Iowans on Medicaid are not allowed to get more than 30 days of a prescription medication at a time, and meds cannot be refilled early. So every time I read the advice for Americans to keep "at least 30 days of your medications on hand" in preparation for Covid 19, I am reminded how ignorant some "experts" are of daily life for many of us. And Mike Pence is in charge? Obviously Donald knew this was not going to go well. Always in self-preservation mode, he designates Mike to be the front line. Heck-of-a-job, Donnie!
9
Mr. Trump has told people that he considers Mr. Azar to be too “alarmist” about the virus.
Because we don't want to upset Wall Street, and harm Lil donnie's favorite rally boast.
6
When someone tells me I can't talk about something, that is when it is most important to start talking. How outlandishly unsafe to silence the experts by using Pence as a censor! Shame on you Trump.
6
Pence, Kudlow and Mnuchin in charge of this. That is insane.
6
The Xinjiang re-education ‘vocational training’ detention camps hold many hundreds of thousands of Muslims. If this virus infects these camps, it will be horrific. These camps are like the Diamond Princess cruise ship times 10,000. These people, all Chinese citizens (but non-Han) are sitting ducks for this contagious virus. How are they being protected?
3
Somebody tell Trump that the stock market will go up if he tries the novel (for him) approach of doing the right thing.
He still expects an imminent vaccine which is utter... add an expletive that he often uses. A vaccine is 12-18 months away.
I know this is hard for you Donald, but what about just trying to tell the truth for a change?
6
I feel the U.S. government including our president isn't doing enough to protect it's citizens at this point! What are we waiting for for an outbreak to occur similar to whats occurring in Italy or China itself?
3
Trump thinks this is the same as selling condos in Miami. He thinks he can con his way out of this. Who can watch this farce and not fear for our country? Who would possibly vote for this person again?
6
Trump’s response is the Government will contain COVID-19. And Mike Pence will marshal the effort by filtering ALL official communiques regarding the virus. That is, we will only hear what the Administration wants us to hear. Trump’s interest is to get re-elected and not the interest of the populace. Sorry, I’m not reassured.
There is going to be a burden placed on the medical infrastructure and those with inadequate coverage are extremely vulnerable. SCOTUS will be hearing a case as to whether the Affordable Care Act is valid. If it sides with the Administration that it should be overturned, does Congress and the President have a contingency healthcare coverage plan? Bet not, based on total inability to come up with any viable alternatives to Obamacare.
We have an administration that’s putting its own interest above America’s; a throttling of open communication; a vulnerable healthcare system; and an incompetent chief executive. We need a free press to step up its vigilance.
Vote as if your life and the lives of your loved ones depend on it.
8
So lucky , I wanted to invest 5 days ago , and there was a technical glitch to open an account. Forget it .
3
Always fun to watch people whomp themselves to 2450 RPM.
Or so I guess.
It’s oretty much easy to find out how to do what you can do, folks. Please try.
I think the reaction is over the top.
But we humans are good at a panic.
I guess the partial good news is that Asians seem to be getting plenty of space in crowded areas. But that should disappear as the virus spreads.
Ok, Pence, here's a question for your clearance policy. Let's say
by some chance that a US woman's 7-week fetus has been observed to be infected with a severe instance of COVID-19. Then let's say that it is further observed the infection is an imminent threat to the woman's life. So she requests an abortion. What will be your decision? We don't need an explanation at this time, just a simple Yes or No.
2
Im currently in New Zealand, as of Friday, 28 Friday @ 16:00 hrs. the country has just confirmed it’s first case.
3
Putting anti-science Pence is charge of the US effort is an insult to scientists everywhere. Another incredible blunder by Trump.
6
We would have been more prepared, but media like the NYTimes decides that covering the repercussions on GOP cuts to services and preparedness is just dollars and cents. They'll ignore their culpability
1
Two weeks later, I predict that Trump will be wearing a mask and addressing the nation regarding growing fears of the coronavirus.
2
So there you have it folks. Protocol in California allows virus to spread. A protocol brought to you by the stable geniuses inside the beltway.
When this virus spreads across the country, let there be no doubt... It's Trumps Fault.
6
If Trump is re-elected, I figure two years' out he'll assert the virus outbreak never happened.
3
I loved the "we take all whistle blower complaints seriously", comment. Haven't laughed so hard in ages. Of course they do-so that they can t be fired and/or disparaged by our commander in chief.
5
'South Korea, with the largest outbreak outside of China'.
Where is data from North Korea?
I have seen no numbers being reported only schools extending their Jan/Feb breaks.
Is Trump collaborating with his friend Kim on managing this pandemic?
1
“Italian officials reported 650 cases as of Thursday night — up from 400 a day earlier — with 17 deaths. The number of infections had doubled in just two days, as Italy grapples with the largest outbreak outside of Asia, centered in the northern region of Lombardy.”
Going forward with Milan Fashion Week, Feb. 18-24, probably did not help. Lots of international travelers in close quarters and contact.
2
There is nothing positive about VP Pence trying to "pray away" HIV or the bankrupt Trump University POTUS in regards to the coronavirus.
This will make GWB handling of Katrina look like a perfect 10 in comparison.
5
Now that Trump has kicked Alex Azar to the curb Pence has appointed an Obama appointee to run the response team.
OH! the irony.
After Trump well documented campaign to obliterate every policy and hint of Obama's many achievement it is an Obama appointee that is saving his bacon on the Covid epidemic here in the US.
Vice President Mike Pence, whom Trump named Wednesday as his corornavirus response coordinator, appointed Dr. Deborah L. Birx, an expert on HIV/AIDS, to a coronavirus task force, a move that drew bipartisan praise.
Birx is a career government official who was nominated by former President Barack Obama in 2014 as the U.S. global AIDS coordinator responsible for overseeing humanitarian aid programs combating the epidemic. She also served as head of the global HIV/AIDS division at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and was a top research official at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
5
There's a confirmed case in New Zealand now.
2
Why am I not too concerned or terrorized that Corona virus (COVID-19) will kill me any more than another irresponsible gas guzzler hitting me just around the corner?
!) Most COVID-19 infections are mild.
2) Only 1 in 50 with a weak immune system is likely to die from a COVID-19 infection if optimal medical treatment is not available.
3)Knowledge is power and I have spent more than half my life understanding the dirty tricks of such nano sized particles.
4) I have canceled my travels plans for the next 6 months including one to Rome, Italy. I was in Seoul last May and no plans to go anytime in the near future. I do plan to present my innovative ideas in front of investors at SC convention center in Silcon Valley, CA but will take adequate precautions. I have been trained to survive in a tiger's den
5) I would love to visit Tehran but I have no interest in going when there could be possibilities of being a pawn in a hostage swap.
6) I am not going to be in a closed crowded space for the next 6 months.
7) I am going to continue proper hand washing as frequently as possible and use sanitizers at other times.
8) I will stock up on proper masks and those protective covering of nostrils that can leave nano sized particles from entering my respiratory track.
9) I will continue my intake of a balanced diet with supplementation with minerals and vitamins.
10) If the COVID-19 comes close, I am ready with 100% Pomegranate juice to give my immune system a fighting chance to cure me.
1
Has anyone noticed that we dont have allot of people dead from this? It’s like any other flu or cold that goes around. Why this?
One more thing.....
Let's think like Trump--the worlds most selfish, predatory, narcissistic con man. He doesn't are if people die--as long as we don't have a panic that drives down the stock market further. But he knows eventually the lie will catch up with him so what does he do? He puts Pence in charge and kills two birds with one stone. He can say he is doing something and when it clearly fails, he can take down the one guy he thinks could run against him.
HE IS THE WORST PERSON EVER
6
The Coronavirus Pandemic is a genuine worldwide disaster, and Trump has made it worse by denial and incompetence.
Trump is concerned that this looks bad for him. His natural response to any crisis is to lie, cover up his own mistakes, and blame others. VP Pence will do whatever Trumps says. We cannot trust anything they say.
Under Obama, the US government was prepared. But after Trump cut the budget of the CDC two years ago, experts predicted that this would hurt American preparedness:
“Why American could become vulnerable to the next major pandemic”
https://time.com/5177802/cdc-budget-cuts-infectious-disease/
Every American death will be on Trump’s head.
6
The NYT said Thursday that the CDC had only done 445 tests not counting the people who were repatriated.
A friend in the affected area in Italy told me that as of Tuesday 8,600 tests had been done there. Maybe if the CDC did more tests they would find more. Too bad we have a narcissistic, pathological liar running the country.
5
Trump does not care about us at all. He only cares about himself. Just like the Senate and White House cabinet and administration covered up Trump's criminal behavior, they will cover up, obfuscate and misdirect any data or reality about the virus in the U.S. We are faced with a pandemic with the most incompetent and corrupt President, administration and Senate in the history of the U.S.
6
"Those with few or no symptoms may not know they have contracted the virus, or may misidentify it as a cold. They may then continue their daily lives, coming into close contact with others and spreading the virus without anyone knowing."
Couple this statement with the fact that we simply are not testing anyone who does not fit a very restricted set of criteria, and it is highly likely that this virus has already spread widely in the community.
The administration's unduly restrictive limit on who can be tested has artificially suppressed the number of cases reported in the US. The patient in Northern California had to have contracted the virus from someone else in the community. That patient and the person from whom she contracted the virus all had multiple contacts with other people in the community. None of these people walking into their doctor's office would satisfy the criteria for having a test.
So, an untold number of people with mild cases are out there unknowingly spreading this highly contagious virus to multiple people. Once the testing catches up (or the number of seriously ill patients start piling up), the number of cases in the US will skyrocket.
5
Unless drastic containment measures are taken immediately, the coronavirus will become much more widespread than the flu. The coronavirus is said to be much more contagious than the flu.
There is a flu vaccine that reduces the number of people that get the flu. No such vaccine exists for the coronavirus.
The death rate for the coronavirus to somewhere between 10 and 20 times the death rate for the flu.
How many people got the flu this season?
How many people died from the flu this season?
Factor in the multiples that accompany the coronavirus.
Factor in the containment measures (or lack of containment measures) being implemented.
Factor in the competence (or incompetence) of the people making decisions and taking actions to fight the coronavirus.
Not a pretty picture.
10
I am wondering why the Surgeon General Dr, Adams and CDC leadership were not highlighted instead of Pence. Those leaders are working very hard ~ and deserve recognition. In addition, we Americans need to be cognizant of the coming health burden and instead of panicking, appropriately respond and prevent transmission to those 70 and older and those with significant health comorbidities. Otherwise, due to our healthy 70 and older population and our advancements in caring for those with many health issues the mortality toll could be far higher in this country.
14
If USA public schools close in affected areas for weeks, that will be an interesting test of what happens when all of the children have to stay home unattended during the day and many parents still have to go to their jobs every day.
20
China is a large supplier of garlic throughout the world; not to raise panic but has anyone considered the virus in the food supply? Where it affected people in Italy. It sounds unlikely as the fastest way garlic could get distributed is via air, the temperatures and other conditions may not allow a virus strain to survive that long but worth considering given the risks.
7
Please explain how more than 2,700 dead out of 78,487 infected is a 2.3% death rate. The most elemental arithmetic tells you the death rate is higher, and probably quite a bit higher, since death trails infection by two weeks or more.
13
@Rusty Day
The numerous low symptom cases that do not present are probably factored in. They may have calculated the number of people who had it very mildly and perhaps never knew they had it.
Just a guess on my part to answer your very good question.
1
@Rusty Day
Yup, I did the math too. If I use the numbers the Times has in their articles it is actually 3.4%.
2
Seriously, a lot more people died in other countries who don’t have any means to monitor this epidemic, or just don’t want to declare it ( like Russia for instance)
3
The unknown etiology for the NorCal/UC Davis case is easy to figure out. The person was first treated at two small hospitals in Vacaville, near Travis AFB, where the repatriations occurred. Probably this patient was in contact with someone on the flight or some base personnel who were not properly clothed or trained in how to handle exposed persons.
13
Isnt someone making the connection between the new case in California near Travis AFB and the whistleblower disclosure of improperly protected and trained HHS staff at Travis AFB where travelers from Wuhan were quarantined?
I think Pandora's box has been flung wide open. Cases in the US can now be expected to increase exponentially.
25
If Human contact is the reason for the spread of virus, it may spread to full extent before it is controlled by about a year or so.
Health issues are going to ruin the economies of World, no question about it.
6
I’d like to let all readers of this column know, that in Australia, the Government has instituted the Pandemic plan, which has been prepared for over a long time.
The do-nothing US Federal government is managing the outflow of information to the public, in the interests of Trump and the GOP. What has occurred so far, is negligent.
Trump and his authoritarian yes men and women, are deceiving the US population as to the seriousness of the pandemic. I am deeply concerned for my friends and others in the US who put trust in Trump. He and his administration lie all the time. I just hope the scientists and epidemiologists are not cowered by this bullying, and don’t succumb to the widespread deceit.
51
I am not sure you can write that Japan close their schools for a whole month. Normally spring vacations start from the third week of March. The closure has probably been anticipated by 2 weeks.
5
"I always like less gore, I've always liked the idea of implied gore. I think when you can put something in the mind, the unconscious mind of the audience, they can create in their own mind something far more frightening than anything you can put on the screen." Roger Corman
It’s just a big ol horror movie where the scary monster lurks off screen more in the imagination and all our worse fears run riot. we’ve seen too many movies like this No wonder people are panicky . But in all those movies the people put on the spot more than not, rise to the occasion.
Finally, something for retired people to do. Have the kids study at our houses and let Mom and Dad go to work.
6
Except retired people will be the first to get sick. It’s not hitting youth like the flu tends to, along with elderly - it’s coming for older men.
1
Some thoughts on coronavirus. Insert the numbers that you think are accurate.
The population of the United States is something over three hundred thirty million people (330,000,000 people).
The coronavirus is said to be more contagious than the flu. How many Americans got the flu so far this season?
How many more than that will get the coronavirus?
Is it already too late to contain the coronavirus?
The death rate from the flu is one-tenth of one percent (0.1%).
The death rate from the coronavirus is somewhere between one and two percent (1.0% - 2.0%).
How many people are going to get infected by the coronavirus?
How many people infected by the coronavirus will die?
Now do the math.
Should you be scared?
9
So Trump & Co. are putting lives on the line in order to deceive the American public as to the extent of Coronavirus in the US. The CDC sends out faulty kits and sets a narrow parameter for testing protocols. Every healthcare worker is now on the front lines with no tools to protect themselves or their patients. Despicable beyond words.
29
How long before Republicans demand the whistle-blower's name? I predict that they'll obsess over the name and ignore the actual complaint.
16
Well what you DON'T do:
You don't put a history major in charge; especially one who attended a prestigious school that admits 68% of all applicants. Or maybe the VP picked up a lot of science at law school, ya' think?
12
Hopefully President Trump can do the math on COVID-19 - if 50% of the 7.8B people on the planet catch this virus (if it's not contained) and 2% (mostly elderly) die, that's 78,000,000 that will die. A good reason to take this outbreak seriously and provide adequate resources on the front line of fighting / containing this virus.
9
There is no doubt in my mind this thing has already spread widely in the US.
THEY CAN'T TEST MOST PEOPLE.
I went to the doctor with my son today--we are both sick. The pediatrician told me that there was no means of testing anyone with any sort of cold symptom. That we would have to call ahead and make an special appointment and they would have to get approval from the CDC and only if we had traveled to China.
It's a joke.
Perhaps naively but I am no longer that worried about this. Sounds like 20% of KNOWN cases are acute and I really believe there must be many UNKNOWN. If you look at the Diamond Princess, many people were asymptomatic and remained that way when diagnosed.
This is a threat. It may just be slightly overblown.
30
@GWE The CDC was really behind in changing their algorithm for testing. Long after it was clear that S. Korea and Italy had many cases, and flights continued to connect those places to the US, the CDC still recommended only testing those with travel to China. Then the CDC tests didn't work-this has just now been fixed. You are right to worry. Surely there is spread through the community-we just won't know it. This is completely brazen and unsafe.
10
@GWE
With a mortality of between 2-3%, this virus appears to be 20-30 times more lethal than the flu, which has a .1% mortality rate. Roughly 50,000 people in the US die each year from the flu. If the corona virus infects the same number of people as the flu - and it appears to be very contagious - it could cause between 1 to 1.5 million deaths. Even if the mortality falls to 1% as we get a better handle on the total number of cases, that translates into a potential for .5 million deaths in the US alone. I would not call that an overblown threat.
7
So stop trying to overblow it.
You’ve likely got the cold or a flu. Go home, go to bed, watch cartoons, hydrate like crazy, some aspirin if your son’s old enough, chicken soup and ginger ale are nice, if you have real trouble breathing call your doc immediately. Don’t order quackeries on Amazon.
You know all this.
1
The only apparent coordination announced today is the requirement that government officials, including the Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the NIH Institute for Allergy & Infectious Disease, clear their public statements through the White House. This looks like another administration policy to suppress scientific information, and insert political disinformation. This is particularly true in light of Trump’s statements suggesting that there is a conspiracy involving the news media and scientific experts to “weaponize” scientific information regarding the pandemic to hurt him politically. Further, the administrator who reported the HHS employees’ failure to follow quarantine protection procedures has found it necessary to file a whistle blower report after action was taken to remove her from her position. (Note that the ‘unexplained’ case of Covid-19 occurred near Travis Air Force Base, one of the two quarantine sites where untrained HHS employees violated the integrity of the quarantine.)
There is no doubt that Trump cares more about protecting his political position than he does about protecting the American people from an epidemic with the potential to kill hundreds of thousands. Congress should take action to insure that critical scientific information is not suppressed. Will Mitch McConnell allow that, or will he stand with the Administration, and against the American people?
100
@Mitchell Rodman, MD
How amazing to have a leader who not only is ''not'' a leader in any sense of the word, but who is only interested in suppressing any news that may taint his reputation (if it could be more tainted).
I feel bad for your country, especially that you cannot seem to save yourselves from the current and ongoing tyranny.
7
What's not obvious about the Solano county, California case? Are we supposed to ignore the fact that a plane of infected evacuees landed at Travis AFB in Solano county? Are we supposed to dismiss the whistleblower account that 13 untrained and improperly protected Federal employees met that plane Feb 7, 8 days before this woman was hospitalized? Pompeo overruled the CDC to get those people on the plane and this is the result.
90
I am so angry and frustrated. I work in infectious disease. Thousands of people will die. This will all
be because of an ineffectual infantile administration who is unable to deal with this appropriately. The horse is out of the barn. There is community spread guaranteed. The CDC waited four days to even agree to test the patient in CA. That means whoever gave it to her was spreading it to others. This is a mess. If everyone received their flu vaccines the mortality rate is 0.026% Covid-19 is 2.3% and infects far more people. This is going to be a very messy experiment in the uneducated leading the uneducated
41
As Bernie Sanders tweeted:
"Trump's plan for the coronavirus so far:
-Cut winter heating assistance for the poor
-Have VP Pence, who wanted to "pray away" HIV epidemic, oversee the response
-Let ex-pharma lobbyist Alex Azar refuse to guarantee affordable vaccines to all
Disgusting. "
Feel The Bern, America.
Nothing says epic incompetence, malpractice, negligence and disaster like Republican governance.
580
@Socrates: Agree, but I trust Elizabeth Warren over Bernie Sanders in the area of competence.
103
@Socrates agree but believe Bloomberg is the science man.
35
@Socrates but somehow the Democrats would have it all under control? are there any other sides to cling to? I'd take anything but the incompetence of either party,
9
And how will a waitress telecommute to her job? A trash collector? A custodian? Notice anything similar about these jobs? This virus will affect the working poor much harder than, say, those banker friends of trump's and those in the upper and even middle classes. Inequity strikes again.
48
And the waitress works for the ... business white collar crowds!
The same applies to small businesses. They will suffer too. Big corporations won’t.
