across the state have died from flu this season. We have had more folks shot while waiting for a bus in this city than deaths from coronavirus so far this year.
2
Anyone else concerned that the president owns a chain of resort hotels that will lose money if people stop travelling due to concerns about coronavirus? How convenient (for Trump) if the federal government is allowed to decide who gets tested where.
15
Had CDC said that it offered to help China to combat coronavirus? I wonder what they were able to offered. Instead, It now more looks like the US CDC needs China's help to just test cases quickly.
9
".....If more community-acquired infections turn up, and the disease cannot be contained, the strategy will have to become one of mitigation, said Dr. Neil Fishman, associate chief medical officer for the University of Pennsylvania Health System.
“That’s a little difficult to do when you don’t have a readily available test, and when the turnaround time for the test can be days instead of hours,” he said......."
I can only add; don't be psychologically impeded by the difficulties testing. Old medicine worked too. Treat all patients as though they had the disease. Treat the symptoms just as you have for years. Think of it as a challenge to not know too much but to do much to assure a cure.
4
The issue isn’t just about treating the patient. It includes tracking individual contacts and protecting heath care workers. When the symptoms are mild, it could be a cold. Do we put out all of the stops for a fever?
From my understanding the CDC said they will now also test people with severe lower respiratory infections. I believe this will still leave us one step behind the virus. To contain the virus better we need to be one step ahead. I believe cities with a lot of international business travel and Asian travel, Ie SF, NYC, Silicon Valley, LA need to have much more testing done so we can more quickly know whether this virus is already in our midst. With the high numbers in South Korea and Italy, I believe it is. The administration needs to know we are great need of protective gear for our health workers. With Coronavirus patients also being sent to various hospitals and the areas of the base and elsewhere in US I believe also is not safe. Containment by barrier protective gear is not full proof as the NYTimes reported over 1700 healthcare workers in China contracting the disease over a week ago. Quick, without sacrificing quality, manufacturing of test kits, face masks, other protective gear. Lastly, no offense to our current administration but the one greatest mistake in China was the government trying to contain the voices warning of the seriousness and needs of this illness and the healthcare community. With the information and knowledge changing on a daily basis clinicians need to know the most up to date unfiltered information quickly to make wise decisions when treating their patients. They know through years of training the validity and importance of the news out there.
6
"Doctors at the University of California, Davis Medical Center, near Sacramento, provided the woman with critical care but also considered an unlikely diagnosis: infection with the coronavirus." UC Davis campus is near Sacramento; UC Davis Medical Center is *in* Sacramento.
10
I feel like the government is treating this situation like asylum victims. You have to put yourself into a pretzel to meet the perfect criteria. Meanwhile we are spending millions on the president’s travels to his properties.
17
Think it's too late to apologize and ask if China could spare some experts to help the CDC? We could offer to trade one very stable genius....
15
Amazing that so many of your readers choose to blame Trump for a virus in China that was not reported early enough. There is no magic pill here and I do believe Trump and the government are trying their best to find a vaccine while trying to keep hysteria at bay. It can take years to find the vaccine no matter how much money is thrown at it. Cancer is the best example.
Trump gutted a lot of of the programs that could help in situations like this. Research it , it’s very easy,
5
@I Hear Ya
If Trump is so anxious to contain this virus, why did he gut the CDC?
4
This impending global epidemic is the most exciting and anxious event for a long time. If it really takes off then the call “bring out your dead” as the mortuary cart passes by may enjoy renewed currency. If forty percent of Americans contract it, and the death rate is between two and three percent, then there will be about three millions dead. The German health authorities have advised that they have lost track of contacts and people should expect an epidemic. If the Germans can’t contain it then neither can the United States.
4
Tough luck! This is the inevitable result of putting the science-deniers and the cost slashers in charge. Now we have Mike Pence, who did such a good job of stoking an HIV epidemic in Indiana, in charge of this effort. We’ll be lucky to escape the worst.
15
What is going on at the CDC? Even under the revised standards, if you haven't traveled to a virus hotspot or haven't been in contact with someone who has the virus, you can only be tested if you are severely ill. Which means someone can present with all the symptoms, yet not be quarantined and continue walking around infecting others because they don't fit the testing criteria. Crazy! Ms. Sauer must be listened to by the CDC.
18
Trump & Co do not want people to be tested. Better to be able to blame sickness and possible death on the regular old flu. No responsibility on their part.
16
From the NYT today: "The White House moved on Thursday to tighten control of coronavirus messaging by government health officials and scientists, directing them to coordinate all statements and public appearances with the office of Vice President Mike Pence ...." Well, now, that's assuring. Isn't that how China handled their early outbreak? Controlling the message and punishing those who spoke out? Let's hope that health officials and scientists in the U.S. will feel free to speak out when necessary and that they will not be subject to tweets of displeasure (or whatever) from the White House.
18
I have complete confidence that the U.S. will handle this just fine. Appointing Pence was a good move and his taskforce will stay on top of this. What I wish, as a Democrat, is that my party stop politicizing this. What I wish, as a Democrat, is that the NYT and WaPo stop misleading the public about CDC funding (check out the facts thru the AP). What I wish, as a Democrat, is that Pelosi and Schumer help, not hurt, the WH in their efforts. What I wish, as a Democrat, is that Pelosi and Schumer stop fear-mongering about this issue. They should be questioning China's handling of this virus...how did it begin...exactly where did it begin...etc. And what I wish, as a Democrat, is that the candidates stop using this virus to make headlines...and instead tell us how they plan on increasing the job market...how they plan on keeping corporations in this country and attract more. My party is in terrible shape and their lack of judgement over this virus and the President has only deepened my shame that I'm a Democrat.
3
JG Smith I have complete confidence that you are not a Democrat. What I wish is that actual Democrats were handling this outbreak. We’d at least have a fighting chance.
5
Isn't it wonderful how the Trump Administration is right on top of the Coronavirus problem. Oh, I forgot there is not coronavirus problem.
8
It sounds like we need testing kits...Made in China.
7
And they're doing it again. They have three people in isolation at UC Davis but they'll only test one???!!!! Because only that one person is symptomatic. We know asymptomatic transmission is likely with this virus. They should test the other two so that if it's positive they can not lose any time in tracing those people's contacts. It took them a week to get the first set of results and now they're wasting more time.
14
@Xiao-Ping Liu Labs in CA stand ready to test but the CDC is not allowing them to do so. The CDC has supplied THE ENTIRE STATE with only 200 test kits!, per Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA).
7
Of course we are not ready. Trump has issued a gag order regarding anything on the coronavirus. His highly decorated buddy R. Limbaugh states "it's being weaponized for political reasons".
November 3rd cannot come quick enough.
19
I’d like to add some local knowledge to these comments. The woman at the UC Davis medical center is from the same town as Travis airbase—the same base where coronavirus evacuees we’re being “quarantined”. Thus the probable source of the virus is a poorly maintained quarantine. DNA sequencing might be able to confirm source by proving identity. I guess this is just a gift to CA from the federal government.
18
Why the whistleblower report is so important - those untrained HHS employees went back into the general population after being in contact with the Wuhan evacuees. It didn’t magically appear out of nowhere, like this comment.
2
This is pathetic. There should be test kits at the local level and in enough quantities to check people who complain of respiratory symptoms. How are we going to get ahead of this disease??
11
How were the ones that have died being treated ? Are we killing ourselves by taking pain relievers and fever reducers which might be compromising our immune systems ? The answer might be as simple as stop with the meds, take a super hot bath and get into a warm bed and give your body a chance to fight this bug. Stay in bed until the fever brakes and stay away from over the counter meds. This treatment works on the flu and might save your life.
Trump will do ANTHING to cover up this disaster, and therefore increase the disaster. With Trump, every success is based on selling his delusions. He doesn't care who gets sick or dies in his selfish false prophesies, as long as he looks good in the end.
But this is his likely Katrina. Where reality hits the pavement. His pathetic response to minimize this pandemic will be his undoing.
It is ironic that a deadly pandemic will bring this lying snake oil infection down. And also, very, very appropriate.
7
A South Korean company is making 300,000 test kits a day.
We are lacking tests kits to a criminally negligent degree.
Stupidity should be taxed with penalties for criminal negligence. After all, that’s what stupidity is. It’s no excuse. Trumps people think they. An throw there hands up. Well they’ll be putting up their hands when they’re arrested.
We’re left with learning how to never touch our faces and to stop shaking hands. Great.
13
"Pence has gagged all health officials from speaking in public about the threat of the virus without his prior approval, and instead he gave a pre-recorded interview to Fox News' Sean Hannity
And there was confusion over who is actually in charge..."
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8053577/amp/Mike-Pence-unveils-White-Houses-coronavirus-taskforce-just-THREE-doctors.html
11
The Three Stooges could develop a better testing protocol. Every hospital in America needs onsite testing and analysis capability.
This is maddening!
151
@Achilles Doctors asking to test someone and the CDC refusing. Think about it.
22
@Achilles Nobody had a handle on anything unless the infected show up at a hospital. What do you and all you experts think this, or any country, is capable of? Finger pointing is not the answer. It is not political.
2
@bellicose It may not be "political," but the state apparatus that coordinates and executes the response to such outbreaks is controlled by the federal government, which is ultimately run by politicians. Now, I hope those in control find their footing soon, and prioritize the health of the American public over whether or not the president looks good, but it's hard not to notice the difference in preparedness between this crisis and the Ebola and H1N1 outbreaks in the not too distant past.
23
What's interesting is the complete lack of transparency to date. It's the same in Japan where only limited testing is being done.
Without extensive testing public health officials can't get a read on the scale of the problem they're facing, the most appropriate courses to take, and the wide range of potential vulnerabilities that need to be addressed, e.g. in terms of medical supplies or staffing. It's like throwing darts at a dartboard in the dark.
The UK is piloting testing in the home as well as "drive-thru" testing, to minimise potential exposure of others to the virus in doctors' offices or hospitals.
Singapore has made the decision that in a crisis of this nature public safety trumps privacy. Each day that a further patient is confirmed to have covid-19 the Singapore Straits Times publishes brief details of where the person lives, where they work or which school they attend, and which doctors' offices or hospitals they may have attended before being diagnosed. Names aren't given but enough information is available to allow members of the public to assess whether they themselves may have been exposed to the virus. Information is also provided of when each patient has been discharged and which "cluster" - for example a church group or office - they were infected through. This has enabled very effective contact tracing as well as assuring the public that they do have a good idea of what is going on.
It's transparency that shores up public confidence.
10
It's California, a state Trump has written off. His attention may be better focused to expedite a response for unmet needs to deal with this plague in one of "his" states, being less the president of the US and more the president of those states that reflect affection for him.
7
Isn't there a new possible protocol to confirm diagnoses earlier, based on the readings of CT scans showing specific patterns and formations that consistently show damage to the lungs... isn't that an alternative to the lengthy delays from the CDC test that can be implemented where possible ?
3
CT scans cost thousands of dollars each and must be conducted on hospital grounds. Not a viable option.
3
@GY - I have had numerous CT scans both with and without imaging. One requires an IV where they inject a dye to observe with the scan. They take about the same length of time as an MRI and require people trained to use that equipment. The imaging one takes about 20 minutes as I remember. You will find this in the radiology department of a hospital. Its very similar to being put into an MRI although not quite as claustrophobic but these items are too big to toss into a station wagon and take on-site. And they are hooked up to all of the imaging recording machinery.
1
Why are there any testing criteria at all? Why wouldn’t they test whomever doctors’ expertise deem should be tested? Shouldn’t it be up to the doctors to determine when someone needs a test?
15
CDC needs to get its act together. At the same time, why must California, a rich state with among the most advanced hospitals and medical research facilities in the country, rely on the CDC for testing and kits?
15
Who does NY, a rich state with SOTA medical facilities, rely on for for these tests?
We’re all relying on the CDC.
2
"Frustration has been mounting among health providers and medical experts that the agency is testing too few Americans, which may slow preparations for an outbreak and may obscure the scope of silent infections in this country."
As was the case in China.
The Trump administration has learned nothing in the past six weeks.
15
Just imagine the people from all over the world who rub elbows in, say, Las Vegas. There are people from Europe and Asia and the Americas playing slot machines, eating at buffets and sitting in theaters.They take their discount flights home to Iowa and West Virginia and feel poorly a few days later because they have a cold. It's difficult to differentiate corona virus from a cold or mild flu, but that doesn't really matter to the sufferer becasue the treatment is the same-- rest and fluids. They get better but the virus gets passed to kids and elders and fatalities begin.
We should have seen this coming. I saw it coming, that travel hubs would spawn cases, and I'm not a very smart genius.
9
@D. Odomok - This is one of many reasons why I don't go to Vegas for the buffets...or the cruise ships!
The US is ready. The panic about corona virus spread is overrated. Mortality is between 0.4-2% dependent on the age group and mainly effects risk groups with other compromising health issues. Bottom line coronavirus infection though novel is not much worse than the flu. Caution is warrant but public Hysteria due to media coverage is uncalled for. Finally, I am disgusted by how many journalists and readers blame Trump for the situation or mention him in articles responses related to the disease. He did a fantastic job in a balanced sober presentation with Pence the CDC and the NIH on Wednesday.
3
The critical illness rate of this virus is currently estimated around 5 per cent. So, obviously there is no need to panic for individuals (especially generally healthy individuals). But there is very much reason for collective concern. Because with this rate of critical cases, the US health system cannot cope with a fast progression of the infection. (It’s not the total number of infections over time that’s most important, it’s the maximum number of moderately and critically ill people at a single point in time.) This means the spread - if it can’t be contained altogether - needs to be slowed down. And that in turn requires taking the issue seriously. Which Donald isn’t, because he simply cannot view anything except how it relates to him personally.
21
@lieberma
Yup. And you know, the Spanish flu was not such a big deal either, I mean, why such a fuss when millions die? We all die, right? Who cares? Trump doesn’t, and he is so wise, so empathetic, so kind and skilled and trustworthy and transparent.
7
I know he did the best job a president or any leader has ever done in the whole world in dealing with this oncoming pandemic. Especially saving us the money by dismantling our readiness for pandemic and discounting the science. We are so lucky to have him as our president we should just bow down to the ground and kiss his feet.
10
Thanks to budget cuts, we are woefully unprepared for something like this. A patient here in California may have acquired the virus from the general population and there are almost no testing kits.
One of the biggest hits George W. Bush took was over Hurricane Katrina. This act of nature certainly wasn't his fault, but the response to it was. Trump is playing down coronavirus because the financial markets are tanking. Pence is controlling the flow of information, so we probably aren't getting the straight story. This is no way for the Administration to prevent panic.
12
And of course Pence is the very best possible person to be running this oncoming pandemic. We should be so grateful to our leader and know that no one has ever had such an experienced leader ever.
3
He has studied the Bible so much more than I have. It’s the best source of instruction on plagues there is.
With Pence in charge, scientists and health professionals told to report to him before speaking to the Public, we are sure to conquer this Pandemic. Perhaps the House can call the Professionals in to confirm what is going on.
6
State officials (led by Newsom) need to step up and stop pointing fingers (to simply score cheap political points). California is on the Pacific Rim and most travel to and from Asia leaves from its ports and airports. They were aware of potential pandemics.
The Democrats in CA are sitting on a $7B surplus but rather than solve this and other immediate problems - homelessness, property crimes, etc - they're pursuing legislation to prohibit separate boys and girls departments in retail stores (AB 2826).
4
@Steve The CDC shipped out only a limited amount of tests. Also, there was a problematic component that had not been updated. Letting people who were under quarantine fly home on an airplane with non infected individuals seems to have not helped. I have been reading the updates on the New England Journal of Medicine. Get the facts from professionals. Not politicians with an agenda to protect one person.
11
It seems like the United States is getting further behind many other countries in all kinds of technology, including the ability to monitor the coronavirus.
16
The patient is from Solano County, where Travis Air Force Base is located. Travis AFB is where Americans from Wuhan and the cruise ship were evacuated and quarantined. It seems like the quarantine has not be effective.
18
Since we don't know how the California patient contracted the disease, why isn't there a move by the town where he or she resides to test all other residents?
3
How could they possibly test other residents when under CDC rules only people who have been to China or know someone who has been there qualify for the test. Not to mention the fact there is a severe shortage of test kits and probably not enough to test all the other residents even if they met criteria. They'd probably be better off flying to Italy and having test there, where not only do they have test kits, but they get the results in hours, not days.
18
It would make sense to prioritize the cases that are more likely, i.e. people showing symptoms traveling from China and Italy, if there were actually a cure to offer. But since there's not, and the purpose is rather to track the spread and try to stay ahead of it, they *should* prioritize the cases that are more of a mystery/seem less likely. Like, the new cases in places with seemingly no connection. No?
@ellienyc
It may come to that.
Travis Air Force Base in Solano county CA near Davis and Fairfield was exactly where the passengers from the Diamond Princess Cruise ship with its 705 confirmed cases and more found each day were flown!
It would be utterly unremarkable to discover a new COVID-19 case among these passengers and anyone who was near them or who was associated with anyone on the base who did janitorial duties, or housekeeping or food service. Since most cases of COVID-19 appear to be just a cold or flu until serious symptoms develop, anyone associated with Travis or related to anyone associated with Travis would be suspect. Travis was not set up as a highly contained location.
The CDC utterly botched the first set of test kits, with a faulty chemical that generates false positives. As a result, all tests must be flown to CDC headquarters to be read--a 48 hour time that almost certainly has influenced who may be tested.
It seems Travis was selected as the destination for the Diamond Princess passengers not because it has the appropriate facilities (it does not), but because it is as close as Trump could put it to Nancy Pelosi's district.
The UC Davis Medical center is a long way from Travis, but not testing anyone with serious COVID-19 symptoms within 100 miles of Travis is negligent--or far worse.
14
@Mark Johnson I would put money on theTrumps/Kushners having a financial interest in the company that manufactures the test, which I’m sure is run by the “best people,” who are probably not really equipped to make the Covid19 tests in the first place. It’s just that it’s potentially so lucrative, that the prez needs to be part of the solution. As for putting the Covid19 group as close as possible to Speaker Pelosi’s home district, it’s backfired on Trumpski and Javanka.
3
The TDS is strong in this one! Yikes!
The CDC needs to get a grip. Defective screening kits and doctors waiting for the Feds to decide if a patient should be screened for the virus. Doesn’t make me feel confident that the US has this crisis in hand. I guess Pence will sort it out with prayers.
18
Underreporting supports trumps belief that the virus isn't that bad and will go away on its own. The CDC is part of his government, and he is intent on bending every bit of it to do his bidding regardless of the consequences to the rest of us. So why is it any surprise that testing is tightly controlled and limited? This is what China tried to do BTW and we know how well that turned out.
15
"As the novel coronavirus continues to spread around the globe, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday accused the governments of China and Iran of censoring information about the outbreaks in their countries and putting the rest of the world at greater risk of its spread".
Mr. Pompeo and Trump Administration, stop censoring information about the outbreak in our country and putting the rest of Americans at a greater risk of getting sick and spreading infection.
9
In Korea, just one patient started a cascade of infection of over 1000 people prior to her testing and confirmation. That, despite Korean government's examplary tracking and testing anybody with symptoms.
Given the current state of CDC and NIH, we'd be a toast once the community spread takes place here in the US. Let's just hope that the fatality rate being less than 1% outside of Wuhan is true.
7
Family doctor here. This is community spread. The horse is out of the barn. We need to move to the next stage in fighting this.
Unfortunately Pence might muzzle the CDC and other government doctors, so we might not get straight information from the administration. In addition, sheer incompetence on Pence's part cannot be ruled out.
Go to nejm.org and listen to the Covid-19 update from two days ago. The New England Journal of Medicine is the country's leading general internal medicine journal and is not controlled by the US government.
28
I am feeling so much better knowing that Mike Pence is coordinating the government's response to the coronavirus.
The anticipated pandemic is in the capable hands of a career politician, who knows nothing about anything.
11
The fact that Trump is controlling the information we need with regard to the Corona Virus, is absolutely terrifying. He has ordered that all dissemination of information must go through Pence, his adorning sidekick, who has absolutely no knowledge of the subject. Experts in the field have been informed not to release information, but to channel it through Pence. Americans need to condemn Trump's misinformation and censorship, including his playing down the threat we face, and demand we hear from scientists and experts who recognize that we are not prepared for the spread of this virus.
4
With this new patient the NUMBER THAT WE KNOW ABOUT IS 60. Let's get real here! It matters.
2
I don't want to be callous but I will. The coronavirus may very well save us from four more years of Trump. He doesn't understand his own ignorance nor does he understand the deadly impact a pandemic presents. All his high and mighty pronouncements that “The risk to the American people remains very low.”....“We have the greatest experts, really in the world, right here.” We'll see.
7
We should ban all public gatherings except Trump rallies.
15
On the bright side, we can count ourselves fortunate that for most of his “presidency” there has been nothing to cause him to miss any tee times.
I went to the ER in Burbank, I was very sick..... not tested. I had to,request my own chest x-Ray because I felt I had pneumonia. They said it was clear. Sent me home. I got the results a few days ago, and it was NOT clear! On top of the Alaska Air would not let me change the ticket to,fly later, even with a doctors note. I told them I could believe they preferred I get everyone on the plane sick! I wore a mask, it still, they should have let me change the flight until I was better. It’s been about a month and still super weak, not well.
5
Lethal coronavirus. Trump puts Pence in charge. What could go wrong?
3
The reason they did not want to test, is because they have so few test kits.
3
The first, and most obvious step in my opinion is not to politicize COVID-19 - election year withstanding.
4
It appears the Trump plan was as follows:
1. find a semi-plausible place to house the Diamond Princess passengers (sick and not yet sick) for their 14 day quarantine.
2. Ensure that the location could not say no. (Military base--good choice!)
3. Ensure that the location was as close as possible to Nancy Pelosi's district.
4. Ensure full exposure of any airborne and sinkborn germs by flying the sick and the potentially sick on the same plane.
5. Fly them in and mix them with the general base population.
6. Deny testing when symptoms show up at medical centers in the area to let COVID-19 get a "healthy start").
7. Blame it all on Californians, Democrats etc.
8. Put Pence in charge (since he has already orchestrated a completely preventable HIV case explosion in Indiana by stopping a needle exchange program for many many months.
9. Blame it all on Californians, Democrats, CDC, etc.
11
Anybody else hearing “I know more than all the doctors and all the scientists.” I can only hope that serious governments around the can come up with solutions to stop this virus. But then the big obstacle for us will be to convicted our chief disease control officer (trump) that it’s not fake news.
3
Aren’t there lines and waiting lists of people for all illnesses? It would be good for the Times to work on lessening the anxiety instead of stirring it.
1
Is this due to the cuts made to the CDC?
3
I hope doctors and scientists defy the government gag order, and keep us informed. He can't fire everybody - can he?
7
The US is a third world country and will pay the price. This is a Biblical plague designed to rid the US of evil. So painful as it will
be it is to be welcomed for Trump is more dangerous than any plague virus.
We all, outside the basket of deplorables, are aware.
4
Has the pretend president gone into hiding yet?
(He puts father Pence in charge, so, when and if things get bad, he’ll blame everything on Pence. He’s so predictable. If things really get bad, he’ll swear up and down that he never even knew Pence.)
9
Trump should resign. Pence too. Let Nancy Pelosi handle it: our only hope...
5
CDC Algorithm: Fever or respiratory symptoms AND travel from China OR known contact with person known to be infected with 2019-nCoV (ie one who the CDC [and no one else] has confirmed as testing positive for the virus)
Trump’s gaming the algorithm so that community-acquired infections will NOT be tested and, therefore, will NOT be detected. Neither will infections caused by asymptomatic shedders or those that present atypically (ie with diarrhea) or those that initially test negative or those that falsely test negative due to a CDC diagnostic kit failure or those that the CDC refuses to test at all because of its nonsensical algorithm.
