His leadership, even as a Trump voter, has been an abject failure.
He needs to shut up, get away from the mic, and let professionals manage this.
The market would react so much better if Pence showed up to the mic and said he'll let doctors speak. This isn't a fundamental change to the economic foundation, but more of a pandemic the media wants to cover with hysteria because they want clicks.
Trump's appeal is he is pro-business, pro-tax cuts, and is not a burden to business. In that capacity, he's been incredibly successful.
But during a possible crises, he is absolutely worthless.
15
Earth is venting its wrath upon our climate in lieu of our inability to curtail our massive over-consumption of the plant's resources.
It's no different with our planet's rising population because eventually, if we don't act, mother nature will do it for us.
95
Hardly have I heard any real criticism let alone pressure on China to stop their so called wet markets where they are selling exotic live animals that they then cook and eat, apparently sometimes eat raw. And just as Trump's idiocy (to put it nicely) is a threat to the entire world China's wet markets are - obviously - a threat to all mankind. Stop China's wet markets!
98
99.9% of people who get the virus recover, unless they are already compromised with a serious health condition. And for 80% the symptoms are so mild they think it's the flue. It is more fatal than the garden variety flu, but it isn't the death sentence the media has hyped it into. But one thing is for sure, it has a 100% chance of triggering TDS by the media and Democrats. Never pass up a chance to blame anything on Trump regardless how ridiculous. Even in the greater Seattle area where there is an outbreak, local public health authorities are so blase about it they haven't even canceled the Sounders soccer home opener expecting 50,000 people today.
34
@bill
Your statement that 99.9% of those who contract COVID-19 recover is, in fact, incorrect. All data points to a 3.6% mortality rate. It is accepted (by those who believe in Science) that this is notably less than SARS and MERS, both had mortality rates of around 30%.
Imagine if some 10% of the US population contracted COVID-19, that would be 33,000,000 people. Given the current mortality rate of 3.6%, this would equate to about 1.2 million deaths.
Let that soak in: 10% of the US population contract COVID-19 and there are 1.2 million deaths - 1,200,000 people dead.
And your "president's" response is, "Everything's fine, nothing to see here. The stock market is good and my economy is rolling along."
211
@Peter Hornbein
More recent estimates on today’s NYT point to a mortality rate 1.6%; I need to adjust my number of deaths down to “only” 528,000.
Whew. That’s a relief...
83
@bill This may be hard to understand but not everything revolves around the USA. 3000 have died and 90000 are infected worldwide and I doubt anyone of them blamed, or blames, trump. Some problems require international cooperation. This is one of them. Terrorism and climate change are two others. So either get onboard to fight these or, at the least quit whining about hard done by trump is.
78
am a Professor of Medical Genetics. Reading about the unexplained cases of coronavirus in the US and elsewhere raises the possibility that the Coronavirus was for a long time indigenous to humans where only recently a pathogenic variant or unknown co-factor. result in a flu. If true, asymptomatic carriers were for a long time present in the human population. I suspect that population wide screening will show that in every country a certain % of the population are corona virus carriers. The test kit just enables to quantitate indigenous coronavirus carriers that have been there long ago. In other words, it may well be that the hundred of thousands of people that are known to come down with the flu each year in spite of the flu vaccine, actually were infected with the Coronavirus instead to the four variants of the common types of influenza viruses: A, B, C and D. The bottomline-Covid-19 is essentially a flu with low mortality rates like the common flu that may have went molecularly undiagnosed for a long time. Caution and 14 days quarantine of carriers are a good approach until a vaccine is at hand, but all the hype and economical panic may have much more dangerous consequences than the virus itself
45
@lieberma
Eventually, the fact that this is just another flu-type illness will break through.
12
@AACNY
It seems to have a 2% death ratre. That is equal to the 1918 flu epidemic.
It has a 15% death rate in people over 80 and 10% I think it was in people over 70.
It is not just another flu type illness.
75
@magicisnotreal
It Is. Once a population wide screen will be in advanced stages it will become clear that the mortality rate is similar to the common flu.
12
I am a Professor of Medical Genetics. Reading about the unexplained cases of coronavirus in the US and elsewhere raises the possibility that the Coronavirus was for a long time indigenous to humans where only recently a pathogenic variant or unknown co-factor. result in a flu. If true, asymptomatic carriers were for a long time present in the human population. I suspect that population wide screening will show that in every country a certain % of the population are corona virus carriers. The test kit just enables to quantitate indigenous coronavirus carriers that have been there long ago. In other words, it may well be that the hundred of thousands of people that are known to come down with the flu each year in spite of the flu vaccine, actually were infected with the Coronavirus instead to the four variants of the common types of influenza viruses: A, B, C and D. The bottomline-Covid-19 is essentially a flu with low mortality rates like the common flu that may have went molecularly undiagnosed for a long time. Caution and 14 days quarantine of carriers are a good approach until a vaccine is at hand, but all the hype and economical panic may have much more dangerous consequences than the virus itself
22
@lieberma Thank you for this comment. My question to my wife the other day was, "What if Covid-19 is here to stay?" We obviously have not eradicated traditional seasonal flu. What if the "novel" virus becomes part of our annual array of seasonal sicknesses? Do we keep up the hype and panic for what? A decade?
15
@lieberma Nice hypothesis - but not more than that at this time. You could claim with the same certainty that the used test are simply not specific enough and are therefore positive in patients who are actually suffering from something totally different. A hypothesis does not solve any acute crisis - because it comes with the risk of being completely wrong. Why taking chances?
18
@Phillip Selmer
My intuition concurs with yours. Covid-19 is a major civilisational game changer far exceeding the fallout of the 911 attacks in the US. Perhaps we are looking to a return to medieval like conditions when political and financial collapse rears its head for those who manage to survive this catastrophe.
6
And maybe a public health crisis is the rallying banner for Democrats to champion a single payer option. Europe, Japan and even China to a lesser extent are better off because their healthcare programs protect at risk populations in a way America’s for profit model cannot. The silver lining to America’s systemic neglect of the public health is that the virus is most deadly in the populations, who skew Republican.
38
Climate change has nothing to do with it. Asian live animal / seafood "markets" - open air slaughter houses where customers pick out their next meal while its still wriggling - are to blame.
Next thing you will be blaming myopia and obesity on climate change.
COVID-19 is indeed dangerous. Inserting the progressive left's favorite virtue-signaling shibboleth makes that message less credible.
15
O would be OK with this Pandemic if there wasn't so much HYPE by the press. The cold flue has 26 million infected and kills how many each year and doesn't even get one headline.
All hype by the press, once again when will the press grow up and end the hype and yellow journalism. Report a story and stop trying to make them up, make them out to be bigger then they are. No wonder the press is a dying business, you killed it.
14
And the fire chief here in the UXA is an incompetent pathological liar, who blocks the truth in order to prop up the fallacy that the stock market, and thus the economy, is OK. Alternative facts as such not only puff up his con, but the real facts kill people. And Pence is the front man for this distortion- pure agitprop, to get them reflected.
16
Can someone answer this question for me? I’m confused.
How can a person (Azar) running a department (HHS) be in charge of “investigating” a whistleblower report about incompetence in that (HHS) department?
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-whistleblower-alex-azar-overseeing-investigation-hhs-allegations/
24
Excellent!
4
Dear voters in Red States. Its a hoax, as you have heard from your leader. Tune into Fox, and there is nary a story on this so called crisis, only news items of illegal drunk drivers. So please keep enjoying, we recommend you attend lots of concerts, or other packed in venues with poor ventilation. No need for vitamin C, fresh air or hand washing (its a liberal scam). We thank you for your attention.
75
The almost universal handshake as a greeting is going to go out of fashion until a vaccine turns up, likewise kissing on the cheek in France and elsewhere, and the rubbing of noses, the hongi, as practised in New Zealand. It will be interesting to see which governments council their citizens against unhygienic greetings for the time being.
9
Trump could care less about any threat to the national health. He only became worried when the DOW dropped over 3,000 points! Those are losses to Trump and his billionaire and multi-millionaire cronies. And as the stock market drops so do Trump's chances of winning in Nov. That's all Trump cares about -- himself!
Mike Pence as the Coronavirus Czar is a disaster, and the market agreed because it continued to drop like a led balloon after Trump chose Pence.
Outrageous quotes from Mike Pence in News Week: https://tinyurl.com/Pence-Myths
“The solution to the HIV epidemic: Pray on it!”;
“Smoking Doesn’t Kill”;
“Climate Change is a ‘myth’ and actually the planet is ‘cooler than it was 50 years ago’”;
“Condoms are very poor protection against sexually transmitted disease”;
Only the theory of “intelligent design” provides a rational explanation for the universe”.
“Resources should be directed toward institutions [Christian fascists!] that provide “assistance to those seeking to change their sexual behavior”;
“America has the cleanest air and water in the world”.
...The EPI measures a number of economic indicators, including "water and sanitation" and "air pollution" where the U.S. comes in 29th and 83rd respectively.
33
4:41 am ET, Sunday, 1 March 2020
The first 121 comments on this editorial to date are remarkably astute relative to other comments over years on other NYT articles. I am wondering why this is so.
2
No more 'wink, wink, nod, nod'. Modern states cannot go on doing business with mafioso states who don't provide their 1.5B people with basic health and hygiene.
Democracy and a humane rule of law are essential to a globalized existence. Before ruthless totalitarian mafioso kill us all, the modern world must turn its attention to modernizing all governments around the world via democratic rule of law. To survive, we must all share the same respect for democracy.
Oh, and here's looking at you, NYT. Your recent obsession with mafioso TV stars as American presidents is positively horrifying.
13
Trump has repeatedly said this is similar but no worse nor deadlier than the annual flu, and the Times has finally published a story today that virtually confirms this:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/29/health/coronavirus-flu.html
Which is it? The flu this season infected 3.7 million Americans, including children which evidently the Coronavirus does not do, killing about 16,000 people.
1
Trifecta of GREAT NEWS for stock investors. At least it is not "Here comes Bernie". Fear of Bernie nomination is not a sure thing. End of USA, longest war and Corona virus (Cov) causing more than one/uno death in the USA, I would like to quote Mark Twain "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated" and I modify that quote for CoV. The news media's fearmongering news is totally exaggerated.
Yes many more CoV infected people with weaker than a normal robust immune system due to immunodeficiencies are more likely to die. For example
1) Those with genetic immunodeficiencies.
2)Heavy smokers and those consuming alcohol or/and drugs excessively.
3) 70+ Seniors in nursing homes or those not optimally cared for and not receiving a balanced diet.