Over the past 3 years we feared that an ignorant, untruthful and self-serving president would not be able to guide this nation through any major crisis. Most of us thought the crisis would come in the form of a military confrontation with another nation.
The crisis has come in the form of a dangerous new virus. It has also become abundantly clear that an ignorant, untruthful and self-serving president will not be able to guide us through it.
50
American response to COVID 19:
1-Don’t test don’t tell.
2-Let Mikey pray on it.
54
Isn't the coronavirus just the flu?
According to the CDC, the "common" flu kills at least 80,000 Americans each year and probably twice that number.
So far, the new flu has killed no on in America and in a nation of 1.4 billion it has killed in one month about what we lose in one month from the "common" flu.
Maybe we need to calm down.
1
@Observer Unfortunately, to stay calm alone will not do the trick. You are right, panic does not help. But every country now needs strong leadership to put tough measures in place to limit the spread of the virus. The problem is that scientists don't know enough about it, so people need to be vigilant and responsible.
I can't see this kind of leadership in the US.
17
@Observer
No, Covid-19 is not the flu, as the CDC and NIH and epidemiologists and other scientists have said repeatedly. Why do people keep saying this??
20
@Observer First: flu has vaccine, Covid-19 doesn't. Second: Flu fatality is 0.1%, Covid-19 is 2%. Do the math.
16
The CDC has recommended that we stock up on a 30 day supply of medications. Yet our very expensive insurance only allows us to refill prescriptions when there is less than a week left of the medication. Meaning it’s impossible to keep a 30 supply on hand per the CDCs recommendations. So many things about our health care in this country are broken.
50
My thoughts EXACTLY! I really hate my insurance.
3
The death rate is far from even across different age groups (and even by gender though the variation is slight): Age 50 and below the rate is about ~0.2% so like the flu overall. It's only the oldest who are most vulnerable. (It's not a fair comparison I know but since the flu also affects people over 50 the most, if you're over 50, covid-19 appears to about be a couple of orders of magnitude worse (~500) in terms of mortality but if you're under 50 it is only about one order of magnitude worse (~13).)
6
@RamS
What about the two young doctors in China who passed away. Both under 40.
9
That under 30 estimate is an average across those who are under 10, under 19, and under 30. So its actually fairly high for those in their 20s.
3
If the first US community acquired cases of Covid-19 to be discovered are critical, does this mean that many other milder cases exist, possibly spreading the virus? Lots of data (if correct, from China) so far shows that critical cases are around 5% (1 out of 20) of infections. By my calculation for every crifical case found, 19 others must be out there, maybe unaware that their sniffles or cold is actually Covid-19, and spreading it wherever they sneeze. I would love it if any scientist, statistician, epidemiologist, or otherwise informed person commented or clarified if this is a logical understanding of the situation.
14
@Timmy M.
I have a medical field PhD and teach anatomy and physiology. You are correct, it is going to burn through the population like a California Wildfire. I just watched the movie Contagion again to get a preview. If we use the numbers from the Times articles, the mortality rate is over 3.4% and no vaccine. Compare that to 0.1% with a vaccine for influenza?
1
@Timmy M.
COVID-19 is lower respiratory, not upper, so not sniffles but coughs... if there are any symptoms at all.
1
I would feel much better with a competent president right now. A nationwide emergency response is a huge, multifaceted, coordinated and complicated effort. Much of our panic is coming from the fact that we know Trump/Pence are not intelligent enough for this undertaking, as well as too self-interested, to have the public’s best interest at heart.
59
One of the main things that worries me for people living in the United States is that the cost of healthcare for the uninsured and under insured is so high that they will often be reluctant to seek care if they have symptoms. So, they will remain undiagnosed and then spread the virus further. In addition, many have no paid sick leave therefore can’t even afford to stay home from work if they are ill. The fact that the United States still doesn’t even have reliable test kits is only one of many indicators of how out of control this could get. I am an ICU nurse in a huge hospital in a densely populated area. In a hospital with a large adult, pediatric, and neonatal ICU we are completely unprepared. N 95 masks are completely out of stock with none on the way. We have all of 3 test kits locked in a cabinet. Not one peep from hospital management regarding any training, procedures, or personnel protective equipment for front line healthcare workers. In the United States get ready for many physicians, nurses, respiratory therapist, etc. to be put in grave danger.
86
Wow. Please let management know. They are going to responsible for their lack of planning. I live close by- I worry about BART, Muni, ferries, so much traffic across Bay Area and easy ways for that virus to infect many
4
No one has mentioned the four confirmed patients moved from Travis AF Base to Napa and Contra Costa. That seemed odd because common sense says the more movement the more chance for mistakes or transference. Now we know the staff on those flights and /or the staff at the base were not trained or had proper equipment. I am glad we have a competant governor because the federal government sure isn't going to help us. And I hope the media will keep us up to date because Pence won't.
I am curious about whether trump supporters want to get all their information about this from fox and trumps tweets. Maybe their happy bubble will burst .
22
It appears that the panic is starting to set in and I am uncertain how much of this is warranted. This is a time we truly need to trust the Administration, trust the information and trust the advice. The fact that this trust is missing I fear will only add to the panic. How I miss President Obama.
57
Mr. Limbaugh should worry about this "cold" because he has all the risk factors short of the uppermost age bracket as indicators of mortality.
To "muzzle" Dr Fauci, one of the most experienced people in the US for this problem, is monstrous.
The markets are showing their opinion about Trump's approach. The President loves to claim victories when the markets are higher, but here he is fomenting a severe plunge. What part of "no confidence" does he not understand?
57
We had the misfortune last night whilst eating supper and watching the main BBC evening news to watch the trump briefing . The president was the oddest looking we have ever seen him and he literally could not string a sentence together . It was impossible to follow his spoken word in a cogent coherent way . If that’s his response to the impending public health crisis I fear you and ultimately all of us will be doomed !
102
Who is going to look out for people living on the streets? Our first responders? what happens when they get sick from contact with people who have to live rough?
What about migrant farmworker communities who have poor housing and limited access to healthcare?
We have so many people living on the margins who will have no defenses.
53
You would think that President Trump caused the coronavirus epidemic according to the hatred poured upon him. Everything is his fault. Always. Let’s not forget that it was China that saw the first outbreak of this disease. It was a man in China who warned of the severity of this epidemic but no one took him seriously. He also was the first of thousands of victims who died. If blame is going around, it should be China yet we have heard little of this from the Trump haters. They are mum about China a communist country. Why I ask?
8
@KMW I have not heard anyone blaming Trump for the virus. He does get blamed for belittling the issue and for not knowing what to do. He puts Pence in place, who in turn appoints a real expert....and the health secretary gets pushed aside. That does not even remotely look like someone who is in charge. But perhaps he puts Pence there, so in case it all goes wrong, he can easily get rid of him?
Also, Trump's main concern seems to be the stock market. He is not responsible for the stocks going up, and he can't be blamed for the stocks going down. It's as simple as that.
10
I don’t think that people are blaming Trump. But he has done things to make dealing with a pandemic much worse. He makes great scientific claims when he has no idea what he’s talking about. He has trouble delegating so he doesn’t inspire confidence. The proof is in the stock market.
9
The buck stops where? He wanted the job. He’s got it and he needs to take responsibility.
11
The President will not be concerned until he has to cancel one of his rallies.
53
“The White House on Thursday directed the government’s health officials and scientists to clear all coronavirus statements and public appearance with the office of Vice President Mike Pence”
Oh good, this way we can be assured that the information we are getting is not at all politicized.
35
With Pence in charge (let’s just pray and it will go away) and the media going into “we are all going to die” mode (Times included), what could possibly go wrong?
11
The US probably has so few cases because the CDC is not really looking for them. If you don’t test for it, the “official” number will always be low. Only a few hundred people have been tested in the US so far compared to over 7,000 in the UK, which has a smaller population than the US! If you are trying to find community transmission and nip it in the bud, you cannot rely on travel and contact history alone. One has to actively look for suspicious cases. President Trump and the CDC patting on each other’s shoulders doesn’t really bolster confidence when the doctors in the US can’t even get their suspected patients tested without having to cut through so much bureaucratic red tape. The CDC hasn’t even sent out the “right” test kits after admitting sending out “flawed” ones. Stop trying to fool the American public and wake up to reality. Its time to get your act together.
45
@Yeah
You can't just test people. There must be a reason. In the case of the UK there was a group who had been exposed and went back in the general population.
In the US I believe only one was found so far which was yesterday.
In Australia all the cases we have, to date, were infected overseas and brought back and straight into hospital.
Headline says--- "California and Germany have 1st recorded cases with no obvious source of transmission."
If the C virus spreads, Germany has paid sick leave for all employees, by law.
Vs in the US 28 percent of U.S. civilian workers — about 45 million — have no access to paid sick leave.” per Bureau of Labor Statistics.
So all German employees and the public are better protected from any transmitted diseases than Americans are.
And here, there’s the economic hardship of no paid sick leave when millions need their pay for rent and food.
NYT– How to Prepare for the Virus -----
… “many people who work in minimum-wage jobs do not get sick days. Sometimes they must work even when ill, despite the fact that they have a lot of contact with the public.”
In the US, tens of thousands of people die every year because they can’t afford basic care”….NY Times editorial Feb 16.
Thus, Universal Employee Paid Sick Leave must now be a huge issue for 2020 candidates in the debates and town halls.
And link it to America's unaffordable health care for multi-millions – now with an international threatening pandemic.
29
From the NYT's own reporting:
'In the complaint, the whistle-blower painted a grim portrait of agency staff members who found themselves on the front lines of a frantic federal effort to confront the coronavirus in the United States without any preparation or training, and whose own health concerns were dismissed by senior administration officials as detrimental to staff “morale.” They were “admonished,” the complaint said, and “accused of not being team players,” and had their “mental health and emotional stability questioned.”'
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/27/us/politics/coronavirus-us-whistleblower.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
How is this any different from China??
39
Oh he’s playing by Xi’s rules. No statements about virus unless approved by government. That worked out well for China, didn’t it?
41
It's very hard to put this sort of a genie back in the bottle now that it's out.
Too many potential hosts (humanity) and you'll never contain ALL of them as people will do what they do and the virus will continue to find away to transmit across the spectrum.
What's frightening as well is there has been ZERO info about N Korea. Just saying, South Korea is like nextdoor and has cases brewing. Its known conditions are poor in NK and it would be a huge brewing-ground for the virus.
Mother nature is driving this bus............
7
I truly don’t understand the stupidity. The virus has been a threat since early January, it has turned cruise ships into floating incubators, airplanes into flying Petri dishes, and yet people are still boarding cruise ships, businessmen are traveling around the world, For face to face meetings, getting infected with the virus and heading back to the United States, to spread it here. For gods same this is the twenty first century, we have things like teleconferencing and technologies which do away with the need of person to person meetings, there is a serious contagious virus spreading in Europe yet irresponsible people continue to fly to Europe to see the sights and board cruise ships because it’s all about them having a good time. This is how the world ends not with a bang but with a burst of stupidity.
34
A special “thank you” goes out to mr’s Xi (China), Abe (Japan), Hun (Cambodia), Widodo (Indonesia), Khamenei (Iran), Moon (Korea) and Conte (Italy). Thanks to your inapt leadership by delaying the response and wilfully taking inadequate action, the virus is now spreading out of control around the world. It will have a gargantuan impact to communities around the world. Most notably is the economic impact in Europ and America. But much worse will be the deathtoll in Africa. Your denial of the situation for personal and political benefit and glory will cause many more people to suffer and die than was necessary. The International court of Justice awaits your presence once this is behind us.
8
I honestly tried to watch Trump's press conference last night with an open mind. I really wanted to be reassured that our government is equipped to handle a national health crisis.
The only good thing I could say about Trump's responses was that he wasn't slurring his words for a change. I also heard some useful information about progress on developing a vaccine and various other treatments, but that didn't come from Trump.
Other than that, there was a lot of confused statements and misleading information. Trump tried to blame the stock market's recent performance on the Democratic candidates, called Nancy Pelosi incompetent, gloated about his approval ratings, mocked Chuck Schumer and mimicked his NY accent, kept downplaying the seriousness of COVID-19 by comparing it to the flu, rambled on about how frequently he washes his hands, lied about the mortality rate and disputed the 2% figure, claimed (without evidence) that his travel restrictions has successfully stopped the virus from spreading to the U.S., whined about being called a racist, and could not give a coherent reason for appointing Mike Pence to coordinate his administration's response to this.
Somehow, I am not reassured about the Trump administration's ability to lead the nation during a crisis. Not even close.
53
I don’t really understand how there can be no obvious source of transmission of a totally new virus in a population that did not have it. Is it in the air? Or on surfaces? Or because most cases are so mild people don’t even know they have it?
5
@Kay
a) apparently it can have variable incubation times in different people, between 3 and perhaps as long as 28 days.
b) some people may have the virus but asymptomatic.
2
This is dangerous and we need a national emergency response same as if we had a Hurricane or Earthquake. Piece meal won't get the job done.
8
Genuine question: Has the modern private health insurance industry ever been put to the test by a large scale pandemic?
26
MediCare for all, or something darn close to it, is starting to sound pretty useful, yes? It’s going to be a tragedy what happens here in the next few months, and the loss of life may trigger a sea change in American’s views on our medical and scientific professions.
Or maybe we will all just send our thoughts and prayers after the carnage.
I will be voting for the former. Who is with me?
33
Here's a rumor, but one I trust. A nurse who works at the Queen of the Valley hospital in Napa in CA. This is where the first non traceable corvid 19 case originated before the patient was airlifted to Davis Medical Center. Two docs there at Davis became suspicious (because the woman was so bad off and not responding to any treatment) and they asked the CDC for the test and this was denied until Wednesday! Meanwhile this nurse says they have MANY patients with the same symptoms at Queen of the Valley hospital and everyone there is scared.
22
No, that sounds like a rumor.
The community-infected patient was in the VacaValley hospital in Vacaville in Solano County, before transferring UC Davis. Vacaville is About 30 miles from Napa, and 9 miles from Travis AFB, where the evacuees from China and the cruise ship were taken.
There has been a respiratory virus going around the North Bay for the past 2-3 weeks, but Kaiser, at least, didn’t view it with alarm.
11
Is it just a coincidence that the first US case with no known connection to an infected person or travel to an infected region occurred in California and that unprotected government workers dealt with quarantined people who had been exposed also in California? If so, we are not “very, very ready” for this.
16
Now we find out from a whistleblower complaint that HHS staff members who processed the Americans evacuated from coronavirus hot zones entered quarantined areas at Travis AFB (in the county where the “mystery” case arose), and at March Air Reserve Base, without proper training and equipment, and moved freely on and off the bases. They were not trained in safety measures until five days later. No doubt the California case is related to lax HHS protocols.
One wonders what the heck was HHS and Homeland Security doing while watching China deal with this killer virus? Instead of sending swat teams to take out immigrants in sanctuary cities they should have been developing smart teams to deal with and stop the spread of the Coronavirus.
27
Now we have someone affected in Solano County, California (where the Diamond Princess passengers with coronavirus are “quarantined” at Travis AFB) who has had “no known contact with anyone from abroad”. It seems like someone who was caring for these patients carried the virus outside the base. Uggggggg. Looks like “the experts” were pretty cavalier with their procedures. Seems like there is no one we can trust to guide us safely through this mess.
22
How many people have been tested with the revised test kits in the US? You only find what you look for.
14
Pan American World Airways flight crews may remember that in the early '70s a visit to Tokyo would find their population walking in mostly straight to and fro lines on sidewalks with most wearing masks. I do not remember any person without a mask. The reason was quite understandable, to not spread germs on crowded streets. The photo today looks no different to me now than what I remember from decades ago. The reason now is quite different, though just as needed now as it was from my memory.
6
The virus originated in China. Travelers to and from China are the primary source of transmission. Now people across the globe who’ve been exposed to those travelers have become the secondary source of transmission.
Overseas travelers endanger us all. At this point, placing a temporary ban on international travel to and from the US...at least until the virus is contained and protocols are in place...would be the appropriate measure.
15
@Susanna
Too late Susanna. Its already person to person in Northern California- I am sure that the very stable genius will blame Pelosi for that. There are very likely many mild cases almost symptomless that are still infectious and spreading as we worry. You say "Overseas travelers endanger us all."
One in particular who just got back from India is endangering everybody with his denial mode act free imbecility. If he acted like a President and appointed a czar to coordinate a rational scientific approach the stock market could start recovering. I just lost another 2 grand today because of his fact free incompetence.
I like God as much as anybody but God helps those who help themselves, not zealots like Pence.
24
@Bob Guthrie
Stopping the spread of the virus in the United States has to be approached from different angles...one of which is to prevent people from traveling to the US...or returning to the US...from countries where the virus circulating...which is almost everywhere now.
1
Not sure why people are surprised about this. Illnesses are never static. Just look at TB, and other infectious diseases. Many have evolved to survive current treatments and practices. So it's almost guaranteed that new flu virus strains will continue to popup on the radar.
4
1) This isn’t flu.
2) Yes, there are new flu strains every year- that’s why you get a new fly shot every year.
10
@Mark This is not a "flu," even if some of the symptoms are similar (your mucous membranes trying to get rid of it)." Flu stands for influenza . This is a different type of virus altogether.
11
I am wondering whether the California unknown origin case arose in the same general area as Travis Air Force Base where I think several folks were quarantined and from where many were released about 10 days ago—just a Google maps search of Solano County seems to suggest the proximity.
With Mike Pence as supposed point person (and perhaps eventual fall guy for Trump) rather than someone who rationally supports scientific understanding, let alone a preeminent scientist like Dr. Fauci, I have little confidence that we are going to do as much as we feasibly can to limit the impact of this virus.
41
@AMB
It would be good to assume that, yes, we probably have community transmission in Solano Co. from those repatriated Americans (which our disease specialists recommended against but administration officials put them on planes home anyways).
Because 1) the whistleblower the NYT and others reported on today said that there was not adequate quarantine protocols for people caring for the returning Americans, and 2) China is reporting that some people who have recovered from the disease are still symptomatic.
But, of course, without reliable information from our own government, we just don't know.
8
Not to mention all of those government employees who were sent to unload hundreds of exposed and infected people off the planes trump sent to China. Those government employees had no protective clothing or respirators and were sent on their merry way all over the country afterwards. Those people were probably meandering around town with no protection at all.
2
California case is from Vacaville, right next door to Travis AFB. The government employees helping with the repatriation of Americans from overseas at Travis did not stick to quarantine, did not have training or personal protection for the first few days, and went on and off base (with some staying in local hotels).
3
Is it odd to ask at this juncture when the CDC will stop flights to Italy so people can get reimbursed for a vacation they may not want? I fear all of Europe will be in a similar situation.
16
@Anitakey we’re cancelling a trip to Sicily in March and are hoping that United will waive change fees.
5
NYC needs a different approach for testing suspected patients. Do you want them to take MTA or Uber/Lyft to any ER and expose hundreds of others in jeopardy? We need to create a hotline only for COVID-19 report and send response teams in proper gears to sites. Otherwise, it gives me a headache to think about even a dozen of patients roaming around the city making in contact with thousands of others.
33
@SYK
Some “uninflected” counties in Eastern Europe are already doing it. Looks like we are far behind. CDC just now expanded testing to anyone who also travelled to South Korea, Iran and Italy and those hospitalized with respiratory illnesses. Thag should have been done a while back. Now we have to be testing those with prolong unsubsiding respiratory illnesses and respiratory illnesses that come back. We are so far behind
7
@SYK
Thank you--this is an urgent concern of millions of New Yorkers who rely on public transportation and are nervous. People who are afraid they might have caught COVID 19 should be instructed to call 311 or 911 and get further instructions, and not just show up in an emergency room and risk contaminating healthcare workers. There should be an immediate public service advertising campaign telling people what to do. Get on it, DiBlasio!!!