It’s a monkey “see-no-virus, hear-no-virus, speak-no-virus” approach that has the potential to threaten all of us if allowed to stand.
2
Lord Trump knows best, but in your heart you know he is wrong.
1
Among all Western nations the US is almost uniquely unable to combat the coronavirus epidemic. Our lack of universal health insurance coverage makes many people with weak to non existent health insurance coverage reluctant to seek care because of lack of disposable income. Hence, these people are most at risk and most likely to spread the disease.
1586
@simjam And add in the lack of sick days available to workers at many jobs, which will make it much more likely they will go to work rather than stay home and risk infecting more - because they have to keep their jobs and pay their bills. It is not a good situation.
764
@simjam
Also, the inability to properly "prepare" by stocking up on needed prescription medicines...many insurance providers will not refill a medication until a specified date after it has initially been filled. Waiting for delays either through production or distribution is going to be problematic to say the least.
256
This epidemic viral infection, with a higher death rate, apparently, than influenza, may serve to highlight our lack of universal health care for all as the security risk it is.
302
Massachusetts now saying hundreds being quarantied for possible coronavirus
2
I am not surprised. A friend of my father had returned from China and became ill and decided to have himself tested for the coronavirus. It cost him $11,000 to have the test done and insurance wouldn't cover it. Fortunately, he didn't have the coronavirus, but it is things like this that will seriously impede dealing with it and preventing its spread.
Most people don't have $11K to spend on a test.
It doesn't help that Donald Trump fired the team that was designed to deal with emerging pandemics and had cut funding for HHS and the CDC.
We are not at all prepared to deal with this. We've managed to dodge a few bullets before but I have far less faith that the current anti-science administration will be able to deal with it. Will Mike Pence deal with it the same way he dealt with HIV as governor? Will he pray it away? This is an administration that prides itself on NOT trusting or listening to the experts, especially if they don't praise the orange menace or cause the stock market to drop.
8
If you read the news carefully it’s clear that that we are not prepared at all. There are probably not even enough working testing kits available. The health commissioner of NYC told people on the radio to go to their GP if they suspect being infected. After a caller pointed out that this is the last thing people should do, exposing others in a small waiting room to the virus (and GPs do not even have testing kits) she did not have an answer.
Now I think China handled it actually pretty well. I doubt that Drumpf is able to build hospitals in two weeks and provide people with food and meds. In the meantime Pence and mother will pray while having a glass of warm milk.
6
In the face of severe funding cuts (in the proposed Federal Budget), I assume the CDC was trying to stretch their available resources and staff. Can you imagine the pressure they must feel knowing the administration wants to slash their budget while continuing to expect immediate responsiveness?
The Trump administration has shown incompetence since they stepped into the White House, and they have never improved. For too long the GOP has been banging a drum demanding "no new taxes" and "tax cuts." Slashing taxes, laying off staff, and cutting budgets will be detrimental to public health, infrastructure, environmental safety, and many other areas. This is happening now -- we can see the consequences of the lack of long term planning. It turns out that government services like the CDC are valuable and improve the quality of life -- or even the length of life.
7
Hmmm... I guess I get to do a little rash speculation. Solano County is home to Travis AFB. Some exposed people from overseas were brought to Travis to be put under quarantine. Maybe exposure to a health care or quarantine management worker? Or exposure to the guy cleaned the head on the aircraft? Or it just wafted through the air to this patient, who could be a worker at Travis, or someone just off base? In any case, the situation is not really under control.
8
Why was the patient ultimately tested, if he did meet criteria?
@turbot
Eventually, it became too hard to prevent. When a patient near a cluster of exposed people (the Travis AFB Diamond Princess evacuees) shows all the symptoms of COVID-19 and is exceedingly sick, not testing would be far more politically risky than testing. The story was certain to come out from the infuriated Medical team at Davis or from friends and family of the patient.
Nothing the Trump government does is anything but a political calculation.
7
When the outbreak first happened in China, there was a similar shortage of testing kits, leading to (poor) qualifiers of who could get tested. This led to many people being turned away without being tested, as the medical system simply could not handle the volume of patients who came.
It's been almost 3 months since then, and the US/Korea/Japan have much smaller populations. So how is it still spreading when we've had that long to study another country's situation, as well as being presented with a less strenuous patient volume? It's like copying someone else's quiz and still getting a failing grade.
15
@Tek
Trump cut the CDC's budget massively (google it), especially the team that does epidemic work.
The Test Kits were few and badly made with a bad chemical so they can't be read locally and must be read back at the CDC (in a process that appears to be very bandwidth limited) requiring 48 hours or so from test to test-results.
Somehow, a diagnosis requires this test as a confirmation in the US. (despite the "old school" symptom based confirmations that were already available). China dropped the chemical test requirement some time ago, despite having much better and more numerous fast-acting tests, in order to isolate dangerous patients faster and get them into care and out of circulation.
Trump's team seems far more focused on preventing the spread of news than the spread of COVID-19. They have done nothing to prevent the spread--despite having hundreds of Americans sitting on the Diamond Princess being made into carrieres. They were flown back to the US with confirmed sick on the same planes (separated with a sheet of plastic but with common air circulation) as those with no symptoms to sites that did not provide effective isolation of the confirmed sick from the possible sick--and both not isolated from the Travis staff.
9
@Mark Johnson “ They have done nothing to prevent the spread-”
They stopped travel from China. They stopped the thousands of Chinese who flew into the US everyday at the height of the Wuhan outbreak. If they hadn’t I am led to suspect we would have far more cases.
The infected cruise passengers were flown back in a self contained isolation unit on board the aircraft. Look it up.
1
@Andreabeth
The infected cruise passengers were all flown back in the same open cabin aircraft with suspect cases sitting behind a plastic sheet hung across one section. 'Self contained', my foot.
I remember thinking how ludicrous it was at the time. I don't need to 'look it up'.
A photo with an accompanying story shows doctors at a NYC hospital studying scans of Chinese coronavirus patients. Is this because they have decided scans will be the only way to diagnose patients with the government restricting availability of the coronavirus test?
4
I live the next county over from Solano County, where the infected person who had no ties to China lives. Many of my co-workers and the people who work in my area live in Solano County. Most people I know, myself included, have been sick with a respiratory virus for three or more weeks. I called my doctor at Kaiser Permanente last week after having shortness of breath and a bad cough for two weeks, and I was told I did not need to be examined. I still have a cough and shortness of breath, but it's getting better. I live in an area where there are lots of people who travel to China and who have contact with people who have traveled in China. Maybe we all just have a respiratory virus that takes forever to get over. I do think it's time that our healthcare providers err on the side of caution and test people with respiratory viruses.
18
@ALD if you don’t have a fever then it’s unlikely you have this affliction. A fever for that long of a period of time would be considered severe regardless of the cause.
2
Complaints from UCDavis about lack of a CDC swab test for SARS-CoV-2 fall flat when you read the host of articles published in the last week in medical journals such as Radiology reporting CT scans could be used to screen and follow cases with positive history. The reported sensitivity was 97%, higher than RT-PCR, at least when prevalence is high.
But even if the initial community hospital in Solano County neglected to do a CT scan, treatment for atypical pneumonia would have not changed, and respiratory and contact precautions followed, especially when the patient was intubated and ventilated. If the CDC test had been done with the third reagent, likely it would have been equivocal anyway.
2
@joeshuren Except We have known about the potential for at least two months. We should have a reliable test kit for by now.
Is this slowest due to cuts made by the Trump administration?
8
@Kevin Niall that’s not how it works. Tuberculosis has been around forever, and we still don’t have an accurate method for testing it. These things are difficult to do in general, though lack of funding certainly does make things worse.
6
@joeshuren
I've worked in an ICU setting, and I can guarrantee you that this critcal patient had diagnostic CT, likley multiple. CDC doesn't recognize diagnostic CT as valid even if you are seeing academic papers now. If you think CDC should expand its diagnostic toolkit, by all means, contact them with urgency.
You're speculation about the level of precaution at the original hospital is also unrealistic and unwarranted. Basic gloving and mask precaution, where any triage and assessment begins, is insufficient against coronvirus, witness the huge volume of even healthcare workers with full PPEs who became infected.
There will have been a period of time this patient was in treatment that was not sufficiently protective of those around him. He wasn't beamed into a negative pressure hospital contagion room with fully PPE protected staff from the comfort of his home.
Caregivers and other patients at the initial hospital were exposed and officials should speak to the level of exposure and survellience response for this new population. Not to mention all of the family and community contact this patient had prior.
11
Two weeks ago (Feb 12), CDC warned the public of the potential community spread of the novel disease in the U.S. But till last weekend, CDC still refused to test potential cases of this disease infected through local communities. If CDC did mean what it had warned, it should act that way. It should be more cautious and proactive to keep the people and their communities safe.
8
This is a direct consequence of addiction America(not necessarily Americans) but America on an entity level has to feelings instead of function.
Policies like these fail because you have someone who doesn't know how anything works arbitrating on those who are experts this is backwards in my opinion.
Jeff Bezos came up with a great way to increase software quality - remove the protections for failure and I think we should do that with voters and people who throw paint at the walls.
We need to introduce benchmark liabilities for everyone, from professional to personal choices and sponsorships where it affects society.
You want to vote for person x, y, z? Sure, but you'll held legally and financially accountable for consequences.
3
This is what is currently being proposed for in Australia for diagnosis of Coronavirus under our universal healthcare system (Medicare)....A short term medicare rebate for all doctors for telephone or tele-health consultations with people who suspect they might have symptoms of the virus. This would allow for early assessments across the population and also allow people to stay at home and be monitored if their infection was mild. It would also allow doctors to determine needs for clinical presentations and testing. Overall this would reduce congestion at clinics and hospitals or late presentations that could further spread the virus.
This is the sort of response a universal health system allows in a national health crisis.
15
I wish someone, anyone, at the CDC or anyone in VP Pence's line of authority would please address the question of why in the world hospitals here in Northern California, especially in the vicinity of Travis Air Force base (where passengers from China were quarantined) and neighboring counties do not have the ability to test patients on site.
Already, those responsible for the protection of American health are showing complete incompetence. THERE IS NO EXCUSE for not making testing available to those hospitals or patients. Not even UCSF, in San Francisco, where many flights from China land daily (including many persons not quarantined upon arrival) has the ability to test for the virus on site, thus leaving patients waiting for days, as in this reported case
INEXCUSABLE.
26
@Sachi G Feb 6 press release from California Dept Public Health at cadph.ca.gov :
SACRAMENTO – The California Department of Public Health announced today that 16 laboratories, including the state's Viral and Rickettsial Disease Laboratory in Richmond, California, will soon be able to perform testing for the novel coronavirus. This service will provide more rapid results than currently available and help to inform public health action and medical care for people who may have been exposed to novel coronavirus. Results from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently take between two to seven days. The Public Health Department lab anticipates it will be able to conduct testing beginning Wednesday, February 12, and report results within two days of specimen receipt. Meanwhile, our local partners are also expected to be able to conduct tests within a couple of weeks.
I'm not sure about the 2 day wait. What I read was the patient arrived at Davis on Feb 19 and didn't get tested until Feb 23, that would be 4 days. That wouldn't be a big deal since Davis is competent and does infection control, but I want to know if the health department started contact tracing on the 19th. Did the person's family, who are likely exposed, visit the hospital and potentially expose other patients and families? I certainly wouldn't blame them, the only blaming I'm doing is at the CDC for pretending not testing is a great plan. I called my senators and congressperson on Feb 3 to ask them to challenge the CDC and to get back to me. I'm still waiting for a call back. Containment was never the plan despite what they have said. That press conference yesterday was condescending. So much for the feds, I hope the State has it together.
11
Trump yesterday digressed from a press conference featuring medical experts in public health and epidemiology to a political rally which criticized congressional leaders and suggested that the Covid19 outbreak is an attempt to upend Trump. His recent Medal of Freedom recipient Rush Limbaugh bloviated as much across America's air waves just this last week that Coronavirus is really just Democrats trying to hurt Trump in his re election. His concerns to calm the stock market appeared to outweigh his concern for understanding the nature and control of the outbreak. CNN's Sanjay Gupta attempted to address the communicability of Coronavirus and it's rather high mortality rate compared to seasonal Flu. Trump didn't get it. The Flu rate of .1% compared to 2-3% translates to devastating numbers to any population. The easily spread nature of Covid19 is actually more contagious than Flu. Those who would require medical assistance beyond what our already stretched healthcare system provides could overwhelm the system. The fact that we are not testing at this time is alarming. How does Trump know the number of cases if we aren't doing any testing? This patient was a critical patient and was tested because of their overwhelming symptoms which suggested Covid19. How many contacts were there before testing? It was disturbing watching this press conference. He contradicted the public health and scientific professionals who had just spoken. His simpleton remarks were not reassuring.
29
The one case is in California.
Why is anyone surprised that Trump doesn't care?
Maybe they should go out in the fresh air and rake some forests to prepare for the next fire season...
Trump doesn't have any sense of urgency if the problem is in a coastal state.
Bet Mara Lago has taxpayer funded protocols in place.
6
What happens if this virus gets into the homeless population, like any of the tent cities in L.A. or San Francisco I keep seeing on the news? I would think that it would spread like wildfire in those homeless encampments and that those people will likely not seek medical help. What will happen to those poor people?
14
@KathyS
Does Trump and his crew really care? Many of his supporters have no concern real for this demographic and they are often quite vocal about it. Sad.
3
As much as I hate Trump. This is on the CDC. I just looked up the CdC leadership and they are MD’s . Problem is the MDs who head these organizations live in an ivory tower away from real patient care. They are all about cost effectiveness and judicious testing. This patient didn’t just have cough and fever . Patient was intubated on a ventilator! They refused to listen to the worker bee ICU doctors at a major research hospital who asked for testing. That is so wrong.
13
ust happens to be in the same county, (Solano County) where all the passengers flown home from the Diamond Princess were initially, and some still are, housed at Travis Air Force Base. Having stayed at that hotel while waiting to fly out Space Available, I wondered how they could manage to convert it to a truly isolated experience. Although the passengers were thought to have been negative for the virus, they were again unknowingly exposed to infected passengers on the bus ride to the airport in Japan. Have to wonder how the personnel at the hotel, housekeepers, front desk, food delivery to rooms, and other management were protected, after seeing that the crew of the ship, who were required to keep serving the "isolated" passengers, had a very high rate of infection when finally tested. All those people live in the area, and once dispersed, could unknowingly be spreading the virus. Hope this is not true, but it just seems curious for a random case to pop up in that same county, out of all the counties in California.
14
Very true, CA. So much access to the base through the exchanges and other facilities used by thousands of people spread throughout the Bay Area, including here in Walnut Creek.
2
...restrictive federal criteria...
And absolutely zero criteria from the state government. Completely inadequate.
4
People, stop worrying! Since all updates must be approved by Mike Pence, soon he will be telling us that there are no new cases and anyone with a respiratory illness has the flu or a common cold. Just like in China.
14
Meanwhile Trump is imposing a gag order on any Government Health experts, to speak publicly about any aspects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
"Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, one of the country’s leading experts on viruses and the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infections Diseases, told associates that the White House had instructed him not to say anything else without clearance."
All information to be issued to the public, by Government officials, must be "cleared" by the office of Mike Pence.
Sounds like Trump will try to tamp down any alarming Health statistics, to help him get re-elected. He kept repeating , during his press conference yesterday, there are only 15 Covid-19 infection cases in the US, while there are actually 60.
16
@skier 6
Pence's job is to shape the flow of information. To gag the leading expert during a public health emergency, to require he clear his communication through the administration, is a political stong-arming the likes of which I expect of a fascist regime. It's disgusting.
There is no real hope they can control information. China can't even do it. So Trump is once again showing his utter disregard for open democracy.
They're looking at the market volatility and trying to put that egg back together. They choose to protect business and wealth interests over communicating honestly with the American public.
It's not as if Fauci is a rumor-monger; he's THE bloody expert... who can no longer communicate with the public directly. There should be an outcry that this is happening. It's surreal. I cannot wait to vote this whole entourage of buffoons out the door in November.
6
Here's the Johns Hopkins report to which Trump referred in his press conference last night. He quoted only one tiny part and left out an important bit, where the U.S. ranks 19th in preparedness. Quote in context and link to report:
"The U.S. scored 83.5 and ranked No. 1 in five of six categories: prevention, early detection and reporting, rapid response and mitigation, sufficient and robust health system, and compliance with international norms. It ranks 19th in overall risk environment and vulnerability to biological threats, a category that assesses political and security risk, socioeconomic resilience, the adequacy of infrastructure, environmental risks, and public health vulnerabilities that may inhibit a country's ability to prevent or respond to an epidemic or pandemic."
https://hub.jhu.edu/2020/02/27/trump-johns-hopkins-study-pandemic-coronaviruscovid-19-649-em0-art1-dtd-health/
10
Let's not forget Rep. Roe of Tennessee, a physician by training, a Trump republican by choice.
His meddling and prompting the state department to evacuate people from Yokohama, Japan last week.
People that were positively infected with Covid-19 put aboard the same bus as those given the all clear.
Against the better judgement of Japanese authorities and recommendations of the US CDC.
Now, Mr Trump appoints Mr Pence to override science, common sense and the CDC.
Still no statement on wearing gloves and a mask during prayer groups led by Mr Trumps initiative.
3
Too many cases being detected? Simple fix. Stop inspecting and stop testing. See, no more cases.
And, they’ve declared that nobody can report any data unless cleared by Pence. So if people are still testing, prohibit them from telling anyone what they are finding. See, no more cases.
Trump’s is unbelievably naive.
People are dying, this is not a TV show Donny.
6
Trump will use this crisis to advance his dictatorial ambitions.
8
Forget for a moment Covid-19.
Consider that in the face of what is Trump's most critical existential threat in three years his go to staffer to manage the crisis is Michael Richard Pence.
6
The same guy who mismanaged the HIV crisis when he was gov of Indiana now will manage this health crisis...pray it away.
1
Travis Air Force base is in Corona county where this COVID-19 patient lived. It is not hard to guess where the contact came from.
8
Yep, from Vacaville, a depressed community a mere 9 miles from the base, where many of the low-level support workers for the base and its motel reside.
Correlation is not causation but it is certainly compelling.
3
@MM
There is no Corona County. It's Solano County.
I'll bet our president* can't wait to get back to the golf course and forget about all of this stuff. Who knew pandemics were so complicated?!?
11
The woman patient transferred to UCDavis was said to be from Solano County, California. Travis Air Force Base is located in Solano County 3 miles east of Fairfield. Some 19 patients who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 were flown into Travis from Japan and sick ones transferred to local hospitals. Contact tracing of a patient on a ventilator is difficult, but it should be obvious where to conduct a thorough investigation first, before reporting cryptic community spread.
4
What’s mind blowing to me is that there are so many physicians in Congress who could’ve moved on this sooner. I suppose it was their greed that drove from medicine to politics. Unfortunately, they can now kill far more many with their lack of foresight and compassion
1
I guess everything is fine as long as nothing affects Trump's Wall Street donors or the rest of his re-election campaign!
And, the money we saved on axing all those "Thanks, Obama!" CDC changes, etc. put in place after the recent 'Fake News' Ebola outbreak were far more wisely spent on more Mar-a-Lago trips and Presidential Upgrades!
Excellent news, the BEST-EST!!
3
I just wrote to my senators after reading about the delay in testing of this California patient due to the federal testing criteria. I recommend that all readers do the same. These criteria have to be changed today. After pressing send, I followed a link to the CDC page on the virus. It was last updated two days ago and states that there have been no cases of community transmission in the US. That’s unacceptable. If it weren’t for the NYT and other mainstream media, we would have no idea what’s actually going on with this virus in the US.
12
And now the Vice President’s office is coordinating all communications with NIH and the CDC. I’m sorry but things have been too politicized with Mr Trump in office, I’m skeptical of communications from physicians being vetted by politicians.
6
Iran has so far reported a total of 245 cases and 26 deaths, a far higher fatality rate than seen elsewhere.
https://time.com/5791516/iran-doctors-coronavirus-middle-east/
2
@Mary Elizabeth Lease
Maybe because thanks to years of economic sanctions, Iran can't afford the ventilators and other equipment required in hospitals to treat the most critically ill patients.
6
@Lisa Simeone
more likely it is Iran's choice to spend its resources on military adventure—just like the US— that make it unable "to afford the ventilators and other equipment required in hospitals to treat the most critically ill patients."
If we experience the same level of cases in any major city our health care systems in those cities will be overwhelmed.
1
@Mary Elizabeth Lease
Totally agree that our hospitals will also be overwhelmed, But the U.S. has way more money and resources than Iran -- even though we squander them -- and our economic sanctions against Iran have hurt that country badly.
"Pence Will Control All Coronavirus Messaging From Health Officials" posted by the NYTimes an hour ago...The upstanding and hardworking health professionals, who are being tasked to fight on the front line of this battle, are being asked to take Donald's loyalty oath.
9
There are not 15 cases of the virus in the United States and you can take that to the bank. The United States government is now officially lying to the public. Take that in for a second. It has become the same propaganda machine as in Russia and China. Trump and the Republicans are enabling what might became the biggest health crisis in 100 years out of malfeasance, ignorance and a willful attempt to mislead in order to hold on to power. The corruption is now literally directly endangering everyone's lives. People should be in the streets and marching on Washington with pitchforks and torches. It is time to get rid of the rats before everyone succumbs.
16
I seriously hope the New York Times and other news organizations continue to hound this administration for details and leave no stone unturned with regards to reporting on the corona virus situation. It is clear with Pence in charge of messaging coming out of the White House, the President intends to keep the American people in the dark when it comes to the facts.
9
Did Trump forget to add that our CDC “experts that are the best in the world “ also happen to be ostriches?
1
Protocols serve a useful purpose, but there are times when commonsense has to override them. There is no good reason that this patient, already on a ventilator, had to wait so long for a test. At this very moment, TV news is saying there is no known connection of this patient to any travel to/from China. That means it can be spread by casual contact, a surface, droplets nearby, for example. Meanwhile, we have a president who insists that things will be fine and put a man who failed at addressing other health issues in charge of the response to the outbreak. Incompetence once again!
3
This is a two part nightmare.
First part is having the virus but having to wait days to be tested.
Second part is this virus is being spread while the patient waits to be tested for confirmation.
By the time a person receives confirmation that he or she has the virus, how many others have been infected in the meantime?
Perhaps a list of symptoms might prove to be helpful unless I missed them in this article.
2
@Marge Keller
The symptoms overlap with colds, flu, and pneumonia -- at minimum.
The science deniers and others who have eviscerated the CDC and NIH in the current administration are about to get a rude awakening. Pence, Kudlow and Mnuchin are going to lead us out of this?? The only thing more preposterous would be to put Jared Kushner in charge. It is hard now to imagine a scenario where Covid-19 does not spread globally to all populations, with the loss of millions of lives. A massive economic slowdown will also occur. Societal disruption at a level not seen since the global flu pandemic of 1918 will be revisited. If I were a billionaire prepper, I would be calling my pilot to pack his or her bags right now, fueling up my private jet, and preparing to travel to my isolated bunker for the next 1-2 years until this has all passed over. The only good news from this is that the slowdown in air travel and manufacturing that is about to commence might lead to a big enough reduction in carbon emissions to begin to put a dent in global warming.
4
The very same situation happened in France. The first French national to pass away had had no contact with people having a link with China or Italy. He was tested only after his transfer to a major Parisian hospital, when his situation was desperate. I have to admit I fail to see how all patients with respiratory illnesses could possibly be tested.
The main reason for testing suspected individuals is to create a circle of contacts so that they may self-quarantine to prevent spread of disease, NOT to improve treatment since there is none. So if the doctors in this case had a high level of suspicion, they should have collected this information before the patient required intubation. Hopefully that was done.