4) Those on triple immunosuppressive therapy following allograft transplantation.
5) Those with acquired Immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)
6) Those with inadequate protein, vitamin and mineral, and insufficient vegetable fiber intake.
Ignorance about viruses and vaccines in the general population in the USA is mind boggling to me, understandably due to the complexities of viral diseases. With that level of ignorance even among the highly educated, it is no surprise that there is a panic pandemic eg. my response to a question "will Flu vaccine protect me against CoV" is given below
The seasonal flu vaccine will protect only against flu (not CoV) for that season and in just that hemisphere. There is currently no vaccine against CoV.
6
Here we go again! The response to Covid-19 is another example of Trump's uncanny ability to center everything that happens on himself. His lack of awareness & inability to comprehend the larger picture never ceases to amaze me.
According to this " very stable genius " this will all go away.
Nothing to see here folks its just the Democrats hyping this up for political reasons. It was not the Democratic party that defunded key agencies & left important positions unfilled that deal with these type of situations. Covid-19 may or may not be a global blow out. To date it appears to claiming more victims & has not run its course. It is the responsibility of the government to be on top of this & have a steady hand at the wheel. Now because Trump is so impressed with his ability to know everything all communication has to go through Pence's office. Yet another "very stable genius" . Talk about the blind leading the blind. What does amazes me is how Trump's fevered supporters believe whatever spills out of his mouth. We need a vaccine not only against Covid-19 but to inoculate us against Trump. Every time one thinks that his malignant narcissistic behavior cannot be topped he does so.
17
At least it is not "Here comes Bernie". The stock market could rebound now that the fear of Bernie nomination is not a sure thing. As far as the corona virus causing more than a handful of deaths in the USA, I would like to quote Mark Twain "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated" and I modify that quote for Coronavirus (CoV). The news media's fearmongering news is totally exaggerated.
Yes many more CoV infected people with weaker than a normal robust immune system due to immunodeficiencies are more likely to die. For example
1) Those with genetic immunodeficiencies.
2)Heavy smokers and those consuming alcohol or/and drugs excessively.
3) 70+ Seniors in nursing homes or those not optimally cared for and not receiving a balanced diet.
4) Those on triple immunosuppressive therapy following allograft transplantation.
5) Those with acquired Immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)
6) Those with inadequate protein, vitamin and mineral, and insufficient vegetable fiber intake.
Ignorance about viruses and vaccines in the general population in the USA is mind boggling to me, understandably due to the complexities of viral diseases. With that level of ignorance even among the highly educated, it is no surprise that there is a panic pandemic eg. my response to a question "will Flu vaccine protect me against CoV" is given below
The seasonal flu vaccine will protect only against flu (not CoV) for that season and in just that hemisphere. There is currently no vaccine against CoV.
2
Nope, we're not ready.
Luckily, it doesn't really look like Covid-19 is the pandemic we need to be ready for. So, we have one more shot at getting it right before the big one hits.
5
Choices, Choices....what to do?
Mike Pence: In 2001, Pence wrote a post on his website warning against "the worst kind of Washington-speak" about regulating tobacco. "Time for a quick reality check. Despite the hysteria from the political class and the media, smoking doesn't kill. In fact, 2 out of every 3 smokers does not die from a smoking related illness and 9 out of ten smokers do not contract lung cancer."
Pence said that "back handed big government disguised in do-gooder health care rhetoric" would be "more harmful to the nation" than second-hand smoke, and equated the dangers of smoking to fatty foods, caffeine and sports utility vehicles.
Years later, Pence voted against legislation giving FDA power to regulate the tobacco industry and adding new warning labels to tobacco products and ads.
Dr. Anthony Fauci: M.D. from Cornell, to NIH in 1968, becoming Head of Clinical Physiology, then Chief of the Laboratory of Immunoregulation, then, Director of NIAID, which has the responsibility for an extensive research portfolio of basic and applied research on infectious and immune-mediated illnesses. He played a significant role in the early 2000s in creating the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, and in driving development of biodefense drugs and vaccines following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Fauci, Pence, Pence, Fauci, choices, choices....
Let's go with Pence...the bloke in charge of this new pandemic.
Sheesh....the stupidity of Trump knows no bounds.
20
"Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Saturday that he has never been "muzzled" by the White House after reports said all government medical professionals would need to seek approval to speak to the media about the coronavirus."
You wonder why Trump supporters can't believe anything in the media?
6
"Curious" personnel choices? Mike Pence? How about calling this a completely irresponsible, ignorant, foolish and potentially catastrophic personnel choice?
12
As annoying and hyperbolic as the online world can be, there is the possibility to get much better information rapidly than in many past times (OK, also a lot of junk). There is a lot of hype out there but there are a few very good recent public press articles:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/28/opinion/coronavirus-death-rate.html (by Elisabeth Rosenthal)
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/29/health/coronavirus-flu.html (by Denise Grady with input from Gina Kolata and Knvul Sheikh)
By looking at these and other writings, and trying to avoid as much partisan warfare as possible, maybe we can beef-up our public health system--no matter Trump's anti-science beliefs. Maybe we can rely more on CDC reports and other reputable sources, as opposed to too many op-ed pages: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe2002387 (by Anthony Fauci and others) and https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/summary.html .
3
I see comments from Trump supporters that the Democrats and the media are blaming Trump. What exactly are we blaming on Trump? Please, fill us in.
And regarding the insistence, again by Trump supporters, that this is nothing more than the garden variety of flu, that assertion is not supported by the evidence.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/01/yes-it-is-worse-than-the-flu-busting-the-coronavirus-myths
10
One thing we know for sure is that no matter what President Trump does he will be criticized by the Democrats and the main steam media including this news paper. This could turn out to be a very serious situation for us as a people so why not put aside the political animosity and pull together, work with the President to try and contain and minimize the effects of this virus. I know it is a lot to ask given the hatred of the left for everything and everyone in this administration but by joining together it may just help the situation and increase your self respect and gain the respect of others.
11
There is amply reason to distrust an administration that consistently betrays a bias against science and expertise in favor of personal loyalty. Distrust is based in reason hatred is based in emotion
54
@Fred Your comment presumes that the Trump administration is doing something to contain and minimize the effects of the virus in a way that everyone can help with. But how do you do that if the administration, Trump in particular, denies that there is a problem that needs containing at all? When they've cut back or eliminated agencies that could do the work that everyone could get on board with to support? In that case, all you can do is rattle at the gate, insisting that the administration wake up and admit that there is a threat here that we need to act on. And that seems to me what this article and the "main stream media" are in fact trying to do.
44
@Fred
Please read this editorial and the comments. The only ones who appear to be politicizing this are Trump, the Trump administration and his supporters. That said, are we not allowed to criticize incompetence, lack of preparedness or foresight, cutting the budget of the CDC, dismantling public health care so that millions are now without health insurance and trivializing the threat which makes us even more vulnerable.
These are substantive reasons to criticize and not merely based on dislike of Trump.
42
Trump said that he did not feel that huge spread of virus was inevitable.
This may have contradicted the bureaucrat, Nancy Messonnier, who had said it was "all but inevitable". But nothing is inevitable, as even this piece seems to indicate with reasoned arguments about countereffects of warm weather for example.
Trump and NYT Editorial Board seem to be in agreement.
Why are Dems and media trying to make political hay out Trump saying this was not inevitable?
4
I would advise anyone who shows symptoms but has a high deductible plan or no insurance to avoid care, because you will get a huge bill at the end for care that you will be forced to get.
The government will quarantine you, then send you a bill!
10
20% of Great Britain (should I say England now?) is vegan. All corona viruses, swine flue, avian flu, Ebola, etc.. originate in animals which are then transferred to humans. 56 million indigenous peoples in the western hemisphere died of livestock generated epidemics over a period of 10 years in the first decade of the 15th century after contact with Europeans. A single cow needs 5 acres of land to survive. If a significant portion of the world went vegan, much of the world could be reforested to then absorb much of the excess carbon now in the atmosphere. Obesity, heart disease, diabetes, cancer and a host of other human maladies (like pandemics) would be dramatically reduced. It takes 3 gallons of water to produce a head of lettuce or broccoli while it requires 12,000 gallons of water to produce a 1/4 pound of ground beef. Each of us has the power to change the world.
39
@Anam Cara: Scientists believe that COVID-19 originated in bats, as do many other zoonotic diseases.
17
This did not come from livestock, it came from wildlife. And there is no way that the world is going to go vegan-it’s an unrealistic solution.
14
@Anam Cara
Correction: 17th century and 1,200 gallons of water.
1
What we all need to remember is this virus will likely settle in and become another flu like illness in humans. It won't be eradicated. And it will kill many people. Look at it as the flu 2.0. So you may get the flu and this illness as well. And all this talk of vaccines for this. Every year the flu vaccine is a best guess concoction that is usually only 30% effective. As opposed to, say, the measles vaccine which is very effective. So the notion that this is not a big deal or that it is the common cold as Limbaugh would have you believe (imagine if someone suggested his lung cancer was just pimples in his lung) is small consolation to the thousands of people who die from it.
34
Well, here we go again.
A 'crisis' that, as usual, the Editorial Board's prescription is that it should be met with more - 1) more centralized control at the national and the global level and 2) more resources and funding. And all this with typical vague bromides like plan and prepare, invest in state health departments and fund federal health agencies. And, of course, countless swipes at the Trump Administration, especially since it's 'only' proposing $2.5B of the $15.0B 'needed'.
The last prescription proposed is the most ridiculous - 'forget isolationism'.
Global supply chains and travel are exactly what has brought us to this situation with coronavirus and past pandemics-to-be such as SARS. We need to pause and realign the depth and breadth of the global economy. It has only benefited the 1% and their cronies, all by destroying what were regional and community based economies, especially in agriculture.
We are killing the globe with overpopulation and its related voracious need for more and more resources. A pandemic that would kill from 1/3 to 1/2 of humans would be the best way to mitigate and slow down climate change and restore order to the world.
Let the pandemic rage - as long as we keep it from America.
Sunday 3/1/2020 at 7:28am
19
@Common Sense
Overpopulation is by far the biggest problem in the world. All pandemics are related to population density. Sad to say, but the best thing for the world's livability for future generations would be a pandemic with a 50% death rate. It would solve all resource problems at once.
4
@Common Sense
Let it rage, but let it also rage in Brooklyn. I don’t live there, why should I care?
7
@Common Sense
Most if not all of the extra billions Democrats propose is to go overseas... Not for domestic preparedness.
I also have no doubt that kickbacks will find it's way back to Pelosi and the Democrats.