2
Pence in charge?
Okay, NYT - where do we get the real news and info about how to protect ourselves cause what we will hear from Pence isn't going to help anyone at all.
43
He’s already practicing the mantra of “the USA enacted a really great response” and “it was a perfect” plan.
6
Go to your state or local officials. At least you will know what is happening in your area.
7
This virus was probably dormant until the climate warmed up, a result of the blasphemy of humans destroying our planet. Covid 19 is the archangel that will rebalance it all. The apocalypse has begun. Pray it s a short one.
6
Now we hear (see other article) that the government staff sent to greet the quarantined passengers from Japan were not protected at all and had virtually no protocols.
Everyone, it's time to stop pretending the government can help us with this. America as a government is not great. We are a bastion of second-world incompetence. Perhaps this will be a needed corrective to all the brainwashed masses that it's all fun and games in the land of exceptionalism. We can elect whatever leaders we find most entertaining. We can command the world bow down to us. We're entitled to the top economy. We're the best at everything, and things we're not best at don't matter. Those days are over, for many reasons.
When this passes, I hope we can maintain a sober attitude and get to work. No American anywhere is entitled to anything, except, in theory, equal protection under the law. The rest is up to us.
55
Yes, Trump was very upset with the way the Americans were returned to the US.
1
The newest case in Northern California reported today is in Solano county, California. This is in the same US county as Travis Air Force base which housed quarantined passengers from Wuhan and the infected cruise ship. Those US personnel from US health and family services are reporting today by a whistleblower report that their appeals for proper instruction and attire was disregarded. This makes the supposed 'unknown' origin of the case in Northern California, likely related to the lax handling of overseas cases at the Travis Air Force base within the same county.
40
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/26/us/politics/trump-coronavirus-cdc.html?searchResultPosition=1
The article says:
Quote:
The White House moved on Thursday to tighten control of coronavirus messaging by government health officials and scientists, directing them to clear all statements and public appearance with the office of Vice President Mike Pence, according to several officials familiar with the new approach.
...
Officials insist the goal is not to control the content of what subject-matter experts and other officials are saying, but to make sure their efforts are being coordinated, after days of confusion with various administration officials showing up on television.
...
The vice president’s first move appeared to be aimed at preventing the kind of contradictory statements from White House officials and top government health officials that have plagued the administration’s response. ...
End quote
This sounds to me like the Trump administration is more concerned with “shaping” the public comments than with allowing the medical experts to “call it as they see it.”
If the messaging has to go through Pence, I will bet that it will go past Donnie’s desk before it is released.
And of course, the stock market is doing phenomenally well. “Best ever in history.”
39
This marginalization of qualified healthcare professionals, dismissal of their judgements and control of the messaging by ill-qualified Party officials (Republican Party) sounds a lot like recent events in the People’s Republic of China.
14
Germany and USA recorded the first cases without obvious source of transmission? Mild shock. With incubation period 2-3 weeks, and people moving around freely, what about this? A family from Germany drives to a ski vacation in Italy because they already paid for it, gets back, a kid falls sick with bad cold, infects a classmate, who passes it to his grandmother. Grandmother never went to Italy yet this is an utterly unsurprising scenario. Light paranoia (like voluntary limiting non-essential travel for 2-3 months) would actually be helpful in this case.
28
THIS-- is exactly what we do not want-- political officials intervening in medical decision making to play down risks::
"The insertion of Mr. Pence and then Dr. Birx into the government’s response further erodes Mr. Azar’s traditional role. Mr. Trump has told people that he considers Mr. Azar to be too “alarmist” about the virus."
34
Women have been saying that for decades.
11
Pence is the last person on Earth who should have anything to do with the coronavirus.
Trump is the second last person on Earth.
I'll take advice from my cat over these 2.
54
@Thoughts and Prayers Don't Work
They work but in different contexts. I am sure that in the unlikely event that Pence ever got a dose the clap that he would pray first and then go to a scientist who would give him a penicillin shot. I am not sure of the exact treatment but I know that Pence would not just say a prayer.
6
Given that workers were sent to look after the people in Quarantine in 2 military bases - near where the woman got infected with the virus, it would appear this no longer a mystery transmission.
It looks like we have a catastrophic failure due to the Trump administration’s incompetence, failure to provide adequate protective gear and pandemic training likely led to this person (and maybe others) becoming infected. And now potentially leading to the infections of health care workers in two hospitals, also due to catastrophic failures by this inept administration.
Worse and Worse!
37
@TheraP
"And it's five, six, seven, open up the pearly gates
ain't no time to wonder why, whoopee we're all gonna die"
Country Joe and the Fish
1
Now that a whistleblower has been courageous enough to come forward and expose the lies, deceit, and coverups that ARE the Trump administration’s response to this pandemic, how long will it be before the president and his toadies in Congress demand her head on a spike? I think I’ve seen this movie before but this time it doesn’t have a happy ending for any of us—whether Democrat or Republican.
22
@Angela Minton
Apparently there's already been retaliation against the whistleblower. https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/whistleblower-claims-retaliation-after-alleging-reckless-coronavirus-response
5
Count me as puzzled. 25,000-60,000 Americans die every year from the flu. Yes, verys large numbers; yet not one reporter asked how much is spent on prevention and why not spend more? Don't we care?
5
@clarity007 There is a VERY big difference between this new Coronavirus and the common flu. This new virus is about 20 times more lethal than the common flu. If it spreads across the US like the flu, the deaths will be in the hundreds of thousands to millions. It's not that people don't care about the flu, it's just that we're much more worried about this new virus and the potential destruction it's capable of.
11
@clarity007 see flu shots and government indemnification for the companies that make them.
@clarity007
Absolutely flu is a very serious disease, and a lot of people die, and for sure we should do a better job of prevention. But to be fair, the National Institutes of Health, and the Gates Foundation, and other research grant funders, do spend a lot of money on the development of better flu vaccines. It is hard to care about an old problem, when a new problem has just popped up in front of you.
8
My greatest fear since January 20, 2017 is that there would be a serious crisis with Trump at the helm. Here we are. His indifference, ignorance, and incompetence are becoming so apparent that even some of his cultists may have their eyes opened. His best option to stay in office (and out of prison) may be to hope the crisis gets worse so he can implement martial law and cancel elections. Autocrats have long exploited disasters to silence critics and tighten their hold on power.
75
He’s in denial. His ignorance prevents him from facing up to the crisis at hand.
39
His lying is tolerated.
21
Trump's contribution to the market's growth is exactly the same as the one for the present slide. Regardless, how one can form an opinion based on the fluid nature of the stock market. The point is that the ruins will remain behind him. His prominent presence on the world stage has brought about a sense of an imminent danger, a catastrophic still not clearly known event .
13
lt was weird to see Donald face the press without the reassuring whirr of helicopter blades. Usually apocalypses now are not associated with an absence of whirring helicopter blades.
That should have been a warning when the Commander in Chief in his stability, genius and unmatched wisdom started having his interviews as if on the set of Apocalypse Now.
Who doesn't like the smell of lies in the morning?
23
This will be. Case where the administration lies and incompetence will crash against a non-partisan pathogen that cares not about politics, and only wants to replicate.
They can’t spin this one. It’s happening, and failure will be easy to assess.
28
With Trump and pence spinning hyperboli from the beginning instead of delegating responsibility to scientists and Phd's, I'm left repeatedly remembering a scene in the movie "Jaws" in which the gaudy jacketed clueless Mayor of Amity Island is wandering among the beach goers who are refraining from bathing, saying that it's safe to go back in the water.
32
"Every disaster movie begins with someone ignoring the scientists."
184
The key question: Is the Wuhan corona virus (with all its sanitized pc aliases) highly transmissible because of spontaneous mutation or because of human bioengineering?
Some epidemiologists are surprised that the new virus has four new features that greatly (and suddenly) enhance its transmissibility to human hosts. As we know natural evolution is gradual. New features are being added slowly by nature.
From Wikipedia: “The capacity to infect host cells or tissues is a necessary requirement for all applied uses of genetically modified viruses. However, a capacity for viral transmission (the transfer of infections between host individuals), is either not required or is considered undesirable for most applications. Only in a small minority of proposed uses is viral transmission considered necessary or desirable, an example is transmissible vaccines. This is because transmissibility considerably complicates to efforts monitor, control, or contain the spread of viruses.”
13
@Charlie Chan This is exactly the question those of us in public with access to a free press and free speech should be demanding from their elected representatives! Communist party officials would be all too happy for us to accept it just "jumped", out of all these decades of illegal animal markets and post-SARS coronoavirus warnings, it just happened in December just like that huh? While the Wuhan Institute of Virology was also studying the same virus? WHO should demand access to their laboratories. The world should demand some accountability.
12
@Charlie Chan
I believe the reason China was so quick to release the Genome Sequence was to hide the fact they engineered this virus to be more infectious. They didn't want other scientists to decode it themselves to hide this fact so they quickly released the Genome Sequence in its form prior to their modifying it. It Is Bio-engineered and China knows it.
6
The Chinese people especially, the South Koreans, the Japanese and all of us suffering from the effects of this abomination should demand the truth. The CCP’s actions in response to the initial outbreak suggest culpability.
7
Trump has little or no interest in the virus. He regards it as a variant of the common cold, which at worst might produce a few thousand more deaths in the U.S. this year in what remains of the flu season.
The deaths themselves would mean nothing to him.
What matters to him is the stock market because the continuation of his Presidency now almost totally depends on it.
When Trump came along, businesses and many well-to-do people saw a con- artist who would give them lower taxes; was promising to spend lavishly on the military and the infrastructure; had no interest in controlling budget deficits and inflation; would cast a cold eye on the need for health and safety measures in the workplace; and would ignore the effects of climate change.
Well, the chickens have come home to roost; and what he and Americans foolish enough to believe in his methods have succeeded in producing are vastly overheated stock prices that -- to the surprise of no one familiar with the ups and downs of the stock market -- are now collapsing.
The coronavirus is guilty of nothing more than being a virus.
We will survive it.
Trump -- virtually single-handed -- has collapsed the stock market.
When and if it will ever recover keeps him up at night.
31
@A. Stanton some people, tragically, won’t survive this.
6
“We’re very, very ready for this,” Mr. Trump said.
------------------------------
Just the most recent of his thousands of lies.
Amen.
360
@FormerCapitolHillGuy
Trump meant that : He & his family is ready to make money out of this, for themselves and GOP sponsors at the cost of real Americans.
13
When hearing of the first case of US unknown transmission in Solano County (I grew up there), I could not help but suspect if it had to do with the quarantined returning Americans being held at Travis AFB including those from the cruise ship in Japan. Solano County is a somewhat rural county at the northern edge of the SF bay area and Travis is a large base there. Sounds like my instinct was right.
14
I have a question for the virology experts. Covid19 appears to be mild at this stage, but it is now rampant in the middle east where they had outbreaks of Mers (and of course the worldwide incidence of SARS). What is the chance that these relatives of the present virus might be present in a dormant stage in people and cause this mild virus to recombine into something horrible? Also since it is zoonotic, what is the chance it can now readily jump into pets, farm animals, poultry etc. In other words exactly how jumpy is it?
7
@Meena
First, this is not a kind of virus that is known to have a significant latent or dormant state, although something called a "persistent" infection lasting months has been seen in rats (with a different kind of coronavirus).
Second, I don't know about jumpiness. But jumpiness would require (at least) a match between the virus spike protein, and the ACE2 (angiotensin-converting enzyme II) receptor in the host cells. This is something one could look up.
Lots of animals already have their own coronaviruses.
3
Here in America, Pres.Trump has declared victory, while commanding VP Pence to control the flow of information. Business as usual for a Republican administration which sees everything in terms of public relations, presidential power - and profit.
While we're being told to take sensible precautions and stay calm - 'the market' is panicking. Suddenly facts matter and betting on GOP and Fox fictions doesn't seem such a sure thing.
16
By effectively silencing experts, making all expert information regarding this coronavirus have to go through Pence, who shares the president’s distrust of science, the administration has pretty much guaranteed a catastrophe. When all goes wrong, which looks more and more likely, and we face major disruption and many deaths and Americans point fingers at the government’s response, Trump will say he did nothing wrong and blame Pence (never mind that he gave the task of managing this crisis to Pence). He then has an excuse to fire Pence, which will get broad public support, and which he is rumored to want to do anyway. That clears the way for Nikki Haley or Ivanka to be named Vice President in time for the election. This scenario is how I make sense of Trump’s appointment of Pence, who up to this point has done little other than stand behind Trump with an inscrutable expression on his face.
17
@Galfrido
He might also be afraid of Pence running against him, a possibility, and this job will just flatten him.
2
@Galfrido
They should all resign. Or threaten to if not allowed to speak freely.
What is this... China?
5
The commercial jet airplane is the vector that you are all looking for. That is the good news.
The bad news is that the vectors are still very active. And will remain active through Spring and Sumner Travel Seasons.
Perfect scenario for a major spread of infected hosts.
Good luck to us.
12
So glad Mike Pence is in charge. His entire contribution to "fixing" the Coronavirus will be to force everyone reporting to him to issue statements basically saying that everything is just fine, not to worry, move along, nothing to see here.
The Washington Post reported today: "The worst HIV outbreak in [Indiana's] history happened on his watch in 2015, which critics blamed on Pence’s belated response and his opposition to authorizing a needle-exchange program.
"In 2011, as a member of Congress, he voted to cut funding for Planned Parenthood. Two years later, a Planned Parenthood clinic that had been the only HIV-testing center in Scott County, Ind., closed after public health spending cuts. 'I don’t believe effective anti-drug policy involves handing out drug paraphernalia,' he told the Indianapolis Star at the time. Despite assurances from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that [needle-exchange] is an effective way to halt the spread of infections and diseases such as HIV, Pence said if state lawmakers tried to send him a bill for a needle-exchange program, he would veto it.
"As cases spiked, Pence reportedly turned to prayer.
"In 2018, researchers at Yale University found the epidemic could have been prevented" if Pence had timely enacted a clean needle program. His inaction caused the deaths of 159 people, according to a Yale University research study.
Pence sure does have a "knack" for the job he's just been given by Trump.
21
I am much more frightened by Trump’s gag order imposed on scientists than I am of the virus. Now is a really good time for some serious civil disobedience.
49
Trump is saying that the Democrats and news agencies are overstating the threat.
Trump will not be satisfied until the only way we can get any information is thru him and his cronies.
Hence, the lockdown on information about the virus unless approved by Pence. There you have it, we are not any different than China. Not at all. This is a communism capitalist-style.
33
All Coronavirus communication must go through health expert Mike Pence! Sounds like the Soviet response to Chernobyl- don't worry, we've got this under control- to me. I'm afraid we're all in for a rough ride.
39
How about an article telling us whether we have to pay for the test, or whether the government picks up the tab. Right now, there’s a rumor spreading around that someone who had the test got charged $2500. If it’s true, only the wealthy will get the test.
21
If that’s true, watch the virus spread. If there was ever a time to make a case for universal healthcare, this is such a time. The fallout won’t just affect those who can’t pay to see a doctor.
11
Trump is in the process of playing politics with the health of the nation. Communities and families need access to empirical, scientific based information in determining proactive steps to take in the event Covid-19 becomes a wide-spread event. Instead, now the medical professionals are required to clear all information with Mike Pence before it can be released to the public.
At this moment, the nation is afraid that Covid-19 is silently moving through the population. This is a public health crisis; the last thing we need is for Trump, Pence or anyone else in this administration to adopt the Chinese model of information control or propaganda.
19
Great, a person with no healthcare knowledge whatsoever is in charge of COVID-19 in America, Vice President Mike Pence. That’s really the best we could do? If so we’re in serious trouble.
23
Putting Pence in charge sets up the VP as a scapegoat, so Trump can deflect much of the criticism that is likely. Slippery duck.
19
"Potential new transmission paths" is an unclear, potentially inaccurate headline. There are no concerns that COVID-19 is being transmitted in any other way than via respiratory means. Really need NYT to be precise with its reporting during a public health crisis. Misinformation can be dangerous.
7
trump should be pilloried for his continued lies to the American people and the world.
There is no vaccine. There won’t be a vaccine soon.
His “opinion” that this won’t be so bad is uninformed.
And now, pence must approve all commentary from govern agencies and officials.
Nobody is fooled. He puts his re-election and the stock market ahead of public safety and national security.
Disgraceful! Abuse of power.
Unfit to serve.
29
So now we know the Trump administrations priority is to prevent the spread of.... bad news.
I wish we'd stop with the gotchas on Pence and HIV. It's clear now his job is to quash any information that the president doesn't like. I imagine he is rather qualified to do that. And it would be more informative for the media to focus on that angle too.
19
Trump is an optimist, he is exactly whom we need for this crisis. He is assuaging fears and very rightly prohibited flights to and from communist China right at the outset. Good job Mr.President.l, I applaud you.
2
@sebastian:
Great satire, sebastian! Bravo!
17
Sebastian- Trump’s no optimist. He’s obsessive about germs, and cannot abide a scientist speaking truth.
10
Clorox and high-percentage rubbing alcohol are excellent disinfectants if your store is out of hand sanitizer and other supplies.
Wash your hands.
Stay six feet away from others.
Walk instead of the subway if it’s close enough.
Don’t touch hard surfaces in public with bare hands. Use your elbow on elevator buttons and avoid doorknobs and light switches.
Wash your hands after touching communal surfaces in the break room at work. Ponder your gym habits.
Think twice about any non-critical, crowded environment.
Get 8 hours of sleep, no matter what, eat probiotic foods, avoid excessive alcohol and intense workouts, to boost your immune system.
27
@Bohemian Sarah
Thanks Sarah. Right away you have been more effective than Trump and Pence.
11
Thank you New York Times for your reportage. Frankly, this is a service to which governments globally should be engaged in performing and producing.
Rumors are dangerous. But I will say that a commentor on the NYT online reported that her sister who works at an San Francisco Hospital, San Francisco, California, probably as a lower level staff member, claims that there is a patient in that hospital testing positive for the Coronovirus.
Then there is the public data that someone in California has the virus but that individual claims NOT to have traveled anywhere, recently. And so that persons claims make it impossible to determine how he or she became infected.
What I have to say, is that people lie to doctors. Doubtelessly the person who claims to have not traveled recently probably did not but she or him came into contact with someone who has. And that is the issue. The person carrying the disease is out there somewhere.
And that brings into focus cultural norms which can lead to conflict.
There are groups of cultures in SF and San Jose but truly SF who are not cooperative with the government. They are long time residents but refuse to adopt English, or become secure in their ability to speak and read English.
Instead of declaring an emergency in SF, as the mayor did, I think, an all out media campaign to reach people in multiple languages informing all residents/visitors/ guests/citizens etc. of the Coronavirus and the nature of virus is necessary.
6
Surprising to hear Pence was tasked for the job...
I assumed it would go to Jared since he got all the other high-profiles jobs!
5
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 at 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. This is exactly why the leftist will be defeated with a landslide in 2020 when Trump will be re-elected as POTUS.
5
@lieberma
Your reaction is fairly common. But consider:
Right now, confirmed cases in China are 78,587, and deaths are over 2700. That's a death rate of 3.4%. That's at least 34 times higher than seasonal flu.
Some numbers suggest that the corona virus spreads almost twice as fast as flu.
Most of all, a large number of people are partially or entirely immune to the flu, either because of vaccination or previous exposure, and this puts a natural limit on its spread. No-one is immune to corona virus.
27
@B Futcher
"no one Immune to coronavirus"
false many infected people are asymptomatic.
3
Asymptomatic and immune don’t mean the same thing. If you’re infected but asymptomatic you could be walking around for weeks infecting everyone you meet, which is part of the problem. Many of the people that get infected by the asymptomatic person will have symptoms and some of those people will die.