That said, by now, there should be a global questionnaire developed by the WHO and distributed, not just to doctors and hospitals so that we know they are asking the right questions, but to every citizen worldwide so that in the case that they do become ill, they can present to said facility with information in hand. When you are that ill and potentially without accompaniment, you will not be able to answer these questions adequately to stop the spread.
Also, we need to rethink the whole way we approach some aspects of our medical system. Triage should be occurring outside of waiting rooms so that potentially contagious diseases can be separated from un-infected patients who are there for other reasons. The same goes for doctor's offices.
Our demise will not be the result of 'the bomb' but from a virus, not necessarily this one, and our national funding should reflect this in a sustainable fashion.
7
Does anyone remember the history of the WW2 Norden bomb-aimers' sight? To be mounted in Allied bomber aircraft. It was a miracle of American technology. A tiny analog computer. Fantastically precise. The world had seen nothing like it before.
There were some issues. Each unit cost tens of thousands of dollars. The cost of preventing the sight from falling into enemy hands hands was high. USAAF bombardiers device needed the most intensive training to master the complex machine - not all could.
Ultimately, in the real world European theatre, the Norden sight never proved to be significantly better, more useful or more accurate than the rough and ready aircraft bomb sights developed by other nations. 'Good enough' tech ready months, if not years, sooner. At a fraction of the cost.
Is CDC pursuing 'good enough' or 'best possible'?
4
Very pleased with what I am hearing from the Governor and his staff this morning. Well said, well done.
4
I would like to know exactly who is responsible for the testing criteria established by CDC. Has there been outside influence on that decision? Where does that buck stop?
This hospital and it's rigorously trained doctors were highly suspicious and requested testing. This is a front-line teaching hospital and had been already been tasked with caring for a coronavirus patient. Here is a patient on a ventilator in ICU, critical, etiology unknown, being care for by top notch, covid19-experienced experts and CDC said no, we can't test. There is no rational reason to have refused testing in such a situation.
This was no PA calling in with a mildly ill patient from an urgent care practice in Demoines. There's no excuse here not to judiciously expand their tight criteria to include cases of severe illness where doctors are highly suspicious.
SOMEONE has to be the first case of community transmission and if your criteria excludes all illness without known exposure, even with great clinical suspician, you will never, by your own criteria, find that someone.
The logic is faulty, negligent and dangerous in the face of this epidemic.
But it does coincidentally dovetail well with the administrations posture of minimizing and down playing concern.
18
It seems likely that it spread from someone who was quarantined at Travis Air Force Base. I don't want to sound all conspiracy nuttish, but when the news first was announced that they would be quarantining people in California, it DID cross my mind that some Trump operative might intentionally spread it. I hate to think that, even for a moment, but it did cross my mind.
5
@Michelle
Sadly, you may not be far off, looks like the Federal officials deployed in California initially weren't trained or followed protocol. See the accompanying article about a whistle blower complaint:
"U.S. Health Workers Responding to Coronavirus Lacked Training and Protective Gear, Whistle-Blower Says"
1
We came home from the Veneto on Sunday and passed through VCE, ZUR, JFK, and LAX en route. With us were countless other Americans returning from trips that took them around the Venento, Belluno, and Lombardy provinces on our flights. Moreover, we did not learn of the Coronavirus spread in Italy until we got home late Sunday night because, while on vacation, we enjoyed ourselves skiing and eating (in tight quarters in Refugios with countless other visitors from all around Europe and abroad) and did not check the NYT website.
The idea that only individuals who have traveled to China should be tested is ludicrous. One of our travel companions has developed a cough since returning from Northern Italy and he is religiously taking his temperature twice per day and has let his work know (they have asked him to stay home). No fever, so it looks like he's in the clear, but we should all be taking precautions following international travel right now. Particularly to impacted regions.
12
@Margaret I'm curious why your travel companion would think he was 'in the clear' if the incubation period is believed to be 14 days if not longer
Really? Health care workers can’t talk about the new virus without permission from some bureaucrat at the top? Isn’t that old news from China? Only the names have changed.
The actual risk to the vast majority of Americans right now is extremely small, but over the entire population of the US the numbers could add up quickly. Clear reporting is needed on such topics as availability and accuracy of diagnostic tests, research on human-to-human transmission, incubation, course of the disease, how long virus remains in the patient after the symptoms are gone, survival of the virus in the environment, transmissibility to other animals, and all the other basic facts that should not be allowed to fester as subjects for speculation. Accurate and comprehensive reporting is needed now.
26
In 2009, I took my child to the pediatrician for minor flu-like symptoms. I usually would have waited it out a day or so to see if medical treatment might not be necessary, but swine flu was going around. I was told she seemed to have a minor virus. I asked about testing her for swine flu—explaining that this was the only reason I was there—and was told that they’re discouraged from over-testing. I pushed, as this was an active pandemic with deaths making the news. Glad I did, because she tested positive. The next day, her sister did, too. Those infected with swine flu were said to generally do well when Tamiflu was initiated early. Unfortunately, upon my children’s diagnosis, there was a Tamiflu shortage, and my husband and I spent a panicked day scrambling to find a supply.
Test.
17
"The C.D.C. has restricted testing to patients who either traveled to China recently or who know they had contact with someone infected with the coronavirus."
This is incredible. How will the CDC detect community transmission if they specifically won't test for it?
Doctors at a major US medical school ask for the test and can't get it. Tell me again that there are only 60 cases in the US.
24
This California patient is the tip of the iceberg and it could be a big one. The patient was on a ventilator when they came in to UC Davis, indicating that they had been infected for about 10 days. The week long delay in testing by our incompetent Federal government will have allowed the number of cases to grow by a factor of four. There could easily be 100 active cases in the Napa-Solano region at this time.
The government is concealing the patient's hometown, but they probably live in Vallejo or Fairfield. Travis air force base in Fairfield is a US quarantine site for coronavirus patients. The virus could have leaked out of the quarantine site and infected the Fairfield community.
Another possibility is that an infected Chinese tourist visiting the Napa valley could have infected local residents. Napa is only 20 miles from Fairfield.
There is probably active transmission in the Napa-Fairfield-Vallejo region at this time. Tourists should avoid visiting the Napa Valley, and should not stop in Fairfield or Vallejo when traveling on I-80. The virus is likely to spread to San Francisco and Sacramento soon, if it hasn't already.
This outbreak is likely to rapidly grow in size. People planning trips to Northern California should reconsider.
20
The Chinese test used by the CDC is claimed to be highly inaccurate by many people. A science website claims that a chest CT is far superior at correctly identifying a case, tho it sounds as if asymptomatic cases may not be identifiable.
I suspect that this clear pattern of non-detection via undercounting may be the pillar of science upon which the Trump Administration's has based its claim of great success in controlling the spread of COVID-19.
8
NYT is failing to illuminate the president’s hypocrisy: he made MAJOR cuts to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. John Auerbach CEO of Trust for America’s Health, said the proposed CDC cuts not only threaten federal public health capacity, they would have a “devastating” impact on state and local public health departments, which depend heavily on CDC dollars flowing down to the community level and would seriously harm the overall capacity of state and local public health departments to respond.”
Among its proposals for CDC, the White House budget calls for a major cut to chronic disease prevention and health promotion, a cut to emerging and zoometric diseases, a major cut to public health preparedness and response, and a cut to immunization activities, including work to sustain and improve immunization coverage. The budget also zeros out critical funding for epidemiology and laboratory capacity at state and local levels. If that is not enough he has made a major cut to WHO support. Is it prudent to suggest a failure of leadership by our "businessman" president?
15
@anthro Right. That patient might never have been in contact with an infected traveler if we had a different government.
Of course.
1
My husband is a doctor at a well-know hospital. Only yesterday they got an email about coronavirus which mentioned that they should use masks (n95). But when he asked around at the hospitals where the masks are, they said they didn’t have them in stock.
Also, he suggested testing some patient with respiratory symptoms and he got a text that said “the nurses are upset you are mentioning covid in your notes”
25
@ZZ
Wow! That sort of healthcare world is mighty familiar.
Push any harder - either at the hospital authorities or at the nurses and the accusations of 'bullying' and 'not a team player' will begin.
Has your husband been sent on the Promoting harmony and truth in the workplace' module yet? The 'Clinical decision making in constrained situations' course? The British state provided health service had plenty of those.
Under no circumstances should your husband stand up to those people. They always win. Take it from an (early retired) colleague.
4
Somehow the image of Hoovervilles springs to mind ...
Another president fundamentally ill-equipped to deal with an emergent nationwide crisis. It could be the one thing big and game-changing enough to prevent Trump’s otherwise inevitable re-election.
12
After receiving information on this California Covid-19 patient, where is the US health officials aggressive reaction to contain the disease? Why haven't the schools in the patient's community been shut down? Why haven't the people the patient came in contact with been tracked down? That's how Germany reacted after a man with no known connection to anyone infected with the coronavirus tested positive for the illness.
These are not alarmist reactions. These are common sense containment efforts that the government needs to undertake.
22
If anyone was taking a way and see approach in regard to deciding about whether the USA is adequately prepared for potentially 100 million to 200 million cases of COVID-2019 which could result in mortality rates of between 0.4% and 2.9% depending on the limited PRC sample sizes and geographic variances in mortality rates among provinces with Hubei having the highest death rates, then the press conference held by POTUS yesterday must have rattled them out of their myopic slumber.
The fact that he waited until yesterday to appoint VP Pence to lead a committee is a joke. The lack of the coordination and planning at the federal level will lead to thousands if not tens of thousands of deaths and potentially hundreds of thousands as there are no adequate supplies of basic biohazard infection control supplies prepositioned around the country and we lack adequate stockpile of antivirals to treat severe and critical cases. The progression from respiratory failure to sepsis and organ failure is rapid and once patients reach that dangerous crossroads, over half die. Without adequate testing and access and a plan to staff and provide beds for thousands and tens of thousands of severe and critical cases, many US families will lose members.
The economic consequences of shutting down schools and workplaces and public gatherings means bankruptcy for many businesses such airline, cruise ship, convention centers and areas such as Orlando, NYC, and Las Vegas will enter recessions.
10
@American Akita Team
I think you meant ''WAIT and see."
1
@kenneth There is a 99.9999 probability that you are correct. I am pretty sure I know the difference between "way and "wait", however when touch typing, sometimes words can get conflated even when such words have unrelated meanings, spelling and pronunciations. How the human brain screws up the recall of words when touch typing is one of life's many mysteries.
2
Did you ever feel like you were that person on the Titanic with the giant telescope screaming "I C E B E R G." but no one is listening to you? How can you diagnose the hundreds (thousands?) of people who are most likely walking around with this when you're only testing people who have been to China in the past 14 days (or have been in direct contact with someone who has)? What about the people who have traveled from Iran? Italy? France? South Korea? They don't even qualify for testing. What about their contacts? These people are going to schools. They are going to gyms. They are going to churches. They are going to the doctors office. Hospitals. Urgent cares. This person is on a ventilator and they STILL had to fight to get him tested? Oh my days. Right. I'm putting down the telescope and I'm getting on my well equipped lifeboat and jumping ship. The iceberg is right in front of us.
367
@DK
And those who do qualify and get tested end up with a $3,000 hospital bill. Our country’s profit-driven health care system will only contribute to the spread of this virus.
76
@BlueBird If they've gone to a hospital and ended up getting tested for this coronavirus, their eventual hospital bill is likely to make that three grand lab charge look like pocket change.
19
@DK
Trump is guilty of Obstruction. (again!)
Obstruction of our Nation's Health and Well Being by denying the facts, suppressing critical information and delaying the use of diagnostic tests in managing and containing the spread of Coronavirus 19.
GUILTY!
30
We need to keep things in perspective.
According to CDC numbers, as of February 1st 12,000 people have already died of garden variety seasonal flu with over 200,000 hospitalized. During the 2017 - 2018 flu season, 61,000 people died. That's the influenza A/B/C strains that pay us a visit every flu season, not Covid-19.
Currently there are 60 known cases in the US, a country of 330 million people. Most of those cases - 47 - came from a single cruise ship outbreak. The California patient mentioned is this article likely had contact with someone who wasn't yet symptomatic and therefore CDC can't trace the source. I'm willing to bet this virus has a longer latency than we now believe.
Covid-19 may be more transmissible but the majority of patients recover. The mortality rate (as far as we know) is 2% and mostly amoung those with a preexisting illness. Interestingly, children, one of the trifecta of groups usually at risk, don't seem to be catching this virus. It will be interesting to see if that continues.
Will more people contract Covid-19 in the US? Of course. But it's just the latest zoonotic coronavirus coming out of China. Keep Calm and Wash Your Hands.
7
@B Dawson
Iran has so far reported a total of 245 cases and 26 deaths, a far higher fatality rate than seen elsewhere.
@Mary Elizabeth Lease, Assuning they are actually reporting all the cases. It could be a much higher number to generate that many deaths.
Just announced: Donald Trump has placed Dr. Kildare in charge of stemming the spread of the coronavirus in the USA. Trump stated, "I grew up with Dr. Kildare and he was the best doctor around back then and I have all the confidence in the world that he is the right man for this task. We no longer need to worry about the coronavirus spreading with Dr. Kildare in charge. So, you can go out and buy back the stocks you sold and make lots of money. We're in the best economy ever."
14
Hey - Pence is on it...as soon as he stops his fawning stare at the Leader...
14
Where’s Rudy? He would know what to do.
9
March Madness, what will they do about that vector juggernaut; I’m betting on big money. There is no stopping corporate greed. Let them eat COVID-19
2
@Sam
NCAA greed is much more aggressive than the Covid-19 virus.
It takes a virus to drain a swamp.
20
Hey, let’s elect a socialist to Federalize the entire health care industry. Then when YOU go to the hospital and need a test, YOU will checked for YOUR fit to some ‘criteria’...it is THEN that you will feel the Bern...
Are you not aware that that’s exactly what happened in this case, in our free market for profit healthcare system?
24
@skyfiber I live in a country with "socialist" healthcare -- it literally is the best decision I ever made to leave the Underinsured States of America. I go to the doctor routinely now, get top notch medical care (including a surgery to repair my knee and cortisone injections and physical therapy that have solved the problems in my back) and I pay next to nothing, other than what is already taken out in my taxes.
9
@skyfiber
Actually you’re confusing the US with every other western country.
When we go to the hospital we get the care we need with no out of pocket expenses.
2
Sounds bizarre. Since test kits seem to be being questioned, any chance it was a false positive?
Curious how much the patient will be charged for the test
8
Health officials will now have to clear all statements about the virus with Vice President Mike Pence.
So now they can make up more lies and hide the truth from the American people.
23
@Jacquie
And they call Bernie a Socialist and a Communist?
Isn't this how third world countries diseminate information?
Controlled so the population only hears dribs and drabs?
If they are so confidant there is no danger, how bout letting the CDC have a presser each day at noon to update the public?
After all, if it isn't spreading, they should be happy to do that.
Bernie is a communist??????
4
@Ignatz Agreed. Bernie would not gag the scientists and doctors trying to tell the American people the truth.
3
Absolutely disgusted with the facts in this article. No wonder people who think are worried about this virus. And the worst -- Pence not allowing any health official to say to utter a peep to the press or the populace without his approval, or Trump's that is. I want rid of these Dictators now. Forget about the virus, they are worse than cancer.
17
The spin is ridiculous. AFAIK the CDC still has the viral disease unit intact. The office of the President doesn’t need a infectious disease position. Here is the group at the CDC tell me how Trump cut this team down?
https://www.cdc.gov/ncird/downloads/dvd-org-chart.pdf
Typical Government incompetence.
It is time to ask our ally South Korea for help. We need to replicate their test kit or buy them NOW.
if it is not possible to test suspicious cases then every suspicious case should be treated as positive. maybe then Trump will realize the enormity of the problem when he hears the number of cases is his stock market busting high of 26,000 and not 15 trending to almost 0.
4
We have the world's most expensive health care system, and no coronavirus test. The Chinese are reported to be on their 3rd generation test already and deploying fast testing machines. We have state epidemiology offices with no way to test patients. We have for-profit hospitals, many of which run close to full capacity already, and no plan to expand them, never mind financing to do so. We have pretty big population of families who would be bankrupted by a serious COVID-19 illness, which occurs is maybe 12% of infected cases. And we had the previous SARS fire drill / warning, so the Trump admin disbanded our global epidemic preparation team.
These facts are not unrelated. They are closely tied to, and explained by, Trumpism and Republicanism.
25
"Coronavirus Patient in California Was Not Tested for Days"
It means:
the infection happened at least 14 days ago, and it is the time that the virus needed to cause more infections.
Medical staff or clinicians in the hospital will likely be tested positive.
Pandemic will be here 14 days later.
9
In some towns in Italy, the fatality rate is 3%.
3
How is it possible for China, South Korea and others to test thousands and the MAGA gov doesn’t have enough test kits for even one suspicious, symptomatic, ventilated patient?
What happened to the “experimental program” of testing flu cases but not necessarily suspect covid’s to detect circulating undetected illness? Seems to me that this is not the time to do an experiment that uses up the limited inventory of reliable test kits.
How much time is needed to do a contact survey for one case? This is very distressing. It’s not like this is a sexually transmitted disease that a person can identify encounters. If one is passing a stranger in the grocery or wherever and the exposure is sufficient for transmission the carrier will never be found.
Time to change the testing criteria yesterday.
Stop the government madness of not disobeying doctor’s orders. Sounds like the tactics medical insurance companies and Medicare employ to deny coverage. It won’t work in this case.
4
@Agent 99
Corrections last paragraph - “not disobeying “ should be either “not not disobeying” or just “disobeying”without the preceding not.
@Agent 99
Their leaders do a lot more than watch FOX cartoons and send out moronic tweets all day.
1
Trump can't bombast away COVID-19.
The literal health of our nation, how far the virus spreads, how many illnesses and deaths from it, the interruption to commerce, educations, government functions - it's all on him.
5
Starting with Reagan the idea has taken hold that spending on any government agency is foolish. And in order to avoid doing anything first about aids and then climate change we’ve damaged public health and research. So here we are. You gets what you pay for folks.
5
No worries - the President already pre-selected the one to be blamed for the inadequate response: Mike Pence.
11
The Pentagon: now says 50 US soldiers injured with brain injuries after the Iranian retaliation of the killing of their general.
Trump: did not respond to rocket attacks because some soldiers just had headaches.
UC Davis hospital: we need to test patient that does not fit criteria for testing.
Trump: nothing to worry about. We have the best people on it.
11
Some US Diamond Princess travelers were brought to Travis AFB which is in Solano County. It doesn't surprise me that an asymptomatic person --a carrier-- who had contact with the patients there might have infected the person at UCD Medical Center as well as others.
6
But the C.D.C. has restricted testing to patients who either traveled to China recently or who know they had contact with someone infected with the coronavirus.
Looks like we are NOT prepared. The President and Vice President have a different agenda right now and it’s not our health.
11
@Marsha Frederick They have more important things on their minds....like another election coming up. And those CA people aren't going to vote for them anyway.
2
Ontario, population 14.5 million, has tested 699 people for the coronavirus, with 3 positive results. According the CDC, the USA has tested 445 people.
The magnitude of under-testing in the US is crazy.
14
CDC says that it IS possible this patient contracted it from a returning traveler. Meaning that this story has no meaning. But it does have a purpose...to spread darkness at the speed of light, damage our confidence and, Democrats and the media hope, the economy.
Republican voters have been denigrating our democratic governance and our civil service run government for forty years, and they have come to believe in their own propaganda. Now that we need non-partisan civil servants to address a natural phenomenon all we have are political hacks. Trump does what he does to satisfy Republicans, he has no grasp of facts and no ability to reason from them to sound conclusions.
263
@Casual Observer Isn't Virginia Thomas (spouse of Clarence Thomas, SC) busy and looking to "purge" those "disloyal" civil servants who insist on sticking to facts and rational thinking ?
9
@Casual Observer
Good point, the question is do they even care?
When you start thinking people are disposable and do not deserve access to healthcare (with of odd theory that it is freedom and individual responsibility that should govern the need for healthcare), you may already concluded you do not need those people.
Caring for the rich, powerful and connected... the rest who cares...
The Humanity
3
Azar: "“We have this 15th case in California that could be the first community spread. We have to do the epidemiology behind that.”
No Mr Secretary, we don't, because we have not been testing for it. At all.
And not just because the CDC's kits did not work, but also because the current guidelines prohibited testing of persons without history of travel to China.
Doctor sees patient with Flu, tests negative for Influenza - can't ask for Covid-19 test.
The only thing we have "under control" is the data gathering, as in, we have done a stellar job in preventing any documentation of the epidemics spread in the US.
The CDC has tested a few hundred samples, from China travelers. South Korea has tested tens of thousands weeks ago.
Go USA.
5
What is the CDC doing?
So for the past month American propaganda outlets have relentlessly blamed Chinese authorities for this coronavirus.
I remember a couple highlights such as democracies are transparent and transparency results in no spreading of disease, and that if authorities heeded the doctor Li Wenliang's warnings instead of arresting him there wouldn't be this calamity. Bear in mind when these stories were being run, every nation on earth already knew there was a dangerous contagious disease in China (Wuhan lockdown occurred on 1/23) and had the time to prepare for it.
Look at the current situation. China has more or less controlled the virus in its own borders, while other transparent democracies given a month's heads up are suffering from sustained untraceable community spread. This New York Times article is describing a phenomenon where rules in a democracy prevented a medical response suggested by a doctor. Sounds familiar?
How is it possible superior democracies that are transparent, had forewarning, and very early on banned Chinese travelers be in their current predicament? Is the New York Times going to run an article on how superior the Chinese system is? Are they at a minimum going to apologize for their criticisms which are embarrassingly being hollowed out every single day as each additional "democracy" fails in its epidemic control? Of course not. But what can you expect from a country where an official senator says the virus was a man-made disease intentionally leaked.
2
How many SWAT squads do you think were called out in California in the last week? Due to things like; "man with a gun"; and "refusing to surrender". Funny how prepared and well financed we are for that kind of response. Well, funny isn't the right word....
4
Why do I get the feeling that Trump and his administration of misfits and criminals are woefully unprepared for this coronavirus outbreak? Because they are.
6
Based on the delay of the testing... I'm going to go with this being a location in California in a county not previously on higher alert due to known cases and containment of said cases.
Hence.... the local healthcare may have initially been fooled into thinking they were dealing with normal cold or flu.. until the patients health collapsed later.
My daughter was admitted to a medical facility a couple weeks ago for two days, and she had a mild head cold when admitted. The facility staff immediately tested her for COVID-19 before moving her from admitting to patient care. She tested negative... but I appreciated the heightened level of alert and process being applied by county health and local medical facilities.
There are a limited number of counties that have been empowered by CDC to test and verify on their own.. and I bet where this patient was treated is NOT one of them.
Face it.... CDC is behind the game here on testing. First a defective test, and one only the CDC could perform, then limited distribution for local testing, and still no large testing capabilities in the field across the US... even though CDC says further transmission and outbreak in the US is inevitable.
8
Seems to me that the restrictions on testing were Federally mandated. Won’t it be wonderful when we’ve socialized the entire health care industry? Bernie supporters and Dems in general, thats what will happen in EVERY instance that you want care...how do people not see that?
1
@skyfiber
Because the exact opposite is true.
All other western countries have some form of universal coverage with much better results than the USA.
The real kicker is that it also costs less.
It might take a virus like this to bring dialog between the working class and big money interest. Small government has the advantage of being cheap in the short term, filling the pockets of those unsympathetic to the concerns of everyday workers, but in the long term this will be costly for us all.
If we have weak insurance coverage, no sick leave and few resources to get us through a large scale epidemic, it will speed up the conversation that we all needed to be having about time-off and the fairness of our medical system. How can we put the interest of survival above capitalistic purity?