4
Leave it to the liberal press/NYT to turn a virus into a political issue, and we wonder why many Americans no longer trust their political "news" gibberish? Oh please provide the "science" on how climate change helped to "CONSPIRE" to make it much easier for old animal diseases to morph into new human ones! Can't miss an opportunity to push the climate change narrative regardless how absurd the reach to left field it is to include the topic in anything "bad" that is happening. And of course, of course! this "bad" virus all somehow comes back to Donald Trump, if Obama were in office I'm guessing climate change and this virus would not even be affecting the world--he would have been on it the anointed one--God-like indeed! Trump has ruined the atmosphere and propagated killer viruses all within the past 36 months--the man has (evil) superpowers far beyond any human to ever roam the earth. Why does anyone even read this nonsense? "President Barack Obama created a new office and established a special emergency fund to improve federal response efforts. His administration also launched a global initiative meant to help high-risk, low-income countries prepare for future outbreaks." If the anointed one was still in office we would have no virus! Absurd! Rising nationalism, waning trust and lingering trade wars have undermined cooperation between global superpowers. Rampant misinformation and growing skepticism of science", i.e. Trump is responsible for a global virus--beyond absurd!
10
The planet has enough people at around 7 billion of us. We, humanity, are effectively a virus on the planet. So, this current viral panic could end with as many as 150 million dead. C'est la vie. Or perhaps not in this case.
It is said "that which does not kill us makes the species stronger". Perhaps we should adopt a more pure form of Darwinism and just get on with life where we can and not spend so much energy fighting viral infections globally.
People dying from viral disease is tragic at a familial level but possibly beneficial for the species. It occurs to me that a few good virus' could reverse global climate change.
8
@Philip - you really think it would be easier and less painful to wipe out half the species than it would be to halve our current carbon footprint?
35
@Philip If you have children do you teach them not to look both ways when crossing the street? After all, if they get hit by a car, "c'est la vie," and if might even help "reverse climate change."
If you have grandchildren, do you comfort them with bedtime homilies about how if they are among the "150 million dead" that you dismiss so lightly, at least climate change will be lessened for those who survive?
As for the old saw that "that which does not kill us makes us stronger," are you sure that the survivors of this pandemic will necessarily be immune to the next one?
This stuff sounds like more talking points for those who value the stock market numbers above the numbers of the dead and hospitalized.
113
People who consider humanity a disease fascinate me. Why haven’t they vaccinated themselves?
7
Pandemic preparedness starts at home, not with the government, and certainly not with our healthcare system that is ranked 27th the world.
Take responsibility for your own health.
Step 1) Wash your hands.
Step 2) Stop eating processed foods. 60% of American calories come from processed food - which is not food, by the way.
Step 3) Up regulate your immune system with Vitamin C, Quercetin, and high-dose D3 (15,000 IU/day) - there are hundreds more nutrients that positively affect your immune system genes.
Our food is deficient so we're all deficient and that's why our immune systems have gone haywire with autoimmune diseases, which is responsible for 75% of our healthcare cost. Up regulating increases the efficacy and also the specificity - so your system will only target what it should.
18
@Fourteen14
Quercetin, a broad spectrum anti-viral, has already proven successful at treating Ebola and Zika viruses.
Should also work as a preventative, and at only $2/day compared to the current anti-viral injection cocktail at $1000.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1995764515002230
If you get COVID, there is an over-the-counter chemical, which I won't mention by name because supplies are low, that has both safety and efficacy treating COVID flu in very recent Chinese multicenter clinical trials.
4
From what I’ve read, widespread testing of the Coronavirus is not available. With the community outbreaks on the West Coast, it isn’t a huge jump to conclude this virus is probably much more widespread than we anticipate.
Testing has to come first before any remedies can be applied. Trump, with his “head in the sand” approach is an unreliable person to lead us through this. Oh wait, we have Mike Pence. Well, at least it’s not a sexually transmitted disease or Pence would go back to doing nothing.
Maybe the only bright side is that this exposes Trump for the incompetent fraud he is. I doubt many members of his base will feel real good about the MAGA chief if their communities succumb to the Coronavirus.
We need a competent government that cares. The right approach is to fund state and local responses in an attempt to limit these outbreaks, and restore the budgets of the CDC and NIH. I don’t have much hope that’s gonna happen.
Wash your hands and avoid crowds. That’s about all were getting from Trump and his sycophantic, homophobe VP. Well, maybe Pence has added prayer to the list of preventative measures. That’s encouraging. Right......
5
The article supports strengthening the ability of state-level health departments to help contain and treat the virus. The article and comments criticize the current president for misusing funds that could help in this situation for his vanity projects. What about public unions? How many states are basically bankrupt because they have committed to pay generous pensions to teachers and sanitation works for decades of retirement? Maybe some of those should be re-negotiated as well.
2
It is amazing that some people see the state of inequity and rampant corruption and their first thought is to strip teachers of a retirement they have worked for all of their lives.
17
The first comment I read manages to connect funding shortfalls in public health to teacher pensions. Sigh.
13
@AR
While you're at it, don't forget to blame the en passant rule in chess.
4
Worst NYT editorial in a long time. More government! More funding! Open borders! What? Individual behavior is the best line of defense against viral illness, not government incompetence (see Cambodia's cruise ship dispersal and the widespread use of thermal scanners in a virus with a two+ week incubation period). The best way to protect yourself is to avoid others, as we say "like the plague". Now I see the genius in California tech billionaires buying up estates in places like New Zealand and French Polynesia. It is very tough to get sick on your own island.
On the flip side, will the NYT editors go berserk when/if American cities and towns are sealed off by National Guard to protect the rest of the nation? I get the sense that the NYT editors want it both ways in being critical about any draconian response and yet criticizing the lack of one currently. China has done the right thing isolating its affected cities, but would the NYT editors be so supportive if Manhattan was sealed from the boroughs and New Jersey?
13
I hate to speak out because it feeds the right wing's talking points, but . . .
This virus outbreak is exactly why we must have government. A 3rd grader could tell you that - one going to public school that is, not home schooled for religious reasons - which is one of our basic problems but another topic.
What I'm waiting on is the "drown government in a bathtub crowd" - Grover Norquist, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Mark Meadows and Mick Mulvany among so many others to see this virus rip through their families, communities and their kids schools and colleges and their ensuing outcry for the governmental response they are then demanding.
Even better yet will be when someone in tRump's immediate circle gets the virus. Then the heads will roll and the military will start shutting down everything around our great leader.
21
@trader I don't see much humanity coming from this trump crowd unless their own health is at risk.
11
Votes matter.
2
The main headline here is definitive, a pandemic IS coming. The the subhead says well we "may" get a pandemic. Which is it?
2
This piece is a polite way of saying that currently we have idiots running the government. Tragic in so many ways.
3
I look at the Coronavirus this way. The good news is it's not as deadly as Sars, or MERS, or Ebola. Those diseases were much deadlier; however, this is much more contagious than those diseases. Furthermore, it's deadlier than your typical flu. That's what concerning since the death rate jumps among older people, not surprising, but much more dangerous than your typical flu. That is the main concern and why we see the world taking a step back since the main issue isn't as much as seeing people in their prime getting sick with mild symptoms, it's them getting sick and spreading to much more vulnerable people.
What is driving me insane is how many idiots say the flu kills more. The problem is that is based on the raw number of deaths, and not percentages. If this spreads like the flu, and it has the capacity to do so, your death toll will easily out pace the flu. Then the politicization of it which is evident by Trump and his minions, but overseas as well. China tried to blame the CIA once for it, and force WHO to blow smoke up their butts. Some British politican tried to say they can take and host the Olympics if Japan can't. Iran lied to it's people and world, and now their own government officials are sick. This isn't the time for political brownie points, but sadly the world is run by manbabies.
4
Meanwhile, coronavirus czar Mike Pence is saying that Rush Limbaugh's and Don Jr.'s comments are meant to counteract the Democrat political bias of articles like this one. Fat chance the roll out is competent, the Christians are doing it.
2
Great quotes from great leaders in our lifetime (paraphrased>..)
"Ask not what your country can do for you......"
"We have nothing to fear but fear itself......"
"...SLipped the surly bounds of earth and touched the face God..."
"It's a hoax....a terrible hoax by the Democrats..."
"I've been treated so unfairly..."
"I am going to ruin Comcast...."
Forget it.
3
Well, this should set everyone’s mind at ease: Ebola, SARS, Covid-V-2, Covid-19. (Black Plague, anyone?)
What time is today's happy talk gibberish speech scheduled?
5
It is simultaneously amusing and pathetic that the NYTimes correlates "growing nationalism" to decreased pandemic preparedness. But who is surprised that the Old Grey Liberal Mouthpiece would politicize something as serious as a pandemic while hiding beneath the moniker of news? People who love their country and avert hurting their country in favor of their own well-being would be more rather than less likely to jeopardize their own. Save your stupid slur against nationalism for another day. Trump and other nationalist leaders didn't create COVID-19 any more than he has made it worse. In fact, it is the poor journalism, corporate interests and political bias of the mainstream media that has resulted in the lack of adequate coverage of such a serious crisis. Over the past month, I have incessantly seen the Democratic Primaries in huge boldfaced captions and Corona virus relegated to the bottom of the page. Why don't you admit that the mainstream media was asleep at the wheel? As usual.
2
Money stripped fro our preparedness and international response efforts and the programs dismantled, This done even as Ebola was raging in Africa. Typical GOP penny wise pound foolish thinking. Their consistent inability to look ahead makes Conservatives and Republicans so so dangerous.
4
The cause of this epidemic was capturing and selling millions of wild animals in public marketplaces. Humanity must stop this insanity. Nature has no morality, but tries to pay us back all the time for our stupidity. Save nature and we save ourselves. Do you care?
5
Climate change and globalization have nothing to do with this new pandemic. Ridiculous Chinese cultural practices of eating and shopping do.
6
Imagine a man of Donald Trump's age and being in the oval office as president and he is amazed that the regular yearly flu diseases kill thousands and thousand of people. Already between 18 and 46 thousand dead. So definitely 18 thousand.
Our man in the white house is astounded by this. Most of us I hope know this. And they let him get up there and state his amazement! Scary stuff!
4
Since the Republican Party mutated starting in the 1960s from a responsible institution to a home for demagogues and worse, they have been defunding the public sector and lauding what bills itself as "religion" but would be hostile to anything Jesus actualy preached. Among this "religious" Goebbeldegook was "AIDS is God's judgment on gays."
The GOP only worships money and power, and the layers of middlemen who take their "taste" on every transaction. Our private health insurance system is emblematic of that, and investors demand unrealistically high returns from corporations making and inventing pharmaceuticals, raising prices for essential medications (like insulin) to render them unaffordable to many.