If you’re immune you don’t carry the virus around with you and you don’t infect other people. This is why vaccinations are so important.
16
Trump the autocrat is copying the Chinese order to not to talk to the public with his order that government employees not talk to the public until each statement is whitewashed and approved by the White House
15
With former radio talk show host Mike Pence in charge of the federal government’s response to the pandemic, I feel safer already.
10
It’s bad enough Trump appointed Pence to head up this crisis. What is worse is that Pence ACCEPTED it. He should have refused and deferred to an expert in the health field. Now all information must go through this fawning sycophant. Hopefully there will be brave souls with expertise who will speak out.
14
I'm impressed with some of the public health measures being undertaken near me, in the UK. Local health authorities have plenty of flexibility for local solutions - the NHS is not inevitably some Soviet style monolith.
In one of the London boroughs, people concerned they might be infected phone a helpline and if, on the basis of a questionnaire protocol, they appear at risk, they attend a 'drive-in' testing centre where test samples are taken. They then have to self-isolate for a maximum of 48hrs by which time, their test result will be available. You can only do this if you have access to a car - I guess the ideas are firstly to identify high risk cases appropriate to testing, secondly to ensure that the ID details of all potential infectious cases can be recorded and finally to prevent people travelling to the test centre on foot or by public transport whilst spreading Covid-19. The majority of the urban population should qualify.
This seems quite a sensible, practical plan which might work elsewhere, too.
18
Similarly, in my Eastern European home-away-from-home, you call 112 if you have symptoms and they come and swab you and take care of you from there, as appropriate. We have a hotline, as well, that you can call with any and all questions.
The local joke is that Coronavirus took a peek at our teeming local biome and didn’t dare venture closer.
The government here has been pro-active, forthcoming, and calm. Hand sanitizers are appearing on the tram and an 8-point guidelines sheet (wash hands, etc.) is broadly distributed.
15
@Bohemian Sarah
Isn't the problem there that as the medical teams move from home to home, they may themselves transmit Covid-19 to those seeking help who are in fact NOT infected - or to their families?
The London scheme keeps potential medical staff vectors in one place as well as confining disease suspects to their homes or the interior of a vehicle.
3
The percentage of private cars here is much lower than in London, so it wouldn’t work to do drive-in. Presumably they show up like Dustin Hoffman in Outbreak, which would be a mite terrifying. Hope I don’t get to see that.
Maybe at some point there will be a home testing kit? For sure, though, you want to keep the mild cases away from doctors offices and hospitals, virus bombs that they would be.
The article states there are 78,587 confirmed cases in China, and over 2700 deaths. These numbers are about right. Then the article says the overall mortality rate is 2.3%.
But 2700 is 3.4% of 78,587. That's a high mortality rate.
Where did 2.3% come from?
21
@B Futcher
Can't say, but this reminds me of when we had "percents day - watch out they're so tricky" at my elite journalism school.
1
It's clear by now the federal government is going to be absolutely useless on this.
Everyone really just has to be prepared to act on their own. Get supplies. Start minimizing contact with people in public. Wash your hands. Isolate yourself as much as possible if you have respiratory symptoms.
Testing is overrated if we are no longer able to trace the path of the disease and unable or unwilling to implement effective quarantines. Focus on treatment and prevention resources, not testing.
It's difficult to not have reliable data to help inform decisions about going to school, or going on domestic travel. Unfortunately we are just going to have to live with uncertainty on that.
24
The panic here is palpable. And it's not about the coronavirus. Or the markets. It's about the illusion of a strong take-charge president slipping away before people's eyes.
So far Trump's been cruising along with no major crises. The first one crops up, and he's caught flat-footed, mealymouthed, dithering, indecisive. He contradicts his medical experts and complains about his political opponents.
It's like he's been playacting at president, and once he's thrust into the real spotlight, he freezes.
His first real test, and he's been found wanting. So far.
67
@C
... he hasn't been "cruising along", he's been failing on a daily basis for 3 years, and for many years prior to that ... it was evident during his campaign, and to close observers, for many years prior to that ... he is an empty shell, a mask ...
26
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/
21
What are they smoking at Hopkins?
#1 in detection with our don’t test don’t tell approach?
10
@Pigsy
As you can see, that report was issued in October 2019. Before this coronavirus was discovered.
8
Regarding the two mysterious case sources....one in northern California and one in Germany. The case in CA was in a town that is very close to Travis Air Force Base which is in Solano County, which is part of the nine counties of the Bay Area. Many of the passengers from the cruise ship were taken to Travis for quarantine. Now I and others who live near this county and city are wondering if the fact the Travis was used as a site for quarantine did in fact pose a risk to local communities that were not before recognized.
20
I was thinking the same thing. The virus persisting on hard surfaces may be what caused a cross-contamination that close to Travis. Given that they thought plastic sheeting only partway across the back of a plane was sufficient isolation, I wouldn’t be surprised if the disposal of consumables after the flight, or from the hotel on the airbase where people were quarantined, was the source.
Given Trump’s gag rule, download one of the many helpful fact sheets from other countries, like the U.K., and follow their recommendations.
Here are the highlights of my personal plan in a country not yet reporting cases, but at risk:
- Wash my hands all the time and stop touching my face
- Wear outerwear type gloves when out and about and, if I have to take them off, be conscious of what I’m touching
- clean off my phone with alcohol wipes and wash my hands when I get home
-avoid the tram at congested times. I’ve switched to taxis, and stopped my weekly opera and symphony excursions for now
- Stay six feet away from other people at all times
- get plenty of sleep, healthy food, and vitamins.
- avoid pharmacies
- I have a month of basic food and medicine set aside for me and the cat
This, too, shall pass
12
That or the folks at Travis were either not properly prepared or have had a breach in their quarantine protocols. Sounds like the patient is being treated at UC Davis in Sacramento.
6
$10 and an overdone burger says that Trump/Pence will then scapegoat and blame the qualified scientist who is overseeing the response when things don't calm down.
20
If I had to do a national search, I could not find someone less qualified and more incompetent than Pence to take charge of anything involving science ... with the obvious exception, of course.
29
Everything has to go through Mike Pence? That doesn’t inspire confidence.
25
@Mandy Cason Sounds more like an effort to muzzle the scientists
10
Anybody know whether the virus has made it to North Korea? They’re right in the center of some of the most highly infected countries (right now, anyway.) Have they the means to detect and deal with an outbreak there?
7
Watch how quickly Trump will use this crisis to advance his dictatorial ambitions.
14
We’re going to need a bigger bottle of sanitizer/antiviral wipes.
Too bad our leaders are essentially clueless.
11
Pence censoring the information about this virus? Isn’t this what happened in China? They suppressed any negative information because the authorities didn’t want to look bad. Then it got out of control.
25
Fantastic! A science denier in charge of an epidemic. What could go wrong?
19
We should not keep hoping that Trump is capable of any adequate or reasonable or even mediocre level of competence. In fact, the higher the demand of the situation, the more deficit we see. His impairments intellectually, emotionally, as a leader are without bounds. He also is scripted to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Pence, as his lackey is passive and devoid of skills (and apparently religiously delusional). And these people are now censoring the scientific experts. We (thinkers, observers, analyzers, reporters) must stop simply looking at the surface view of his petty actions and ...
13
I know what will keep the virus out. A big beautiful wall around the entire border of US, including the coast and northern border.
8
“We’re very, very ready for this,” Mr. Trump said.
About as ready as we are for another 4 years of him!
3
Important questions Mr. Pence needs to answer. Why did Noah not check for coronaviruses when he was loading those pairs of bats onto the arc? If he did see them, why did he load them anyway, was he required to load everything? Why didn’t he find some bats that were virus free?
16
Somebody had better tell the buffoon in White House not to act with too much confidence.
He has been proved wrong or downright liar many times before.
6
All Messaging .... through Mike??!! Taking a page from Xi Jinping. Pandemic will eventually die out but our vaunted democracy may have predeceased it.
14
Regarding the gag order on health officials.
Welcome to American China.
20
From another article here at the NYT:
"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 govt control of information in China??
23
They were upset by the CDC and NIH officials telling the truth in the press briefing while Trump lied, so they gagged them.
That is a deliberate act of authoritarianism that will cause more disease and suffering. Unforgivable.
8
It is beyond scary that communications for Coronavirus have to go through Mike Pence. All of the experts are saying there should be no filtering of the messaging and past Administrations have left it to the health officials and scientists to lead the communications.
For those who have not fully understood the dangers this Trump Administration pose, it may take a pandemic for it to become clear.
16
The dreadful news is that scientists and physicians have to "clear" what they say with Pence's office. This goes beyond mere censorship, beyond the usual national-security gag orders - Trump is asserting his power in order to deceive the public on a life-or-death issue. Censorship of science has of course been on the menu since 2016 (e.g., no government entity being able to write or utter the words "climate change") but this is far more immediately dangerous. We are now living in a truly dystopian country.
36
This epidemic will provide a good comparison of the universal healthcare systems in Europe versus the current system in the US. It will also show how the systems react to or prevent the spread of the disease. The numbers afflicted and the percentage death rate will be revealing.
9
@Rock Winchester
Italy’s national health care system is generally recognized as one of the worlds finest... That said, it appears the number of cases there — centered around Milan — have increased rapidly... What does that tell you?
5
@Rock Winchester, a comparison is difficult. For example, the population density is much higher in Europe than in the US, and most people have to use public transportation to commute to work. The virus will spread easier in Europe. The NY metropolitan area may be in a similar situation.
2
Then we can compare just New York to Italy and other countries in Europe. But your comment implies that believe that those countries with benefits like “Medicare for all” would provide in the US, will suffer more than this country.
2
Obviously everyone in hospital for respiratory issues should be tested, and if positive, the healthcare workers and other patients. That would give us a better idea. The problem is that there don't seem to be sufficient labs capable of doing it. Is it true that the CDC has yet to send out a replacement for the faulty test? I ask?
6
@Voltaire or that they panic and don’t want to even recommend testing. My husband, a doctor, today recommended Covid testing at a major hospital in the town for a woman who has a respiratory illness that came back. The admin called him to tell him the nurses were very upset that he recommended covid testing and that he should delete the note immediately.
12
Wow. I’m sorry for us all. I was just in Cleveland over the weekend. Haven’t the nurses& admin kept up on the news? They’d rather just *get* the virus??? I’d want to know so I could protect myself
3
@Ann O Reader I should change my town. We are no longer in Cleveland. This is happening in Chicago.
I recall back in the day when DJT swore he would make our healthcare system better, cheaper, stronger. I remember him saying that thanks to his brilliant leadership, unemployment was at record lows, stocks at all-time highs--this is the greatest economy ever, thanks to his genius. Remember?
16
Oh, please tell us all about *your* medical costs, Jackson.
3
@Jackson You remember very selectively it seems.
2
So the CDC cannot provide the medical profession and the public with truthful information, based on empirical evidence and scientific principles, without first obtaining a permission slip from Dad?
I’d say ‘heaven help us...’ but that’s undoubtedly the way Pence will approach the current public health risk, without any further prompting.
22
I think that too many people have different opinions and some leave out information that would keep them from gaining the attention of the media. Someone needs to assemble the information and then make it public. If Pence wisely chooses a Democrat to do the job, the result will be hard for Democrats to attack. But which Democrat is willing to take criticism from other Democrats?
2
It's no mystery at all.
The California woman checked into a hospital called Northbay VacaValley Hospital, which is exactly 9 miles from Travis AFB.
Travis AFB is where people were undergoing quarantine after air evacuation from Wuhan against advice from CDC.
Infection control measures were clearly inadequate. Solano County needs to serious step up in quarantine measures.
23
Thank you for sharing this information. Since all Washington communication about this virus has now been censored, It appears that—like China—we will have to get critical updates from each other.
15
@Ella Luce
And there is always Google; they seem to have a pretty good idea of where anyone on the planet with a cell phone in their possession is at any given time - which seems to be most people on the planet. Look at the dots then connect the dots back in time...
3
Yes, and Vacaville and nearby Vallejo are depressed areas under-served by all manner of public services. They have large undocumented Latino populations that may fear getting treatment in this hostile climate. They also have significant, insular, low-income Filipino and Chinese enclaves resistant to outsiders.
My concerns go out to the underpaid workers who probably cleaned that plane or the on-base motel where the evacuees were kept. I doubt that full biohazard controls were followed.
I hope that Kaiser, who runs some of the reduced number of hospitals in the North Bay, and the Air Force base itself as well as the large penitentiary in this area are all treating this with the utmost seriousness. Neither the town of Vacaville nor Vallejo has the funds to do much, with the latter town barely out of a recent bankruptcy.
The state, the Air Force and Kaiser have to be pro-active here.
2
I sincerely hope that Dr. Fauci and other medical and scientific experts are NOT going to obey the Trump decree to get Pence's OK before speaking out, even at the risk of their jobs.
They must speak truth to nonsense. Please.
47
@bignybugs
I was hoping Dr. Azar of HHS would get the job. Czar Azar has a nice sound.
7
@bignybugs
The idea is to prevent panic not foment it, something the Times and it’s readers would do well to keep in mind. There should not be a multitude of speakers, all voicing separate opinions. This is not the time to giveaway to hysterical media driven chaos... Thank god most of the commenters were not on this earth when we had to come to grips with an potentially cataclysmic disaster like the Cuban Missile Crisis... The sound of wailing, sobbing, and gnashing of teeth would have been deafening...
1
@bignybugs
But then Dr. Fauci, who works for the federal government, would get fired. That would be even worse.
1
It seems that the virus has been affecting industrialized nations.
There is already a Trump administration cover-up of key information that taxpayers should know.
The recent patient in California with no known contacts to infected people was refused testing in spite of doctors' recommendations because the "case did not meet federal guidelines."
The ONLY reason for such guidelines is that there are not enough test kits to adequately identify people who have COVID-19 infections! That likelihood has been whispered in the background but not admitted by the Administration.
The President in yesterday's press conference should have described that limitation and explained just exactly how he was going to fix it.
If the CEO of a public corporation was found to have covered up such a key limitation he'd be gone as soon as the information was uncovered. (Trump is an experienced businessman, right? Ho Ho Ho.)
Mike Pence will filter information to make Trump look good and not to inform the American people. So we'll have to rely on leaks and whistleblowers (traitors according to Trump) and information from Europe if we are to get the truth about OUR health and how our taxes are being spent.
32
Does Mike Pence even believe in viral evolution?
There is that saying about "no atheists in foxholes." Hopefully, there are also no science-deniers in pandemics.
13
What I find strange that you see all the people with face masks. But with bare hands.
Everyone who knows about flu (and I guess the Corona virus is similar in its transmission) knows that most infections happen through finger touching to mouth, nose, eyes.
It’s simple math: the pole in the subway you get hold has been touched by a thousand people in a single day. How many people do you encounter coughing in less than 6 feet distance? (The distance the virus supposedly is able to travel through air). Maybe 1 or 2 a day? (Unless you are a doctor...)
Having said that: simple cotton gloves do the job. Better than any sanitizer liquid.
Maybe there is some general education needed...
Even in the NYTimes I hardly have read about the microbiology and path of infection of the virus. A bit more background ratio would be great beyond all the “body count”
5
Trump has blamed Democrats and the press for overstating the threat. How much longer before he declares that the pandemic is a hoax?
3
In this country, I just read (in a NYT article for which commenting is unavailable) that we also now have govt censorship of official statements about the virus. Pence must review all statements before they can be released. This country is practically already gone. Evil has all but wrested the wheel from the hands of common sense and the rule of law. By the time the election actually happens, if it actually happens, it will be moot.
23
and if we don't talk about the it will go away, right? Right.
4
Any bets whether trump will determine that it’s way too risky to conduct a fall election....best to wait 5 or 10 years till this virus thingy goes away. Of course with full backing from the senate and the Supreme Court. And in the meantime the virus outbreak can be blamed on Democrats ( hey, trump had it fully under control) and was probably created by a secret biolab that Hillary financed with dark money.
5
I’ve been worried about Trump declaring martial law & suspending the voting due to the virus. However it is *very* infectious so sooner or later he’s bound to get it if he keeps going to his rallies.
3
Pence is a politician, not a medical professional. I don’t believe he will convey accurate health information. PLEASE put someone who has a background in epidemiology to head communication for COVID 19
17
@Kathleen RN
I saw the former (Obama-era) CDC head on the Newshour last night - what a breath of fresh air. Knowledgeable, calm, practical.
All networks should be interviewing him as much as possible. Forget our current officials.
2
This may be the one thing that can finally take Trump down. He can lie still but he can’t hide his lies and actions... the world is watching now. He can not manipulate the narrative. And the outcome of this virus on our society will be a challenge for him. He can’t pretend it’s all fine. He got rid of the in place departments that Obama set up to deal with this very scenario. And when people die that will be on his head. We all knew something would come along that he could not handle. He is clueless and Americans are the ones that will suffer because of his cluelessness. And the GOP will be to blame too, after looking the other way on his ignorance and his crimes. No confidence in him is already crashing the Market. He put Pence in charge so he has a scapegoat. But Trump will be the person responsible... he has gutted Science in our gov’t. So sad when we allow someone so incompetent and ignorant to be our leader. Lord help us all.
15
"The White House on Thursday directed the government’s health officials and scientists to clear all coronavirus statements and public appearance with the office of Vice President Mike Pence.."
This approach is what contributed to the spread of the outbreak in China.
Nothing like sticking your head in the sand.
17
Will Alabama be impacted by the virus, or will it be unaffected?
5
Ask President Trump. No scientist will be allowed to speak.
6
Only the Sharpie knows.
9
The media is thrilled - more commercial time to sell drugs, pickups, fast food and beer on cable news while “reporting” on this.
3
So Pence can censor the experts?
8
There is no "mystery" about virus transmissions paths: they are almost always un-traceable in pathogen propagation, except among numerous human-to-human opportunities. It's like asking how a rumor gets started and spreads. Calling two cases otherwise a "mystery" sounds sensationalized and alarming. They are neither. It is normal (in finite math), assuming it is accurate. What is more of a mystery is how the story broke, and who is benefiting (other than short sellers) in the political economy.
1
I want one of our country's top epidemiologists, not a Trump-fearing toady, in charge of containing the corona virus. And I would prefer to be informed by medical professionals rather than hearing the soothing platitudes of a serial liar more concerned with the stock market than the health of our nation.
291
@Christy
Great comment with 73 recommendations within 12 minutes.
I think even Trumpers would prefer Obama as president to cope with this. He could even wear his tan suit.
Donald's toddler-like denial strategy has gone viral.
10
@Christy
The media is free to interview whoever they want about this. I saw the former Obama-era CDC head on the Newshour last night and he was excellent.
More of that, media, and less of this Pence nonsense.
8
Let the epidemiologists go as public as they like.What will tRump do? Imprison, or pardon them?
3
Let's build a wall and fund it with the remaining money in CDC budget.
44
So what happens if the virus spreads and social security stops being processed and banks shut down?
12
@English Lass: In that case, everybody will run out of money.
6
@English Lass
Don’t worry, the brilliant new SSA commissioner Andrew Saul cancelled all telework back in November 2019 so when COVID-19 hits employees either have to figure out a way to get to work under quarantine or stay home and don’t work at all.
He can reactivate telework which SSA have planned for 5 years before he became commissioner but he would have to eat his words and you know some people don’t like that. Not to mention there is no guarantee the backend can handle telework as there haven’t been any need to keep the software current and validated for months.
12
While Trump has zero credibility for me and many people, he is right that we should remain as calm as possible and not spread panic along withe virus.