9
We are not prepared.
“Coronavirus testing kits have not been widely distributed to our hospitals and public health labs. Those without these kits must send samples all the way to Atlanta, rather than testing them on site, wasting precious time as the virus spreads,”
Heck with you local hospital. Bet they don’t even have a separate waiting area for patients that may have virus. So one goes to hospital, does not fit the federal criteria for testing (because U.S. has limited number of testing kits) coughs. Etc. in waiting room. The advice to stay away from sick people is ludicrous. The CDC protocol requires one to have traveled to China to get a test. It will spread because it is a virus. Suggesting the responsibility for preventing spread is on citizens is another aspect of small government mind set.
5
The public is already panicking. I went on Amazon to buy some miniature hand sanitizers for my NYC students. Whatever is available has been bought up by 3rd party sellers reselling at astronomical prices. I am praying this virus is short-lived. From what I'm seeing, the schools aren't prepared. The US isn't prepared.
11
@embellishedlife
Amazon is surely rife with hustlers ready to make a profit. Awful. Just go to your local store where there is product available. Many store have a travel size toiletries section (Target, Walmart, $ tree, most grocers etc). You could also order small empty travel bottles (probably not being jacked up in price) and fill them yourself using the extra large hand sanitizers. And good on you for thinking of your students. That's wonderfully caring and humane.
And do encourage 30 second robust handwashing. Soap kills virus that lower alcohol hand sanitizer will miss. As an aside, we are using 91% isopropyl alcohol in a spray bottle which is effective against viruses with outer membranes like corona. (I use the spray for hard surfaces too as it is quick and dries fast; teachers could spray door knobs, keyboards and desks quickly and easily throughout the day).
And we have decided to add 91% isopropyl to our regular hand sanitizers to increase their alcohol content above the standard 70% content. It may be rougher on the skin, but I just keep lotion handy. There is a difference in efficacy with lower alcohol content and I have yet to hear experts address issue for laypeople who will be including it in their safety measures. They say wash well (yes!) but people will also carry handsanitizer. If there are nuances people should know about, they should address it.
9
Allow me to first say that blaming Trump will get us nowhere fast. It's the CDC at fault here. Lay the blame at the foot of the right person or entity. The CDC announced the other day that they suspected it was already in the community. The question then becomes, "Why didn't the CDC update their criteria at the same time as the announcement?" I think the CDC needs to answer this question immediately. My guess is the government red tape involved in anything per mounds of regulations, but that is simply a guess.
2
Find the answers to these questions:
1. Who does the CDC report to? Clue #1: the CDC does not act independently.
2. What assumption was made about this virus? That as long as folks were asymptomatic, they were good to go.
The rationale for this under-estimation could stem from the idea that after all this was "just a cold" for everyone but the elderly or those with underlying health conditions.
3. Whose decision was this to focus on the symptoms or lack thereof? I submit that it should have been an epidemic response team like we had until 2018 when Trump fired them.
Accurate testing is what was (and is) needed to happen, instead of relying on fever and respiratory symptoms, etc. as the sole indicator of infection.
We, as citizens and as a country, will receive the results of Trump's policies for good or ill (as we have with all previous presidents.)
5
The serological COVID-19 test developed in Singapore should be fast-tracked to California asap. I live quite close to UCDMC. I'm sure we will all need to be tested, sooner rather than later, and the current protocol is completely inadequate, if that isn't already obvious to anyone not up for re-election.
14
Hi Greg, I also live nearby. it is rather unsettling, huh? I'm glad I saved the face mask the fire stations passed out for the Paradise fire.
For me it's not the moment to waste my time thinking about who to blame but to focus on getting the facts from the most reliable sources I can and do what I can to prepare.
Everything is political these days but a highly infectious virus knows no geographical or political boundaries.
4
It’s my understanding that a simple face mask won’t protect us from the virus.
2
We were critical of China for underestimating and downplaying the seriously of the virus. And now we're doing the same thing.
615
@Steven I'm not sure the people are underestimating the potential effects of the disease. It's Trump who has to downplay it because he wants his narrative to be the only word on the subject. I guess when he had his "very good" phone call with President Xi he picked up a few tips for spreading disinformation and propaganda as well as deciding that Xi was doing a "very good job".
Finally. Is this a situation that Trump can't lie his way out of? Or did he try to save his campaign last evening by naming Pence the boss of this outbreak so he has a teflon coating?
14
No, a Republican President who is supposed to be the autocratic savior for Republicans voters is responsible for this situation.
19
@Steven
Exactly.
But then again.. this is American Ugly in action.. condemn every other nation but ignore your own national shortcomings.
27
There should always be a way for a doctor to override CDC protocol, if the doctor suspects disease. Completely irresponsible on the part of the federal government to ignore a doctor's severely legitimate request.
And not enough testing kits? Sheer madness!
31
Don't worry. Mike Pence is praying for us all.
28
A pandemic will confirm for Pence that the end times are here.
Don't worry, Pence is in charge now. Trump has appointed Mike Pence coronavirus czar. Pence doesn't believe in science, fueled the worst AIDS outbreak in Indiana's history while governor, denied that smoking kills, spread disinformation about condoms, and called global warming a "myth."
Good luck everyone.
46
Tragic that a person so sick as to be on a ventilator was not tested. Unfortunately our health institutions are headed by Trump appointees- hedge fund managers, lobbyists, evangelicals and science deniers. Companies cut R&D to pad the bottom line. Talking heads on TV and radio are our “experts”. We are poorly prepared for any crisis. Viruses and bacteria constantly mutate - people with weak immune systems are the most affected - we must always be vigilant. What better place for a virus to take hold than at political rallies, on cruise ships, and resorts populated by the elderly. Fortunately this is not Ebola - then we would really be in trouble.
267
@Barbara
So, they are only testing people who have been to China or had direct contact with someone who went to China. Then they say that the only people who are sick or at risk are those who went to China or had direct contact with someone who went to China.... does anyone else see a problem with this??
13
@Barbara
If you have studied progression data on this particular virus, you would not be so surprised.
It has been notably reported from China that some patients can initially have very mild symptoms... not unlike the common cold... for several days.. before suddenly taking a drastic turn for the worse with lung failure, and even organ failure in as little as 48 hours after appearing to have already moved through the worst of the infection. This dynamic of this particular virus is a huge land mine for healthcare workers and facilities.
27
How many ventilators does your local hospital have?
9
@Jen My local hospital has 4 negative pressure rooms, maybe 8 ICU beds and this time of year they are already occupied by flu patients. Not a pretty picture.
12
here is the unsettling truth...
Covid-19 is eluding human attempts to track it down or to test for it.
4
Like the falling stock market some how POTUS will blame his weak leadership on the democrats and fake news.
7
Where is Chris Christie and his tent when needed most?
1
Influenza virus continues to cause yearly seasonal epidemics worldwide and periodically pandemics.
Although influenza virus infection and its epidemiology have been extensively studied, a new pandemic is likely.
One of the reasons influenza virus causes epidemics is its ability to constantly antigenically transform through genetic diversification.
However, host immune defense mechanisms also have the potential to evolve during short or longer periods of evolutionary time.
In this mini-review, we describe the evolutionary procedures related with influenza viruses and their hosts, under the prism of a predator-prey relationship.
Influenza Virus—Host Co-evolution. A Predator-Prey Relationship?
Published online 2018 Sep 7
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6137132/
1
The president's people are lead footed, and Trump's comment of low risk is folly given the demonstrated capacity of the virus. Maybe Pence wants to go down in history as the hero of the situation in spite of his past, and the President saying some poor people might not be able to afford the vaccine. Dummy!!! ,how else will it ultimately be stopped 9 months to a year from now.
2
"Good job Brownie" all over again. Remember?
7
@Karen
“Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job.” The actual words were so forced-folksy and awkward, I think they’re important.
And for those that don’t recall, the quote was from George Bush to FEMA Director Michael Brown regarding Brown’s handling of the response to Hurricane Katrina. An earlier example of Trump-style gaslighting.
2
After reading this, I have to ask myself - have they tested this patient's family, friends and anybody he/she came into contact. Given that none of these would fall under the testing criteria, I fear the answer is no. One can only imagine the consequences.
10
Trump has done it again. He has a knack for placing people in important positions who have proven to be least competent ,in Pence's case, failures in the field for which they are given primary responsibility. Not unlike little Bush giving Katrina responsibility to 'Brownie'.
4
Pence in charge ? just great - let’s not forget that many in this country eagerly await the end of the world (where they will be saved, of course) and would see a pandemic as part of God’s plan. Why bother testing ? if not for the stock market crashing the GOP might not even care...
9
Unacceptable response to a serious medical issue.
ALL DOCTORS have an oath and obligation to respond to such medical situations. We cannot have the SLOW INEPT FEDERAL Government holding up such a case - there MUST be an expedient avenue to use to ease such regulations under special conditions. Our CONGRESS must respond to this with legislation to easy this situation - this IS THEIR JOB ... they can be replaced. DJM
1
If the CDC is not able to offer timely test, I encourage Governor Newsom to speak to Prime Minister Ardern of New Zealand and/or Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore. They both seem offer their people a more timely approach to public health testing than what we are seeing here.
13
You would think testing sick Solano County residents would have been a testing priority given that it is the county Travis AFB is located in and the destination of many virus victims. The CDC needs to be more proactive with getting the test out there.
It is a shame that the other counties had to identify asymptomatic transmission before the US --- like the virus out of the bag now and probably too late to do anything about. The 20% severely ill rate should just about sound the death keel for American medicine and insurance companies.
9
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. I wonder how many of the commenters here have gotten their flu shot this year, drive while talking on their cell phone, drive regularly above the posted speed limit or are overdue for their colonoscopy. This is going to blow over and lots of people will have spent money on ridiculous supplies.
2
@mbpman
I have the flu shot, rarely drive over the speed limit, never talk on a phone while driving and I am not overdue for any medical procedure. Talk to me again when it's reported less than a mile from your home, as it is here. It's not "blowing over" anytime soon and one should prepare accordingly.
8
Funding cuts to the agencies who lead us during pandemics is a sobering concern. The fact that we are limited in our testing kits and personal protective equipment PPE for medical workers is alarming. The world suppliers are not going to help us. The virus is already community spread now. Surveillance with testing only being done through a federal agency is not the way healthcare should be delivered. The numbers are not there because the testing to confirm is not being done. The market reaction appears to be appropriate. Covid19 is easily spread and many cases are mild. At the same time it has a high lethality when compared to other pandemics. 2-3% is high. Trump wants you to think of it like the Flu. He only just yesterday learned that Flu kills 69,000 a year. In his simple illiterate mind that's the same. But the mortality rate of seasonal flu is only 0.05%. The Coronavirus is 2-3% which is the same as the Pandemic of 1918 the Spanish Flu.
7
Perhaps the “federal fit criteria for testing” needs to be revised ASAP.
1
"Sluggish response" should be the new name for the GOP in general. Vote them out. I live in CA and this type of Trumpism during a growing disaster is just what we expect here.
9
In epidemic times, negligence of doctors and/or medical institutions is a serious crime... Human health always has to be first!
I’m in Davis, CA with two teenage boys. We live a 20 mi from Travis AFB, where Americans are in Covid-19 quarantine; and 1 mile from UC Davis campus, where hundreds of kids likely did a round trip to China over winter break. Our schools and neighborhoods are full of people with 1-2 degrees separation from UC Davis Med Center staff, nurses, and MDs. Their dad teaches at CSUS, which further increases exposure. This morning I emphasized w my boys that frequent hand washing, especially extra before and after lunch today, is essential. We have lots of food and meds. My thoughts this morning are 1) I am glad of the diversity in our schools and my neighborhood here 2) along with appropriate caution let’s show compassion for fellow Americans who get sick and the health workers who care for them and 3) thank goodness I live in the Republic of Davis, inside the nation’s biggest center of Resistance to the apocalypse that is 45’s presidency. I do not fear my neighbors. Overall I have high confidence in local and state leadership on this kind of public heath issue. I do fear Republicans posing as patriots.
23
Your neighbor next door in Sacramento stands (at the sink, washing my hands frequently) in solidarity with you!
8
Thank you Jennifer!
@Red
and where do you stand on vaccines?
Employers need to put in workplace procedures for dealing with containing transmittable viruses and infections.
I was a supervisor in a governmental agency that included primarily scientific and engineering professionals. It was a partially unionized agency and all employees received fairly generous sick leave benefits and health insurance. Despite this it wasn’t unusual for employees to come to work with obvious signs of either a viral or respiratory infection. They either didn’t want to “waste” their sick leave, or in rare cases had mostly exhausted it. Healthy employees would complain to me that I should send the sick employees home. When I went to our human resources department to review my options for maintaining a healthy work place they I was told I had no authority to send obviously sick staff home. It seemed to me that it wouldn’t be difficult to put into place criteria that permitted a supervisor to send apparently sick employees to see a doctor to certify they weren’t contagious. I suspect most would’ve just voluntarily gone home and taken sick leave.
On another note my employer offered free flu shots at work and I was always astounded at my co-workers who refused to be vaccinated. And this was at an agency with very educated employees.
8
This is an election year. If appropriate steps aren´t taken now and this pandemic starts too look like it could get out of control in this country, would large gatherings of people at polling places be forbidden? If there are fears of a resurgence of cases in the fall, what then?
4
Alarming news. At the moment of a pandemic we are cut short of test kits. The criteria for only fed testing is not normal. Our numbers at this point are low only because we are not testing. PPE equipment are in short supply as well because most of our suppliers would come out of China.
5
@jeansch
the fact that test kits are not viable is NOT news...it was discovered and first reported weeks ago.
what is news is that many are just now waking up to realities that are a month old.
2
"A California coronavirus patient had to wait days to be tested because of restrictive federal criteria, despite doctors’ requests." Folks, numbers in US are low because of this. CDC thinks you need to have visited China to catch the virus. Give it a few weeks and California will become new Daegu. Yesterday, I went shopping and found that fresh vegetables are gone at a local costco. No mask anywhere. Hand sanitizers nowhere. Amazon was asking for $100 for one which would cost maybe $15. Everything was scary.
7
It was widely reported a week ago that the test kits sent out to each US State and also to a number of overseas countries had turned out to be flawed. Maybe this influenced the CDC's reluctance to test widely. But the more important point here is the US's failure to build on advances by other countries that already have frontline experience, e.g. Singapore which has been able to use a serological test that it has developed to detect traces left by the virus even when someone has already recovered from covid-19. This has enabled very effective contact tracing. President Trump says the US is the best at everything. It's this sort of attitude that imposes the greatest risk of the virus spreading person to person in the US in an uncontrolled manner. A degree of humility and paying much closer attention to advances elsewhere -as well as to the new things that continue to be learnt about the virus - would go a long way to providing far more effective protection for the American people. For example it's been known for over a week that people who are completely asymptomatic can still pass on the infection, and in rare cases the incubation period can be almost a month - not the 14 days that keeps on being authoritatively cited. Yet the US and many other governments keep on relying on outdated assumptions in developing policy. Take a leaf out of the Singaporean's book. Keep on top of the science worldwide. It might save many lives.
25
Shame on the doctors for not following their instincts and testing this patient!! Are you telling me that $150,000 worth of education for these doctors only teach them to follow directions and not think for themselves? Do they leave common sense at the door? The CDC provides guidelines but the CDC is not the doctor-at-hand. Do not blame the CDC for this. The NYT should be asking the doctors why, when they thought the patient should be tested, they did not do it. It appears that doctors deserve to be replaced by AI.
@J. G. Smith
FYI, hospitals are not equipped to test for this illness. The actual material to test are with CDC and the paucity of labs CDC as thus far equipped with testing capability. If CDC says they won't test your patient, there is no one else to do it. Understand that.
CDC has held it's criteria tightly because they have severely limited capability right now. That needs to change and they ought to be testing cases where hospitals are highly suspicious. Frankly, there's no excuse for not adding in severe cases where doctors are highly suspicious. CDC and whoever in the administration that is pushing to keep criteria tight (it amy not be CDC) need to answer for why the criteria has not been judiciously expanded right now.
The administration seems to be allowing a measure political and economic (oops I mean political) issue to bleed into the public health response CDC is tasked to implement.
10
@J. G. Smith
Because the tests are administered by CDC and unless you have the kit (which was faulty), the testing needs CDC’s approval
1
@J. G. Smith The "doctors" don't have the test kits. Feds are in control. That's the problem.
6
What a scandal; a premier medical research / hospital in the U.S. is unable to evaluate a patient for COVID-19. Wow!
So, only the CDC, (which has been de-funded by our 'stable genius' of a president) is in a position to do this test? Hmm...why limit testing to that outfit? That seems inefficient to have to send a sample clear across the country.
I assume the staff at UC Davis could test for other conditions, like the flu, and at least rule that out as the cause of respiratory failure, but it isn't clear from this article what testing was conducted.
I would like to read more about the genetic structure of this novel corona-virus, how it is tested, what the experts are looking for, how they distinguish it from the common cold, or from SARS, or MERS.
8
Was the lab in-network? And what should the billing code be?
17
@Beyond Repair It's an expensive test and will be subject to deductibles and copays. The cost will not be affordable to many.
2
The test should be administered at no charge to everyone as part of our government’s response to this dire threat to national security.
I guess we can't criticize China for hiding the data about the virus. We should look at South Korea for an example of how to manage this by confronting reality and testing thousands. Meanwhile, our president pretended the number of known infections in the United States is 15 instead of 60.
13
Conservative ideology based on Laffer Curve fiscal policy is the virus that will destroy the planet.
6
It would be interesting to know if this infected person is Asian. Not because of any prejudice but to possibly know who she would come in contact with.
Did anyone ask if this "non-conforming" patient in the U.S. just opened a package with shiny new product made in Communist China?
1
If there is a doctor who suspects the virus in a patient, they should be allowed to test for it. It’s too little too late otherwise.
It was inevitable that the virus would pass person to person without the tracking it back to China. The testing restrictions should have been lifted after the British man in S. France passed the virus to a cluster of people when he was a-symptomatic.
The West is way too concerned about the economy and money. The virus is now non-traceable back to China. Testing restrictions should be lifted.
5
Just this morning we were talking about Trump's "we have the greatest" appointment of Pence to oversee efforts. We said the we wondered how long it would be before budget or administrative decisions contributed to the spread of the virus. Clearly the answer is not long at all.
7
Until
Proven otherwise, the COVID-19 virus is wily, sneaky and mutating. Medical experts and public officials need to approach this virus with an open mind. Do not think that because a suspected patient did not travel to China and/or no contact with someone who travelled there, that the Individual is not infected.
Know this— this virus will cost all
Of us big bucks. So, let all
Local governments start planning and spending to keep all of us safe. We need to do our part, if we are sick, let us stay home.
4
The virus getting into nursing homes would be the worst case scenario. The death rate for the young and healthy is low, but higher for those with poor baseline levels of health (read elderly and immuno-compromised).
The flu's death rate of 0.01% kills several hundred thousand elderly in the US every year. With a death rate of 2%, it would be terrible.
There is so much hysteria, but it is rare that the news discusses who is actually at risk. Cancelling school only makes sense if you are concerned about asymptomatic children transferring the virus to elderly or sick family members.
6
The risk of the corona virus will be down-played by our current administration, until it hits Washington D.C The stocks will go down more, as a lack of confidence in the president and his control over the CDC continues.
I can only imagine how this would have been different with Obama. Test kits would be prevalent in hospitals and a list of suggested supplies that folks need to have, would be given out. Two days ago I purchased some masks and there were too many left, considering a pandemic is in our country. Empower the CDC to do the work they were trained to do.
3
@K.M It may take a virus to drain the swamp.
1
Perhaps the tight CDC criteria are due to the fact that only 12 of about 100 public hospitals have the Covid-19 test kit that is effective following the disclosure by the CDC that other virus test kits were defective.
In other words they are restricting testing to only higher probability infected people until the proper test kits become generally available.
8
Who are they kidding this is far worst, with few test kits, how many people where written off has having the flu and sent home, how many won't show up at a Dr office because we don't have insurance and if we have to depend on clueless Pence and Trump run this god help the world, but wait Pence thinks this has something to do with the 2nd coming of Jesus, now we are really in trouble.
7
—from the Atlantic
You’re Likely to Get the Coronavirus
James Hamblin February 24, 2020
"On Friday, Chinese scientists reported in the medical journal JAMA an apparent case of asymptomatic spread of the virus, from a patient with a normal chest CT scan.
"The researchers concluded with stolid understatement that if this finding is not a bizarre abnormality, 'the prevention of COVID-19 infection would prove challenging.'”
TESTING IS NO PANACEA!
6
Time to reach out to other countries for test kits. Or at least their formula. And manufacture them fast...this virus is not waiting around. It’s insane that only 500 people have been tested in this country, we are missing a large number of those infected.
7
Travis Air Force Base, where some of the Diamond Princess evacuees were taken and are staying, is in Solano County, CA. While officials say they haven’t found a link yet, it seems that there are many, many leads to follow and, as a corollary, that the virus is out there and circulating.
5
Half a million living on the streets, beyond the reach of health care worker but not beyond the reach of the virus. Millions more living with no insurance in states that refused to expand Medicaid, millions living paycheck to paycheck, with some kind of insurance but unable to afford a day off, let alone a trip to a doctor because their deductible is too high or the copay is too high -- and this includes those over 65 on today´s version of Medicare, who do NOT have 100% coverage or protection from catastrophic costs.
Unaffordable childcare. Unemployment benefits that can take years to get so what will happen if you´re quarantined and can´t go to work, lose your paycheck? A gutted CDC vulnerable to the ignorant vindictiveness of a despot who cares only about holding onto power, a pandemic response team dismissed because it was set up by Obama to combat Ebola. It´s no wonder big investors are taking their money and running for the hills.
36
The U.S. media was rightfully very critical of the Chinese government's transparency and accounting of coronavirus cases.
Get ready. We're going to need the same pressure on the U.S. government.
13
It seems like many Americans, starting with the President, do not understand percentages. When they hear that the Flu has a mortality rate of point one percent and that the new Corona Virus may have a fatality rate of two percent, they are thinking that two percent is just twice that of point one percent. As someone who has trained many retail employees with high school educations, on discounting so they could understand store-wide sales on products, I can tell you that confusion abounds when it comes to percentages. So here it is, Mr. President:
2% fatality rate is twenty times a 0.1% rate. .02 is twenty times .001.
That number is what has caught the attention of real scientists and doctors around the world. To be fair, those concerned medical professionals are hoping that the disease is under-reported and that the mortality rate is in fact much lower. Still if only half the cases are unreported, that still makes this Corona virus 10 times as bad as the flu.
Everyone got that? the President's gut feeling on scientific matters is not what we are looking for. The same probably goes for VP Pence's Old Testament version of science...
17
Trump on Corona virus: Nero Fiddled while Rome Burned. His only medical concern is how the virus is giving the stock market pain.
2
One would hope that at least the patient was kept under quarantine until the test showing positive results for the virus was received, days later.
2
With science-denier Mike Pence, "leading" the Corona virus containment team, our nation is in grave grave trouble.
Pence's response to the HIV epidemic as Governor was to pray.
8
If the person is a resident of Solano county, that is where people have been quarantined from the Diamond Princess, at Travis Air Force Base. Can someone please investigate whether containment procedures there have been lax, considering the virus is airborne according to all international sources and can incubate for up to a month.
4
Surely this is a job for Jared.
I won't feel safe until Jared's plate is emptied of other projects and he's put on coronavirus full time!
6
Made me laugh out loud!
Thank goodness I was drinking coffee when I read your comment!