What's wrong with us?
5
So, the NYT editorial board lets China off with “Climate change and globalization were conspiring with an array of other forces to make it much easier for old animal diseases to morph into new human ones.”
No, eating civets bitten by bats and purchased in public “wet markets” caused this. It’s time for China to be held responsible.
5
Leaving the job of dealing with the Coronavirus in the hands of Trump and Pence is like leaving the job of air traffic controller to Ray Charles.
6
Every so often the world goes through a one-way door. Suicide terrorism was one example which has led to increased security wherever people congregate in number.
Viruses now offer nasty people an even more dangerous weapon. The research to find a cure for AIDS has led to DNA splicing techniques that can manipulate viruses, making them more lethal. Experimentation to find those that target specific age groups or racial groups, and those which have a longer incubation period is probably taking place presently. Instead of having to carry or drive a bomb, recruits have only to be infected with a virus that will probably not kill them, but enable them to spread it in the victim population with ease. Of course Artificial Intelligence will develop methods to curtail its spread and severity, but not eradicate it.
Psychologically and economically this will be disastrous. The level of disquiet that has been growing with globalisation and immigration will sharply increase, and inflation which has been tame for so long will rise because of restrictions on goods and workers.
The Taliban made no secret of their victory when signing a recent peace deal with America. They know they have won because the West cannot accept casualties. They will see this new weapon ironically as a further sign of our degeneration since the tools that made it possible come from our desire to accept homosexuality as normal.
"That same day, her boss’s boss, President Trump, insisted that everything was well under control."
J. Barry, author of "The Great Influenza" wrote: "That is why, in my view, the most important lesson from 1918 is to tell the truth."
With Donald Trump the truth will be in shorter supply than anything needed to fight the disease.
"Americans expect more from their government."
We should expect more, but with Trump in office we can expect an administration focused on one thing: Trump's electoral prospects in November. The safety of the American people will take a backseat to the selfish needs of a single person.*
If Trump tries to muzzle experts like Dr. Faucci, they should ignore the president and act ethically, which means speaking out. Media should come to the aid of any responsible, knowledgeable person the president attempts to censor. Any attempt by Trump or his lackeys to lie, distort, or suppress the truth must be immediately condemned by every responsible journalist.
COVID-19 will run its course and kill an unknown number of people. The Trump administration should be put on notice that any attempt to manipulate the disease outbreak will be loudly, widely, and immediately reported and condemned.
One key element of a worst case pandemic scenario is having Donald Trump as president!
*Of course, if Trump thinks it is in the country's best interest for him to be re-elected then he has carte blanche to do anything he wants to ensure that outcome. -- A. Dershowitz
3
Good luck to all those who have faith in the man who believes windmills cause cancer to get this right.
5
NY Times: why predict a pandemic when there isn't one. It could just as well go the other way. People are fearful by nature anyway. Why stoke it? Read your title again..
2
May. Not Will. Not Is. Sensational journalism May sell papers but could also be considered fake news. I expected more from the NYT than May-be yelling fire in a theatre.
2
I wish we had someone who we could trust give us this information. “Pandemic” or “hoax”. Neither of them help.
2
I hope NYT will do a story about the special 111 emergency call number set up in Great Britain. The public is required to phone if they have been to any one of 15 countries in the past 2 weeks.
If so, automatic screening will be assigned to take place in one of three settings: a special isolation chamber; testing through the car window at certain locations, or in a home visit!
The message to Brits is:
You should contact the NHS 111 service if:
■ You think you might have the virus
■ You've been to Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, northern Italy, Iran, Japan, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Myanmar (Burma), Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand or Vietnam in the past 14 days
■ You've been in close contact with someone with coronavirus
As a result, you may be asked to stay away from other people (self-isolate). You may also be passed onto your local health protection team for testing.
6
For those who bring up the bat soup trope, some facts to keep in mind:
1. The bat soup video was made by a travel blogger in Palau, NOT Wuhan. Bat soup is NOT a Chinese delicacy. See this piece: https://observers.france24.com/en/20200203-china-coronavirus-bat-soup-debunk-videos-viral-palau-indonesia. In regurgitating these rumors you risk stigmatizing Asian Americans, especially Chinese Americans.
2. The origin of the virus is NOT fully confirmed as of today. Yeah, the wet market is suspect, and to address your concern, see this piece - China bans wildlife trade and consumption: https://www.businessinsider.com/china-bans-wildlife-trade-consumption-coronavirus-2020-2. Largely underreported in MSM for idk what reason.
3. Just saw someone suggesting in multiple posts that we should specifically test people in Chinatown. Those in Chinatown do not have a higher chance of getting infected than the rest of us. They have Chinese relatives? Travel from China has been banned for quite some time, longer than the incubation period of this disease as far as I can remember. I doubt there's any valid reason to steer clear of Chinatown or restaurants there, but sadly Chinatown businesses are already suffering from significant drop in business: https://fortune.com/2020/02/18/asian-american-businesses-struggling-coronavirus-fear/
Just think twice before regurgitating these tropes okay?
7
“Dr. Fauci says that one may be ready for testing in as little as two months, and could be commercially available in about a year”
He said that BEFORE he was gagged by the ignorant one.
Don’t get Tony into trouble!
1
You can’t preach the Coronavirus is a conspired Democratic Party/Fake Media hoax while trying to fight it at the same time. You can’t claim that your political opponents hope to see 2 million Americans die to force the outcome of an election. You either disseminate actual facts to help the populace or you endanger them with bizarre theories and lies. Ensuring the safety of the American people should take precedence over politics. That's the job of a president. Hopefully in 2020 we'll get one.
1
Breaking News: The FDA has approved Covfefe for the treatment of Covid 19.
Unfortunately, if you can’t afford it, unlike Astrazeneca, you are flat out of luck.
1
Looking forward to another televised presidential sharpie moment
2
If it is already a pandemic, all countries of the world should refine their policies. Mass border closing is actually counterproductive. As the Surgeon General pointed out on Twitter, stop making mask runs. They are for medical professionals and people ALREADY getting some disease. Instead, avoid close quarters, wash hands (and face) and keep good hygiene
As one person tweeted - probably s/he is not the only person with a fallow humor - saying Trump should build a wall against COVID-19!
The funniest thing is news media keep telling people "don't panic," thereby panicking their audience. Their tasks are to report and ferret out disinformation campaigns and opportunists eager to use the disease for nefarious purposes
2
Doctor Mick prescribes voodoo...for the unschooled:
“The flu kills people. This is not Ebola. It’s not SARS, it’s not MERS. It’s not a death sentence.”
1. It would be disrespectful for Doctor Mick to attend any of the funerals....since mourners are fake...or engage in a hoax.
2. Mick is a noble Doctor of Spin, but more than 3,000 people have actually died. First-year students in all US accredited medical schools, in their class on infection diseases, are taught: pharmacological equivalents of inoculation do not include lies, or lower interest rates.
3. "Get over it!" is not a cure for the Corona virus-- or the Ukrainian virus.
Can the NYT please take one single day of from blaming Trump for everything. Obama's initiatives, though laudable, were expensive and did NOTHING to prevent the kind of pandemic we are now facing. Trumps funding rearrangements did NOTHING to contribute to the current pandemic. Fauci has not been "silenced". He has been speaking publicly and writing the pages of this very paper. Pence is NOT responsible for AIDS for Pete's sake! Trump is not a good man nor a good president. His press conference was a shameless election campaign speech... but it did not cause and epidemic. Do you really think if Obama was president now there would be more available ventilators and testing kits?
5
Wonder why the death rate from the virus varies so much by country, high in Iran, low in Korea, none in Singapore.
The availability of a vaccine to prevent Wuhan coronavirus infections in the near future is an unrealistic pipe-dream: http://www.henrymillermd.org/23834/viewpoint-is-a-coronavirus-vaccine-on-the-horizon
Dear Editorial Board:
You correct report that the President Barack Obama created a new office to address possible pandemics, the NSC Global Health Security Office, after the outbreak of Ebola in 2014.
And your correctly report that later this office "was disbanded and the funds were rescinded even as as a second Ebola outbreak emerged in the Democratic Republic of Congo."
But you fail to identify exactly who committed this epic folly.
Please tell your readers who did this! Otherwise they cannot be held accountable!
Hint: it was President Donald Trump.
Can you please use the name?
2
I continue to see parallels with the downfall of the Roman Empire. When will Trump nominate his golf cart to be a senator?
1
"Forget Isolationism"
This. More than anything else our politically driven desire to return to the good ol' days of an isolated America First flies in the face of the literal definition of the word "pandemic': A disease prevalent over a whole country or the world.
We may be able to build a wall to keep Mexicans and South Americans out; we can ban Muslims from travelling here; we can dispatch our armed forces to secure all of our borders and coastlines; we can pull back, turn inward, and become entirely isolated. What we cannot do is stop the spread of a pathogen.
Dismantling and/or under-funding the institutions and resources needed to prepare for, rather than react to, these events because we think we can safely isolate ourselves is beyond foolish. It is suicidal.
It's reassuring that our stable genius would rather spend money on the Wall and low yield nuclear missles than on public health. When the bodies start piling up it will be Obama or Hillary's fault.
You reap what you sow! Trump has delighted in fibs and fabrications and mockery all to advance his self promotion.It delighted his base but turned off anyone seeking accurate information.Now there is a worldwide spread of illness and the only antidote is truth and serious discussion by medical professionals.Trump squandered his credibility-his voice on the crisis is just more noise!
1
Where's Greta Thunberg? This is a much more immediate of crisis/disaster than climate change.
Considering that fear tends to lead to paralysis, is the angry red bird graphic really helpful and necessary?
2
And the last thing you want to do is elect a childish faker that plays a successful businessman on tv to the presidency.
If we had effective leadership the public could trust, it wouldn't matter what the New York Times, CNN or anyone else thinks about this subject. But we don't. You cant put tariffs on the coronavirus, sign an executive order, or fire it. Not many people want Trump to fail this one believe it or not. He needs to shut up about all his grievances for two seconds and or he'll lose reelection. In 2021, we will have coronavirus or Trump, but not both. Its hard not to feel like we're stuck with a choice between two parasites right now.
1
It is itself sickening for the president to continue to bemoan not the deaths being caused by this latest outbreak of a Chinese super bug - but the effect this ill prepared for virus is having on the stock market.
Thoughts and prayers Pence is in charge? Trump rants and rants, as if anything he says now will change the truth of the matter?