I think it is fairly reasonable to assume that the virus is already here in our big cities, and owing to luck, decent hygiene, and more time because of our distance from China, we have not seen any reported deaths--yet. Of course we have not been testing for it, except with the most sick patients. If testing were more routine, I suspect we would see a lot more mild cases, those 80% of cases that self-heal. Testing mild sicknesses might provide more data for tracking, but also create more panic and the need for quarantines and work and school closures. It is a hard balance. We do know that vulnerable populations should be the most vigilant and those of us, healthy otherwise, with mild flu and cold-like symptoms, which likely aren't CV19, should be especially hygienic and mindful of our potential to unwittingly spread our mild illnesses. Unfortunately this uncertainty could be with us for 3-6 months or more.
4
@PTNYC Flu has Fatality rate of .1%; Coronavirus 2%; twenty times higher. Mike Pence is in charge and all info released from the Govt must be approved by him. China did the same thing way back in December;hid the facts; claimed everything was going great. We should worry.
7
Pence’s move to have all coronavirus announcements flow through him smacks of trying to muzzle those who might blurt out truth that is contrary to the administration’s version. It would seem that a daily announcement would counteract that impression, especially if it included facts such as the number of active cases, deaths, and cures in our country
33
Expect in everything and very stable genius of unmatched wisdom says "we are doing a really great job".
He also said in hiring infrastructure
"Im a business person I don't like thousands of people around when we don't need it"
Thank God Vice President Thoughts and Prayers Mikey Pence is organising the response.
8
@Bob Guthrie
Apologies. I meant expert in everything. Typo.
2
Any suspicious person should be tested immediately, regardlesss of Federal Approval or limitations.
Public Health is first priority, and must not be hampered by politics or
bureaucratic obstacles.
9
Until now, we were blaming countries like China and Iran for suppressing information or not doing enough to contain it.
Now, with Mike Pence at the helm, we can only hope for the same. Parallel sources of information - one factual, one farcical - same old story but this time real, quantifiable lives are stake.
The rich people will continue to hoard on supplies and prep for the worst while claiming nothing is wrong to a normal, middle class american.
If China is living a 1984-esque world, we are living in a brave new world.
10
With fear and uncertainty about the future looming in the public and now affecting the economy, the worst thing that could have been done was to appoint a political man over a doctor to oversee the government response and public education. This will be seen as a sign of obscuring the truth the public is already smart enough to understand. Appointing Pence, a political figure, to control a scientific event will spook the nations economic leaders as it has. In order to assure a competent oversight, Pence must act as presenter of news and information, not suppressor.
10
I would argue that information from authoritarian countries is pretty useless and since the vast majority of countries are authoritarian, there is little chance we will know anything accurate about this until after it is over.
The people who elected the cruel authoritarians of the world were intending to do harm and that is why they should expect their leaders to do more harm than good, because that is what they were hired to do.
I still like that Trump's actions hit hardest on his base. They are incredible people who have a massive ability to absorb the results of their poor decisions without waking from the cult message. It's quite impressive and I love watching it.
10
Yet what should be an ominous and inauspicious sign is that health officials must now clear their messaging through VP Pence. This could very likely put us more at risk if Trump's intentions are to block and suppress the facts and truth from us. Make no mistake that the bottom line for DJT is Wall Street and high finance. His concern is with the recent drops in the market and his fellow oligarchs' profits. Once again we call on the Times and other reputable media to investigate - for our health and welfare - the trajectory of this epidemic fast becoming a pandemic.
24
The U.S. has not been testing for COVID-19.Given the paucity of test kits, in truth U.S. officials have no idea how many cases we have.
36
Trump let something slip out yesterday. He said he'd be in meetings so they can figure their messaging...not in meetings to solve the problem, but to put a spin on it.
40
Waiting for Trump (with Pence's help) prioritizing his own voters above the rest of the country in responding to the threat. Three, two, one . . . .
2
This needs to be your top story, right now: "Health officials will now have to clear all statements about the virus with Vice President Mike Pence." Just put it up top.
Reasons are beyond obvious.
60
It’s fascinating how the trump administration is now relying on scientists to detect, control, and treat the virus but ignore scientists trying to do the same with global warming.
7
If we can't count on our government to inform and protect us, then we need for top public health scientists in this country to hold their own press conferences. Perhaps Anthony Fauci can come out of retirement and for the public good keep us informed?
11
Now our public health officials have to clear all their messaging with the hyper-political white house?
13
Vice President Pence is a poor choice to lead the federal response.
His record in Indiana on health care administration is terrible. His record in any form of leadership or administration is equally terrible.
Of course.. he always licks Trumps boots.. so he is a perfect choice by Trump standards.
7
So the new California case is in Solano County which is where many people from the Diamond Princess with the virus were also quarantined (at Travis AFB). It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that someone caring for or bringing food to these patients has become infected and thus passed it on to the wider community in the county. Please look into this further ny times!
22
Pence in charge ...What a move, putting a guy in charge who doesn't believe in science. Thoughts and Prayers everyone.
11
Basic thought question:
If the most ardent Trump supporters believe Trump's and Rush Limbaugh's lies down playing the risks of the Coronavirus and NOT trust the CDC to take pro active precautions, will more of them die as a result of their ignorance?
Ignorance may be bliss, but with respect to the Covid 19 (Coronavirus), it can be deadly.
4
In 1348-9 close to 40% of all Europeans died due to the Black Death. Survivors were said to kill cats because superstition and abject fear fed the rumor that cats were evil, causing the pandemic. Cats killed rats, rats carried the fleas that harbored the Yersinia pestis bacteria. Result: The plague was worse than it could have been.
Now Trump places science ignorant Mike Penske to head up the country’s already three week tardy Coronavirus response. Result: Pretty much the same. “Bring out your dead” will lose it’s Monty Python comedic overtone.
Coronavirus doesn’t frighten me as much as the actions of frightened humans.
15
I have no idea why trump supporters think this is a leftie plot against trump. Seriously, they are getting more unhinged by the day. No other nation is blaming their 'left', notice? No one but trump is that vicious.
If I were a republican, this would be the last straw. The stock market is not uber alles when we face a nonpartisan challenge.
The moment trump starts blaming the left: "The stock market is down because there was a Democratic candidate's debate" would be the moment I realize the president's values are skewed, to say the least.
In fact, there's NO REASON to believe that trump won't throw yet another American institution under the bus to create a new enemy to insulate himself: The CDC is infiltrated with never-trumpers! just like the entire FBI, CIA, DOJ, State Department, Congress and everyone NOT in the president's inner circle.
trumpies, you've told us that trump cannot be questioned, and is the source of all truth now. In fact, you've told us you believe everyone to your left is out to destroy your poor dearleader. Will you now do so again, against a virus that knows no party?
As the stock markets react, and nations gird, trump cares only about his profits and propping up his pretense of economic prowess. He's using his tired howl about being a victim. What a leader....Ugh.
Beware trump's bloated ego! He will securely squat in his germophobe's purified air system while we fight each other in the streets for basic healthcare.
9
Trump does not have it covered. It is this Corona virus that has it covered right now.
2
He (there is only one "he" left that matters in the world) is now stopping health officials speaking directly to the public. He is censoring your health information. As the Times says in another article
"Government health officials and scientists will have to clear statements with the vice president’s office, one of three people designated as the administration’s primary coronavirus official."
Great time to have a totalitarian regime in place; a regime led by an infamous science denier.
Yesterday climate science denial; today coronavirus denial.
He will use it to suppress the election. This guy will do anything
8
Interesting to see in your world map only the lower part of the South Island of New Zealand is shown. NYT, does this mean that the rest of New Zealand will be unscathed? If so, I guess it would be sensible for people from Dunedin and lower (including me) to drive north ant stay with family / friends for a while.
1
Ironic that Pence chose an Obama appointee as the lead on the Trump Administration's Coronavirus Response Coordinator.
Pence has designated Dr. Deborah L. Birx to serve as the Coronavirus Response Coordinator for the White House.
Pence's loyalty is now in doubt.
3
Pence may be more shrewd than I thought. He has inserted an Obama appointee closer to the bus. Now he can step back from the curb when it someone has to take the fall to protect El Caudillo Del Mar a Lago.
1
@Eugene
Azar is Pence's first line of defense, though Azar will be "going through some things" in the near future.
1
The absolute best thing we could do right now is ramp up test kit production and distribute. Testing is of vital importance to slowing the spread of covid-19 . Without test kits, we can't see where the virus is. How can we slow the spread if we are blind?!!! This shouldn't be that hard. Malaysia was ready in January.
It's almost March. US isn't prepared.
https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2020/02/27/how-malaysia-contained-the-covid-19-spread-the-heroes-behind-the-scenes/1841349
4
WASHINGTON — The White House moved on Thursday to tighten control of coronavirus messaging by government health officials and scientists, directing them to clear all statements and public appearance with the office of Vice President Mike Pence, according to several officials familiar with the new approach.
- NYT
So Trump is going to handle the coronavirus crisis just like the Chinese. Maximum opaqueness.
This is going to get really ugly, very quickly.
15
WH main concern in this outbreak - the Dow Jones, your 401k...heading into election season.
1
Though South Korea has had over 500 new cases reported today, the government is offering free testing. America is unprepared, poorly lead and already suffering a plague of Trump incompetence, lies and surrogates who spout lies about the virus being designed to harm Trump – as if this is all about Trump!
I really hope all Americans get a snout-full of this disease in hopes that it will cure what really ails America – ignorance.
5
And now all CDC statements have to go through Pence's office....oh my this is worse than China.....censorship by the trump administration. Hope the whole CDC quits rather than allow this!
14
“The White House moved on Thursday to tighten control of coronavirus messaging by government health officials and scientists, directing them to clear all statements and public appearance with the office of Vice President Mike Pence, “
Wait, I thought this could only happen in an evil totalitarian society like... China!?!
At least Xi probably believes in science...
12
"Pence Will Control All Coronavirus Messaging From Health Officials" is a headline on the NYTimes site.
We're falling far from being a democracy rather quickly, aren't we?
11
What about all the undocumented who will be too afraid to seek treatment for fear of being deported. This administration has created the perfect conditions for the virus to spread.
10
I'm surprised that Trump hasn't cut off covid-19 funding to sanctuary cities and states like CA.
3
Pence, egad!
President Obama, say something. Come out of hiding, go help your successor. America needs your counsel.
4
Don't worry America. Mike Pence will lead us in prayers to protect us from the coronavirus and his true god, Donald Trump, will answer with that protection.
2
Two clear tests of whether Trump can lead in a crisis:
1. Will Trump allow Dr. Birx to do her job without interference?
2. How will the effectiveness of Trump's response to the epidemic compare to Xi's? China had a problem with transparency, but ultimately took strong measures in quarantining populations and providing healthcare facilities.
My biggest concern is that the President is more concerned with his re-election campaign that the safety of the citizens of the USA. It helpful that he has put it in Mr Pence hand's (so he can use him as a fall guy) but at least Pence is rational.
The effort to control information about the Virus seems more to limit his liability and damage control in the economy. If information is to supplied to doctors and state/local governments in a timely manner if could delay response. Which will allow the virus to spread as it did in China in the first three weeks.
This is a key test for the President that he puts the country ahead of his own personal interests.
7
Pence is not “rational”. Do some homework.
7
I'm a retired physician and aspects of this is similar to the problem with HIV-Aids. I wasn't able to test patients for HIV as it was not treated like any other STD. Patient's were hesitant to consent to test for fear of the diagnosis. Other STD's I could test for without prior consent, just like ordering a CBC.
Coronavirus similarly has testing roadblocks. Either the test is not widely available, not accurate with false negatives or positives, or symptoms don't meet CDC's testing criteria. So what are physicians and hospitals supposed to do? Re-think criteria for COVID-19.
Treat every patient with flu/uri symptoms as though they have coronavirus until a test reveals otherwise.
The California case didn't meet CDC requirement to test so now hospital staff and possibly other patients are now potentially infected.
Politicization of this virus will lead to needless deaths. The medical community should take the lead on this, not the Trump administration. The danger is that concerns about the economy and markets will minimize the need for the science to control this outbreak. Once that's controlled, the economy will bounce back quickly.
46
@Woollfy1a
Way ta' go doc!
2
@Woollfy1a
The test was designed based on the Genome Sequence provided by China. IF it was engineered by them to be more infectious as I have read then they likely transmitted the unengineered Genome to obfuscate it was weaponized by them. We need to sequence the Genome ourselves and then design the test accordingly.
2
Scientists in Australia have sequenced the genome of the virus that is actually infecting people.
2
Why is it that Republican political leaders always view themselves as smarter than engineers, doctors, business people, and every other profession?
I just read the article about Pence requiring all government information to be cleared by him.
Disaster is now lurking unless the health profession takes the lead on networking and public awareness.
44
Because they know they are channeling god’s will.
2
@PATRICK I just read that same bit about a single response. If the government response team leading this is transparent, I am not worried. But, from what I’ve read lately, I am concerned it may be similar to China’s early response system. NYT keep your nose to the grindstone for us and “thank you” for your rapid response reporting!
2
@PATRICK
"Why is it that Republican political leaders always view themselves as smarter than engineers, doctors, business people, and every other profession?"
censorship, that's why
1
Airborne transmission includes two different categories. First is the droplet associated transmission. This form is associated with a cough and spraying of virus contaminated droplets into the atmosphere. The area of contagiousness may be up to 30 feet.
The second form is airborne transmission which is different than droplet transmission. Just breathing can contaminate the atmosphere around an infected patient. The virus apparently just floats in the atmosphere and can remain suspended for days or more. Given that the wind could potentially spread the airborne particles over wide areas, this form of transmission is the most worrisome and is the most difficult to control.
The case in California with an unknown source raises this concern and is alarming.
8
One of the easiest ways to get the virus is also touching some surface containmented with the virus and the sticking you finger in to your nose. Normal hygiene and disinfecting hands gets you already quite far with trying to avoid the virus.
4
@common cause
Your information on wind transmission has NOT been supported— I.e virus surviving days by wind transport.
Airborne means by aerosol, droplets when we sneeze, cough etc...
the other mechanism of transmission is on contacted surfaces, counter tops door knobs where the time of virus survival is likely less than 30 minutes (although viral survival time has not been confirmed yet).
3
With “acting” administrators/directors in all too many positions, reductions in funding proposed and already in effect, and very little information as to how the virus is transmitted, and Pence in command, it might be a lot premature to unfurl the “Mission Accomplished” banner...
11
trump be should thanking all the deities that so many people who are fighting this pandemic are smarter then him. I’m sure he’ll take credit for its eventual vaccine.
13
Its outrageous that Trump and his patsies already got rid of most government infectious disease and epidemics specialists, cut funding for National Institutes of Health and CDC. Because why have “career” doctors or specialists around when you could just “drain the swamp” and “shrink government”? That was last year and earlier.
3
I always knew the anti-meritocratic corrupt chinese communist party was going to destroy the world. If it wasn't from corrupted steel, tainted food, destruction of coral reefs, it was bound to be something. A horrifying thought: instead of granting their scientists and academics more freedom of speech, they might just shackle them to though control police indefinitely. Party loyalty over truth every dystopian day (and this could apply to the GOP soon if they don't wake up).
14
“The White House moved on Thursday to tighten control of coronavirus messaging by government health officials and scientists, directing them to clear all statements and public appearance with the office of Vice President Mike Pence, “
You were saying?
4
@Terrry - It already applies to Republicans.
2
@Terrry
China and Russia's governments and economies are modeled on our own.
Our nation, apart from the world, is entering dire straights. We can not expect an administration averse to even basic grade school science and biology to protect us from an impending threat they don't know how to address, except for our learned scientists and doctors they would filter and censore. Therefore the nation must quickly establish a network, redundant to any existing one, for communications and reporting. I would anticipate not only incompetent political leadership, but even hiding of important news medicine needs. Do not rely on government political leadership. Set up extensive networks of communication, and please do not depend on Television. This paper very smartly has taken the step to promote awareness with the virus all should sign up for. Thank you.
19
"Straits."
But I agree.
In South Korea, the number of covid-19 infections have jumped from double digits to over 1600 for the past week. Over half of the infected cases are tied to the members of the religious group called Shincheongji Church of Jesus. The founder is Lee Man-hee who established the church in 1984. He claims himself to be the second coming of Jesus Christ. They are regarded as a secretive cult (over 200.000. members)t by local community. They have bible study group established in Wuhan and many other cities in South Korea. Mr. Lee now claims the health officials use covid-19 infection to bring down their church.
Rush Limbaugh spun his conspiracy theory and told his listeners via his broadcast that CDC used the covid-19 outbreak to bring down Donald Trump.
The similarity of the languages and scenario used by these two groups are unbelievable. As we all know, the aftermath of any cult is not good.
28
@SK
This past week is the first I've heard of the Church in South Korea. Be open minded about the leader Lee Man-Hee. I don't know him, but it is possible Jesus is working through him possibly being an Angel who is convinced his soul is the second coming, but is actually one of an oracle. It is a possibility. The immediate characterization of the Church is a reflexive act in which one's own belief system is challenged. They shouldn't be viewed as a cult or secretive. I would characterize their predictable behavior as Private in light of religious persecutions that occur everywhere. I know you may believe my words aloof, but just remember them.
As for Rush Limbaugh; His name isn't America Limbaugh.
The virus originated in China. Travelers to and from China contracted the virus there and consequently spread it to others at various points across the globe. Travelers have put themselves and everyone else at risk.
Here’s an idea: Stop traveling! Stay in your own countries for the foreseeable future. Is that so difficult?
15
@Susanna That idea might have worked a month or two ago. I was surprised at how quickly the State Department brought Americans back from affected areas and cruise ships, knowing so little about the virus as the time, only to dump them into seemingly under-prepared state and local systems.
Unfortunately, the train has already left the station on preventing the virus from spreading to multiple counties, but there probably is still some value to slowing the spread by limiting non-essential travel both internationally and domestically.
4
@Susanna Also stop depending on China as a supplier, and stop accepting nationals who care nothing about breaking intellectual property espionage and finance laws.
2
@Susanna
Great idea!
Let's have all international travel banned so this way, countries can stop doing business with each other, commerce will come to a halt, people will be laid off due to lesser revenues and companies will go under!!!
Excellent.
Please. Think!!
2
I suppose Trump's speech on Wednesday, and putting Pence in charge of handling the pandemic, was meant to reassure his base. Even though Pence has no experience in epidemiology, Trump's base knows that Pence will pray, and he will pray fervently. Republicans in congress should be relieved, too. Trump will now have someone else to blame besides the Democrats and the news media if everything gets out of hand, and their idol will again be exonerated.
11
I'm very concerned for the Syrian refugees in Turkey, Greece, and Jordan. From what I've read there's hundreds of thousands of families living in tents with inadequate infrastructure: no running water, heating, etc. The heath conditions of refugees in Mexico on the southern border are atrocious as well. Who is looking out for these vulnerable populations? I can only begin to imagine how quickly something like this will spread in those conditions.
24
We can help reduce transmission by eliminating needless travel whether for work or pleasure. But people just won't do it and then wonder why we can't contain the spread of this.
10
A responsible president would have begun marshaling the response about the same time China shut down Wuhan. First thing would be to check your ammunition and equipment (to use a military mans perspective). But, here we sit with only happy talk, no test kits, no temporary hospital structures, scrambling to catch up. A General acting in this way would get his men destroyed in battle. We are in real trouble with trump as the General.
23
I think that Trump was busy defending himself against impeachment. But I haven’t read anything that explains why Democrats in Congress failed to appropriate billions of dollars to fight the virus when Wuhan was shut down. In fact, House Democrats still are arguing about whose special interests should be taken care of in an appropriations bill to fight the virus.
The rapid spread of Covid-19 leads me to believe airliners need to be retrofitted with filtration media and ultraviolet C lights to kill any germs, including the virus as it exits the pressurized cabin through exhaust ports in a likely process of fresh air exchange for the passengers and crew. If the virus is expelled streaming from the planes during flight, it is likely the virus is finding it's way to ground level. Off the shelf filtration media and available Ultraviolet C lights are readily available and can be quickly adapted to easily designed and built porting enclosures to help assure virus laden cabin air is not spread from city to city during the thousands of flights every day. I see this as a needed government mandate and imperative need for all planes. Smoking is no longer allowed on planes so the use of filtration would be easier than if it were.