1
“A California coronavirus patient had to wait days to be tested because of restrictive federal criteria, despite doctors’ requests.” WHAT?? Every test of a suspected case requires federal approval?? Coupled with the fact that the test kits released by the CDC had a faulty component— and thus could not be trusted — this news is truly alarming. Coronavirus Czar Mike Pence delayed implementing a clean needle program in southern Indiana because of his religious bias, and hundreds of people died unnecessarily in one county alone. I’m only slightly facetious in suggesting he might apply some litmus test to this situation. “Um, gay and transgendered people, please wait in the line to the left. You there, with the Planned Parenthood button on, please step to the left.” (I’ve been watching too many documentaries on the Holocaust.) Let’s hope that actual doctors and scientists are allowed to make expedient decisions about testing and treatment.
9
Congress should pass legislation freeing CDC from Trump’s power over it.
12
If you don't test groups of people, you don't know who is compromised; Americans are in the dark.
3
@Sam Perhaps keeping us in the dark is the goal. By not allowing doctors to test patients, the CDC avoids finding out how widespread the coronavirus is. Maybe the problem here isn't just that the CDC lacks expertise; maybe they're a captured (that is, politicized) agency.
5
I know of a woman who died of a pneumonia in Santa Clarita, CA, I believe on Christmas Day. She was white American but had been exposed to Chinese relatives by marriage, who had visited from mainland China for the holidays! This virus has been around much longer than known!
7
@Feroza Jussawalla How do you know that was caused by the coronavirus? I'm pretty sure people die for other causes, too.
3
“The risk to the American people remains very low,” said Mr. Trump. “We have the greatest experts, really in the world, right here.”
Those were the ones he fired and didn't replace in 2018, the pandemics experts from Health and Human Services Department.
7
Can california's governor read a paper once in awhile? He is too busy reallocating tax payer dollars to his pet projects instead of caring for the citizens.
This error is unacceptable.
1
More questions than answers in this case. Sounds like China, not the US.
What now? Who was in contact with this patient zero? What surfaces and venues have been exposed?
And why does the CDC not already have a testing lab up and running in California. For several 100 tests to be handled. Every day!
The US is a vast country, with 50 states. But COVID-1O does not know that.
We have react and respond at the level of the virus, and how it operates. And we have to do it fast.
6
" At the moment, however, the new case appears to be one in which the source of infection is unknown, suggesting that the virus may be transmitted within the community." Can anyone tell me just what this is supposed to mean?
4
@Faria I believe it means that, if true, the virus is spreading within the community through non-direct exposure to travel or travelers - people distanced from a direct exposure are catching in the US from unknown sources. If this person has no known travel or close contact with someone who has traveled, it means that there are expanding degrees of infection from a traveler to others in the community who are spreading it to more in the community.
2
@Faria It means the virus is “in the wild”. It is out there and it is being transmitted.
5
What is especially galling is that the UC Davis Medical Center had already treated another patient with confirmed Covid-19 when they requested that this new patient be tested for the virus, and the CDC refused. It’s not just that medical professionals made the request, but medical professionals with experience treating the virus itself. Wouldn’t that fact be enough to raise the profile of this case for the CDC? Or is the US government making its medical decisions based on how it will affect the stock market?
20
Or maybe: Trump
Is happy this has happened in California , given his attitudes and biases. So is it possible that the message came down from Sec Azar to CDC officials (not experts or long-time clinicians or epidemiologists) to discriminate against Californians? Wouldn’t surprise me in the least, and things might just get worse with Pence in charge.
4
@Mike
the more likely reason the CDC's test kits have yet to be made viable after the discovery weeks ago that they were defective.
as well as the fact that testing has proved to be unreliable.
Chinese doctors report patients testing negative multiple times and yet a CT scan finding infection in their lungs.
2
COVID 2019 It is also highly contagious. It can affect 85% of the patients mildly. But it is serious (ie, difficulty breathing and requiring ventilators) to severe for the remaining 15%. For example, this patient who couldn't get tested. According to this news report:
"The patient was transferred to the medical center from another hospital in Northern California with a suspected viral infection, and was already on a ventilator upon arrival, according to the university’s letter."
The problem is that once the disease is out in the community, it will be impossible to stop because 82% of the people who get it are only mildly ill don't stay home. Meanwhile, for the balance 15%, they fall ill enough to require hospitalisation and 3% are severely ill. In the american healthcare system, what are the chances that you won't see a doctor because you don't want to pay medical bills because you are uninsured. And you show up for work because taking a day off may affect your earnings.
So, imagine a city like New York. Then imagine that 50,000 persons fall ill within a matter of weeks. Your hospitals have to cater to the usual illnesses AND you now need to take care of 7,500 seriously sick patients and 1,500 severely ill patients who require ICU beds and ventilators etc..
Medical systems won't be able to cope.
9
The CDC website gives it's explicitly and overly narrow testing policy: you must show symptoms and have travelled to China, or have symptoms and close contact with someone with a laboratory confirmed case. This wasn't a policy designed to find COVID-19. This was a policy designed to limit recognition of most existing cases of COVID-19.
24
On Trump’s behalf, not on behalf of ordinary Americans.
4
That sounds eerily like the policy of diagnosis in the early days in Wuhan, China - the requirement then was to only diagnose people who had been to the seafood market (considered ground zero) or have contact with confirmed patients. Any lessons learned?
2
It's now a serious question how many others at UC-Davis have been infected since the patient who fell ill with the disease first turned up. There's now a very serious chance, despite the precautions take at UC-Davis's hospital, that there will be an outbreak spreading from that one case. Isn't it reassuring, then, that Mike Pence has been put in charge, that a former big-Pharma lobbyist is head of HHS, and that Cuccinelli has finally found Johns Hopkins University's map?
4
We have been told over and over that Covid-19 symptoms mirror those of cold and flu.
There are millions of American every single day who have cold and flu symptoms.
Why was this particular patient suspected of having Covid-19.....as opposed to the millions of other American who are currently experiencing cold and fly symptoms?
5
If a physician treating a patient determines the patient needs testing for coronavirus, then that is what should occur. Require an Infectious Disease MD consult to weigh in if the fear is to prevent unnecessary testing. This patient is intubated, on a ventilator--respiratory failure-clearly critically ill. How many people were in contact with this person both pre-hospital and in hospital before diagnosis was made? Earlier diagnosis could have made a vast difference to potential spread in Northern California.
6
Patient diagnosed in ICU on ventilator. How long did he have symptoms before going to hospital? My guess is that he had symptoms for a couple of weeks, spreading it everywhere. This sounds similar to Lombardy, Italy.
Are we going to be up to over 400 confirmed cases by the end of the week?
Oh, wait, CDC does not have a backlog because they are only being sent 400 tests per day for the entire country. So, we will probably only have another 50 confirmed cases in California because of restrictive testing. But, there will be 4,000 real cases -- just not tested & confirmed.
We are already too late. When will we have capability for large scale testing? China had this capability after 1 month. Likely, it will take us 2-3 more months. By then, it will be too late.
I don't think that Pence will do what he needs to do to light a fire and get things moving faster. But, we can always hope.
13
@David Eschelbacher Perhapst the lack of testing is a feature, not a bug: if the CDC doesn't test people, they can continue to claim that the virus isn't spreading in the US.
1
Pence is all about delay, dithering, and prayer. No expertise sought—just the Rapture crowd. Scary!!!
1
So ask any hospital administrator what plan they have in place to handle this and you will get a response of ‘none’. They are incapable of planning for anything that for profit health insurers have not considered and the insurers have no plans for this. As far as an affordable vaccine goes look to Europe or China for that. For profit US research will be stumbling along far after the virus has run its course.
8
@AG Wrong! Any worthwhile hospital or medical center has a well practiced rapid response plan in place for a community disaster, including infectious pandemics. Doctors & Nurses are competent & valiant, & will show up @ work, even working extra shifts, to care for patients in their community.
11
Not only do the hospitals have plans, but so do the better run public health depts. in various cities and states.
2
All fear is rational.
"Stocks on Wall Street fell sharply in early trading on Thursday, in the sixth straight day of losses for the S&P 500 as investors continued to react with fear to the spreading of the virus."
2
I'm not one to talk down the CDC. I greatly admire and respect their work. That said, the issue with testing is bizarre. It's been 8-10 weeks since news of the virus emerged publicly. Health officials have had ample time to pursue accurate testing capability as we have seen other countries implement successfully, though they've had less time to respond than we've had because they've had to stand up test sooner.
If there are problems with test kits, who has looked into the vendors CDC has contracted with to produce these? Where is their accountability? CDC isn't making these kits in their offices! If they've had reagent issues, what private contractors are responsible for bad product? I would like the names of these vendors, and I want to know why their products and production capability are faulty.
Many have been concerned for weeks that CDC is missing transmission. Now we see the obvious tells in cases severe enough to require hospitalization. Good public health response doesn't rest on waiting for the canary in the coal mine to fall sick.
Yesterday Dr. Redfield told Congress there were NO cases of unknown origin, when that patient was on an ICU ventillator in CA. How could he not have this information? That case was announced AFTER Trumps conference that evening. Delays in information sharing look politically calculated. Tasking Pence with authority over covid19 response politicizes a public health emergency and calls into question the transparency of communication.
48
The Republican Party, as an institution, is a danger to the rule of law and the integrity of our democracy—AND NOW THE HEALTH OF THE NATION.
The problem is not just Donald Trump it is Republicans who collaborate with him.
The best hope of defending the country from Trump’s Republican collaborators is to vote against Republicans at every opportunity.
27
Great administration policies on this. 1) Purge experts from the government. 2) Refuse to listen to any remaining qualified people. 3) Take all decisions based solely on political considerations. 4) Budget based upon reducing government expenditures rather than based upon improving public health.
33
@DRK it should also be noted that significant funding for this effort is coming from diverting money from other health programs designed to aid the neediest of our citizens, but none of it will come from diverting funds for building his useless ego driven wall.
5
@DRK
In this season of Lent I want to refrain from indulging in unkind thoughts about people who installed Bush as president, people who voted for Reagan twice. and Trump once so far. What will it take for them to vote for competent human beings?
We know it came from China... so it should be easy to track who was in China where it originated from. Hasn’t anyone everyone played Plague? It’s exactly the same thing. It’s not racist when your basing it off people plane tickets from China to the outside world.
2
@Summer, it may have originated in China, but at this point it has spread to Europe and the US. To that point, it’s not coming from just one country any more, so public health experts need to look at symptoms as well as exposure to determine who to test. Epidemiologists are the people we need to depend upon to track and limit exposure of our population, and that is who should lead the charge on appropriate testing guidelines.
21
@Summer if you had bothered to read the article you’d realize that this patient has had no known contact with anyone who had travelled to China or any country with incidences of the virus. Btw it’s not just China - get your head out of the racist sand.
3
Alexa...where did Mike Pence study epidemiology?
118
@Mary Elizabeth Lease
Pence needs to shake hands with each patient. Then, report back.
11
@Mike
report back with a hearty hand shake and bear hug
4
@Mary Elizabeth Lease
Mike Pence's job is not to control the pandemic, merely to ensure that it is not recognized as a pandemic. It helps to not test so that you don't know that people have it.
5
Trump hates California with all it's sanctuary cities and clean air standards, not raking their forests etc. I know that sounds terrible. This will become political. I know, that sounds terrible too but you just watch.
31
I suspect even some Trumpers know in their guts Trump and his corrupt cabal are incompetent to deal with a major health crisis like the one looming now.
An effective government response would require experts and teams moving quickly to set up contingency plans for producing and stocking test kits, medical supplies and medications requiring foreign source elements likely to be unavailable. They would be ready to set up adequately prepared quarantine sites in key population centers. They would have plans for comprehensive travel screenings and travel bans if necessary.
An effective response requires just the kind of experts and public servants Trump, Barr and the other federal agency heads are purging for putting facts, science and the national interest ahead of loyalty to Trump.
Unlike Trump, President Obama sought to fill government positions with persons best qualified for the jobs. He was competent to handle a crisis like the pandemic we now face. Trump is what happens when hate and tyranny overwhelm the rule of reason.
38
@JB, as much as I agree with your sentiment, now is not the time for our politicians on either side to inflame the issues by pointing fingers. Getting on with doing the work is key. If the current elected officials aren’t up to the task, then the political chips will eventually fall where they may.
1
This is exactly what is needed.
The needle needs to be moved radically in the direction of expertise and knowledge.
The US needs a CAL fire leadership model, to get out and front of this viral fire storm heading our way.
3
Don't worry people. The Almighty "market" will find a solution to this problem.
8
@SR
"In the long run we are all dead."
—the ultimate "market solution"
2
Or. for Pence and like-minded people such as AG Barr; It’s less the Almighty market and simply the Almighty they want everyone to pray to.
Just wait til the schools close, job sites close, employers stop paying workers, workers stop paying bills, the banks and credit institutions and landlords start foreclosures and evictions.
Two questions though — if 3 million people have to die for Trump to be voted out, will you think it worth the cost?
And what will you do for the families of the dead, the unemployed, and the homeless?
11
We are quite lucky. Our state, CT, began to planning for the worst case scenario in late January. They did not wait for the foot-dragging response of the DJT administration to put the needed personnel and equipment in place in case of an outbreak.
And a state-wide website has been set up to disseminate up-to-date information.
I often thank my lucky stars for living in a blue state high taxes and all.
21
@It’s About Time
Ditto, NY.
2
My daughter works in the hospital unit right next to the ICU this patient is in, not isolated until now. All she and her coworkers have for protection are face masks. Some of the workers there are going home and stocking up on food and supplies, not knowing whether quarantines will be put in place. This is truly appalling.
47
I read that Hawaii will not have test kits until mid March. Hawaiian Airlines have just now stopped flights in and out of South Korea. Hawaii has a diverse population many who have been traveling to and from regions where Coronavirus is a problem. It appears surveillance is poor if no one in Hawaii has even been tested. Community spread is the thing we are bracing for in the US. Once the virus has broken from people with direct contact to the original source, it is in the community. That is why the WHO and CDC issued alarm. South Korea is testing hundreds of people and finding cases in the community. This pandemic is being led in this nation by inept leaders who do not even respect science. Trump should not have spoken at all in the conference yesterday. His words and denial only confused the situation.
14
@jeansch Yes, according to BBC, the UK has already tested 7690 people in their country with a much smaller population base than the US. The USA has tested about 450. The mirror has cracked on our preparedness, for sure!
2
I just returned from a Grand Rounds presentation on COVID-19 at Albany Medical Center in the NY state capital.
It appears that there are many, many questions that even the most well-informed doctors cannot answer, and that the information related to this crisis was changing even during the one hour presentation.
For all you readers out there who are wondering why more people aren't being tested, at least here in NY it requires the approval of the NYS DOH to do the test. And also the number of test kits are severely limited at this time. So unless you meet rigid criteria for the testing, you're not going to get it.
More concerning is the fact that personal protective equipment is in extremely short supply. Virtually no country in the world is exporting any, leaving each individual country and each state at the mercy of their suppliers and manufacturers. It is likely that no hospital has enough for even a moderate outbreak, placing health care workers at serious risk.
The contrast between what I heard yesterday at the White House news conference and what I heard today is stark.
That is the most frightening thing.
147
@Steve, RN If there are no factories making protective gear in the USA, then expect shortages to last for months. My American friends tell me Chinese in the USA are buying up all the faces masks, etc.
Why no dates in this article?
The date the patient was admitted to the first hospital, the dates tests were requested, the date the test was given, the date the results came back. All of these dates are key facts — part of the “Who, What, Where, WHEN, WHY.”
If the CDC and/or the hospital have withheld the date info, then you need to report *that* salient fact.
13
reporting the identifiable information like that would be HIPAA violation.
3
If a patient acquires the virus and then recovers, is the patient immune to it from there on?
8
@Rosemarie
No, apparently, Reinfections seem to be worse than the initial infection.
2
@Rosemarie
There have been reports of several patients who got the virus, recovered, and then got it again. Here is one:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/27/japanese-woman-tests-positive-for-coronavirus-for-second-time
It's not yet known how much immunity is granted and how long it lasts:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/02/19/coronavirus-after-2000-deaths-can-you-get-virus-again/4804905002/
Li QinGyuan, director of pneumonia prevention and treatment at China Japan Friendship Hospital in Beijing, said a protective antibody is generated in those who are infected.
"However, in certain individuals, the antibody cannot last that long," Li said. "For many patients who have been cured, there is a likelihood of relapse."
1
No, not really. Such a person could contract a case again, perhaps through a completely different vector or contact.
1
The only thing to do here is to ask the expert, the person in whom our leader has invested his supreme confidence for handling this matter.
Mr Pemce, as the official spokeman for our government:
1. Why has the CDCs not been funded or authorized to immeduately begin making and distributing reliable tests; training and equipping medical and public staff, schools, offices, or businesses; or developing rources or facilities to deal with this?
2. Do you have a plan for accommodating all the uninsured or underinsured people from whom the Trump administration has stripped affordable insurance who may now develop and spread the the coronavirus because they cannot afford treatment?
3. Are you fully prepared to protect all the medical workers who will obliged to put their lives in the line to try to save our lives?
4. Are you braced for all the lawsuits probably about to come your government's way fior all this needless delay in which lives that will be lost in the name of your administration's other priorities (tax breaks for you and the country's other wealthy, a useless wall, all your boss's golf trips) could have saved?
5. Or - Are your goals instead to prioritize finding ways to hide the facts of the epidemic, threaten public health officials into silence, and rely on lavish White House prayer breakfasts to empower Republican leaders to protect us all?
28
@caroline Pence’s plan - hold hands and pray!
2
Surely you jest. Really? Ask Pence to answer with any remote chance of logic? Come on!
"Restrictive Federal Criteria?" You have to be kidding me.
11
The kits are restricted because they are in short supply. Triage is the term.
9
I'm disappointed that Trump didn't make a juicy position for Ivanka and Jared....
But, they'd have to visit any areas of outbreak, and Trump isn't going to worry about HIS family..
Pence on the other hand? Newest scapegoat....I don't like the guy...personality of a stump...but it's painful to watch another one get ready to be thrown under the bus...
16
The source of the Solano County infection was almost certainly Travis Air Force Base in Solano County. Americans from Wuhan and the Diamond Princess were flown there.
18
-Iran's vice president now has the coronavirus. It became official a few hours ago. 3 weeks ago, she and the deputy health minister were on TV, and he was clearly unwell and coughing. He was also diagnosed with COVID-19 a few days ago. Iran definitely has at least 150 cases, but they're hiding it. I honestly wonder how many other Iranian ministers and politicians have been infected.
-Indonesia surprisingly hasn't had any cases even though it's in Southeast Asia and cases have been reported in the dozens in Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia; don't be surprised if a spike in Indonesian COVID-18 cases occurs anytime soon now.
-Pakistan borders Iran. 2 Pakistanis have been infected in Karachi and Islamabad. The Karachite has 5travel history with Iran, but Iran says there are 90 cases in the country of 80 million people. That means if you visit Iran, the chances of getting it is 0.000001125%, so there's either a whole ton of unreported cases in Iran or that guy is just unlucky.
If we handle it seriously with 100% effort we'll end up with between 90,000-120,000 cases worldwide by the end of the year. If we don't take care of the existing cases and the potential sources/hotspots and if we open up public places too soon, and call of the lockdowns and quarantine, then it will settle at around 200,000 cases or worse.
Good luck.
7
Clearly this event argues that Covid-19 is defeating our current protocols for preventing its spread.
As in all things, what we don't know is greater than what we do know despite what we are told.
2
Context: I am a federal government scientist.
“We have the greatest experts, really in the world, right here.”
Yes, because until the Republican anti-intellectualism beginning in the 90s we had been a nation that values truth and science, and because until Trumpism we had been a nation that welcomes immigrants and that the brightest minds in the world admired, and wanted to come contribute to. We are coasting on that legacy, but it will not last. It is being undermined daily by the very man bragging in the quote above.
82
@JusttheFacts, Same is true for our clean air and water. It took time, expertise and hard work of legislators, scientists and engineers to clean up the air in LA and the water in Hudson Bay.
1
Why aren’t the Democrats outside on the capital steps screaming it’s not acceptable as they did to oust Franken?
10
If that patient wasn't tested for days, because he didn't fit the risk profile - you have to wonder what the real number of Coronavirus cases is, here in the US.
45
For weeks I have wondered how the US could possibly not have community Coronavirus cases in our university communities, with significant numbers of Chinese students flying home during the December break and returning in January in time for the spring semester. I’m not surprised that the “first” case is reported from UC Davis. The US simply hasn’t tested for the virus, but confirmation would cause the stock market to decline even further.
13
At this point into the Coronavirus crisis, if a patient shows up at a ER with flu symptoms and tests negative for the flu, should automatically be tested for Coronavirus. Not doing so will be a serious dereliction of duty on the part of the ultimate responsible individual, the President of the United States.
13
I suspect there are many more cases of corona virus than known. The symptoms are similar to a common cold or influenza. Roughly 80% of those inflected have mild symptoms and probably never seek medical attention. So many cases probably go undetected. The mortality rate from corona virus is orders of magnitude less than influenza. And deaths occur in those that are medically compromised, the elderly, smokers, diabetics, etc. Headline writers like to use phrases like "deadly virus". But influenza is much more deadly. There will be outbreaks, but they would have to be enormous in numbers before it ever approached those of influenza. As FDR said, "there is nothing to fear but fear itself".
2
Your facts are off. Covid-19 mortality rate is currently estimated to be 2.0 - 2.5%, much higher than flu. It remains to be seen what the final numbers will turn out to be because we simply don't know how many people actually have contracted it. Much more testing will be needed.
16
"C.D.C. officials said it was possible the patient was exposed to a returning traveler who was infected." What do they mean it was "possible?" How else could it be transmitted? Is there some open market here in the US where people buy live animals who were bitten by bats carrying the virus? How could the patient "know" he was exposed to a returning traveler? Just because the patient cannot specify how he was infected, doesn't mean that the virus just appeared here out of the blue. The working assumption should be that he was exposed to someone with the virus who brought it here unless and until it is proven otherwise.
8
If we don't start dealing with this issue intelligently, then the stock market will be the least of our problems. I have less than 0% confidence in the politicians that are in charge now to do the right thing. Let's hope we have some courageous people in the CDC and in hospitals who will.
18
How many other people have already contracted the coronavirus and are being treated as if it were the common flu? If they’re healthy enough not to develop the worst symptoms, they may still be spreading the disease around.
13
@HLN
Britain, right now, is randomly testing people with the common flu, in case they might also have covid19. They are doing this to see if the virus is lurking - unseen - in the community.
We should do the same.
37
And they announced several weeks ago they were going to start doing this in several American cities, including New York, but it never seemed to happen, perhaps because of the test kit problem.
2
Thank goodness we have Mike Pence annointed to make this all better...
9
We’re very, very ready for this.
1
@ M. Not only are we very very ready, but really this is a huge opportunity to show why America is great, the greatest.
4
Canada has 12 cases, according to the Vancouver Sun. Could this Californian have come in contact with one of these folks?
1
@Kurfco
It’s possible, however much more likely that they were in contact with someone in the US.
Only a matter of time before Ivanka starts marketing a snazzy line of cashmere surgical masks, manufactured in China, with "45," "MAGA," or "Promises Kept" emblazoned on the front. Select all three! The Trump crime family won't let a golden marketing opportunity like coronavirus pass them by without capitalizing on it.
18
Travis Air Force Base is in Solano County. The base where some of the stranded, quarantined Americans were sent from China and the cruise ship.
Could this patient at UC Davis med center have come into contact with Travis personnel? Could the precautions taken by caretakers of the quarantined on the base be too little? Could the people quarantined and released be carrying the virus but not testing positive yet?
Unless this patient was a complete recluse, how many times did the go to work/school, the grocery store, gas station, etc... before symptoms brought them to the hospital?
Too many questions and I do not trust this administration to tell us the truth, as the *president outright lied about number of U.S. cases just yesterday. This is scary stuff, people. Ever see the movie Contagion??