The rest of the world outside the White House must think the United States is detached from reality.
No longer leading. Twitter ranting.
Trump’s willful, stubborn ignorance of science has put us all at risk, first with climate change and now the corona virus. At the start of this outbreak, Republicans in the Senate has an opportunity to remove this dangerous man from office, completely legitimately. Republicans are complicit in Trump leaving us vulnerable to this coronavirus.
People who were quarantined now getting hit with huge medical bills. CDC says stay home if you are sick. Too many workers have no sick leave and no insurance. Maybe this will trigger the revolution. Rich people don’t like the serfs coughing on their food.
1
Editors - please be careful - you say - and certainly imply - that COVID-19 is as contagious as SARS or Measles.
Popular Science just published some stats that provide details - and these stats are available from other sources.
Scientists have a measure of how diseases spread through a population- called R0 - An R0 of less than 1 will die out itself, and more than 1 details its ability to spread.
Unless something new emerges COVID-19 has an R0 of between 1 and 1.5 similar to Influenza which has RO1.2
Measles is R0 18.
Its not sensible to compare COVID-19 with Measles.
Not sure why NYT editors would not put in real data as its available.
Would be great if you would consider adding this data to the conversation .
1
Irresponsible reporting in this article. The mortality rate of Novel Coronavirus is not yet proven to be higher than that of the seasonal flu. The key is in the estimated cases which no one knows. Further, like the seasonal flu Coronavirus tends to adversely affect those that are elderly or with already compromised health. No one knows the age and/or health composition of the thousands in China that perished from the Novel Coronavirus so to jump to a mortality rate for the general population is wantonly irresponsible. The people writing and editing papers like the New York Times need to obtain some factual information before creating a unjustified public panic.
3
It is so infuriating that the measures President Obama put in place during the ebola outbreak in Africa have been scuttled. He handled the whole affair so astutely while Trump the hysterical tv star was tweeting at him to leave our infected citizens there to die. When is this MAGA crowd going to wake up?
Here comes the pandemic????
It’s been six weeks already.
The US, completely unprepared, with health departments and facilities woefully understaffed and undersupplied to cope with even a slight bump in ICU and ER and intensive care needs, has done nothing more than to convince the mainstream media - including the New York Times - to cover up and pretend nothing is happening.
Well, until the Moneybags started being affected when China’s rigorous quarantine efforts ranked the world economy.
In South Korea, leaders of a Christian church are now being accused of murder for their coverup efforts.
The perpetrators of that effort have little on their record, compared with the perpetrators of the huge coverup in the US.
Only now that a few patients on the West Coast have mysteriously surfaced with community-acquired Covid-19 has the state government admitted there is probably widespread infection, and has been.... for six weeks already!
So sure, announce all you want, now that it is far too late, but realize the truth is this:
Covid-19 will be very widespread in the US, infecting 70-80 percent of our citizens.
It will cycle to the Southern Hemisphere this summer, and return next year.
Since we are more concerned about Profit than People, we will continue to fail at any sort of containment; it will be symbolic only.
Between 4-7 million people in the US alone will die, and widespread food shortages will be endemic for a few years afterwards.
Too late, sorry.
The Covfefe virus is far more deadly--especially to Americans--and should be given top priority to rid it from our country forever.
In the meantime, we Live in Hope.
Fear mongering, inaccurate data, deliberate skewing of reality? Irrationality, lack of reason?
Reactions to coronavirus will be a reprise of all the impeachment and other political behaviour of recent months. The mode of operating is low level.
You'd have to be really sick to expect anything else.
The overall effect of COVID-19 remains to be seen.
However, oddly, Trump and his supporters don't seem to recognize that this virus was only identified in the past several weeks. So, to say that "nn,nnn people die from the flu each year" is irrelevant.
Apparently, they don't understand public health. OK, Donald Trump isn't very bright....
It's time to look into homeopathic remedies which were very successful in treating the Spanish Flu in 1918 ...
"The mortality rate of people treated with traditional medicine and drugs was over 28 percent: those treated by homeopathic physicians had a mortality rate of just 1.05 percent"
https://realimmunity.org/homeopathy-influenza/
They blamed bat and it’s accomplice, the anteater. The probability was odd. Only one wet market in Wuhan, China being ground zero, out of maybe a million wet markets in Africa, China, India and Pakistan, SE Asia, etc. An amplification site, most likely.
The source is probably the Wuhan Institute of Virology near the wet market. It has been creating hybrid coronavirus’ since before 2015. Director Zhengli-Li Shi and peers from the U.S. and Switzerland wrote about it in Dec. 2015 (Nature Magazine). They created a chimeric virus having the same characteristics as the current pandemic virus. It had a novel spike protein that easily infected lung tissues. “We built a chimeric virus encoding a novel zoonotic CoV spike protein”; called SHC014-MA15 spike protein. They infected two mouse groups, one young, one old. The old mice died, the young lived. The same with people now. The old die, the young live.
Shi wrote (2015) “the potential to prepare for and mitigate future outbreaks must be weighed against the risk of creating more dangerous pathogens”, admitting “inherent risks” involved in creating dangerous hybrid viruses in the lab. Nightmare. U.S. funding ended there.
“Inherent risks” include a deadlier hybrid virus escaping the lab unnoticed, or malicious release, or weaponization. Chinese labs are unsafe. Pathogens get out. SARS escaped a Beijing Lab in 2003-2004, thrice. These Chinese government labs are too risky. Xi Jinping said so, urging more safety.
A certain irony that Covid-19 is loose in Iran, a country we have pummeled with debilitating sanctions. It is now a breeding ground for the virus.
It’s been a day or two since Mike Pence was put in charge of Covid response, and unless I’ve missed something, there hasn’t been a word from him.
If only because of what he should be understand to represent, Vice-President Mike Pence is the worst possible person to be placed in charge of the national response to a deadly virus that threatens to become a pandemic.
This is because of the eternal infamy that must be placed at the doorstep of the American evangelical Protestant "Christian" far right, to which he belongs. Anyone remember the AIDS epidemic?
Many, often gay men, were allowed to die, as conservative politicians condemned. as an abnormal direction, their amatory practices. Exclusionary propriety, not solidarity.
At the Red Cross where I briefly worked, the boss, one Elizabeth Dole, a conservative Christian politician, would give speeches comparing herself to the Biblical Esther, who "came out" (as a Jew) to plead to avert the murder of her people. But then as now, it was less a question of avoiding harm as doing little or nothing to stop it. Conservatives would smugly speak privately of the "family values" they must defend against the cultural threat of modernity. "Values" triumphed as many people needlessly died.
The response to global pandemics, natural disasters, and perilous migrations of poor people desperately escaping civil wars in regions devastated by "humanitarian" Western intervention, often to promote liberal "democracy" over socialism, is "live and let die." "Do no harm," the doctor's oath, becomes "At least do no harm. (It's ok to do nothing)."
It is not.
1
Meanwhile, according to a CNN report, the chinese travel industry is ramping up resume exporting only God knows what at this point.
What is wrong with theee people?
Any sensible/responsible national leadership will keep the travel ban in effect to and from SE Asia until this matter is addressed appropriately.
1
A 2018 simulation by the Gates Foundation of a flu pandemic estimated that there would be 28,000 after one month, 10 million after three months, and 33 million after six months.
1
A 2018 simulation by the Gates Foundation of a flu pandemic estimated that there would be 28,000 after one month, 10 million after three months, and 33 million after six months.
2
Great recommendations. For another president. No one should forget how Trump looked at the NIH and CDC. He said he looked at them from a business man's perspective. They were, in his view, just sitting around. So...they were forced out.
Evidently this is a businessman who doesn't appreciate the value of research. After all, he said he has a brilliant gut.
In other words, we are in trouble.
"Again, the outbreak proved mild and passed quickly. Again, the world and its leaders moved on without heeding the warnings."
This is nonsense regarding swine flu. H1N1 swine flu in 2009 was a true pandemic. It infected 60 million people in the US and killed tens of thousands of Americans and a half million across the world. It was anything but "mild and passing quickly." There is no evidence whatsoever that the death toll for the new coronavirus outbreak will approach anything like that. China seems to have contained the outbreak in its country with approximately 4000 deaths.
What is different about this outbreak is the desire of the media to sensationalize it and to point fingers at Trump. If Trump is responsible for the single death from the coronavirus in the US so far, then Barack Obama was responsible for more than 10,000 deaths from swine flu. But no one in the press was pointing fingers then.
1
Getting pretty tired of donating money to: democrats, aclu, WWF, and now governmental health agencies that, correct me if I’m wrong, the government is supposed to fund? Oh yeah, our president pocketed all the money for himself and his friends. Right, so where do I donate to now?
We should just call it the Trump Thief Fund and call it a day.
I'm waiting for the head of the CDC to go directly to the media, if there is crucial info that needs to be shared, and bypass Pence. Then Trump will have a tizzy and fire her for insubordination and then make a statement that will be full of half truths.
Like, maybe we shouldn't eat bats?
5
Humanity's worst propensities will almost certainly assure a worst-case scenario. Maybe it is time for homo sapiens to join the 99.99% of other species who have, over the ages, gone extinct. My opinion? Good riddance!
1
7 to 20 times more serious than the flu? I think your facts are wrong, check the CDC. Your editorial can cause panic. Look at your own article on the virus in today’s paper which contradicts your facts.
4
"On Tuesday, Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, warned that a global pandemic was all but inevitable and asked the American public to brace itself for impact. That same day, her boss’s boss, President Trump, insisted that everything was well under control."
And both statements are essentially true in the USA.
Saying anything more panicky is typical NYTimes partisan political posturing.
"muzzling Dr. Anthony Fauc" which is a typical NYTimes outright lie.
"Forget isolationism. One thing the current moment shows is the folly of presuming that viruses will respect borders — that they can be kept out by walls or wrangled into submission with good intentions. They cannot. "
Of course they can. But as usual, the NYTimes and leftists use such statements to attack Trump.
4
And once again, this serious topic has become politicized with the second guessing of the editorial and the commentating below.
1
the appointment of pence is designed on!y to muzzle real medicine. that by itself is a disgrace
4
Presidents can spin out a delusional world in which their followers can wrap themselves in a blanket of lies.
But war, pestilence and natural disasters bring the real world home.
Then, you need competence.
Fact is, coronavirus is not Trump's fault, although his conspiracy right wing nuts (Tom Cotton) might tell you it's a Chinese or Democratic plot.
If Obama were in office, you'd see a lot more of Tony Fauci and you'd hear more from the CDC, but even then the press would ask questions and imply the government is not doing enough to protect the public. In modern times the press seems to believe that's the duty of a free but commercial press.