11
What do you mean? The virus is mainly spread person to person, sometimes through droplets when people sneeze or cough. As far as I know, it isn’t really an airborne disease. Besides, if the air on the aeroplane is so toxic, there really shouldn’t be passengers exposed to it. Also YV lights can cause severe eye injuries and burns.
1
@Blàthnaid Lastname
According to Johns Hopkins website page, "Coronavirus Disease 2019 vs. the Flu," Covid-19 may be an airborne pathogen. "While both the flu and COVID-19 may be transmitted in similar ways (see the Similarities section above), there is also a possible difference: COVID-19 might be spread through the airborne route, meaning that tiny droplets remaining in the air could cause disease in others even after the ill person is no longer near."
1
@PATRICK
I have investments in an aircon hygiene company and the share price has gone through the roof. One of the airlines in the Asian region now uses it which is fuelling the share price rise. Yet being a bleeding heart lefty I would prefer not to get profit from a humanitarian disaster. I want this cursed virus to go away. I don't want to profit from it. Some things are more important than profit.
1
So the “transparency” that was promised is a lie. No one in the fed, state, local government or medical community is willing to comment on the new case in northern CA. I would like a little more info please. The CDC needs to set up daily briefings, out of the realm of politics. For example, I would like to know how I am going to know if someone merely has a cold, or if someone who appears to merely have a cold has Coronavirus, and ultimately, what difference it makes.
17
Just practice the same sanitary precautions we were taught as kids. Don't cough or sneeze on people, wash your hands, don't touch your face.
People with no symptoms can be carriers.
I wonder what all these screens and touch devices are doing to rational sanitary practices? How long can the virus live on them?
6
That's why you must never lift your hands above your neck. If I need to scratch my nose or rub an eye, I wait until I get home or use a wad of Kleenex.
ATM touchpads, signing credit cards with the same pen everyone touches, opening doors, getting museum tickets from kiosks -- and worse, signing in at places like CityMD -- are hazardous.
Wash hands often and well.
This article says that Japan is the second country to close its schools nationwide after China - actually Vietnam did so a few weeks ago.
2
I think people should stop fighting along party lines. If this really gets out of hand in the US you won’t have to worry about Trump, Pence, Sanders, Biden, Warren, both Clintons; they’d be dead. None of them are young nor in particular good shape. They’d still be walking around campaigning showing they are healthy until they literally crash like those Iranian politicians.
5
Peter Daszak in Welcome to the Age of Pandemics, "As Covid-19 strikes today and a spate of other pathogens are ready to emerge in the future, we continue to butt up against nature. Scientists estimate that there are 1.67 million unknown viruses of the type that have previously emerged in people. Discovering and sequencing them should be a priority — a simple case of “know your enemy.”
The elephant in the increasingly small room that is our planet looms larger than even Mr. Daszek imagines. Yes, 'we continue to butt up against nature', but sequencing well over a million unknown viruses, even if possible, is not going to save us from our fate.
Ever since the dawn of global trade, we no longer are contained within the borders of our tribes and pathogens like the Black Plague that killed millions in Europe are going to be the death of us.
We are too many in a tiny closed space. There is no escape from the 'other'. We are as effectively quarantined on this earth as the passengers of the cruise ship in Japan are.
We can play Whack a Mole as each new disaster strikes, each and every one, the consequence of our profligate ways, but we aren't going to win. Mother Nature kills without prejudice, plea bargaining falls on deaf ears.
Maybe a few of us will be left to start over and maybe we just might have learned a few things by then. That's my hope, and increasingly and sadly, my only one.
4
President Trump announced that Vice President Mike Pence would lead the American effort to combat the virus, indicating the administration complete lack of concern.
10
I'm worried about the corona virus because our non-science believing President has cut funding to the CDC over the past few years and forced out those scientists and doctors with experience in pandemics. We don't know what this will cost all Americans yet. I assume Trump will self-quarantine in the White House.
13
“It’s a small world, after all”.
One of the creepiest Disneyland rides.
3
Where are the people of Wuhan? The world is concerned about spread of the virus, as it should, but meanwhile 11 million people are locked into their dwellings. Grocery stores are closed. Youtube videos of dead patients lying on ER floors and apartment building doors being sodered shut have been taken down. There have been no videos from inside Wuhan nearly all month except from China news sources.
10
Mike Pence? The same man who can’t be alone in a room with a woman other than his wife...is in charge of a potential health crisis? Please
36
Great, comprehensive reporting as usual, NYT. Since it now appears that the American people will not receive unbiased, apolitical updates from our government officials about the virus, the Times' transparent coverage becomes all the more critical. Could you please provide a direct link to this page near the top of your electronic editions? Thank you very much.
10
And remove the paywall? Or is your profit more important than informing the public?
What is more scary than the spread of virus is the spread of lies. The virus will have a cure though.
9
Pence to the rescue- Hooray!
1
By Jan. 18 of this year over fifteen million had been infected by (oh, its Jan. must be flu season) this was over double of last year infected. Now we are facing a pandemic on top of the flu season (who are you trying to convince) is this going to be our future the sun keeping us healthy and the cold and dark killing us. Bring back the scientists
3
Coronavirus is here, be prepared protect your loved ones. Learn how here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMcX42AxAQk
Since our emperor has just returned from Asia should he be quarantined and not allowed out of our house for ? I don’t know maybe like 10 months or so
42
If anyone has an appreciation of the physical realities, then the situation clearly indicates that there must be considerable uncertainty about what to expect. The efforts to contain the transmission of this virus have reached the limits of effectiveness. The virus is out and is spreading, now. People must prepare to slow it’s transmission while preparing to treat all those who can be saved from the worst outcomes. Vaccination cannot become an option for many months and quarantines are no longer going to stop the pandemic.
4
I'd much appreciate fact-based news coverage with where our country stands in terms of preparedness and plan for tackling this virus. I read from international news that S. Korea and Italy have high numbers, not because there are more cases, but because they are simply testing higher number of their population. Is it true that US/CDC doesn't even have proper test kits and protocols in place? This virus has been in the news for few months now and it seems there wasn't any proactive planning done by govt. We can't help but fear the unknown, but if news outlets are able to provide up-to-date facts and developments, it can help ease the public. It also doesn't help to read so many comments about Trump/Pence (even though I agree we need REAL leaderships at times like this) or other hear-says - all it does it spread fear and rumor.
6
50% of the American people are not vaccinated even for our current flu outbreak, and, not to target anyone or any group, adequate personal hygiene probably stands at the same ratio. I don't fret whether the government is prepared for the spread of a new virus, but rather, whether Americans will themselves rise to the task of personal hygiene and self-quarantine enough to stop large numbers of infections and deaths. It is more important than government readiness, that people understand their own responsibility for advanced hygiene and the many other preventive measures individuals can take as preventative. I'm not holding my breath. Oh, I take that back. I am holding my breath but I doubt it can be held that long.
3
At one point there were only 15 infected people in China ,too.
Trump parsing the "original 15" and sidelining those brought here is irresponsible. They are here, others will be in contact with them as health care professionals, and as we have seen in China, health care professionals are not immune.
8
@Jackson
Thats not what he is saying Jackson. Apparently Trump was furious when Americans were being repatriated at first. JP is not proposing Americans should be abandoned at all. JP was merely saying that Trump saying it was only 15 was wrong since the repatriated ones were not counted by the very stable genius of unmatched wisdom. Then JP says that carers are vulnerable. Nowhere does JP suggest the Americans should be abandoned. With respect Jackson, I suggest your response is a straw man.
1
@Bob Guthrie
All of Jackson's replies are strawmen. He lives to be contrary.
Based on my reading about the failed CDC coronavirus testing kit, I am wondering why the CDC doesn't ask China for their testing protocols, especially since it appears that California has a case of "community spreading," as opposed to cases tied to travel or contact with a traveler.
4
Like computer viruses, the spread of coronavirus is an unavoidable consequence of the world becoming a global village. Getting closer to anyone increases your risk of catching something from them. That's just the way it is. Putting up real or virtual barriers to keep outsiders away is bound to fail. In today's world there are no "outsiders" or "insiders." When the planet is a global village, countries have no choice but to have their health officials work hand in hand (with rubber gloves on) and make decisions that are binding on all, without individual countries taking the position that they and they alone will decide the health measures to be taken.
9
One case of unconfirmed origin means there are dozens of undetected cases out there and by the time the origin is figured out you’d have hundred if not thousands of cases already as in the case of Korea and Iran.
Think about it this way. We know the person in CA caught it from another person and each infected infects 1.5-3.5 people (R-0 number). A person can start spreading after 5 days on average. Flight from China have been suspended for 26 days starting Feb 1st.
Assume someone entered the US carrying the disease on Feb 1st when flights suspended
on 02/06 - 2.5 people infected
02/11 - 6.25
02/16 - 15.625
02/21 - 39.0625
02/26 - 97.65625
Remember the total number of cases are addition of all infected, not just the number of recently infected. And my calculation do not take into account super spreaders that infect dozens.
16
Has anyone connected the spread of this virus to the rise of climate change? Emerita historian Bruce Campbell of Queen's University Belfast has very convincingly linked the robustness of particular medieval diseases to changes in climate during that same period - and their temperature changes were much smaller in magnitude than what we have already experienced.
It seems possible that a changing climate could facilitate the survival of different kinds of pathogens and viruses, or even be linked to their independent generation in multiple locations. I'm no expert, but if there has been research on this I would love to hear about it. Climate change is shifting animal and bacteria (and perhaps viral) populations around the world: should it be part of our global discussions about public health?
19
@Haley
1.4 degree Celsius rise in average global temperatures is what we are talking about when you say 'climate change'. You really think that kind of rise in temperature is responsible for a new virus I have a bridge in Manhattan you really want to buy.
@GregP
Key word: AVERAGE.
rise at the poles has been much greater, and will thawing of permafrost, potential to release pathogens with which we have not had contact for tens of thousands of years.
But not to worry; the planet will be just fine without us... it's fever will abate once it has health with it's pathogen.
1
Why is there not more testing? There must be more testing immediately. Can’t think of a single good reason they wouldn’t want to know the true scale of the epidemic in America. I can think of several bad ones.
12
There is an obvious source - Travis Air Force Base is is Solano County, where this patient was infected. That’s where the coronavirus-infected individuals from the Diamond Princess are right now.
32
For the love of all that is holy, why does everyone keep talking about 14 day quarantines, when last week there was an allegation (apparently credible) that the incubation could be up to 27 days?
46
Most people have a short span of attention. Four weeks sounds like a terribly long time.
7
Ditto. People are certainly contagious 4 weeks before and 4 weeks after infection/recovery.
3
As reported elsewhere, we have 700 unfilled positions in the CDC and no head of Global Health Security. Why? Try Trump and his refusal to fill them citing cost. Ok, the 1% got a tax break and the rest of us got nothing except a pandemic virus on our doorstep that we are not prepared to deal with on many levels.
Financial markets are not only reacting to the Coronavirus, but to a total lack of American leadership, bogus economic policy and a fool in Pence to lead the effort to control this pandemic. Financial markets hate uncertianly and it is no wonder they are in the tank.
76
If those positions had been filled, would the virus have gone away? But those missing scientists are not unemployed and sitting at home playing video games. They are working elsewhere at a higher pay rate.
3
@Rock Winchester
Trump seemed to indicate that they were in fact hanging around ready to jump back into action.
Nightmare scenario (one of many I suppose): Corona spreads for a bit now in N America but then eases during the summer months but returns with a huge upswing in October. The wisdom of running an election (polling place crowds) comes into play so it is deferred, either legitimately or by trump in a hostile takeover of the White House. Either way we're truly living a dystopian horror.
22
listened to the "The Daily " this morning and what you just said about the virus easing up in the summer and coming back with a vengeance in the fall is EXACTLY what happened in the flu pandemic if 1918-1919. And I had the exact same thought about how this could affect the election. Yikes.
17
Yeah, we disciplined and ready for it. Then why is the guy in the photo transporting people who had been quarantined at a Marine Corps base the only one on the bus not wearing a mask? And under military supervision of some sort, I assume. Somebody report that guy for discipline. At this rate, this kind of ignorant arrogance will result in a bad spread of the virus.
6
Because masks don't stop you contracting the virus; it can help stop the spread if you are already infected. Masks are for sick people, basically.
3
I wonder who will go door to door and who will visit homeless communities to get an accurate count for the census. Will they risk death from the virus for 10 dollars an hour? Democrats need to be mobilizing now, to have risk taking census workers available.
7
Clearly what Trump is doing and saying right now, is just exactly what the Chinese government had done and said before Wuhan lockdown.
30
“Global clusters of the virus also showed the difficulty in judging the true number of infections, amid concerns about underreporting and China’s shifting definitions of confirmed cases.”
And then there is the American policy of “don’t test don’t tell”.
8
Well I guess that Trump will finally have to ask the 1% to give back their tax break so that the other 99% can afford to stay home if the outbreak gets out of hand.
7
@True-North
That’s a fantasy. He doesn’t have it ask them. He can just take it.
It seems an appropriate panic bubbling up is mostly related to the economy; extreme disruptions of supply chains, business markets, effects on workers, etc. resulting in a potential significant worldwide recession.
Panic about the disease per se and any individual's health might be premature until more is known on how deadly and contagious the virus actually is. Even under most worst case scenarios, mortality while greater than the flu, seems manageable and capable of being adapted to.
In other words the damaging effects to the economy will be far more painful for most people.
1
@nastyboy
Sure, but your analysis doesn’t take into consideration the individual psychology of a pandemic. People, especially in the US, cannot deal with even the immediate fallout of paying for a visit to the doctor in the ER, extra medications or losing wages. People can see clearly that catching the virus, while not necessarily lethal, is a just too much of a risk. This is what will set in once and if we start to see a fast rate of contagion and spread to the virus. All the evidence points to that precisely, that the virus will spread fast and our healthcare systems could collapse in certain areas. The president can’t have it both ways, protect the public or protect the investors.
In fact I don’t even think he knows what to do. Maybe this will keep him out of Twitter for a while.
7
@nastyboy
It's believed that half the population will eventually contract the virus, and 20% of cases are severe resulting in death, permanent organ damage and/or bankruptcy due to lengthy hospitalizations. If that doesn't send shivers up your spine, then you're not paying attention. The stuff is only just starting to hit the fan.
6
Vietnam schools have been closed for a month, already. They will be closed for another month.
.
The continued lack of attention towards the actual situation in Vietnam is highly worrying to us in the health sector aware of the actual situation. Our estimates are we are near to S. Korea numbers, rather than the 16 and zero number reported constant for weeks.
17
Where did you read this about the schools in Vietnam? I never saw anything about it in the Times in mid January. Maybe it wasn’t important then.
1
"we're very very ready". I think this really means that wealthy folks have access to what they need so they can hunker down as this crisis passes. And that N95 masks are available-for those who can shell out exorbitant prices. The people with means are ready. For Trump, they are the only people who matter.
16
@air at 5280 One of the Times' articles said that N95 masks aren't effective at keeping the virus contained because it's so small but health care workers need them so that they don't spread their 'germs' to patients. So there's no protection for health care workers? Is that what they're saying? Rubbish. When people cough, the effluents are clumped meaning they come out in a mass larger than the pores in a N95 mask. That's why these masks are effective. They do block viruses.
1
"we're very very ready". I think this really means that wealthy folks have access to what they need so they can hunker down as this crisis passes. And that N95 masks are available-for those who can shell out exorbitant prices. The people with means are ready. For Trump, they are the only people who matter.
4
I would feel better if the president of the United States was a more reliable source for the truth. I know and understand what a sad comment this is but the 'facts' speak for themselves. Over 16,000 false or misleading statements by this president does not inspire faith.
Regardless of your political affiliation I think you will agree that the mental and physical health of the country is better served by truth and honesty rather than personal self serving pronouncements.
The sooner unbiased science professionals take the lead in the fight against the Coronavirus, the sooner we may have a solution.
38
Good ol' influenza is deadlier, every year.
I don't see why so many are panicking over this.
3
@Matt --It is the percentage of deaths among the infected that is worrisome.
16
@Matt influenza is not deadlier. This is, by a factor of 10 to 20. I don't who started this influenza is deadlier nonsense, but it has to stop.
22
@ Matt
Unfortunately, Covid-19 is both more infectious and has a higher mortality rate than the flu. Approximately 15 out of 100,000 die of flu while a projected 2,000 out of 100,000 will die of Covid-19. The CDC and other officials hung onto the flu comparison long after evidence to the contrary was provided by infectious disease doctors and epidemiologists. One can only assume that the intention was to allay fears as we watched the crisis in China unfold. Perhaps the hope was to stave serious social and economic consequences until a cure was discovered. Regardless, dismissing people’s well-founded concerns was a dis-service to our country. Already people have demonstrated a willingness to ignore basic precautions... going so far as to ignore isolation measures and even break quarantine. After all, “it’s just like the flu”.
8
Yesterday afternoon I canvassed an 82 year old woman from West Virginia in a middle income neighborhood in Cary, NC. She was the daughter of a coal miner.
When the topic of health care came up, she told me that someone in her family was fearful that he had the coronavirus and went to get himself checked out. The doctor recommended he take a series of tests, just in case it was something else. The first bill only came a few days later...over $2500.
Based upon my experience with the health care industry other surprise bills may turn up later because he went to see a doctor.
Is this anyway to ward off an epidemic? How many sick people will continue to go to work because they have to pay their rent and bills and know they cannot afford to see a doctor?
Is our current system of health care up to the task?
161
@Robert Scull
Q: "Is our current system of health care up to the task?"
A: not a chance. once a person has symptoms, getting a test to confirm Covid 19 will not affect your course of recovery; either you weather it like a bad cold or mild flu, or you have severe symptoms and are hospitalized.
Testing is to control spread, but there is no incentive to get tested if one has to pay anything, even a small copay. Further, there is a lot of money to be made treating those who get really sick... filling up some empty hospital beds could help the profit margin.
2
Sander or Warren might ask their followers to start donating to the Red Cross, big time, to help the masses of their un-and underinsured compatriots.
Paying ahead for Disaster relief- something Australians are getting used to. On a large enough scale, these payments might morph into understanding how a MFA system would be funded.
1
@Liz Webster
Just like everywhere else where a single payer system has been in effect for decades the cost per capita for health care will go down under Medicare for All and life expectancy will increase again as people are no longer literally scared to death to face the health care billing system. Currently we rank 43rd world wide in life expectancy. This tragedy will not reverse overnight, but overtime the health system will become more efficient under MFA.
1
Three weeks ago while sitting in a local park I couldn’t help but notice a Chinese family of five all of whom were wearing face masks. At the time I thought the precautions odd and unnecessary, but looking back I wonder if, in fact, they didn’t have information and an understanding of this virus than I did. I wish now I had asked.
6
I am counting on our pharmaceutical giants to develop vaccine fast enough to counter the attacks by Coronavirus. Actually several drugs of our own including Gilead Science are in the field testing stages right in the middle of local Wuhan hospitals treating the most severely infected patients. In the middle of April, the trying results should be out showing the effectiveness of these drugs.
We have joint projects with the Chinese government and public research institutions many years back on virus research. We have collected many samples from China into our labs to study the virus. Our private pharmaceutical companies have participated in this, and have been studying to find anti-virus remedy. And Gilead Science is just one of them and had an early start to find cure to the virus.
This Coronavirus will come and go away. But it could be like Influenza virus reappear yearly for a long time. As long as we have the vaccine developed, it won't be a problem.
2
Perhaps if they take those hand dryers out of bathrooms blowing germs all over, it would be one contagion path eliminated.