24
When the stock market dropped 2000 points before the Democratic debates Trump blamed the debate chaos for the market crash. The market is now down 700 points after Trump’s “reassuring” press conference and his appointment of Indiana HIV Czar, VP Pence to lead our national prayer effort to banish the coronavirus. Of course, any market losses can be chalked up to Chuck and Nancy.
If you want to judge how successful Trump will be in preventing corona virus deaths just look at his religious freedom forays into India and Israel.
15
@Asher Fried
The Market “knows.”
Also, watch the bond curve. It’s been saying for some time: Recession.
6
Six degrees of separation is really 3.x degrees. We are all so interconnected.
Trump is downplaying and minimizing the likely impact of COVID-19 while the experts are saying the opposite (wide transmission in the U. S. is to be expected).
The Coronavirus epidemic shows the stark differences between a smart, rational, sober-minded president like Obama and the stupidity and incompetence of Trump. I wonder how many Republican senators are rethinking their decision not to convict. (Not that Pence is much better.)
I’m getting more worried by the day. The silver lining is thus may help get Sanders or another Democrat elected.
18
Wait! There are consequences to taking away millions upon millions of dollars to a public health system??
Vote wisely forevermore. We beg of you.
30
It now feels like there is a concerted effort from the top to remain ignorant.
When Congresswoman Ashoo asked Azar yesterday our capacity to test in terms of a specific number, he said he would - quote - have to get back to her. Don’t test, don’t tank the Dow.
The test we have is faulty for unknown and unexplained reasons. There’s no timeline for new, broader testing. Don’t test, don’t tank the Dow.
Is this what is happening? Is it really this dark?
20
I’m tired of hearing all of the doomsday predictions. The Flu outbreak this year has taken a far larger toll than this silly thing. Do we panic about the flu every year and grind the whole world to a halt?! It’s like people crave calamity to make their lives a little more exciting. Use common sense. Wash your hands with sanitizer. Refrain from drinking ketchup straight from the counter fountain at your local fast food franchise. If you feel sick, stay home. Above all else, calm down!
1
@Colonel Belvedere
The flu has a death rate around .5%. Corona death rate between 2-3%. That's over 20 times higher mortality rate than flu. Math doesn't lie. But the *president does.
15
@Heidi A
2 / .5 = 4
3 / .5 = 6
You are correct, math (arithmetic) doesn’t lie.
1
Believe me, I trust Trump about as far as I can throw him which ain’t far without the assist of a very sturdy catapult. The same goes for China. If their numbers are wrong, if they are under reporting cases, then the math goes out the window.
I study in Philly, I don't know where I can get accurate virus information about this city.
1
@Ao Li
A good start might be the Philadelphia Department of Health COVID-19 Portal:
https://hip.phila.gov/EmergentHealthTopics/2019-nCoV
1
Let us be clear - of course there are more such patients, many many more Americans, walking around, or sick at home, with this sneaky awful ever-so-contagious coronavirus. Anyone we find now is just the tip of the iceberg, it is out, it is about. That is not to say one should panic, just be prepared, and absolutely do not wait for Pence the Public Health Expert to tell you what to do.
10
We have a White House that wants - desperately - to minimize the virus. One way to “minimize it” (a route they seem to have taken) is to make the “criteria” for testing so rigid, that few people get the test. And the White House can claim “it’s under control.”
At the same time the White House is so afraid of Trump even catching a cold that they made Mulvaney stay behind (when Trump went to India) because he had sniffles.
So it looks like one coping mechanism for Trump’s protection and the opposite one - exposing communities to the virus by restricting test - ALSO benefiting Trump.
This virus is changing the game. We’re going to have a severe economic downturn (some people think it will be worse than the last one). And this may change the election. It may change which candidates are alive (or well) by the summer convention. It may change how people decide to vote. And certainly it may limit those who vote, as they may be deceased or under quarantine, perhaps not even able to find a way to vote by mail.
At the very least, voting by mail should be the automatic option in every state and locality!
14
The Vice-President is not qualified to lead this initiative. It wouldn't have been necessary to put him in charge of this crisis if Trump had appointed qualified and experienced persons to key positions and then let them do their jobs without fear that he would throw them under the bus at EVERY opportunity to avoid blame for his own staggering management incompetence.
12
Unfortunately, while Mr Pence was Governor in Indiana, an epidemic of HIV infection occurred in a focused region because of his refusal to allow needle exchange. A small number of people infected grew larger unnecessarily because of his religious point of view on public health initiatives to slow the spread of infections. I hope he leaves his spiritual and political beliefs aside when choosing how to implement expert advice into policy with this virus.
5
If trump's so confident that U.S. won't have an increase of cases of coronavirus and its impact is like that of the common flu, let's have him, pence, kudlow and limbaugh agree to be inoculated with it, and show us first hand how they fare.
4
We need to turn to the leadership of our state for guidance. The governor of you state will ultimately be the one who directs public health resources to manage this outbreak. I would call your local state representatives and the governors office to push them to speed up the readiness of their public health management plans.
The way I see it, the Federal Government provides the funds, but it's the states which execute the public health effort.
120
@Steve
"Don't follow leaders, watch the parkin' meters..."
we are all on our own.
17
@Steve
The Governor of every state should ask the legislature to ensure VOTING MY MAIL.
Because it may not be safe to gather in a voting place.
12
@Steve but the Feds are responsible for management of pandemics and Trump has cut funding to theCDC, NSF and many other science based research organizations- but is funding a wall!
27
This is just madness! I’m on higher alert than the federal government. Why aren’t we testing every person who presents with symptoms of the virus? At the very least those with signs of pneumonia? We don’t have enough kits? And who is to blame for that? The media? I used to have confidence in the CDC, but we are clearly unprepared for what’s coming.
253
@Galfrido
testing is no silver bullet.
patients in China had two three and four negative tests only to find with CT scan that their lungs were infected...or on the fifth and sixth test they showed positive.
21
Exactly. If test kits are restricted, how do we have any idea how many people have this virus. I'm not an alarmist, but common sense tells me if we're so worried about this virus, we had better start more testing. Meanwhile, the Today Show is telling viewers to stock up on cold medicines, food and water as if a siege were coming.
29
The symptoms of the virus are literally those of the common cold. No country has enough testing kits to test every person who shows symptoms of a cold during the winter cold and flu season, or enough staff. I don't think any even have enough to test everyone with more serious symptoms. We're only just starting to see medical systems add testing for the new coronavirus to their flu surveillance in the US or elsewhere, and that's designed to give a statistical overview rather than spot every individual case.
12
How is it that our government is staffing the CDC and NIH on a per-diem basis? What do politicians know about running these physician led organizations? Nothing! Let the medical professionals do their jobs.
399
@Marian Unfortunately, the Occupant fired many of the medical professionals who were part of the federal government's response to just such a situation as this.
61
@Marian
Hello Dems...You campaign headlines should be:
Trump Fired Pandemic Response Team and Cut CDC Funding.
Time to Fire Trump!
25
@Marian The Trump administration has cut the CDC budget by 16%.
20
First off, I am SO proud of the fine doctors involved in this patient’s care that the novel coronavirus was considered in the differential diagnosis. Yes, when you hear hoofbeats you think horses first, but once in a while it really is a zebra.
Second, the CDC needs to break out of its narrow criteria for testing. This virus is here now, and the only way to get a handle on its prevalence is to ramp up the testing.
Obviously now the first order of business is to trace this patient’s contacts and ensure that the health care workers involved in his care are properly managed. Transporting an intubated patient on a ventilator involves many hands and it’s likely that many were exposed to the virus along the way.
12
"A California coronavirus patient had to wait days to be tested because of restrictive federal criteria, despite doctors’ requests."
Just what restrictive federal criteria kept the patient from being tested? If our response to the virus is this bad, it just might become a pandemic. I don't think we need to panic but we do need to take sensible measures and we can't if there are restrictions on testing.
7
The premise of this article is extremely naive to the point of being unnecessarily inflammatory.
Summary: testing this patient should not have changed how the facility treated this patient. Also, having individual physicians determine which cases should be tested is a very bad idea. Health departments are getting thousands of calls from physicians asking to test patients because "they saw someone Chinese at the grocery store that was coughing" etc.
Details:
A confirmed case for this disease doesn't change much for how the patient is treated for an illness with these symptoms (upper respiratory illness etc). However, it can sometimes trigger additional funding for the facility, and sometimes it means additional tracking information taken on the patient in the days following diagnosis (for example, daily temperature check calls, such as was done with ebola).
Doing PCR on a sample takes 1 to 3 days even if its expedited (even if, somehow they were able to take AND process the sample at the specific facility immediately). In that meantime, the facility should STILL be treating the patient as suspicious regardless (patient should be in negative pressure or otherwise isolated, such as at home) because they are presenting with serious upper respiratory issues. You don't want people to catch what that person has *regardless* of whether its COVID19.
Also, it is unreasonable and impossible to test every single suspicious case, for the reasons summarized above.
1
Of course it makes a difference. Look at how Germany is dealing with a similar case. They immediately started tracking down all of the patient’s movements and people with whom he was in contact.
Also it would help people understand that this is going to spread in the US and we ought not to panic but prepare.
Last, now that we know this person was not tested it creates unnecessary panic and distrust of government. This isn’t just about assays and protocol. It’s about public health.
13
This patient was intubated and on a ventilator when presenting to Ucsd not just coughing . In a perfect world, If whatever hospital they were transferred from put him/ her immediately in negative pressure isolation as soon as they presented then i would agree. But chances are he/she presented to some local emergency department and potentially exposed people before requiring intubation. That extra week may have been helpful to track down and minimize risk to people and patients at the other hospital and all their contacts. The doctors at UCSD are intensive care specialists at a Major academic teaching institution. They should have been listened to.
10
@Jenny @Megan Murphy obviously in an ideal world we would be able to test everyone. But you literally can't, there has to be criteria--especially given the fact that there is a serious lack of funding for this. You can't just let any of the 1.1 million doctors in the US (whose level of familiarity with/education on this topic can very EXTREMELY widely) dictate when a case should be tested. Otherwise, you'll be wasting time on all sorts of test kits for situations like the one above (literally, there have been calls from physicians with patients who just have a Chinese-American student in their class who had the flu, and the physician demanded testing).
There will always be cases that slip through the cracks. Ideally we would catch all of them. Ideally contact tracing will reach everyone. But without additional resources, we have to work within the means we have. And again--there will always exist a time lag for getting test results -- test results aren't magic. These patients need to get appropriate advice on what to do during recovery that minimizes transmission of their affliction, and that is seldom changed based on a positive test result--especially for viruses like this one that don't have a specific treatment method.
The implication of this article is "people are in danger because this kit wasn't tested!" When it would be more appropriate/responsible to connect it to the reasons why testing criteria is restrictive.
1
What I don't understand is that where this patient lives is close by Travis Air Force Base. Travis is where 234 people evacuated from China were quarantined. So couldn't the virus have spread via someone working with those quarantined folks and maybe not exhibiting symptoms but carrying the virus or somehow by the folks that were held at Travis?
13
I think that is being considered, but unfortunately the US does not have the resources European and other countries have to trace these things.
3
This is a sad example of the Doctors on the frontline who care for the sickest of people being told not do deviate from guidelines set up by people who likely are not clinicians or see patients infrequently.
4
I can't believe that the CDC guidelines for testing are so lacking common sense! Someone needs to "know they had contact with someone infected with the coronavirus." Transmission is based on contact, not knowing contact. As the virus spreads, most people will probably not know they have been in contact with someone who is infected.
If we want to keep this from becoming a major problem, the CDC needs to change their guidelines immediately. The presence of symptoms should be enough cause for testing. The knowing contact only makes sense if someone has no symptoms.
5
If they are testing on how it’s community transmitted through others could it be possible for a mosquito to transmit the virus after bitting a person anywhere on the body. Or could it be transmitted through people who think it’s a simply the common cold and think they don’t have the corona virus. Those people can simply have the virus and be spreading it around.
2
How are symptoms different from "normal" flu?
2
What's caused 16,000 deaths as of Feb. 1 and over 100 deaths of children in the US as well as hundreds of thousands of infections? Influenza. This is one of the worst seasons. A useful article in the JAMA discusses this matter contrasting it with much lower figures for the covid-19 virus. Reported too is the uselessness of face masks unless living with a person infected and even then, the mask use must start as soon as diagnosis if to make any difference. The lack of perspective in the media on these matters is striking.
3
@blgreenie - the death rate in flu is less than 0.1%. With the covid virus, it ranges from 2 to 4% depending on the population. That is why the corona virus deserves attention.
I am with you on the masks- many articles i have read state that it would be good if you are in a caregiver position to an infected person.
5
I worked my way through medical school performing medical tests and we learned to do a lot of office testing in school. Since that time, the federal government has taken an iron regulatory grip over that process. I could no longer legally do that job even as a biochemist working under med lab tech supervision and am not allowed to perform many of the routine tests that we did as medical students without a “certified lab”.
Now even America’s major leading medical centers cannot legally perform the tests that they have actually developed for this virus without the permission of the federal government. Like they are incompetent little children and the people in Atlanta who aren’t fit to iron their lab coats are the Masters. The CDC alone has the lawful right to produce the test but is unable to do so in quantity. They use this to limit testing and override the judgement of the treating physicians about who should be tested. This endangers the patients, the health care professionals and the entire community.
This centralized subjugation of physicians to the level of box checkers, serfs and supplicants is a change that I have been unable to adjust to which is why I no longer practice medicine even though I am not yet 60 years old.
Too bad deregulation hasn’t reached to undoing the central control on lab testing. Then the CDC’s control over test availability and criteria would be eliminated and their incompetence as test makers would be irrelevant.
23
So if the patient did not know they had been in contact with someone infected, then they do not test?
The patient was in an area near Travis Air Force Base where the Diamond cruise ship passengers were flown.
Something does not compute.
15
The CDC guidelines in place today made sense a month ago. Now the virus is on all continents but Antarctica. Limiting testing to those who have been to China or in contact with known infectees is irresponsible at best.
Either the CDC has kept these restrictions in place to cover up the woeful lack of testing capacity or under orders to keep number of cases artificially low.
In other case it will lead to a faster spread of the disease and deepen public distrust at a time when all pandemic recommendations include the dissemination of information from trustworthy sources.
Scott Gottlieb was considered for the “czar” job before Trump tapped Pence. Recall he “resigned to spend time with his family” after Trump, under pressure from special interests, reversed Gottlieb’s recommendation to ban vaping. Gottlieb is still out in front of efforts to increase testing capabilities. Let’s all thank dedicated public servants.
2
It is also possible that this virus has been circulating in the human population for much longer than we think, possibly by weeks, months, or years longer. It may be that we are seeing it now because we just recently started looking for it; like in Jurassic Park (or chemical contaminants in the environment) we aren’t going to be able to detect something we aren’t looking for.
6
The purpose of criteria is to focus upon a known population in which something can be expected to exist and to ignore all others where that something is not known to exist.
The CDC should have been curious in this situation because the pathogen arouse in a totalitarian dictatorship run by stable geniuses who refuse to allow sharing of information which they don’t control. That should have made them skeptical about knowing where this virus might be likely to have been communicated.
5
The "infected individual was a resident of Solano County" and was "possibly exposed to a returning traveler who was infected."
As it happens, Solano County is home to Travis AFB, the destination for some U.S citizens who were recently evacuated from China. Seems like the "authorities" are being careful to avoid highlighting this connection.
See "Don’t Send Them Here: Local Officials Resist Plans to House Coronavirus Patients" New York Times, February 23.
14
This article should have explained why the CDC has restricted treatments and kits. A House committee met last night and the answer, or no answer, falls on Alex Azar, or now on Pence. This is going to end up badly. Pandemic experts fired two years ago by Trump, NIH hollowed out by Trump, and the CDC hollowed out by trump. He has drained the wrong "swamps".
20
Trump just brought in bigger alligators and copperheads.
The civil service system was introduced to replace the patronage system because the country wanted public institutions to not be answerable to political interests. Scientists in government were part of that effort. The result was when climate deniers were claiming global warming due to man’s activities was bunk, the scientists in government were reporting it was true. Republicans wanted that political control back, and Trump has been giving it to them, starting with the scientists.
Trump is consistent, he cares not about real things like pandemics, but he cares a lot about appearances to the point of openly misrepresenting facts to promote his messages. This crisis to Trump is about how the stock market is reacting and convincing his base that he’s the one fixing it, not about how this virus is affecting people.
8
You don't even have to Imagine. This is a fact - the U.S. Federal budget for defense spending is $693bn. But we can't spend money on a global pandemic. What is wrong with our priorities as voters?
55
@Indisk Ask Obama. His term ended in Jan of 2017.
@Shamrock Obama didn't cut CDC's budget. When are you Trumpists going to start taking responsibility for your own actions?
4
This is the tip of the iceberg and the consequence of having the most incompetent and unprepared government in American history as well as being the ONLY industrialized country without national healthcare insurance. Look out -- this is going to be a nightmare.
I hope all you Trump voters are satisfied. You literally have blood on your hands as the deaths that will inevitably follow are thanks to you.
55
@Expat Well said-thank-you.
3
“The risk to the American people remains very low,” said Mr. Trump. “We have the greatest experts, really in the world, right here.”
Where is the reporting to point out that this is a non sequitur?
12
“A California coronavirus patient had to wait days to be tested because of restrictive federal criteria, despite doctors’ requests.”
Looks like we finally got our federal death panels.
69
I'm relieved that Pence finally has a job to do. The Bible, after all, does have a few plagues. And I'm glad to see that Alex Azar is channeling little Donnie with the curated beard.
7
Is there any crisis that this country can face that Liberals and Democrats will not treat as political? Is there any problem that they will not be blame on Trump and the Republicans? In that spirit of non cooperation, how does open borders seem now?
3
@cleo The real question is, is there any crisis that this country can face that Republicans will not treat as political...as trump is doing right now!
25
@Cleo. Trump was the first to treat this as political. He was the one who was only really worried about what it would mean for the economy, thus his re-election, and then made decisions and statements influenced by that sentiment alone.
11
Trump brought this on himself. Obama built up an organization in response to ebola that worked well, was adequately funded, and was designed to be at the ready, as needed. trump dismantled it out of his well known spite towards Obama and the syncophant GOP defunded all of it. Every community spends lots of money keeping fire departments going, much of it down time, and thus, by Republican and this administration's narrow view of the purpose of government--is "wasteful." Trump's administration made a deadly but calculated choice to shut this apparatus down. They have earned our criticism and ire.
12
So far, Trump has made it clear that his concern is more for the health of the stock market than for the health of US citizens. None of US who value human life over money can support Trump.
18
i have no confidence the government has a handle on this as this story indicates . If you have to meet some narrow criteria to test you might just as well give up because there is always asymmetry in medicine - everything isn't alway the same.
look for the number of cases to sky rocket for this reason and just plain old system failures which happens every time there is a novel syndrome.
My Irish grandmothers advice still holds true - stay away from crowds , wash your hands and keep them away from your face and for goodness sakes dont spit.
3
@bob But staying away from crowds just isn't feasible for people commuting to work on the subway, working in a large office building, etc. Yes, wash your hands. But crowds are a part of life for people who have to get to work to pay the bills.
7
@bob When Obama was President my family staunchly enforced an edict that any talk that the government could be the problem to anything was met
with uncontrollable anger. Now, the same people blame the government for everything.
@Shamrock During Obama's administration, we had competent, non-political experts running departments. Now, we have pure political appointees with no experience, plus this administration under the orange menace has decimated funding for all public health departments. Kinda different, eh?
5
Every person commenting... Please please take the extra steps today to contact your senators and congressperson and also the CEO's of your nearest hospital and your state hospital association. They are the ones who need to put the hard pressure on elected officials also. There will _not_ be enough ventilators and healthcare staff to care for all those who become critically ill. I am outraged that the CDC/FDA has delayed the testing kits approval and limited who can be tested so far. This gross incompetence and rosy/naive posturing at the press conference and tweets that 'all is fine' by 45's WH is treasonous. Let your elected officials know, ... suppport the funding package that should have already stayed in place but was cut by 45 because 44 built it! I can't believe other countries can do the testing so fast and it's like we live in a 3rd world country. It is inexcusable! More people will die and have complications because 45's CDC was not able to SLOW the spread of coronavirus to elderly and immune compromised patients. Your friends and neighbors who work at hospitals (doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, chaplains, clerks, janitors, administrators) all need our support NOW and in the coming weeks and months. Call your elected officials!!!
5
And the fact that he replaced the former director of cdc with someone that has no experience in outbreak response
6
Do we have any information from other countries about the percentage of infected people who are symptom free?
3
The incompetence of the Trump regime will result in unnecessary deaths. Ironically, it’s easy to imagine Trump postponing the November elections indefinitely, due to a national health disaster he himself allowed to explode. So their incompetence will be rewarded, as they fully enact their authoritarian schemes.
5
"“The risk to the American people remains very low,” said Mr. Trump. “We have the greatest experts, really in the world, right here.”"
No mention of Trump--in his press conference about the virus, mind you--endorsing Rush Limbaugh's conspiracy theory that the crisis around the virus is being manufactured to hurt Trump.
2
Closing borders may only slow down the virus, but a slowed down virus gives the American scientists who typically save the day for the world the chance to come up with a remedy or vaccine. Close the borders please.
2
Close the borders to whom? Tourists? Business travelers? Americans returning from other countries? American soldiers returning from deployment? People who cross back and forth daily for work?
This is a potential crisis that requires facts, planning, resources and more than just a shot from the hip. It requires listening to advice from knowledgeable and well-educated experts, and we know how much Trump is loathe to listen to experts. It also requires the government to spend money on healthcare preparedness and prevention. This will involve educating people about things they do not want to hear or believe. It may involve vaccinations if parents want their children to be protected or their children’s caregivers to be protected. As a country, we may have to depend on the deep state of educated elites to put a plan in place.
4
When things truly get out of control, Trump will blame Pence and fire him and he'll appoint another VP candidate for the next election. Niki Haley perhaps?
7
I know someone who recently came back from Milan when the outbreak happened. Flying back this person was not stopped or questioned about their whereabouts in Milan area they stayed or visited. Pretty shocking.
7
Maybe Chuck and Nancy could have taken the high road and said "The house and senate democrats stand ready to approve whatever measures are necessary to support the safety and well being of all Americans in the face of this threat." No, instead they took the usual low road partisan positions of attacking anything and everything anyone not in their party said or did. These people are interested in nothing but the furtherment of the democrat party and don't deserve to be in the positions they are in, they have proven by word and deed that they aren't leaders looking out for all Americans, just their party.
3
@baba, why don’t we all put aside partisanship now as citizens, and focus on the problems at hand? As my parents used to say, two wrongs don’t make a right.
Let’s all call our Representatives and ask them to reach across the aisle to focus on this crisis for the good of all, not one particular party, state or region. Every part of the country will need accurate information and sufficient resources from experienced health professionals to handle this if it becomes a crisis.
This is a situation where the ability to lead is sorely needed. Let’s not waste time sniping at each other from the left or right, okay?
The Immaculate Infection! A California miracle.
5
As a country we are ill-prepared for what is happening and is about to happen with the spread of the Coronavirus. While the current occupant of the White House and his zealots have been building his much beloved wall, waging trade wars, alienating our allies, he has openly denigrated the importance of science and medicine and gutted government agencies by forcing out scientific and technical experts and slashing their funding. Like immigrants, he and his loyalists see the intelligentsia and the so-called “elites” as enemies and each term is spat out like an expletive.
What makes matters even worse is that he lacks totally the interpersonal skills, the humanity, the intelligence, and the credibility to do what every other president in our lifetime has done in the face of a crisis: address the American people in a calm, reassuring, and measured approach, outlining the issues and a well-defined course of action for addressing them. Instead we get a morning press conference filled with the usual simplistic pablum plus the appointment of the noted immunologist and virologist Mike Pence to head the efforts.