There may not be much this administration or any can do to stem the tide of this viral epidemic.
The difference this time is when the airplane is plummeting toward earth, you want to believe you've got a Sully Sullivan at the controls, not someone who just plays the role on TV. At least if you have a good pilot, you've got a fighting chance.
5
"muzzling Dr. Anthony Fauci" - what is your proof of this? the Dr says he has not been muzzled.
5
When we have an incompetent president, expect incoherent response. We should not be surprised trump is lying, name calling, and yelling hoax from his perch. trump has two go to plays: dividing us, and blaming others.
4
It must be that most of those other gods, and not Trump this time, continue to want to destroy the human animal. History has shown us that these gods are the biggest murderers in the history of this planet, yet most humans still want to believe in them and fall under their controls. Until we move past these silly beliefs, we cannot even hope to begin to work together to minimize our exposures to these diseases.
1
The world needs to "throw the book at" China.
2
If SARS-CoV-2 does not disappear from the U.S.A. population soon we will have another disease vector coming right into your home: The Census Taker.
Trump is the worst person possible for any crisis let alone a national and worldwide health crisis. He's a bankruptcy artist.
He's a "walk away" from and profit by, a problem, specialist.
I think Trump's Republican enablers may come to regret their giving him a free pass at the Senate Trial for his corrupt offenses.
How 'bout you, Susan Collins? Am I right?
Those corrupt offenses were strong symptoms of everything that makes him a dangerous leader. He lies. He believes all the wrong people who also lie. He pushes conspiracy theories instead of those well thought out studies and results distilled from other people's years of hard effort. He panders to a racist xenophobic base who would prefer to see the UN and W.H.O. wither and collapse. And he is essentially a sociopath.
Terrible time for a leader like this. Please replace this man with a knowledgable leader in all things including crisis management.
Listen and or watch Mike Bloomberg's address to the nation tonight on this crisis. NBC and ABC or CBS I think.
3
“By 2018, that progress had been undone.”
This is the journalist equivalence of “mistakes were made.”
Try writing in the active voice. Tell us who did what. Be clear. Illuminate.
4
Yes, Republicans, pray with Pence and then stick your heads in the sand. You can't use your Senate majority to cover this up, Fox's talking heads can't drown out the virus with vitriol, your stolen Supreme Court majority can't strike it down, and Trump can't lie it away. The truth will out, and the American deaths will be on you for being uninformed, unprepared, and utterly uncaring. You're happy to leave our nation unprotected from Russian election interference, from climate change, and now from this.
2
On the second night of the June, 2019 Democratic presidential debate in Miami, NBC moderator José Díaz-Balart asked: "Raise your hand if you think it should not be a crime to cross the border without documentation.”
All 10 candidates on the stage that night — Biden, Sanders, Buttigieg, Harris, Gillibrand, Bennet, Swalwell, Hickenlooper, Yang, and Williamson — raised their hands in approval. Earlier, Sen. Elizabeth Warren had signed on to open borders as well.
If any one of these candidates was president today, we would have no entity left to control our borders, the Border Patrol, ICE, or any other force. We would have to try and deal with the coronavirus threat with no border at all. It is terrifying to contemplate.
3
Most people who contract the virus have very mild symptoms. Of the people who have died, most were old and about to cark it anyway. All this scaremongering, including rather hysterical reporting by news organisations, is overblown.
1
Nobody wants to get sick, but please calm down.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/27/world/asia/coronavirus-treament-recovery.html
"Though the virus can be deadly, the vast majority of those infected so far have only mild symptoms and make full recoveries."
"It is an important factor to understand, medical experts said, both to avoid an unnecessary global panic and to get a clear picture of the likelihood of transmission."
3
Yes. Isolationism is absurd. It always was, but pandemics illustrate the degree to which we're both interconnected and interdependent.
Stop work on the idiotic wall immediately. Spend the money on the CDC, on the States so they can react; on health care.
And Trump, go away. Just go away.
1
Yesterday's news conference explained how this was not true, yet here I read it in the NYT. "muzzling Dr. Anthony Fauci,"
2
Too much propaganda from Fake Governments. Fake Government of China. Fake Government now in the US . Propaganda rather than fact. Do you really believe China capped at 80k magically? Do you believe the numbers in the US. Can you believe anything in the US from the Fake Government?
1
Proof once again that when things go seriously pear shaped the UN is really important, and proof if we needed reminding that a well run government is incredibly important.
It's reassuring to know our intrepid coronavirus Czar Pence took the bull by the horns, and on his first full day on the job tackled this pandemic by attending a meeting with the leading scientists in the field, CPAC, and giving an interview to Coronavirus global expert Sean Hannity. The next day he coordinated public health response efforts at a GOP fund-raiser in Florida. We are certainly in good hands, as his prayers are known to be answered by the lord at amazing speed, this should keep us all safe!
3
I was at Disney World last week where the entry process includes a finger print. Thousands of people putting their finger on the same little space. I'm doomed!
2
I am personally annoyed today. I know two different families who, to their misfortune, made plans and bought tickets to go to Europe in March, one family to Italy and the other to Austria.
They will then return to my city with a higher percentage possibility of carrying the virus. One of the families has a child in my partner's school. What then if the child carries the virus? What if he makes my partner (or both of us) sick, as we are in the over fifty year realm.
I get that people can't get their $$ back from bought tickets. I understand their predicament, but this really bugs me that my family and others might be put in danger now.
2
Most people who read NYT editorials already know what the facts are, so this editorial - as good as it is - can best be described as "preaching to the choir." I'm afraid, though, that pointing a finger at this administration this might only serve to energize it to generate "alternate facts."
1
> In 2009, when swine flu first emerged
so easily fact checked and wrong.
1976, the novel A/New Jersey/76 (Hsw1N1) influenza virus caused severe respiratory illness in 13 soldiers with 1 death at Fort Dix, New Jersey.
There were massive inoculation programs including my entire university. It was my first experience with the air pressured no needle injection gun".
That SARS and H1N1 (including variants) "faded from public consciousness" means we have forgotten the lessons of even RECENT HISTORY!
source: CDC
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/12/1/05-0965_article
Hopefully Donald Trump will bring his little electoral college victory map with him the next time he gives a press conference on the coronavirus.
Ah, the editorial board weighs in. Again. Trump elected. We’re doomed! Brexit! We’re doomed! Russia! We’re doomed! Tax cuts. We’re doomed! Trump insults North Korea. We’re doomed! Trump talks to North Korea. We’re doomed! Trump takes out Iranian honcho. We’re doomed! Trump restricts immigration. We’re doomed! Coronavirus. If Trump doesn’t restrict immigration, we’re doomed!
6
The Times forgot the greatest lesson from this epidemic: elect competent leaders.
10
How can we collectively combat this new threat to our country when FOX News and Rush are blaming it on Democrats? And Trump Supporters actually believe every lie they hear? And the evangelicals think that Pastor Pence is going to "pray away" the epidemic? Even George Orwell or Issac Asimov couldn't have dreamt up the mindset of the modern Trumpublican.
9
It seems clear we are witnessing the death of everything under current global leadership.
5
Willful ignorance is pandemic right now. The U.S. is leading the way.
4
Trump’s woefully inadequate response to the coronavirus is yet another indication that he has thrust the United States into Third World status. Rather than making America ‘great again,’ he’s turning it into a Petrie dish of lies and deceit.
7
Trump does not care if the coronavirus affects anyone in America, let alone the world, if they are not his immediate family. As if he is going to ask for funding to control this pandemic globally. It's always him against the rest of the world. His reprehensible GOP sycophants are staying silent. That means they are not going to lift a finger to do anything unless one of their own is struck. If he is not voted out in Nov, then, literally, it'll be a God help us all situation.
4
Trump is a bigger danger to America than Coronavirus. We need to defeat him, We need stable leaders who put the public first.
6
In the United States let's call it what it really is, the Trump Virus. His inept handling of this crisis has been so inept it's difficult to believe that he doesn't want Americans to get it. Except the one percent, of course.
4
Dear Editorial Board:
You correct report that the President Barack Obama created a new office to address possible pandemics, the NSC Global Health Security Office, after the outbreak of Ebola in 2014.
And your correctly report that later this office "was disbanded and the funds were rescinded."
But you fail to identify exactly who committed this epic folly.
Please tell your readers who did this! Otherwise they cannot be held accountable!
Hint: it was President Donald Trump.
Can you please use the name?
8
"Millions of uninsured Americans like me are a coronavirus timebomb
I haven’t gone to the doctor since 2013. When you multiply my situation by 27.5 million, that’s a scary prospect"
by Carl Gibson
Fri 28 Feb 2020
"44% of Americans declined to see a doctor due to cost . . . nearly a third of Americans polled said they didn’t get their prescriptions filled due to the high cost of their medicine. This is the same system that killed 38-year-old Texas public school teacher Heather Holland, who couldn’t afford the $116 co-pay for her flu medication and later died from flu complications."
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/28/coronavirus-millions-of-americans-uninsured
6
COVID-19 is bad, but it is far from the worst case (Creutzfeldt-Jakob diseae, Yersina Pestis, Anthrax, Ebola, Marburg hemorraghic fever, TB, H5N1 & H7N9 flu viruses, MERS, SARS, etc.) and a slap in the face is far better than a brick through the windshield - so here's hoping the American electorate gets the message this time around before it is too late.
3
Does the Coronavirus reconfirm that bureaucratic government response to real world problems is nothing more than a Chinese fire-drill ?
2
America's President Donald Trump, like China's President Xi Jinping, has treated the coronavirus crisis by commanding and decreeing that their underlings not bring them nor any of their fellow citizens any bad news.
Trump and Xi have both treated coronavirus by focusing on their own corrupt cowardly personal political impact survival. Xi is Chinese President for life. But Trump is facing an election in November.
Mike Pence infamously declared that he is ' a Christian, a conservative and a Republican in that order' a skill set that is worthless in addressing coronavirus.
And New York City inherited real estate wealth Senior White House Adviser Jared Kushner is no 'hidden genius' when it comes to anything.
While Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar is a former pharmaceutical industry executive, lawyer and lobbyist.
Neither Trump nor Pence nor Kushner nor Azar have any scientific competence nor credibility communicating with the American people in the coronavirus crisis.
Where is CDC veteran Anthony Fauci when Americans need and trust him the most on the coronavirus threat?
5
A retired physician, "MD
Madison, Wisconsin Feb. 29," very recently and generously volunteered his services on the Comments section of the NYTimes:
https://nyti.ms/2TrdzKG#permid=105527972
Which federal agency is ready, or preparing, to accept his services and those of maybe thousands other health care providers?