17
@David J And as a plus, we wouldn't be losing our hearing either. Who thought it was a great idea to put the equivalent of a small jet engine in a confined space, anyway?
3
I read that Trump wants to spend at least an additional 2.5 billion dollars to keep out invaders from a foreign country. House Democrats apparently oppose these efforts to control and contain the Coronavirus because they are still arguing about whose special interests should be included in an appropriations bill.
1
@Rock Winchester
What????
The last thing I read said that Schumer said 2.5 billion wasn’t enough. He wanted 9 billions to prepare. So the president is actually seeking below the price.
4
Of course Democrats will argue that Trump’s request for “at least 2.5 billion dollars” is not enough rather than pass a bill for that amount and get something started. Pass the bill and Democrats can then argue about how much more is needed in a supplemental bill.
Am I the only one who wonders if the plane full of people travelling to India on Air Force One could be at risk for the coronavirus and allowed to disembark and go their separate ways, potentially enlarging the pandemic?
Think of the numbers of international travelers these people came into contact with?
The president and his wife were with countless people and exposed to many, many environments. Then came home to the White House and staff.
It would have been far wiser to have cancelled the trip in the interest of the health and welfare of all and eliminated the risk in bringing more cases to the United States.
Am I the only person wondering about this?
17
@American2020
best to quarantine them all, and since the virus might be transmitted through social media, no Twitter for 2 weeks.
1
I’m a teacher and I’m thinking ahead. I’m a very robust 70 so I’m not worried about myself.
But I am worried about my 94 year old mother. I am thinking that if the virus begins to spread throughout the country I will need to move out until it passes.
And also if the schools are closed what will I get paid. Might need to add more to savings.
These are practical concerns.
257
@Michael During a long teaching career I almost never had a sick day. Kids catch everything. Teachers develop immunity to everything. I'm a robust seventy-something and can limit my exposure far more easily than you can as a teacher. I probably worry a little than you do - probably a lot more later on. But COVID-19 is a new creature, a creature none of us seems to have immunity for. It's far more contagious than the common cold. And apparently far more lethal than the usual flu.
Stay safe "young" man.
80
@Cap It also seems contracting the virus and surviving the resultant illness does not procure immunity for long. One can be reinfected with it again, and the mortality rate is much higher in a reinfected individual.
Take care everyone.
28
@Wendathena : And that means exactly....what? Because the flu is also dangerous, we need not worry about this new disease we know little about?
26
The problem here in the US that is not getting much play is that only 12 of the 100 public health labs are able to diagnose COVID-19 virus because the test for doing so developed by the CDC is faulty.
That means that people with a respiratory illness that may actually be a symptom of the COVID-19 virus can move about unknowingly spreading the virus until the full extent of the illness sets in.
This does not sound like, as Trump proclaimed, that we are the best prepared country in the world to deal with this virus.
482
@GerardM
Actually, per the Johns Hopkins report cited by Trump, we are. It’s just that Trump forgot to mention that the report concluded that no country is fully prepared to deal with this kind of epidemic.
So we are the best prepared of the underprepared.
24
Which country is best prepared and how many cases of Coronavirus do they have? Maybe the Times can tell us.
12
@Patrick Moore
The French are doing a better job than us.
16
It seems sad that Mike Pence has been deemed sufficiently qualified to oversee the nation's efforts to control the potential spread of a virus that could easily wrack our nation's health care system. This is not unlike asking Betsy DeVos to be the secretary of education.
760
@Scott S
Great comment!
Perhaps there’s a better qualified ‘progressive’ out there who should be assigned the task?
18
The problem is not that Pence is a reactionary.
It’s that he’s an unqualified science denier.
There are plenty of qualified people from all sides of the political spectrum.
226
@EGD. A better professional medical person than Pence? A University’s scientist in disease? A ... any scientist?
175
How are workers in the US expected to stay home when most states have no requirement to offer paid sick time to part-time workers? Will the federal government be providing this money or will the US simply have no chance of containing this virus due to workers needing to be at work in order to pay rent/food?
How do the new rules about work requirements tied to receiving food stamps impact individuals who are ill? Are we really going to deny food to sick citizens or are we going to force them to work while sick?
Part of the prevention of any disease is access to nutrition and shelter. While children are not being heavily impacted by this virus, they may be left more vulnerable to other illnesses as a result of policies currently in place. Roll backs in the nutritional value of school lunches this past year, coupled with financial impact families may face leaves our country, and especially our children, at risk.
Any coronavirus policy that does not address the individual financial impact of the virus leaves all other policies useless.
538
@Ruth, I recently read that the government had adjusted its projection for GDP growth from 2.3% to 1.2% - a drop of nearly 50% - due to impact from COVID-19. That was BEFORE the CDC's warning issued by Dr. Messonnier on Tuesday (now a target of Trumpian wrath, and she happens to be the sister of Rod Rosenstein). If widespread illness occurs in the U.S. due to COVID-19, this will impact the economy even further. Even without the possibility of a national epidemic sidelining millions of Americans, the precipitous projected drop in GDP growth indicates to me that we are going to be seeing plenty of pink slips handed out in the midst of what could be a national health catastrophe. We are NOT ready for a nation-wide epidemic. And only the rich are ever ready for a stock market collapse and economic crash.
36
Another concern is for school children who receive the bulk of their nutrition from breakfast and lunch provided at school. Some of the kids are even sent home with backpacks to feed them over the weekend. School closures would be catastrophic for these vulnerable children.
60
This is the most important comment that I have read. Rest assured that this issue will NOT be addressed.
15
What's worse, this potential pandemic isn't even a decent warm-up act for the looming climate change crisis. Mother Nature mocks your puny measures, and she bats last.
52
@ jim allen Never read it written better.
3
I have no confidence whatsoever that the current "Administration" will handle this effectively.
11
It is appalling that the federal government has not enabled expansive testing of COVID-19 across communities given the month plus it is had to prepare. We are in a tenuous position while we blindly await cases of this illness in communities. We have no idea the extent of the US transmission. Swift action must be taken to broadly test.
26
Our CDC cannot even test people easily and that endangers all who are in contact with patients where the diagnosis is in doubt because of red tape. Trump's response is disjointed and he is attempting to assert his version of the truth (which is a lie). Other countries featured in this article (except for the autocratic ones) are much more on top of this virus. Americans deserve better.
12
Mongolia, instead of Japan, was the first country in the world after China to close all schools nationwide until March 30. Decision was made in January 24th.
8
It's probably already in NYC. Not long before the first cases will be identified, I would imagine
9
"...Tehran was characteristically parsimonious with information, and what it did broadcast seemed sketchy and unreliable..."
Seriously?
After all the evasion, and outright misinformation from China, for WEEKS and WEEKS, now the game is to give stick to Iran?
Granted, Iran has its own long-standing struggle with transparency, but the fawning over China's official statements (I'm looking at you, WHO) and the credible reports of people being *welded* into their apartment buildings, important morbidity and mortality data being wholly fabricated to minimize everyone else's understanding of the situation, the lack of questioning about these enormous vehicles spreading a mystery mist across populated areas of cities -- We really need to back-up and look at what we've already glossed-over as this has spread globally: The Chinese Government's misrepresentation and abject dishonesty. Then we can start in on criticizing all the other regimes around the world. But this catastrophe unquestionably started with CHINA, not Iran.
Public Health is inherently an evidence-based discipline. China's malign decisions from the very start of this outbreak can not be ignored -- they have put the population of the whole world at risk. Everything else that comes after is a reaction.
9
No matter the context I always marvel at how CLEAN the rest of the world manages to keep its subways. Supposedly NY is a 'blue' city but it (and the rest of our cities) looks as though it's inhabited by drunken louts. Who raised these people?
We would have to clean our subways before we could disinfect them. By that time everybody would be dead.
8
Remember all the outrage about China suppressing initial info? What are we doing here? Don’t test don’t tell?
51
Testing is key to tracking, containing and mitigating the virus and its spread. Yet, of all countries, the U.S. has essentially no functioning, reliable testing in place or even in the works even today: only 426 tests have been done to date in the US, a country with a population of 350 milllion. Austria with a population of 8.4 million has done more than that! Tests in many other countries with a fraction of the US population have conducted tests literally in the hundreds of thousands.That is a scandal and criminally negligent.
Moreover, the CDC not only has a policy of testing only those who have either travelled to China or been in touch with people who have, while refusing to test anyone else - see California case- which is utterly absurd, but the limited number of testing kits it did distribute were flawed and faulty. In other words, there simply are no functioning test kits to be found anywhere in the US!
Finally, there is no central data collection point to register results and inform on cases even if tests were conducted.
So, in fact, the U.S. government hasn't a clue what the actual number of corona cases in the country is and, ergo,is in absolutely no position to meet a growing crisis. Could the NY Times please research my claims further and report regularly on the status of this sad and irresponsible state of affairs so that CDC might put some steam behind the development, approval, production and distribution of reliable test kits?
44
Troubling reporting coming out of NYTimes that the new case in California could not be tested for days due to strict CDC guidelines on who can be tested. Meanwhile in S Korea they are aggressively testing the population. Why is the CDC refusing to test people??? This is insane.
40
Community spread does not mean immaculate infection.
The virus was obviously transmitted to the infected person. The infected person may not have been aware they came into contact with a previously infected person - didn't know that person was infected, touched something with body fluids on it, etc. They many not have remembered the contact. Or, they may not have admitted the contact when interviewed by a health official because they didn't want to be quarantined.
That is why quarantines are not sufficiently effective to stop a virulent infection from becoming an epidemic.
Trump is putting our lives and our economy at risk by down playing the threat to protect his re-election chances. Trump put VP Pence in charge of the federal effort, not to protect us as much as to protect the political messaging and avoid contradicting Trump.
Believe our experts in the Centers for Disease Control, not politicians who are putting their re-election ahead of protecting Americans.
9
I'm traveling out of O'Hare today. I expected to see anti-bacterial wipes every 20 feet. Nothing, not at TSA, not in the terminals, etc. I have to lay my phone down on the TSA scanner which thousands of other phones have touched. Same when my phone was scanned to board my flight. Let's start with the common sense solutions.
66
@Sean - The virus is airborne so wipes wouldn't do much.
You could print boarding passes and avoid having your phone touch the scanners or you could carry alcohol wipes and wipe the phone down.
7
Nature always bats last, in this case probably using wild bats consumed for food alongside maybe pangolins.
Humans will try to shape the outcome (and shift the blame). But if a 1-2% mortality rate and high degree of contagiousness bear out, it's potentially devastating. We have a limited capacity to surge ICU care, let alone safely screen masses of potentially infected people. If healthcare workers become ill at significant rates, as they have in China, we risk potential collapse threatening everyone needing emergency care or hospitalization.
In times like these we need to rely on experts and the best science, not scientifically naive politicians with self serving goals. There's nothing in three years of Trumpian fecklessness, mendacity, and capriciousness to inspire confidence.
9
Every request for testing of suspected cases by our university group has been denied. Even request by sub-specialist in immunology/respiratory disease have been denied. If even sub-specialists cannot buck the health department inertia to obtain testing of suspected cases the pandemic will remain silent. Bureaucrats are overruling physicians. That’s where we are.
358
Wow, troubling because we sound like China where the bureaucrats have say over everything to the point of making the situation worst. Or could it be the fact that the CDC does not have enough personnel due to cuts.
21
As of yesterday, the CDC has only tested 445 people. State and local health agencies have requested permission from the CDC to allow them to test; permission which has yet to be granted.
If the test is available, state and local health agencies should start testing regardless of the CDC’s position.
11
@Charles Martin Agree. But id the test available?
1
Anyone who thinks that Africa will be spared the coronavirus is engaging with harmful wishful thinking. The first two cases have now been detected in north Africa, and it seems an epidemic further south is inevitable. Why: More than 200,000 Chinese construction and other workers are in China, and it defies logic to think some have not been infected and passed on the infections.
Same thing is true in Sri Lanka and Myanmar, where many thousands of Chinese nationals work on infrastructure project.
It seems likely that either the cases in these areas are not being reported or the limited public health systems are not broadly testing for the disease (or their positive findings are not being reported to the public.)
This negligent willingness to let the epidemic spread in these less developed areas with many, many Chinese workers will, I believe, turn out to be the historical scandal of the pandemic.
9
The CDC needs to release the test protocols to all Hospital, college and pharmaceutical labs in the Country now. Then the various governors can commandeer that capacity to local Health departments to build up capacity and shorten diagnosis time and add redundancy to the system. I have no doubt the lab personal around the country will jump on to help.
20
I don't think we really know anything accurate about this infection. if people can infect others without showing symptoms themselves, it will make the job of tracking infection rates impossible.
It's also appalling that all states don't yet have testing mechanisms. The virus is moving far more quickly than American readiness.
26
My wife’s friends in Wuhan say that everything is still in lockdown and the outbreak is most certainly NOT under control. Western leaders should not trust anything Beijing is reporting about the virus.
167
We need to hear, read, see repeatedly specific directions on what to do when. According to authorities we will see it in our communities and we will catch it. Saying : It's not going to happen." or "It's fake news." or "fake science" is fool hardy. Our government should be proactive not reactive. One helpful tool would be to put public service announcements on social media, news shows, newspapers. Repeatedly. Here's what to do. Since research has showed that is how people learn and retain. Rather than try to contain panic, educate. An actually trained authority not a political hack should lead this. Our grandparents or great grandparents survived Type A flu with less medical options. Choosing ineffectual response isn't reassuring. Science: not propaganda. To hear our President say you can have a vaccine soon is horrifying. He doesn't even comprehend reality or else he is making things up to fit his world view. Facts: it takes 12-18 months to develop vaccines. Just because he says it does not make it so! Lies are harmful especially now. Science 1st. Stay calm, carry on life, wash your hands with soap for 20 seconds before touching your face. And for all those people who aren't reading the news anymore because it's too upsetting? How's that working out?
108
Just like the TV celebrity world Trump emerged from "every problem" can be solved in the episode's 47 minutes. Trump's 15 cases soon to be 5 cases and then zero, what a hero. We have it entirely contained only to revert back to the 2016 campaign style, never said that, we defer to the CDC. Then appointing the sycophantic Pence to be the fall guy when the disease explodes across America in 30 to 60 days. Trump is so easily read by those who can read. It is all about his infallibility.
America, ye have been conned.
5
We need to hear, read, see repeatedly specific directions on what to do when. According to authorities we will see it in our communities and we will catch it. Saying : It's not going to happen." or "It's fake news." or "fake science" is fool hardy. Our government should be proactive not reactive. One helpful tool would be to put public service announcements on social media, news shows, newspapers. Repeatedly. Here's what to do. Since research has showed that is how people learn and retain. Rather than try to contain panic, educate. An actually trained authority not a political hack should lead this. Our grandparents or great grandparents survived Type A flu with less medical options. Choosing ineffectual response isn't reassuring. Science: not propaganda. To hear our President say you can have a vaccine soon is horrifying. He doesn't even comprehend reality or else he is making things up to fit his world view. Facts: it takes 12-18 months to develop vaccines. Just because he says it does not make it so! Lies are harmful especially now. Science 1st. Stay calm, carry on life, wash your hands with soap for 20 seconds before touching your face. And for all those people who aren't reading the news anymore because it's too upsetting? How's that working out?
3
Maybe the world needs to take a 14+ day vacation and just stay home. But before the mandatory vacation order is given, prepare with food and supplies. Allow no international travel or travel on crowded public transportation. Set up medical response teams and infected quarantine zones. Freeze all financial obligations for this vacation period. Have minimal staff at infrastructure sites. Everyone stay connected via the internet while it works. Reacquaint with family and friends. Reduce stress and relax. Take a break from the real world. Use time as the therapy to wait out the infection period. Then begin again hopefully with the virus treat reduced, and maybe a new perspective on life.
65
THIS is why the wealthy need to pay their fair of taxes so that all people of a population receive quality health care no matter their income. Furthermore, taxes pay for public health infrastructure which has been decimated by the likes of Trump. This virus doesn’t care if you’re rich or poor and you absolutely should want everyone cared for so your personal chances of contracting a communal contagion are lowered.
Personally, I’m thrilled that if a pandemic is to happen, it’s happening while Trump and anti-science evangelicals are in power and just months before the most important election in US history. Nature is about to teach them a lesson about science and as long as everyone rallies behind whoever wins the Democratic nomination, this four year descent into primitivism can come to an end.
96
Want the most cynical, thus likely, scenario? Trump’s administration hides case numbers, withholds testing funds (all ready doing this) so that the pandemic takes place during the election—keeping numbers down. Or our cynical and criminally ignorant present administration desires disease during a new, Democratic administration.
In any case, nothing until after the election. There. Oh, boy.
6
I'd agree but wishful thinking. Trump will just blame it on immigrants, Democrats and Obama, all the while saying it's just like the flu. He and his followers are hopeless.
10
@Matt - Please cite the source for your claim about the wealthy paying the majority of taxes.
2
Biggest earthmoving machinery exhibition held in Italy, SaMoTer, was just moved to May. This shows that, what ever happens to the outbreak in Italy, its affect are already going to have economic impact on the region.
On other stories, where some commentators have been proposing closure of European internal borders, I don't really see this happening this yet.
Some health screening at borders could be possible, but I don't think anyone in Europe is really suggesting putting back passport controls and customs actions, which would add huge cost to any cross border activities within Europe.
That would be equal measure in States to New Jersey and New York suddenly setting up passport control point to the tunnel and bridges. Massive traffic jams and economic cost calculated in billions.
Health check's and temperature scanning are an aspect that could appear on the borders, but even the passport controls did not blog Chinese tourists from Wuhan spreading to virus to Northern tourist locations of Italy. Pisa, Verona, Milan and Venice being on that list of affected cities by now.
Maybe faster acting by Chinese officials could have done that, but the extra months they waited added to hundreds of thousands of new cases globally in the end, and the common temperature scanning in many Asian airports already before the corona outbreak were not enough to stop it from spreading, when the new virus emerged.
3
The "regular" flu infects millions each year and kills 100,000 ... and that's with vaccinations and previous exposure immunity that lessons the threat.
Covid19 is a new flu, infecting and racing through a nearly virgin population (so a LOT more people could be infected than with the "regular" flu), with comparable mortality rates.
That is a very bad thing. Praying won't help.
7
The case mortality rate (CFR) of COVID-19, whether inside or outside the Wuhan epicenter, is far higher than that of the flu. Trump misspoke last night when he mentioned that the COVID-19 CFR is comparable with the flu.
Also, influenza is genetically very different from coronaviruses. COVID-19 is more similar to the common cold, SARS, and MERS than it is to influenza.
10
@EAH
Thanks for the correction. I'm sorry to have promulgated Trump's misstatements.
On the other hand, isn't the newness of this "bug" (humans have no prior resistance, however small) reason to fear that it can spread much more widely than other more common and seasonal afflictions?
6
Trump says the US numbers are only 15 when actually they are at least 60 and probably more. He says those 15 will be better within days and shortly there will be zero in the USA within days.
He wouldn't say that if it were not true now would he?
He has put only 2 billion into fighting it whereas Obama put in 8 billion for Ebola and appointed a Czar to coordinate the response. What does Trump do? Puts the worldly and dynamic medical expert Mike Pence in charge.
Great time to have a grievously incompetent and aggrieved stable genius "running" the country; cutting back agencies and programs just when they are needed.
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I'm particularly concerned about a pharmaceutical shortage including strong pain medications used to treat certain diseases such as cancer. A family member has cancer and I'm terrified that he won't have all the medications he needs to deal with this illness. This is what we get when we farm out all commerce to other nations. Those nations are now locking their borders.
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While I am emphatic to your problem, the other nations are not locking their borders for their own pleasure. They want nothing more than keeping doing business with the world and having their people going to work.
Just wait for when there will be quarantined areas in the USA and some US products will become difficult to get.