We live in a country with some of the greatest physicians and scientists in the world. Gather them together, organize them under the leadership of one of their own, fund them, and turn them loose on the problem.
We are daily surrounded by and presented with the symptoms of a far deadlier disease that is already destroying us. That disease is Donald Trump.
14
"all is well" says Pres. Trump as cases emerge because the base for testing is to narrow. Narrow base means missed infected people & guarantees the spread of the virus. I don't believe it but its happening. This failure in prevention may be the real downfall of Pres. Trump.
4
Pence is on it! His background in radio will clearly serve him well is coordinating a response to avoid an epidemic! Doctors, scientists and medical research teams will be guided by his carefully thought out decisions which will be double-checked, surely, by Trump himself. Do not worry!
7
Mike Pence has no regard for science. He thinks you can pray away anything. Republicans have put us all in incredible danger. This will be the Katrina of health care.
21
I just keep going back to my good friend who is working on this situation in CA as part of gov response and keeps telling me that the flu kills more people and unless it mutates into something more sinister, don’t worry. Just do what you can to wash your hands etc.
However another part of me hopes that this virus takes out President out of office. And by that I mean becomes a wedge issue to get red states and their elected officials to turn on him. I don’t want people to die as a result of virus, but I do want it to take him out of office.
11
Why doesn't the article mention that Travis Air Force Base is in Solano County and that's where they were flying people who had been exposed to coronavirus? Seems like an obvious connection.
20
According to Chinese doctors report, some patients only need minor treatments at home or even do not need any treatments, and their own immune systems could defeat the virus. However, they can still be the potential sources for infection which may not be reported. Do we have any solutions for these patients? One Chinese biotech company claims that it daily test kits production could meet the demands of 150000 patients. Do US companies have the same production and test abilities?
7
There will always be "Typhoid Marys" - those who are asymptomatic carriers - among us. Possibly a traveler who came from an affected area passed re-entry testing for the virus.
Also, having worked in the life science industry for nearly 20 years, many healthcare organizations prey on our fears in these situations to encourage funding. I would suggest being more afraid of the drugs we take as I know how often those "extreme and rare" side effects actually occur.
2
It appears the US has already decided that they will not go the route of shutdowns and isolation of communities. Dollars and profits will come first
8
And so it begins.
7
It's clear the primary objective of the White House and CDC is protecting us from any information that might spook the stock market - especially in an election year.
48
The white house maybe. Cdc no! There is vast number of workers there, of many different backgrounds, that are deeply interested in fighting outbreaks, they have no dog in this political fights
2
This has been a terrible response by our government.. I can see why Senator Kennedy from Louisiana was so may =yesterday. It is a repeat of Bush's response to Katrina.
11
Please listen to today’s democracy now with Amy Goodman. She has a full discussion of the situation with experts in the field.
1
A few weeks ago, there was a strong flu going around. Could this have been the Corona virus? Can CDC do random testing just to be sure the disease is not already here?
6
Apparently the markets were not reassured by yesterday's press conference.
11
In Singapore, suspected cases are served mandatory home quarantine, which has the full force and effect of the law and enforcement and its consequences. That should be done here, to avoid stressing our health resources and prevent someone who has slipped through the net as in this case, or simply, the time delay between testing and knowing results, to go about infecting others when he /she is infected.
3
Can we afford the community or suburban lockdown? Probably not. Thus, we need to avoid the awkward situation to our local government, and be very cautious on this contagious disease even if the virus strength could become weak after several human-to-human transmission.
Based on the news reports from SCMP, Phoenix news, CCTV, YouTube videos, and BBC, I would recommend people going out less, avoiding large gathering & close contact, and preparing masks if necessary. A pound of preparedness is always more effective than that of ten pounds of healthcare effort. And people in California should be more alerted to this situation since it is the gateway to Asia.
101
@Usok Reality check : Dozens of passenger and cargo flights per day out of JFK. Huge amount of Container cargo and ship traffic out of NY and NJ ports. We are part of a huge global interconnected economic system, on either coast.
29
@Usok, you got some of it right but some of it wrong. Wash hands, avoid crowds, cough into your sleeve, make sure your disaster kit is up to snuff and you have your medications topped up. Very importantly, make sure you have all your vaccinations, especially flu, TDaP, and if you are older, pneumonia.
But the masks thing? Maybe buy 1 only or not at all. The reason nobody from the CDC recommended this yesterday to the public at all is evident in South Korea, where healthcare professionals that are on the front lines battling this at the hospitals and clinics cannot get the proper PPEs because the public started hoarding masks and they wiped out the supply.
A mask will not help a member of the general public not get this disease, the only use such a person has for one is if they become infected they should put it on immediately and go get checked. In emergency medicine for respiratory ailments that are suspected infectious diseases, the mask goes on the patient, not on the health care worker.
So if you buy a mask at all, just buy one -- the one you will put on to go to the hospital and be tested. Don't hoard masks, if you do, health care workers in the hot zone (those wearing those total suits) may die.
25
@Usok
The mask supply was decimated a month ago.
10
I'm guessing the test kits and labs to perform them are both in short supply compared to the expected demand. The same is true for ventilators, N95 respirators and other essential equipment and drugs to treat patients and protect doctors. There has been no indication of any sort of preparatory buildup on the part of Federal agencies or local hospitals that would suggest we are even remotely prepared for what's coming.
4
This was a remarkably dumb move by the CDC to restrict testing to narrowly defined criteria when much is still unknown about the spread of this disease.
This is EXACTLY the time to cast a WIDE NET rather than a narrow net.
Considering how many goods are shipped from China and received at ports in California, it was boneheaded to assume that testing should have been restricted to patients with known contacts with travelers to affected regions.
It is precisely why medical decisions should be made by physicians who are actually in contact with the patients rather than bureaucrats in DC.
16
Coronavirus is a highly infectious agent with a relatively low fatality rate. 60,000-80,000 Americans die from the common flu every year. Please keep that in mind before scaring people which is actually the greatest threat.
7
@Bill You are correct about coronavirus transmission and fatality rates however, that is precisely why the disease is concerning.
If the COVID-19 virus is as infectious as the various influenza viruses, this could mean that 15 million Americans will contract a coronavirus infection. Using a 2% fatality rate, that translates to 300,000 deaths, many more than die from the flu.
You'll have to decide for yourself whether that number of deaths is alarming. What is undeniably scary however, is the conflicting and often erroneous messaging by the Administration about coronavirus.
When medicine intersects with politics of fear and anger, disasters result. Please, please, unless you are board-certified in infectious disease, or have an MPH, do not pontificate on this novel Coronavirus.
Your opinions, no matter how deeply held, are not fact.
12
“The risk to the American people remains very low,” said Mr. Trump. “We have the greatest experts, really in the world, right here.”
"...and hurry up and buy more stocks! This is having a negative effect on the only thing that might help get me re-elected."
11
Testing should be free and easily accessible to all immediately
21
@ LD. What do you know about what the test is, how it works, or, even more significantly, how it is made? Who makes it? Can it’s production be ramped up to scale quickly? By whom and how is it administered? I think these factors need to be made clearer. Just b/c you want testing to be available to everyone in all places does not mean it is possible or feasible. “If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.”
2
Based on what we know, we could soon be down to zero cases in the US (according to the President) or we could be facing a serious pandemic that institutions and individuals should be preparing for now (according to doctors at the CDC).
In my state health officials are warning that even one case could significantly drain resources.
Everyone will have to decide whom to believe in this, but I am going with the doctors. The president lost any credibility a long time ago.
15
George W. Bush was asleep at the switch when our intelligence agencies tried to warn him about 911 and Al Qaida. Trump’s incompetence could lead to an even higher death toll.
11
@Larry Roth
Dems and ‘progressives’ actually believe George Bush was handed actionable intelligence by the Clinton Admin.
If the intelligence was so actionable, why didn’t Clinton take action?
1
@EGD, look up the name Richard Clarke. He worked as the counter terrorism expert for George HW Bush, Bill Clinton and George W Bush during, before and after 9/11. He tried to warn the second Bush Administration about terrorist activities prior to 9/11, and was ignored.
Bottom line, partisanship aside, both a Democratic and Republican administration failed to prevent 9/11. The partisan divide in this country has killed Americans in a multitude of ways. Lack of healthcare, servicemen and women killed in preventable armed conflicts, poor administration of safety efforts and recovery during national disasters, homelessness and now we are looking toward a major pandemic.
We need to set aside politicians’ need for power on both sides of the aisle and focus on facts and expertise from knowledgeable professionals, doctors, nurses, teachers, scientists and soldiers on the ground. We need to prioritize coming together, not division for financial or political gain.
I don’t think I’m the only one in this country tired of politicians wasting time on Twitter, golf and keeping themselves in power for the money and influence it gives them, regardless of party.
How can you get people on the margins of society to seek treatment and self-quarantine? They need clinics that are free for for anyone with cold-like symptoms, they need something resembling unemployment insurance for anyone who has to miss work from a job that doesn't provide sick leave, and they need a way to be quarantined.
Otherwise people on the margins of the economy will keep going to work instead of seeking treatment. And if they live in crowded conditions, they need a place to go to avoid spreading it to their housemates.
People who's jobs do provide sick leave need to be assured that if they get cold-like symptoms, that they can be quarantined for two weeks without the risk of being fired.
We need a whole lot of programs that look a lot like socialism, and we need them quickly, even if they're temporary until this virus has run its course.
13
“C.D.C. officials said it was possible the patient was exposed to a returning traveler who was infected.”
Travis Air Force Base located in the same county where the patient is from is one of the bases that received passengers flown back to the US from the Diamond Princess cruise ship. Why is this not being considered as a possible source of the transmission?
14
This patient is from Solano County. The Diamond Princess people were repatriated to Travis AFB in Solano County. Is that the connection? Perhaps the patient works at Travis or was in contact with someone who does. A question at least worth asking.
27
@Charley you are bringing up the essential point, and someone really needs to step up and provide some answers.
6
To all those blaming the CDC's funding cuts, please be aware that 80% of those cuts were to funds spent in other countries. According to the Wall Street Journal:
"The CDC currently works in 49 countries as part of an initiative called the global health security agenda, to prevent, detect and respond to dangerous infectious disease threats. It helps expand surveillance for new viruses and drug-resistant bacteria, modernize laboratories to detect dangerous pathogensand train workers who respond to epidemics.
The activities are funded mostly through a five-year supplemental package that was awarded to the CDC and other government agencies in fiscal 2015 to respond to the Ebola epidemic in West Africa."
Blaming the CDC funding cuts for domestic actions makes little sense.
4
@AACNY So they cut funds from the very program that works to " prevent, detect and respond to dangerous infectious disease threats. It helps expand surveillance for new viruses and drug-resistant bacteria, modernize laboratories to detect dangerous pathogensand train workers who respond to epidemics."
The very thing we need now! What you don't understand, is that our coronavirus response is not a "domestic" problem. It is a global problem, and in fact, in a few short weeks, the U.S. may be responsible for further worldwide spread, as we develop a huge population of exposed or infected individuals.
4
The slow pace of making available test kits is mind boggling. It’s been over a month since a city of 11 million was locked down and the grave nature of this virus was made clear to the world, yet even now we are still talking about limited test kits, faulty test kits!
431
@jg JG, we're very fortunate a test was devised so quickly at all. This is a rapidly evolving situation, and that means "stuff happens." It's unavoidable.
8
@jg Making a kit with acceptable accuracy is not as easy and straightforward as it sounds. That is the nature of science. Generally years pass before a test is ready for general use. That's why the assurances that a vaccine is coming very soon are laughable.
7
@jg This might shock you but CSI is not an adequate representation of pharmaceutical science and manufacturing for clinical use
5
Because there has been so little testing, there is no reliable data on the number of cases in the US. Belatedly, one case in the wild has been discovered, but nobody knows how many others there are. No rational person believes the number of other cases propagated from unknown sources is zero.
12
Remember the good old Days, when basic competence from the Government was just assumed, and nearly always WAS?
I really miss President Obama.
Just saying.
72
@Phyliss Dalmatian You're not alone.
3
You keep hearing that people are being put under voluntary quarantine because they have just returned from China- a month after we banned flights from China - so what does that tell you.
As more and more countries have their own Corona outbreaks more and more people from those countries will board airplanes headed for the United States . People on board those airplanes will have Corona virus , and spread it to everybody on the plane .
Unless the planes from international countries are stopped Corona will spread unchecked throughout the United States .
Why is this so hard to figure out .
6
@Lonnie I don't know. What does it tell me?
1
Trump plays this down so it does not excite the people to not buy in stores/malls where transmission would be easy. He runs on his economy measures which will tank when this hits. Look at the market.
2
Health care lawyers across America are hard at work (billable hours to be earned, don’t you know) sending memos to hospitals and clinics that HIPAA still applies and that the paramount concern should be protecting patient privacy, even as this deadly incurable disease is bearing down on us like a freight train. If Congress really wants to make itself useful (instead of just looking for ways to blame Trump when people start dying), it should repeal HIPAA immediately.
3
This puts a lie to the administration's stance that the US is prepared: we are not. The patient was not tested because CDC has not succeeded in distributing a working diagnostic tests to state and county health departments, so only CDC does the testing.
Other countries has tested thousands and tens of thousands; CDC has managed to test only a few hundred.
You can not claim to have an epidemic under control if you do not know who has the disease and who does not.
29
Why hasn't CDC ordered mass production and distributing of testing kits nationwide weeks ago so state and county health centers can conduct tests immediately when a patient appears presenting Covid 19 symptoms and the patient's doctor judges it both timely and necessary?
6
They have not perfected testing yet.
@Kristin Then Is this not a case of the perfect is the enemy of the good? Other countries have and use what has been worked out now to help ID and curtail spread of the virus rather then wait an unknown amount of time for something better.
1
I want to thank NYT about reporting on the CDC's narrow testing criteria. I realized for the first time that we may have many more cases than reported, and that perhaps CDC has been politicized by Trump. As a person with a Masters from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, it seems the testing criteria was designed to assume away the problem and identify few or no cases. Limiting testing to people coming from China or having a foreign contact assumes community transmission wont happen. Thank you Times for giving us the facts!
21
I think the "community" spread of this virus is the most frightening thing we have to deal with at this time. While this places this virus in a category like the flu, if you're older or infirm, you must think about this method of transmission.
Older people must be vigilant. Make sure you have the proper medical and food supplies on hand and call your doctor if you feel yourself getting ill.
We must work together to contain this virus and to help those who contract it. This is what a civilized society must do for its people.
9
As another commenter on a different news site astutely pointed out, Travis Air Force Base is in Solano County, where this patient originated.
It would make sense for the CDC to widen their scope for testing to cities and counties where known covid19 patients are quartered
It would also make sense to at least allow testing of any patients already in intensive care at major teaching hospitals
It important for the public to understand however that the test is not highly accurate and also likely limited in supply at this point.
9
What a sick joke, listening to Trump's diatribe yesterday about the coronavirus, of which he hasn't a clue, and now naming Pence , another ignoramus, to coordinate prevention and care of a possible pandemic? How about naming a professional in the health field to guide us all, prevent panic and stop Trump from using it so to 'protect' the stock market, all he cares about for his re-election purposes!
36
California Patient was admitted, on a ventilator, but CDC "guidelines" prevented an immediate test for Covid-19.
I suspect there is a woeful shortage of testing kits for Covid-19 in the US, and this is why the CDC is practicing Triage; only testing patients who recently returned from a region with known coronavirus infections.
Will the CDC now broaden the criteria, to test ALL patients who are suspected of a Viral infection? Or is there a tragic shortage of Covid-19 test kits?
I wonder how many ventilators are available as Covid-19 moves through the population?
11
Why is the CDC not testing people?? This is insane.
15
Since Trump lies about everything else, why would anyone believe anything he says about the coronavirus? And if you think Mike Pence is on anything but the shortest of leashes, you're dreaming. There's nothing this administration wouldn't do or say to ensure its re-election.
13
Imagine Trump giving his "opinions" and guesses on the possible spread of this disease. He mentions 15 people whos he thinks seem now "healing and out of danger." As if that would be the end to it. Those 15 people, he does not realize, have been interacting with 100s of other people, some of whom could now have the disease. His lack of knowledge and thinking is astounding.
9
@Frank
Also, there are a total number of 60 identified Covid-19 patients in the US, not 15 as Trump kept saying. Trump seemed to ignore the US patients who came off the Diamond Princess.
5
And this is the case that Azar didn't seem to have too much information about before Trump's press conference. Interesting.
4
The CDC took ridiculously long to test this patient. Fortunately the patient was in a teaching hospital that took precautions. Four days time to test is criminal, and also gave that many more carriers a chance to spread the virus. Anytime a medical staff determines this could be Corona virus, the hospital should have the means to test them immediately. Hopefully there is not more community transmission caused by this one case; it may be in California, but it will reach you where you live, if one person in the closer group to this patient has traveled.
532
My thoughts are with the healthcare providers who treated this patient without, perhaps, all the proper precautions. Doctors and nurses have been disproportionately impacted in China. Several young, formerly healthy individuals from this group have died, including the young Chinese ophthalmologist who first drew attention to the outbreak of a novel virus.
138
@K.M If there are less confirmed cases trump can brag that because of him and his all encompassing knowledge that he has stopped the spread. And sure, it will be gone soon, because he knows best.
21
@K.M You're completely right. If he'd been less sick he'd just have been sent home!
24
My understanding is that most medical centers do not have/own the proper equipment to diagnose for the coronavirus covid-19 and therefore has to be sent asap to the CDC, if it fits within the CDC testing criteria. So we are in this mode for diagnosis for the short term hopefully.
However my real question is:
are travelers, leaving the US and returning to the US, regularly and or mandated to be inoculated against viruses known to be in a country that they may be visiting and returning from so that they are not spreading that particular virus back into the United States. And if not being vaccinated why not?
34
What vaccine?
41
@Kerm
No vaccine has been developed for covid-19, and U.S. health officials estimate it will take a year to produce one. When my wife and I were planning to visit China in 2008, we received a vaccine for hepatitis, and we have had booster shots since them. Patients traveling to Africa, South America and south/east Asia are always urged to get vaccinated against typhoid, hepatitis etc. and to take other health precautions.
31
@Kerm
The short answer is no. The logistics would be daunting and the process would have much broader economic effects.
It’s calculated risk.
5
lot of assuming in this article. this is a new disease. test kits are not widely available anywhere in the world. the CDC rationally restricted their use to highest risk cases. Same as all other countries have had to do until the kits are abundant. Nothing political about this, it's just life.
2
@jb That is not true. S Korean has been testing 1,000s of people. This is a US problem.
24
Not really. Many countries, such as South Korea, have a good supply of test kits and are widely testing their citizens. In the US the initial supply of tests kits were flawed and so had to be discarded and replaced.
8
The citizens living in open border, sanctuary states are more vulnerable no doubt. With the potential for a new pandemic the left has gone silent on their goal of open borders. Wonder why? Pelosi criticises the administration for ill preparedness while supporting open access to anyone. Please!
1
The only true part of your comment is that the administration is ill prepared. Everything else is a falsehood
11
Yep that will bring us all together. “Open borders” is a Hannity term that really was no meaning beyond propaganda news, and Trump loyalists. Show me once where the Democrat Party has argued for or even defined “Open Borders.” It is in the same category as “lock her up,” and adds nothing to any conversation. Can’t Americans at least come together until this disease is eliminated, and then Hannity can tell us all why the pandemic was really the Democrat’s fault.
7
It is extremely rare that a diagnostic test has 100% sensitivity and specificity, so I am surprised that no one is mentioning the possibility that this California case is a false positive and that his symptoms are due to a different viral infection.
1
Trump is more worried about the effect on Wall St. and his upcoming bid for reelection than he is about the health of the American people. Interesting as well is that the headline yesterday about this virus said "CDC says not if in U.S. but when". Funny how the story changes!
5
Watching that press conference yesterday and wondering, once again, why no one will step to the microphone and say, "President Trump is offering misleading information, and the worst thing that could happen right now is politicizing a matter of public health." Is there no one with the courage of a small boy willing to step forward and say, "The emperor has no clothes."
858
@paula
I expect Bernie just locked in the nomination and a win in the general election.
This virus will persist through the November elections. Healthcare for the 99% beats tax cuts for the 1%.
31
@paula
I think that lots of folks were thinking the same thing. It's even worse to realize that folks at that podium were already aware of the California patient.
The current President continues to endanger this country.
95
@paula Other than the respect that would be earned from 50% or so of the population, such a statement would do no good. Trump would just fire them, dig in with more misleading information, and the GOP controlled Senate would just continue to enable this travesty of an administration.
22
At last "C.D.C. officials said it was possible the patient was exposed to a returning traveler who was infected" rather than just that the "case appears to be one in which the source of infection is unknown, suggesting that the virus may be transmitted within the community," which has been annoying me because, what does that mean? The patient got it from a bat cave? Or the patient was having an affair with someone who knew someone who had been to Wuhan Province but the patient is not going to tell?
Whatever, the real issue is the impact on manufacturing based on trade between China and other countries, including the US.
People who die of the flu ultimately do not put a huge burden on the health care system in other ways.
I'm old and callous now, and ready to cache in my own chips on this mortal coil.
My husband wondered aloud this morning whether this virus isn't already been making its rounds undetected. My family and I came down with a mysterious illness around the holidays. Started with a high fever and lingered with a horrible sore throat and cough. We all tested negative for flu and strep. I know some of the parents at out child's school travel regularly to China for work so we're now wondering whether what we had might have been this virus. It just seems unbelievable to me that with an incubation period of 14-24 days that this virus isn't already circulating.
12
How many of us know the CDC is not a governmental office. It is private.
1
The CDC is a government office. It's part of a federal agency, Health and Human Services.
5
Incorrect. The CDC is a federal government agency under the Department of Health and Human Services.
4
https://www.cdc.gov/budget/documents/fy2020/cdc-overview-factsheet.pdf Includes chart showing decline in funding over the past few years, including the President's request for this year.
4
Why is testing capacity so limited in the US compared to other countries? Why does the test available in the US have low sensitivity? Information from a Laboratory Medicine specialist in virology would be helpful.
8
@Paul Britain is now testing people with flu-like symptoms at 100 hospitals just to monitor if there is community spread. We are way behind.
11
Here's another instance where, to the media, the deepest reality is the story, not the actual event.
Regarding this story, I keep reading the words "unfortunately" or "even worse" in regards to the availability of a definitive test for Covid-19.
The reality is that, outside of the possibility of this case being one of community transmission, there is nothing about this story that significantly effects the course of the epidemic. The patient, from the time they were a candidate for testing, was put in isolation. Given that the ONLY thing the medical system can do at this point is palliative care and isolation, and that the possibility of this case being transmitted within the country was duly noted by authorities, the use or non-use of an accurate test only delayed the media in announcing a scoop.
1
That’s not true. If this case was identified earlier, people who have had close contact with the patient can be identified and isolated earlier to contain infecting more people.
15
This person’s diagnosis absolutely affects and contributes to the handling of this outbreak:
1) Contacts of this person must be traced, isolated and treated, for their own protection and to halt further transmission
2) Clinicians must be alert to potential cases and have a high index of suspicion for testing and isolating those with symptoms even if patients have not travelled to sites of outbreaks or been in contact with others who have
3) Testing must be much more readily available and criteria for testing must be modified to account for the possibility of cases in the general public.
This changes everything.
5
We all should all feel better knowing that the CDC has narrowly defined a medical testing decision and removed it from the judgement of competent medical professionals everywhere. We all know the CDC has never been wrong about anything and their infallibility in these matters should carry the day. The CDC provided guidance a few days ago that Americans may need to remove their children from school for an unknown period should there be a true outbreak. Is the CDC manifesting an outbreak?