Has the government considered using its extensive experiences with electronic medical records; supply chain networks; and troop mobilization, to implement a national volunteer Medical Quick Reaction Force?
pandemic or panic?
2
It makes me so furious---no ENRAGED-- that the federal government is so enept at responding to this emergency.
I read what our senator, Jeff Merkley has set up for folks to get the correct information on the Coronavirus, and I appreciate that, at least in our state, we have someone who is looking out for the people who need information.
How sad that our federal government can't be expected to have the same response. For those of you wanting this information : https://www.merkley.senate.gov/coronavirus
4
I'm not sure why we are still looking for rational and effective leadership from a president with limited real-world experience, who's not terribly bright, and whose personality is significantly disordered and getting more so by the day. Perhaps the best we can do is work on the state and local levels to bypass him and his enablers, who surely know better. Appointing a puny intellect like Pence as the pandemic "czar" is not the act of a rational man. This ongoing experience with the vast, impersonal and uncompromising power of a natural process over which we are scrambling to exert some modicum of control should be giving us fair warning and a taste of what climate change may be like if we disregard science and continue to muddle along as we have been.
9
Ugly trends have begun to surface. In Berkeley and its surroundings all pharmacies (CVS) and stores are out of hand sanitizers. I thought at first it had been a publish rush for these products (in some places it may be), but a CVS employee informed me in at least one store that a person had bought all the hand sanitizers and all products with antiseptics (including alcohol) in the story yesterday and the same occurred this morning after a new batch was put out. That was 200 hundred items put out this morning bought by a single buyer. Obviously they are going to the black market. Authorities need to investigate that. It is occurring in all kinds of stores. So the public is unable to implement simple preventive measures of disinfecting hands when soap is not immediately available. I hope the soap does not disappear from store shelves . Some kind of regulation must be enforced or the monopolization of important goods will prevent a more general preventive effort and protection to the general public.
7
The WHO has been reluctant to call this a Pandemic from the beginning, when it first manifested itself in Wuhan over two months ago. Ramping up test kits in each country should of been done. Days matter, and the fact that 75,000 test kits are now available is totally inadequate for not only 330 million people, but millions of tourists as well according to Dr. Sanjay Gupta on CNN today. In my opinion, the thinking should be, not to congregate in groups, whether religious services, athletic events, concerts, etc. If you aren't physically close to anyone, other than family members, you have less chance to spread a contagious disease. Even school should be cancelled during what could be the peak of the outbreak in this country. In the age of digital media, most children, from the age of 5-18 are already on their small devices, and lessons could easily be planned for them that way. I come from a family of doctors over 3 generations. My grandmother's brother died at college in Ohio, during the Pandemic of 1918, which lasted 2 full years. Even though her two other brothers at the time were going to medical school at Rush Medical College in Chicago, they couldn't save him. Penicillin hadn't been invented, was discovered by Alexander Fleming who observed that staphylococcus aureus had failed to grow where they had been accidentally contaminated by the green mold, penicillin notatum in 1928. Our only hope, is ramping up lab studies for vaccines, and funding.
8
Another Family Doc Here. One with an interest in epidemiology and evolutionary science.
If the Covid-19 virus is seasonal, we might get a break.
If the virus is not seasonal, and if it is as contagious as measles, the likelihood is that most people will be infected, no matter what precautions are taken. This is mostly because it can be transmitted so easily before a person knows that they are ill. Dramatic government actions will not help this. The genie is out of the bottle.
Our enemy is panic. The panic that disrupts supply chains. Those supply chains are needed for a rapid production of a Covid-19 vaccine, and they are also needed for the production of drugs that treat serious illnesses from diabetes to cancer.
One partial cure for panic is that, almost certainly, many people are infected that are never detected, so death and hospitalizations rates are likely over-estimated, perhaps very much so.
Panic will help naught but will cause (is causing) much harm.
7
We need procedures for what to do for individuals who show flu like symptoms. They may, or may not, have the corona virus. If they go to their doctors' offices or an emergency room, they risk spreading a pandemic. So what should they do?
NEEDED NOW: an immediate procedure for addressing symptoms and perhaps an 800 number anyone can call if they have flu symptoms. Then they can be tested in a secure facility. Most of those infected would probably be sent home to quarantine in place and seek more help if conditions worsen. Testing must be widely available and free. We don't want people avoiding testing because they can't afford it or don't want to pay for it. And we need procedures to send food, medicines and other supplies to those quarantining in place.
Federal and state health departments need to have hospitals and physicians in every state ready to respond to serious cases. We need to set aside treatment facilities for seriously ill patients and stock up with needed supplies (to the extent possible).
We also need to build an information system to deal with a much large number of cases. Our tracking systems are likely to collapse if they start receiving 1000's or 10,000's of cases. And what if there are 100,000 or 1,000,000 or even more cases?
Let's rally our resources so everyone knows what to do. The virus is not fatal in the vast majority of cases. Knowing there are plans, procedures and resources in place will calm much of our population.
5
2 weeks ago, A NYT article by a doctor basically said to wash your hands well, use hand sanitizer. If you are not feeling well, stand 1 meter away from a people. This is basically what the Health Canada authorities are saying
To date - in Canada - the infected are diagnosed at a hospital, and sent home.
The click bait nature of the reporting is very disconcerting. If the worse case scenarios that are being reported do not materialize - people will say fake news, and will discount the next warning.
The larger problem is China - SARS, Swine Flu, poison baby formula, unbreathable city air, Corona Virus - add to that a surveillance state out of 1984, the self stifling of the NBA to protest the HK crack down, and Mayor Bloomberg unable to call China a dictatorship. Some serous people need to think about how we deal with what is basically and out of control incompetent dictatorship that has now lost all pubic support.
3
@Tom: Most private corporations are dictatorships.
1
If you think you might have it get tested!!!
It's only $3,275 to be tested here. Or you could fly overseas and back first class, get tested and save $2,000, course that might spread the virus.
3
@deepharbor
Fascinating. "only $3200".
For a test that the government should be administering for free.
You know, to protect the public health.
3
Actually, the test is free but the ancillary costs can be quite high depending on your insurance..or lack of it.
This could be a test. Given the mortality rate of this pest, it’s definitely not plague. BUT, the next one might be, so, how government responds to this is a good indicator of where we could find ourselves in the case of a real emergency...
1
These two excerpts below from this comprehensive editorial bear repeating - with my edits in all caps:
SARS-CoV-2 spreads easily — more easily than SARS or seasonal flu — and is tough to detect. It’s the kind of virus that would be extremely difficult to contain even in a best-case scenario, and the world, INCLUDING THE UNITED STATES UNDER TRUMP, ARE hardly in a best-case scenario now. Rising nationalism, waning trust and lingering trade wars have undermined cooperation between global superpowers. Rampant misinformation and growing skepticism of science are imperiling public understanding of the crisis and governments’ response to it...
Mr. Trump has requested from Congress only $2.5 billion to address Covid-19 — far less than the $15 billion that experts say is needed. He has also made some curious, IMMORAL, SHORTSIGHTED, IGNORANT, AND DEADLY personnel choices in recent days: putting Vice President Mike Pence in charge of the federal response, and muzzling Dr. Anthony Fauci, the long-serving director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Dr. Fauci has guided the nation through just about every outbreak and epidemic since 1984, and is widely recognized as one of the world’s foremost authorities on managing such crises. As governor of Indiana, Mr. Pence badly botched the response to an H.I.V. outbreak BECAUSE OF HIS SHARIAH CHRISTIAN BIAS AGAINST GAYS, AND HIS COMPLETE LACK OF SCIENTIFIC TRAINING, which resulted in hundreds of preventable infections.
5
As a physician, I have thought for many years that it will take an infectious threat to move us in the direction of a unified healthcare system. Our hodgepodge of local providers, difficult insurance companies, endless bickering, undercovered population, and people’s’ self interest dominating the conversation are no match for a public health threat.
It was the great London fire of 1676 that moved us in the direction of public fire departments, as the private fire companies ignored those who could not pay but that commercial approach lead to the whole city burning down. A century later, world trade had grown but the Pirates hampered it, and the mercenary Corsairs were no match. This led to the development of the English Navy and the concept of a modern military.
This COVID-19 crisis may be what moves our healthcare system in the direction of the competency that our unified police, fire and military forces can deliver, and which we so sorely need at this moment of potential epidemiological crisis.
6
@Boxengo: Here in the US, for-profit medicine resists establishment of a non-profit health service devoted to prevention and cure of diseases.
2
How can you say that Dr. Fauci has been muzzled? You quote him in your piece. Also, he spoke at the Trump news conference and I saw him on MSNBC with Chris Matthews. It diminishes your credibility when you make statements like that without citing evidence.
5
He has to go to Pence now rather than issue reports on his own.
Pence, the lackey of trump, will not report the truth because it reflects badly on his
great leader.
3
Well....Don put his best man in - Mike Pence...what could go wrong?
4
If the Coronavirus Pandemic is what you are calling a "real fire" then what would you call the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic that killed 20,000,000 people world wide and 675,000 in the United States?
Mention of the 1918 flu has been studiously avoided by the media. Wonder why. Hmmmmmm.
2
@Alex Vine
So, shall we simply ignore the new virus?
I truly hope that you and your loved ones do not catch it.
1
Trump's habit of dealing with disease control and weather disasters through the ridiculous filter of his bizarre personality is NOT enough.
Can someone sane go to the WH Bubble and find someone who speaks science? Where is the Surgeon General?
6
I went to my local hardware store yesterday .The mask section was completely empty with a sign that said "No more until late April"
My first thought was where do these product ship from?
Of course, the answer is China.
2
No virus will overcome Pence. Don't be worry.
3
If we can't trust the President to lie to us about the virus, why re-elect him?
If we can't trust the President with the health of our children, why should we trust him with our own?
9
If you read about this flu there isn’t a reason to believe that hundreds of thousand will die. For most folks the will have a mild case or some symptoms.
However, infants, young children, the elderly and folks who have medical conditions are vulnerable to get seriously ill.
The Surgeon General has advised to stop the mask frenzy and focus on hand hygiene etc.
Comparing this to the Spanish Fly of 1918 is ludicrous!
1
@HPS-
Fact: children are *less* susceptible to
Covid19; reason unknown.
1
A 2018 simulation that the Gates Foundation conducted of a flu pandemic estimated that there would be 28,000 after one month, 10 million after three months, and 33 million after six months.