15
@george Stock up as much as you can. I am not sure if one can do this with pain meds, maybe not, but I get three month refills of my prescriptions.
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@george, "locking borders" doesn't mean that supply chains are necessarily halted in their tracks. What causes the collapse of supply chains are quarantines to prevent the spread of a virulent and easily spread virus and people staying home from their jobs. Even with China "loosening" restrictions in many areas of the country now and urging people to go back to work, it appears a majority are unwilling to do so. They no longer trust the Chinese authorities to be telling them the truth. About time - but that, of course, means that the Borg mentality that the Chinese Fascists have carefully crafted over generations is degenerating quickly and they no longer have a firm hold over the thinking of the population. While from a political science point of view this is a fascinating phenomenon to watch unfold in real time, the reality is that it is quarantines that shut down production, not border lock downs. Many of our pharmaceuticals are manufactured in China - and India. I don't believe for a second that India has only 3 cases of COVID-19. THAT is something to worry about.
4
The high numbers in Italy is also due to the fact that, contrarily to many countries and the US, they did thousands of tests there to check possible infections. In other countries other infections may be going on for a while as well. Also, some of the patients who died in Italy were tested only post-portem. Therefore, since the deaths comprise only old people who suffer from other pathologies, it is possible that in other countries the deaths from coronavirus may have been overlooked.
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@kk I guess you consider old people 50 and over?
3
Bio-hazards, like terror-hazards, show that what goes on within a country can matter to all of us, all over the world.
Chinese animal husbandry and hygiene are poor, and failures are made worse by a social system that punishes whistleblowers and demands unthinking obedience.
In other parts of the world, the fostering of certain ideas and beliefs reliably results in violence.
There is only one world, and we all have to rub along on it. How can retreating into nationalistic silos be helpful to that?
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“A case in California may be the first infection without a known link to travel abroad.”
Did this person order anything online that came from an affected region?
According to CDC, the COVID-19 has a low risk, not zero risk, of survival on surfaces.
I hope that is not true because the practical impact on global economy will be devastating.
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In the international media, there is strong doubt that the number of Covid-19 infections in the USA is far more than the number officially announced by US officials.
This is very, very scary.
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I think so far, the only people I’ve seen cover this correctly is NPR. The lead-in of the article:
“Don’t panic, but have a plan.”
The fact is, causing panic and xenophobia can cause the virus to expand quicker, not slow it down. Imagine being a person who’s just started presenting symptoms, but gripping with the realization that because you are sick, your fellow countrywomen/men could treat you with open hostility, demand you become quarantined for an indefinite amount of time... that can be a super, super scary thing.
There’s a lot of incentive to try to hide the symptoms and try to slip past a port of entry with symptoms undetected. We need to show compassion for people who have become infected. Let them know they will be met with kindness, medical care, and treated with dignity. Panic, fear, and xenophobia are 100% guaranteed ways to make this pandemic worse.
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@Austin Ouellette: Let them also know they will be tested and treated for free.
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Its the US: they will be slapped with massive medical bills for whatever insurance doesn’t cover.
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If we had competent leadership, we would have been prepared. We could have manufactured enough test kits here in the USA...this would be jobs. They should be handed out or available at your local pharmacy. Denial at the top prevails, until the stock market makes the point.
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@Potter - really? This 120 day old virus should have been identified, someone with a crystal ball should have identified it would be a pandemic, science should had developed a user friendly test kit, gone into production, manufactured a million units and distributed them to pharmacies across the nation. Ok, on it.
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@Potter
Your comment makes no sense. Do you think we can just snap our fingers and mass produce a test for this virus? Much less a "test kit" as you put it? Laboratory science just doesn't work that way, except on TV.
3
Many companies nowadays let their employees work from home, allowing them to remote in with their laptops. They could be forced to order all employees to work remotely until this pandemic subsides or until the weather gets warmer. Companies don't want the stigma of keeping their offices open and being accused of spreading the infection.
4
I think you forget that a great majority of Americans work in service industries (like food service) that require either direct or indirect (through food prep) contact with customers. Unfortunately these are the minimum wage jobs that offer neither sick leave nor health insurance. These workers fo not have the luxury of working at home from a laptop. They have no alternative but to come to work sick.
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@Angela Minton ...and I agree that's just not fair.
2
@moderate af - Not enough of them.
My company just cut back on their telecommute policy. I've been sick for the last five weeks thanks to having to go into an office where almost half my co-workers are coming into work with colds or flu.
3
The press should spend less time on covering Pence and Trump (shameful as they are) and more on what CDC experts and other respected scientists are saying about Covid-19. Don’t waste any time on them.
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@Hmmm They cover it all over the place.
3
@Hmmm well now every statement by a fed official has to be cleared by PENCE. we are all China now
10
@Hmmm
Sadly, so sadly, right now said officials are being muzzled, can't say anything without the ok from Pence, i.e. trump.
Immoral. Outrageous. Lethal.
8
There are things in this world bigger than Trump, but blame him anyway not like it will change anything.
7
@Leo He is our "Leader" in charge of the response... the old "buck stops here". He is incapable of seeing anything but his own wellbeing. Not a good characteristic in a crisis. Just the WRONG man for the job... that's why he will be blamed.
4
With Pence "handling" the crisis in the US, Trump is free to continue his manic pursuit of a perfect golf handicap. Too bad he's wasted so much time on the links in the last three years, rather than spending just a little of it on emergency preparedness.
Presidents take an oath to protect our nation against all threats foreign and domestic. I guess he ignored his.
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This virus has already spread worldwide and is currently spreading undetected in our communities. Based on previous outbreaks of flu and other similar illnesses, we can expect at least 50% of the world population will get infected. About 1% of them will probably die. The current world population being 7.5 billion, we are looking at approximately 38 million additional deaths in the next few months to a year. The good news is that the majority of those will be the elderly and infirm.
There will be some short term disruption of daily life, but it is hardly the end of the world. We humans have survived far worse things.
2
Of course, you and your loved ones - if any - will be spared.
7
Wow. "The Cynic" doesn't begin to cover your comment. Your prediction is as questionable as your summation. 38 million humans lost but it's ok, or even good news, because many will be old and infirm? Maybe this was an attempt at humor?
8
@a Cynic
You might want to rethink your phrasing. For many, many of us, it is not “good news” that the virus is more deadly for the “elderly” and “infirm.” My 32-year-old son has MS. My fear for him grows daily.
9
But wait...Trump said there were only 15 cases in the US! But wait...Trump said the stock market drop was because of the Democrat debate on Tuesday....even though the drop began on Monday. But wait....Trump said he had the best people....yet Chad Wolf couldn't answer questions ....from a Republican congressman no less. Really, the potential for botching the response to a crisis here in the United States is being left to an administration that is told to downplay everything that could harm Trump's reelection. The people in our country are in the hands of individuals who have been placed in their positions because they are loyal to Trump. Not to our country. The next rally is more important to Trump than the necessity of providing kits etc. to the states. This is what the country voted for. Money.
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Every morning I wake up and read the virus updates- every night before bed, I do that again.
What I truly cannot get over is how fast this thing has spread.
Scary.
17
If everyone in the USA would just stay home for 14 days and all air travel from abroad and within the US were halted for 14 days and food supplies were distributed to those who need it by government services that would stop the spread and allow those who are infected to show symptoms while not spreading the coronavirus. After 14 days those who do not have symptoms can resume activities and those with symptoms would have been treated as soon as symptoms showed up if they reported their symptoms. Crazy right? Carrying isolationism or quarantine to an impossible extreme.
4
@NYChap
Who would prep the food needed to feed 325 million people for the 14 days?
2
Rather than loosing sleep and political might on pointless quarantines doomed to fail since the start, world leaders need to provide free unconditional care to those experiencing flu symptoms.
Almost nobody can have the luxury of not working with a case of a cold, and till this stops being the case the virus will expand unabated. The virus is perhaps the best clarion to basic worldwide full health coverage.
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@Yoandel Both are required.
The Times has not reported on this, but if you are infected with the virus in China, the response has been free health care and hospital stay indefinitely. Your bills and bank statements for that month are also cleared. I have very little faith that our private insurance companies and banks are up to the task.
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@Yoandel We also need to consider workers at the lowest rungs of the spectrum, and who typically don't get paid sick leave (think nail salon workers - often Chinese, food delivery guys, dishwashers, etc.) Are their employers forcefully telling them that if they feel sick, to stay home? And will the government be backing up this sage advice by offering sick pay to such workers, during this time period? I foresee some such workers continuing about their business, should they feel sick.
33
@Eleanor A caveat: the Chinese government requires proof of Covid-19 infection before providing the free care and bill coverage. That requires a positive test result. However, no test kit available = no test = no proof = no Covid-19 infection = no free care.
There's a flaw in the logic somewhere but I can't quite put my finger on it...
14
Cancel the Olympics. It's gonna be a nightmare of epic proportions. People not profits.
413
@AWL
Actually, I've been wondering what Trump will do to cancel the November elections. His appointment of Pence to oversee coronavirus is a warning sign that the administration might use quarantine for that purpose.
I know this sounds like a loony conspiracy theory, but in Trumpland, is it really that unimaginable?
112
Not crazy at all. History is littered with such things. He and his henchmen have found no low too low. And his followers rejoice in it.
33
@AWL
Too soon. My guess is that it will eventually be canceled, but IOC and Japanese authorities will wait until the last possible minute to do so because to cancel would be very disruptive too. Seems that Olympics planners are now in a Catch-22.
13
As Canadians we are very dependant upon the American response to the mounting global threat. Our next door neighbour MUST get it right. Pence in charge is not reassuring. Trump’s viewing the stock market as his highest priority undermines his commitment to health issues that threaten all of us. And in a crisis can he be believed? Not likely.
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@Milton Lewis
Americans are just as dependent on Canada and Mexico dealing with this. Not everything is the fault of Trump. This is like trying to prevent a common cold from entering. Unless people are willing to use draconian measures like China is doing and do it ahead of time, it’s not going to be stopped. I can imagine the cries of racism and so forth if Trump started quarantines.
20
@Dave Though I am not a loyalist, I do believe his focus on the stock market is rational in a country where people think of their survival, not in terms of whether their 90 year old neighbor dies, but rather will they be able to pay the bills. That is the flipside of capitalism. It makes for a great society until a tragedy collapses the system. Belief that the stock drop is temporary and may even be a buying opportunity stems panic to a significant degree. It prevents looting, runs on financial institution, dumping of financial instruments, and cash hoarding
15
@Milton Lewis As Americans, we are reliant on everyone else's response. We were all reliant on Chinas. It is a globally connected community. Can't blame America for much at this point.
22
Why the breathless headlines? As The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy implores- “Don’t Panic”. More people have won the lottery than become infected with the virus in the US. No need to imagine a worst case scenario where Matt Damon is our only chance. “I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened." Mark Twain. Relax.
14
@Christopher Gerety
It's always interesting when people impute emotions to neutral statements. How is the headline "breathless"? It's simply a statement of fact. Perceiving it as breathless sure sounds like projection.
10
Global Pandemic on the horizon?
Time to appoint a do-something, experienced and seasoned leader, one especially versed in public health science and science in general.
It's about time to bring in Michael Pence. Science denier, Fact denier. But fully-leash trained, flubbed leader except when nosing up behind Trump.
May the gods protect us.
266
What should Trump have done and now do? The CDC budget, while down from its 2018 peak, is still higher than 2016. They have a 2020 budget of $6.6 billion. That’s a lot of money for an agency to do nothing about the disease. There’s no cure or vaccine....what exactly should Trump order CDC to do?
9
@Keith Colonna
Trump should personally test all vaccines and possible cures. Of course, he will have to be infected with the virus first. But as president, he would be doing it to save all Americans. He is a brave and selfless man: he will do the right thing.... even if all the cures and vaccines fail.
5
@Keith Colonna
Democrats and ‘progressives’ always equate higher spending with problem solution.
Because they ‘care’ so much.
2
1. Assign a competent science and medical expert to oversee this. NOT Pence, 2. $6.6 billion is not a lot of money if this pandemic grows as it has so far, 3. Stop lying about the virus's status in the US. First "press conference " last night filled with false information, 4. Show some actual concern and compassion for us. People are rightfully, increasingly worried
3
Every teacher in the land had better be briefing their students daily.
Sadly, some will be misinformed by those who also deny climate change.
My kids get a daily dose of the NYT and the incredible articles on this pandemic.
13
Actually, Vietnam, not Japan, is the second country to close its schools nationwide. It started right after the Lunar New Year.
Source: https://m.vietnamnet.vn/en/society/vietnam-lengthens-school-closure-to-prevent-covid-19-spread-617440.html
27
Wondering whether in fact all of Vietnam’s schools have actually been closed for weeks? http://news.chinhphu.vn/Home/Covid19-update-All-localities-postpone-school-reopening-by-end-of-February/20202/38838.vgp
2
Yes it can be scary.
A virus circling the globe? That is how viruses play out.
Many will die? In the last two year alone in the USA 60,000 and 80,000 died of a flu.
Can you believe how many folks whistled in the dark instead of getting a flu shot?!
Yes this virus is more deadly. And hopefully this time most folks will not hide under a desk, but will do the right things to protect themselves . . . following the advice of the Docs from NIH and CDC.
44
@Steve Bee It is more deadly but less contagious. The fatality rate is also dropping and they suspect that it is even lower because the incidence of mild illnesses are probably not being accounted for (over 80% are mild and cold-like).
1
@Steve Bee
I am pretty sure your numbers for people dying from the flu annually in the US are wrong. This flu season thus far about 10K persons have died...
1
@Jonny Walker You are misinformed: the Coronavirus is MORE contagious than influenza. And there are data to prove that.
9
Actually, Vietnam has closed its schools for the past month to prevent the spread of Covid-19
6
Mongolia closed its schools a month ago. Japan is the third country to close its schools, assuming there aren't any others you guys missed.
7
Schools have also been closed in Vietnam since the Tet (lunar new year) holidays.
7
Korea has officially shut all of the schools until March 8th. Japan is not the second one.
2
The entire planet is going into maximal protection mode. Leaders from across the globe are calling it for what it is, an emerging pandemic. And what does our fearless leader do? He says, don't worry. We have it covered. The media is overhyping it.
His designated American hero, Rush Limbaugh, claims it's a weaponized cold virus created to take down Trump. The Trump lie machine is in full force. It's all politics. It's all about Trump.
No it isn't. It's a virus that is rapidly spreading around the globe. Viruses don't respond to lies. They just spread and infect people. Once a highly contagious microbe gets introduced into the human population, its stays there and keeps infecting people, year after year, until it is eradicated with a vaccine, which requires global immunizations.
Trump sees the stock markets tanking. That worries him because a high market is his ticket to re-election. So he puts his top sycophant, Mike Pence, in charge.
What does Mike Pence know about epidemiology? People go to school for that, and for many years.
Trump has turned this outbreak into political theater because that's all he is, a theater of lies. Tell that to the virus and see how far you get.
1155
@Bruce Rozenblit
Trump said there were 15 cases, whereas the Johns Hopkins website said there are 60 cases in the USA.
Worldwide media report that the USA figure is hughly underrated because no testing seems to be done. Is this mainly because there are not sufficient testing devices available?
It seems that the number of infections in South Korea is so high because they have tested hundreds of thousands of people. The USA is a far cry from such intensive testing.
144
@Bruce Rozenblit
Do ‘progressives’ offer anything but anti-Trump rants?
And yet they think they have what it takes to run a nation...
8
@Bruce Rozenblit Pence is being set up to be the fall-guy if things get really bad. Trump will blame Pence, the liberal media, and find some way to blame Obama and Clinton. And the Fox viewers will eat it all up.
179
The cult in South Korea is probably responsible for infinitely more damage than they will ever admit. The branch where I was a member had a seemingly unlimited travel budget to proselytize internationally. Combine this with their propensity to hide and bend the truth (they call it "using wisdom"), add COVID19 and you have a truly apocalyptic scenario.
18
They were also active in South Africa?!
2
@Julian Not past tense. They're active around the world. From memory, specific countries include Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Montenegro, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, several states in the US, including at least NY and CA, India, Indonesia, Singapore, China, Japan, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia
1
Vietnam's schools have been closed for all of February and are likely to be closed for March, too. Japan is not the second country to close schools due to the coronavirus.
10
Covid-19 didn't get to all continents without the jet aircraft. Shutting more flights down quicker would seem to be missing from the global response. I don't see why the aviation business gets to do it's damage to the world, and hide behind global travel being an unstoppable form of business, or an unstoppable personal right. It was the pilots and flight attendants of American Airlines and United who stopped our flights with China. You can only thank our workers who were questioning the safety of doing nothing. Why is big business and government getting a free pass to do nothing? I'm totally disgusted. I'd like to know what cave Trump is going to retreat to when the virus gets rolling in our popuation?
189
@cfc
Because air fright carries many important ingredients and parts that’s essential to the fight against epidemics. Shipping by boat take weeks and charter cargo planes is super expensive, requires special permits, and you probably needs a volunteer crew.
3
@cfc That's true, but at this point, with the virus having established and significant footholds in Western Europe, the Middle East, and Eastern Asia, train and car travel have become and now are the means of spread. Western Europe is relatively small and has excellent train service and roads--the spread will be difficult to contain here. Perhaps the US can be spared.
2
@cfc
Offutt Air Force Base in Bellevue, Nebraska. Offutt is the home of the U.S. Strategic Command. There is a complex of super safe bunkers. It is also where Bush II was taken on 9-11.
No need to be concerned. The President will be fine. Us ordinary Joe's? Meh.
3
“We’re very, very ready for this,” says Trump, except, of course, for the fact that most states can’t test patients for it, and the CDC will only test cases that meet very narrow criteria, such as a history of recent travel to Hubei province or close contact with a confirmed infected person. When community transmission begins, how will we know if we’re not testing? You call that ready?
225
Children is the key to our country. One month or half year no education is no problem. They can catch up later.
Wonderful decision ever made by Abe.
16
@Tet
Children don't seem to be touched by this virus. So closing the schools does not help, because letting the parents go to work every day will inevitably increase the number of infections.
1
Seems Africa had been spared. Good. I hope the governments and nations there are being very cautious about all others entering their individual countries from well...the rest of the world.
100
@MMB I think the lack of testing and poor documentation has only given the illusion of them being spared.
97
Please do not let the blanks spots on the map fool you. They also reflect areas with poorly developed public health systems. If the US can’t figure out how to get reliable test kits to its states (let alone a point of care test) with almost two months lead time, be certain that many other nations are simply not testing either. Just like c-section rates, if the numbers are too low, the health system is not robust enough.
Public health officials have been warning about the risk of a flu-like pandemic for decades. Despite modern warnings (Ebola, SARS), our nation spent it’s immense resources on an endless war.
104
@Likely Inadequate Testing
Unfortunately, the only way to break the spell of autocrats like Trump is for their incompetency to be exposed by disasters like this so that people wake up and start throwing them out. I believe Nature is about to cast her 2020 vote. Cake anyone?
32
Japan is not the second country to close schools. In Mongolia, all schools have been closed for almost a month.
124
In Vietnam too, nationwide school closures commenced immediately following the Vietnamese New Year holiday (same as Chinese New Year) - they have been closed since 23 January. They remain closed and a decision has yet to be made about when they will reopen.
10
@Bakhuyag Batsaikhan This morning they closed one of our high schools because someone employed at the school was put in a "at home" quarantine. They have not said whether or not the employee has the virus. However they are taking no chances and are fumigating the entire school. Could this be just a microcosm of events to come?
Stay tuned.
1
Why are six cases of the Coronavirus not assigned to specific states? I am referring to your excellent map graphics.
Is the CDC hiding something?
10
If you click through to that map article showing number of cases by country and scroll down, you will find a map of the USA with cases broken down by state. So no, the number of cases is not being hidden by the NYT.
30