4
Has Mike Pence said anything on the issue yet, or is he still busy studying the Bible?
35
This is the way the GOP ends
This is the way the GOP ends
It ends with a whimper, not with a bang
11
This is troubling.
I demand Doug Ducey/Steve Sisolak immediately do us all a favor and restrict travel from California effective immediately, shutting down the 40, 10, 15 and 80 east bound.
That would take care of the virus and invading Californians in one quick move. Oregon can keep them.
"Most people will be just fine..." Donald Trump, scientist.
"Except for those who die".
Trump is COUNTING on people in this country to not understand math and probability...
And,here's something he doesn't know....( he apparently doesn't know a lot about the common flu..)
There is a vaccination for the annual flu.
9
It was amazing to hear Trump’s explanation for gutting these departments. He is a businessman and you just can’t have people sitting around doing nothing (paraphrasing). And, by the way, we can get all these people back if we need them. Really? Coming from the person who apparently spends much of his time watching TV. Sorry, but his remarks gave me zero confidence. He always seems like a school kid who has crammed for an exam. Given some data and then spewing it out. But, no confidence that he really knows what he is talking about.
By the way, heard Goldman Sachs is releasing a memo that calls for zero profits this year for corporations. Given he has put everything on the rise of the stock market...one can only imagine Trump’s reaction to this news.
15
"the federal agency that conducts the testing did not administer the test until days later because the case did not fit the agency’s narrow testing criteria"
This is what happens when 'drown the government' Republicans in a tax-cut bathtub try to govern.
At first, people cheer mindless tax cuts....not realizing that critical infrastructure, science, knowledge, expertise, planning and good government response is being completely destroyed behind the scenes by the right-wing obsession with painting the toenails of the rich.
“We have the greatest experts, really in the world, right here.” says the guy defunded the government.
And Trump and Pence fired most of them in 2018.
In May 2018, Trump ordered the National Security Council’s entire global health security unit shut down, calling for reassignment of Rear Adm. Timothy Ziemer and dissolution of his team inside the agency.
The month before, then-White House National Security Advisor John Bolton pressured Ziemer’s DHS counterpart, Tom Bossert, to resign along with his team.
Neither the NSC nor DHS epidemic teams have been replaced.
Republican greed, incompetence, malfeasance, malpractice and abandonment of the American people at the highest level of government.
November 3 2020
217
@Socrates
No, this is what happens when the government over regulates. It's no surprise government inaction would be blamed on -- wait for it -- lack of funding.
Just another day in the world of Trump's angry critics.
@AACNY the lack of testing has nothing to do with a regulation (law). It has everything to do with administration (Trump) policy on the issue. The trump administration owns this mess up fair and square.
23
@AACNY It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this out.....when funding is cut or reduce from any program, services suffer or disappear.
20
“The risk to the American people remains very low,” said Mr. Trump. “We have the greatest experts, really in the world, right here.”
Yet, Trump fires the Pandemic team and never replaced them; with his self-proclaimed infinite and twisted wisdom he says the coronavirus will “miraculously go away by April”. What scares me more than the coronavirus virus is the complete inaction and incompetence of this President. You can bet on one thing though, the President’s risk is extremely low; he’ll see to that.
19
I live in northern Italy, where they are testing thousands of healthy people. Hence the "spike" in coronavirus.
ie : the more you test you find.
These kind of restrictions keep the numbers down-- to what end?
I bet if you went into a NY subway and tested one whole train, you'd come up with a few cases.
56
@robertoc You are absolutely correct. There is a political agenda behind keeping our confirmed cases low.
9
I hope I’m wrong but I think your headline is incorrect.
This man is very unlikely to be the first community transmission. He’s simply the FIRST one we know of. This virus is highly transmissible and does not respect borders. We haven’t seen more cases like his because are aren’t looking for them.
I’m simply shocked at the anemic response and preparedness of this country. Turns out Trump is even worse in a crisis than feared. We’ve had two months to prepare and adapt and yet, here we are today, with a story about why the only reason we know about this patient was persistence in the face of ludicrous hurdles by his doctors.
All of which brings to the fore a very uncomfortable question for us to ponder: What’s worse?
A government they hides their patients until it’s too late, like China?
Or one that’s willfully blind to them, like the US?
68
Sound familiar? This is government again inserting itself between physician and patient, as in abortions. Of course, those who claim to be against big government have no problem here. Why not leave it to the treating physicians, (and in a teaching hospital at that), to determine what tests are required for a patient? Aren’t they in the best position to know? Apparently they were here. And how reassuring that Mike Pence, who was single-handedly “credited” with the spread of AIDS as governor of Indiana is the Corona virus czar. It doesn’t get any worse.
49
To the contrary it’s not the big government, it’s the under funded, under staffed, inept Trump government we should be worried about.
3
This is very unfortunate and in clear contrast with yesterday's announcement at White House news conference from our political leaders and medical institutions about level of our preparedness to Covid-19 pandemic.
On top of that, hospital I work at requested us to reuse single surgical mask several times as their supply comes from Wuhan and we are running out of them, even before epidemics starts in US! Lack of Covid-19 testing in US may hide possibly hundreds or more cases already in the country. It seem strange that as this virus spreads in Eurasia, we are virtually only one country which is spared from it!
12
Why is Mike Pence named to coordinate the effort? He's not a doctor nor a scientist so he has absolutely no experience in dealing with epidemics. I'm surprised he didn't put Jared Kushner or Ivanka on the effort since all he does is make his kids do it.
22
@George Gu
There whole administration of complete fools. We have seen all these people on the world stage and it’s embarrassing.
4
My sibling and his/her partner are doctors at Kaiser, the biggest hospital network in California.
They are so mad at the hospital administration. The hospital is being cheap and not testing suspected cases. Also, the hospital has a plan for isolation units but are not setting them up preemptively to save in costs.
Can the Times reporters please look into this? How can they contact you anonymously?
122
@Jay Lincoln
Health care for profit can’t get enough profit for the shareholders
9
@Jay Lincoln As someone who works with Kaiser, I have to say this doesn't surprise me at all.
14
@Jay Lincoln
They can easily make their accusations known. Why would any doctor or nurse withhold that information? It would put them, their coworkers, their patients and a majority of the population at risk. If anything it is the doctors who are either irresponsible or unqualified or both. Needless to say, they should not be licensed to practice if that's true.
The Kaiser hospital system would have to treat those who are infected. It makes no sense to think they would deliberately downplay the issue to save money. The cost would be far greater in the long term.
2
Why is the CDC being lauded as having done a great job when there have been giant, gaping holes in their approach? I wrote on NYT and called in to NYU via Dr. Radio to talk about the lack of monitoring at the Anchorage, AK airport. From the beginning of the Covid-19 outbreak, flights have come from China and other affected Asian countries while there was no scrutiny — no temperature checks, no masks, no quarantine, no questions.
31
Keep up the reporting: it is the best form of treatment so far.
19
Only two days ago, Larry Kudlow, the chief White House economic adviser, told CNBC: “The virus story is not going to last forever... I would suggest very seriously taking a look at the market; the stock market, that is a lot cheaper than it was a week or two ago... We have contained this. I won’t say airtight, but it’s pretty close to airtight.”
“We have contained this.” I now realize that the “this” Mr. Kudlow was referring to wasn't the virus. It was the story about the virus, nothing else.
Mr. Kudlow's only concern was the stock market. If people die by the thousands but the market prospers, so much the better for Mr. Kudlow and his boss. Except that if today's European markets are any indicator, we haven't quite touched bottom yet Larry. Probably not by a long shot in fact.
Posted at 9:25, five minutes before the US equity market opens.
24
So Trump’s solution to this potential public health crisis is to appoint Pence—a man who has repeatedly stated that smoking does not kill.
66
The lack of broad availability of testing lies at the doorsteps of the CDC and, ultimately, the Trump administration, which cut funding for the Epidemic Task Force, the HHS and the CDC in general. John Bolton removed the world health advisor from the National Security Council. There needs to be wide population testing, especially because there are, apparently, many asymptomatic infections. This is a disgrace.
19
“The C.D.C. has restricted testing to patients who either traveled to China recently or who know they had contact with someone infected with the coronavirus.”
Add this to the Trump administrations attacks on the agencies that protect our country and Trumps fealty to Vladimir Putin, a man who can best be described as a thug with an international reach and an end of times mentality, and the Steele dossier makes more sense every day.
Our president has apparently been compromised and appears willing to sell out our country.
The GOP appears not to care anymore as they have apparently gone totally over to scorched earth mode.
12
1) Why was the release of this information embargoed until after President Trump's press conference on Wednesday? 2) Why has the U.S. federal government imposed such draconian rules on who can be tested? 3) What are the specific reasons why Covid-19 test kits in this country are in such short supply? Other countries seem to be doing much better in that regard. It is now clear that the new coronavirus is circulating in our communities and the current "see no evil, hear no evil" approach in this country is endangering us all.
28
@Freedean Agree with all questions except #1. Here in NorCal we heard about this patient early in the day via local news (tv & npr)
2
Playing COVID-19 for political gain is shameful and dangerous, no matter who does it.
The CDC developed the reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (rt-PCR) assay in their labs and has expanded their lab capacity enormously since. Once the sample hits the bench, CDC can report the result in 4 hours.
CDC's effort to mass produce test kits met with a technical glitch, but the glitch was caught before even greater harm might have resulted from multiple labs using a test that did not yield reliable, consistent results.
So, in the setting of having a precious. limited testing capacity at CDC, it is unreasonable to "blame" CDC for not immediately agreeing to test a patient with no known history of exposure.
Our society is facing a very serious challenge. As a nation, we had better sober up and realize we are, in fact, all in this together.
Cohesion and calm are needed to surmount this challenge and thrive in its wake.
19
@Hugo Furst
Unfortunately, animus is a greater pull than reason at this point. If people can indulge their animus towards certain individuals and/or groups, they will.
1
@Hugo Furst
We can all agree on that. But this issue should have been taken seriously, from a government communication point-of-view, at least a month ago.
- name a leadership person (not done til yesterday)
- start daily briefings (maybe this has started)
- provide transparent and factual data in measured and calm manner (don't make me laugh, but what can I do but hope?)
1
Oh, it seems it is more difficult to test than I was aware. We do not have the proper kits available to test so it takes more time. If so why?
1
Kudos to Trump for finally finding a job for Mike Pence, who for the last two years was twirling pencils in his office.
12
The unelected regime in DC fails us again. Surely this is another attack on the people of California. Governor Newsome hopefully you can undertake testing here that is free from unreasonable constraints and political considerations.
12
And this is an example of why we should leave the important health care (in this case public health) to the experts who have proper education, experience, and training, and NOT to politicians. Also, this is a consequence of cutting funding for an important agency such as CDC. Well done White House!
1218
@Lexi Bella
There was no political interference here, it was CDC determined testing protocol. And, the hospital did not determine it was Covid-19, they suspected it could be.
10
@Lexi Bella
Agreed 100%. But this fact pattern is absolutely what you would expect when a large bureaucratic agency oversees these types of procedures. It's clear that the CDC has some narrow set of criteria which must be met before administering this type of test. Maybe the criteria should be expanded but this is not the type of change that happens quickly in a bureaucracy.
Note., there are politicians running for President in this country right now who believe that the Federal government should take over all aspects of healthcare. This would require the development of similar criteria for the application of every test, procedure, drug and doctor visit. You can guarantee that access to these will become far more difficult...as we see here with the Covid test.
7
@Ace
Sorry, but Trump decimated the CDC’s ability to fight infectious disease by eliminating the team tasked with fighting situations just like the one we find ourselves in now. Trump owns this. With Trump, everything is political.
401
Imagine when it inevitably gets into prisons. Imagine twenty percent of truckers severely sick. Or twenty percent of police. Or medical workers. School in Hong Kong is cancelled at least until April 20. Trump has no idea what this is, and he’s surrounded by terrified sycophants.
802
@HKexpat
They probably need to cancel school before this thing has a chance to get going. As airborne cases present themselves in states, cancel schools. Protect nursing homes. Establish well care and sick areas in hospitals.
20
@HKexpat I had a nightmare last night about it ravaging an entire elementary school. I’m a former K-12 teacher and spent most of my time teaching high school English. But then I became a school librarian and worked in an elementary school for a year, and only a year because the germs jut about killed me. It had to be two or three of Dante’s hells all in one spot. I was out with the flu for two weeks. I’d never had flu in my life and had of course taken the flu shot. But alas, elementary school germs don’t care. If Coronavirus gets into an elementary school, so many children will die. And now I feel sick to my stomach.
33
@Corrie This is not true. There have been 0 worldwide deaths in children 0-9. For those 10-39, the death rate is .2. This is much more a concern for teachers and staff than children. Also a concern with children who do not appear sick spreading the disease to their parents and elderly relatives and friends.
28
So, if this man was infected via “community spread” WHERE are all the other infected people ?
None seems to have come forwards which means an exponential number of infected people are out and about infecting others.
Many, for sure will continue to go to work, as Americans do not have sick-paid leave, and spread the virus. Most will not go to hospital for treatment as they do not have proper insurances and will not risk a typical $3,000 bill for treatment.
Be a GOOD American : vote for Universal Health Care.
67
Luckily, Pence is on top of this now.
I am hearing that he is hold mass public prayer gatherings to fight the virus.
120
That should be 'holding,' of course, my editor is on extended leave.
6
I think the NYT should be wary of repeating Trump’s words verbatim. Yes, he is the president, and yes, he did say what you have quoted. But the NYT, as the paper of record, should highlight opinions and advice from qualified professionals. People are going to read these articles looking for facts and guidance - please make sure it is crystal clear what the best information is.
36
Another aspect where the xenophobic policies of the Trump administration will cause panic is when sick immigrants will not seek help for fear of deportation.
Trump has positioned the country for a fantastic failure that will cause many deaths and so much suffering.
14
Heck of a job, Trump. Whether you are concerned about the stock market or welfare of the general population, it is important that you have a healthcare system that covers everyone, not just the star-bellied sneetches. How many similar patients are there that did not have the fortune to end up at UC Davis Medical Center? The only valid "pre-existing condition" is that we are all human.
25
I fear what Trump will do with this. He wants desperately to punish California and New York. Wait for it.
9
OK, Pence, step up to the plate. Hold a press conference immediately to announce that you told CDC to widen the criteria. Then give kudos to UC Davis for identifying the virus and contacting the CDC.
Then apologize to the public for the slow response and announce you will hold a press conference with ea new Coronavirus case. Can you handle that?
65
I think we can safely infer that the Trump administration is actively trying to suppress the actual number of infections and will continue to do so, given the stable genius's inability to see this virus as a public health emergency rather than a threat to his own chance's of re-election.
The U.S. is now firmly in the grip of a dictator. There's no point in sugar-coating the story. Dictators will attempt to control the flow of information to benefit themselves.
Americans are in deep, deep trouble. The problems are much deeper than Trump and include the rigging of the entire system that has occurred since Reagan. Add to that the systemic disease of the Electoral College which now regularly overturns the will of the majority and hands the White House to the loser of elections (twice in the past 20 years).
I see no hope, honestly. It would take a miracle to turn the United States back into a democracy worth emulating.
65
I feel ever so much better with Trump's adoring lapdog in charge of the problem. We can all rest assured that the situation is under control, until it isn't. Then Trump will have another announcement: "I don't recall ever meeting Corona, or what ever his name is."
18
Well, now that President Trump has put the nation's paragon of medical expertise and crisis management, Vice President Pence, in charge of the response to Covid-19, we can all breathe easy.
Right?
7
Well this is getting off to a great start. Surely Pence will be on top of it.
4
Well, as usual, Trump is right and we are off to a good start here. As George Takei suggested, Trump should build
a wall around the USA, (I'll change his words a bit) and charge the Chinese for it.
The other comments about the poor state of American health care; well I vote that we should only allow rich people to get this disease.
6
The US has done a terrible job of testing. We should have done many more tests at this time and we should make sure that all testing for Corona is free (including doctors fees).
However, Italy beats us when it comes to absurdity. They have decided to reduce testing to only sick people because it has given them bad PR from all the positive tests.
172
@Ivan Where do you get your information? There are diagnostic kits provided by the central health care administration with criteria provided for when to use them as there are not enough to test the whole population, but quite enough to test people with upper respiratory infections with fever who meet the other criteria. There are telephone numbers to use in case you think you have the virus with staff available to examine and diagnose. Medical care is free.
9
@Ivan What if this was physically impossible?
1
@Ivan That is not true. But given you are from Memphis , a small town in the TN province, which must be Trento , wonderful city in the middle of the alps, i believe you. My english is not perfect but Italian is my first language . My family lives in Lombardy , or Lombardia. I am afraid you are going to wish for the same response from your government when the lid pops and you find out that you have to pay for it(and you might opt out). What Italian authorities have said is that they are going to communicate only the number of actual relevant clinical cases, nothing to do with testing. Outreach has been impressive and i am generally critical of the inefficiency of my home country.
You can read Italian newspapers , la Republica and Corriere della Sera if you wish to dig deeper. Or stay in Memphis and write what you wish on your own personal Italian newspaper, admiring the Alps on your computer desktop.
15
Hmm. Let's see. Evil government in denial slow to respond to Coronavirus outbreak. Ignores initial warnings from doctors. Insufficient resources. Flawed testing kits, which in any case are virtually unavailable. Central leader delegates responsibilities to underling with a shrug. China? No, no, no. USA We're number one. When the dust is settled on the graves of all the preventable deaths, I imagine the Chinese regime will have done a better job under much more difficult circumstances, than the US government. The CDC now advises all Americans to stock up two weeks of food. No problem say all those on food stamps and in poverty. We can barely feed ourselves already. Oh and be sure to stock up on prescriptions! How is anyone supposed to get the insurers and pharmacies to advance us some medicine? Organized response? You bet.
104
@AR a very poetic and truthful comment, bravo!
9
Nothing but the best experts, unless science is involved of course.
13
And how many other people will not even seek testing because they can’t afford it?
8
A totalitarian system of government that is based on a cult of personality will NOT allow there to be any deviation from the government line. Trump has said there will not be a lot of cases and that the few we have now will soon drop to zero. The easiest way to ensure that false narrative is to limit the number of cases by testing as few people as possible.
14
...and people flying into the US from Italy and other “hot spots” are currently not being tested upon arrival. How is this possible?
9
This is every person’s nightmare. It does lead one to wonder, how many more cases are scattered throughout the US, which haven’t been thoroughly tested. Plus, if we can’t make a timely testing kit in this country, perhaps another friendly country that is already testing their populace could share their formulary with us. Woefully unprepared we are.
246
@Prairie Rose Yes, I read the other day that the UK is about to roll-out some type of at-home test for the virus. Perhaps we could learn more about that. We surely are woefully unprepared.
18
@Prairie Rose
It's pretty inevitable at this point that Covid-19 is going to be as ubiquitous as the common cold.
I actually suspect it is already sweeping through the San Francisco Bay Area and has been for weeks -- that thousands upon thousands of people are infected. Since a number of people are asymptomatic, and (per recent NYT article) about 80% have relatively "mild" symptoms, cases are going massively unreported because they will never get tested.
Half my friends have had a bad cold in the last few weeks -- fever, aches, cough, maybe lungs feel a little weird -- but not bad enough to go to the hospital. Miserable for five days, then it clears up. Sound familiar?
We (CDC) should accept the high infection rates and focus on getting treatment to folks who are unlucky or particularly vulnerable.
12
@Prairie Rose ....just remember that Mr.Trump was proposing cuts for the WHO funding just a few days ago. Sharing information related to a health crisis like this is one of the main functions of the WHO. I think that is just another demonstration of the incredible incompetence and ignorance that seems to reside in the White House right now.
254
It’s here.
Fingers crossed and hoping for good luck.
We’re all getting this thing.
4
From everything I"ve read in the past months about this disease, is it's intractability to being adequately described. We seem to have cases ranging from mild to acute, transmission methods from direct patient to patient to silent carriers who spread it to others, and now, this very alarming case here of community spread--defined as simply not knowing the source of infection.
Such wideranging data makes it all the more difficult to track and treat. Until we treat this as the genuine emergency it seems to becoming, we won't be able to target all the variables present in patients with COVID-19.
Yesterday's press conference was disturbing because of the lack of urgency. The president seemed to be trying to mollify the public, by minimizing the extent, and potential impact of the disease, while the CDC experts stood stoically behind him, with impassive faces that surely masked their true feelings.
18
Of course, for the U.S. is hopelessly unprepared and behind countries like South Korea that have better testing equipment and stricter enforcement of who gets tested (that's why their numbers are spiking). It'll be interesting to see the real numbers in the U.S. when the country finally gets its technology and testing up-to-speed. Meanwhile, check the ship-manifest and testing results of the travelers who came off the Diamond Princess in Yokohama and then continued their "vacations" by flying to Rome/Milan from Japan. There's your 'carrier group' to Italy and the Middle East.
7
In 2016 Hillary Clinton won California by more than 4 million more votes than Donald Trump. But in our divided limited different power constitutional republic of united states those votes didn't count nor matter in allocating meaningful Electoral College majority votes in any other state.
Trump doesn't care about California nor Californians.
It is highly unlikely that the Donald Trump who doesn't accept nor understand the science behind climate change that has set California burning has any more insight into the science of the coronavirus crisis.
11
If we really want to stop the spread of COVID-19, the government should pay for all testing. Too many people won’t seek health care because they can’t afford it, and far more people will get sick.
And if too many people get sick, our economy suffers.
15
My partner attended UC Davis many years ago. I was teaching elementary school on Travis AFB. It was about a 30 minute commute. Weren’t the first evacuees from Wuhan transferred to Travis? A curious connection that has not been mentioned.
11
I would strongly prefer that the head of the CDC or his or her designate be empowered and entrusted to marshall the resources and lead our country's efforts to deal with the Coronavirus epidemic.
Let science and medical professional be in charge.
Mr. Pence? Well, what can I say? Unqualified, lacking any knowledge in this field and of questionable judgement. If all of Trump's Cabinet appointees have defied scientific opinion of climate change, health risks of pesticides and pollution, and the universal needs of all people to have access to and receive clean air, safe drinking water free from groundwater contamination and medical care as needed, why should we trust Mr. Trump or Mr. Pence to perform as needed now?
86
@JMT
It’s called leadership.
Pence has the power to command and get the resources the Federal government possesses.
‘Progressives’ somehow think someone in a lab coat can do that.
1
@EGD
Not sure why progressive is in quotation marks, but here's the reality. In the recent past (remember Ebola?) an expert in communicable diseases was put in charge of task force, not the VP, as an expert in the field is needed, not a politician.
10
@EGD
True leadership consists of listening to people with expertise. By your reasoning, a CEO at a random company will know more than a surgeon "in a lab coat." Therefore, I suggest that the next time you or a loved one needs an operation, you should ask the first CEO you meet.
Thoughts and prayers!
7
I literally was just posting about this.
Both my son and I have a cold right now. We are going to the doctors later and I can pretty much guarantee you we won't be tested.
So what if we are among the "mild"?
We don't sound like we have the coronavirus. We have sore throats and no fever.
But perhaps we are and are contagious. Maybe they will give us antibiotics and we will go back to school and work in 24 hours thinking we are good to go.....
And maybe we just have colds.....
But until you test widely, you will have asymptomatic transmission because people won't stop their lives for minor symptoms.
18
@GWE With our health care system, people can't be tested unless there's a strong case for it. I suppose we could say we're going to make sudden and big changes in our system now, with this virus. Really, how does that work? Does this not tell you that our "most Americans like their health insurance" private system might have some flaws?
Unbelievable that a doctor thought that this man had the virus but did not fall under CDC guidelines and could not be tested. I heard there are only several facilities in the US that can test? Is that true? How easy is it to test or how hard is it to test?
10