1
The tragedy of having incompetent and corrupt "leaders" in the US, such as nearly everyone in the Trump administration (and the entirety of the Republican party), is that in the event of pandemic, plague, global catastrophe, etc. their bad decisions will overwhelmingly impact the masses and not the "leaders" who made those decisions. The corrupt leaders can and absolutely will isolate themselves from the fallout, as always. Vote every one of them out in November of 2020. We need a really smart, compassionate and progressive leader to tackle the profound problems facing us now and going forward. This is not the time for embracing so-so leadership.
9
I hope the NYTimes will encourage readers to understand
all the hard facts which have been presented here....
We can not let this be a political battle;
Candidates need to sit together at round table discussions
and prove that they cannot afford to be political about such
a global issue; but need to cooperate and coordinate.
5
The US is terribly underprepared for COVID-19. The surgent general asked people not to buy masks, so there is enough for the medical personnel. Shouldn't the government stock up the masks when the virus outbreak started in China? He asked healthy persons not to wear masks, only the sick ones. There two problems with this: 1. there are non-symptomatic virus carriers; 2. will those who want to protect themselves and wear masks be viewed as sick and face discrimination?
The fast spread of the virus in Korea and Japan is not a lesson that the US should learn? Are we so arrogant to think that we can contain the spread just because we are Americans?
4
I recall Senator Mitch McConnell's response to questions about Republican denial of climate change: "We're not scientists."
You're not doctors, either, except as spin doctors.
"Anti-Science-Thoughts-and-Prayers" Pence is in charge not so much of the US response but of information control.
Trump is worried only about his precious stock market, the only marker of his self-esteem and, in his small mind, America's "greatness."
Trump has been deliberately slashing funding for our disease control agencies for years now.
And the US Republican Party brought these charlatans to leadership, and carries Trump reclining on a gilded satin litter.
Any Competent Adult 2020 is more important than ever.
8
Where are the testing kits? The US is not prepared. This is entirely due to Trump’s denial and incompetence. Every American death will be on Trump’s head!
3
No doubt politics should not “meddle” with citizens’ health: this unfortunately appears not true in many countries, even in advanced ones.
Every country should instead – during this “mutant” epoch – reinforce, via a beefed-up budget, its National Institute of Health.
To do this, a “neutral” intervention of lawmakers is needed. Now, in USA, in this moment, paramount will be the election of a President who will care about the health of "all" citizens: call it Medicare for all, or whatever.
Michael Bloomberg – according to his presidential plan – will act for sure on Global Warming, which determines, as one of its side-effects, these Corona viruses spinning out, every now and then, mostly from the intergalactic Chinese caldron.
The question is, if Bloomberg will solve too the national health issue in USA, for which a huge quantity of money is required.
Michael Bloomberg was greatly benefitted by the efficient USA capitalistic system. Now, tuning with an appreciated liberal tradition, he seems prone to give back part of his wealth, first, in making his point politically through the media, and after, with consistent actions, if he will be elected as President of the United States of America.
1
You wrote in your editorial that Trump was muzzling Dr. Anthony Fauci. In the news conference yesterday, Dr. Fauci specifically denied this and said this was completely false. I believe him. Why repeat this when Dr. Fauci himself has said that this is untrue? Let's all get together and work to contain and find a solution for this virus....stating apparent falsehoods to advance a political objective--which is what I perceive--only harms everyone....I am not at all a Trump supporter. Why give Trump ammunition to scream "false news?"
5
@Hexagon
It was the Trump administration that publicly stated that ALL statements by government experts must be run by Pence first. "Muzzling" means that the experts (including Fauci) do not have independence to say what they want. They are being filtered/censored by Pence.
How does anyone know Fauci told all he knew at the news conference? How do YOU know he said exactly what was on his mind? What makes you believe that
a member of the Trump administration is telling the truth all of the time?
2
I am a hermit in the city, so my lifestyle stays the same.
My pantry is full and staying home is what i do.
People and crowds repel me, endless nonsense, smart phone freaks seeking validation, heads buried in delusion.
Okay i am old and have no place to go and no place i want to go.
Just me, my ebike and cherished solitude.
Here is San Diego i also have the Cannabis store, need i say more.
5
“But a new report on 1,099 cases from many parts of China, published on Friday in The New England Journal of Medicine, finds a lower rate: 1.4 percent.” -NYT
Basically a severe flu season. We all need to calm down. We are going to be fine. Lots of people will get sick. A few will sadly pass.
It is what it is. You have to get on with your life. Wash your hands and practice good hygiene. Keep kids at home if you can and make sure your elderly parents have supplies to stay home as much as possible.
1
More hype that is not helping matters.
1
@JimH
What would "help matters"?
Saying nothing? Ignoring it and hoping it will go away?
Tell us what YOU think would "help matters".
2
I'm afraid it will serve us right if America has a huge epidemic of Covid19 and the rest of the world sends us thoughts and prayers. Why would anyone help America now? We are helping no one. Trump is only helping himself.
4
Continuing on the matter of the masks:
So if they are simply a barrier and can provide some protection, though not complete protection, why then has the surgeon general of the United States said that a mask will not protect us citizens when we are in public but it would protect a doctor in a hospital, and therefore we should stop buying them?
What a muddled mess. If he trying to say that there is short of supply of masks, and dear public please don't make the shortage worse by buying and/or hoarding them, fine. But to say they won't protect us but they would protect a doctor is doublespeak. Idiotic. Someone in the press should call me on that!
Finally I hear that some travel operators are offering cut-rate trips to the Mediterranean and other places where tourism has been hard hit by the outbreak, and that people are buying these offers and hurtling headlong into the heart of the pandemic on the assumption that they can outsmart the virus and glean a benefit from the misery of everyone else -- i.e., get a cheap trip when everybody else is stuck at home.
This also should be investigated.
Isn't the real threat to the country the socialists who want people to have health care? I am sure every loyal republican and "centrist" democrat thinks so. I find it quite annoying that now some will pretend that they are concerned about the people when past actions tell me they never have been.
Americans hate science because it's all mathy and stuff. They hate scientists who "think they are so smart". Americans love mob bosses and the smart people who get away with crimes.
3
If ,as one theory say, the virus is unlikely to survive in hot weather, maybe the Trump-Pence team and its minions can marshal all their hot air and put it into circulation over the land... fast.
3
Trumpo may have the ultimate penny wise/pound foolish axiom work against him by losing the presidency in ‘20 because of his administration’s penuriousness in 2018 with defunding and eliminating various federal programs dealing with pandemics and firing their command staff.
2
As is usually the case, this pandemic is winding down---see current Hong Kong incidents. Governments have reacted quickly and the Trump administration used it's knowledge of the vaccine market to distribute a 3-D model of the Coronavirus to makers. There are reports of a Japanese team being days away from releasing a test vaccine.
Media's obsession with cataclysmic events, i.e. global warming shouldn't affect the innate common sense of the NYTimes....America is very tired of the hysteria.
2
The staggering incompetence of Trump and his so-called 'administration' is fully ablaze in the face of this latest attempt to hoodwink us. I keep waiting for Pence, McConnell, et al. to roll out the ever-popular "thoughts and prayers'' spiel.
3
However much this article is appreciated, suggesting we remain calm while preparing for the potential widespread viral disease in our midst, it does sound too respectfully mild towards the unconscionable spread of Trumpian autocratic rule in trying to hide what must be done, and avail the health experts of the resources needed to stem the spread of a disease whose ultimate consequences may be lethal. As it stands, we have an unhinged president politicizing the issue by attacking democrats and anybody in his authoritarian way, akin to a rabid dog biting right and left as if this is yet another test to show how stupid hsi bravado is. And the danger shall be all ours, if we allow an unhinged bully to spread disinformation for selfish reasons. One more thing to remember is Santayana's wise words regarding preparedness: 'those that forget the past may be condemned to repeat it'. Are we?!
1
Globalism with a bite - perhaps a very serious bite. It is amazing how the globalists and diversity crowd never included things like the Corona Virus into their cost/benefit analysis - just as they did not include US job losses (to China) at a living wage too! Maybe the wall on the southern border is not such a bad idea!
4
Trumps handling of the corona virus may be the very thing that costs him the 2020 election. Like War of the Worlds, a virus takes the monster down. So be it.
3
The American people have suffered through 4 years of lies, criminality and destruction of our country. And they are about to suffer more now through incompetence, stupidity and neglect. But there is the hope of a silver lining. A few, in fact.
First, the oligarchs who own the republican senators and give them their marching orders (back trump!) have no allegiance to this or any country. Just their money. As the stock market falls - and I hope it crashes through the floor - and *their* wallets are affected, they may very well decide to cut their losses by dumping trump and installing pence. He takes orders even better than trump and is at least marginally more sane.
Second, as those in the cult are most affected by layoffs, loss of jobs, and are hit harder by the virus because of untreated medical conditions, some of those several millions of former Obama voters may return to the fold.
Third, as hundreds of thousands of Americans sicken, but do not seek help because they either have no insurance or can't afford to use the insurance they have due to very high deductibles and co-pays - M4A will seem a lot less like socialism and a lot more like common sense.
3
The pattern now repeats: deny the problem, blame opponents, take credit for “everything going well”, and attack the press.
Defunding the CDC deprives citizens of the federal protection we pay for. We are getting ripped off again by this administration. They stole our health care and now they leave us helpless before a deadly virus.
And, the weirdo at the top just keeps lying.
4
What happens if this gets really, really bad and Trump can declare martial law and delay the 2020 election?
2
Maybe if the medical experts donated to Trump's campaign and started staying at his hotels when they travel that would result in the pandemic preparedness funding that Trump cut being restored.
C'mon NYT, you can say it. The conservatives have turned our great republic into a cheap, corrupt banana republic. Remember that in November.
4
What a time to have an administration that is hostile toward science.
6
Were COVID-19 able to cause a pandemic akin to the end-World War I flu pandemic, hundreds of thousands would be dead and millions would be ill.
Even if China's data on sickness and deaths understate reality by a factor of ten, other countries' data show that absent a mutation (always possible) COVID-19 is poorly-adapted to human noses and throats. Until a virus bonds with a host's cells, it cannot spread.
Key policy error: the failure to shut-down air travel to and via China, once it was clear a new disease had emerged.
When a ship is holed below the waterline, sailors run to make sure every water-tight door is closed, to contain flooding and so to save the ship.
The failure to shut-down air travel, when Ebola - a highly-lethal hemorrhagic fever erupted in West Africa (2014) - nearly was catastrophic. An airline passenger from Monrovia (Liberia, one of three epicenter countries) collapsed in the airport in Lagos (Nigeria, a city of 20 million).
Nigerian officials, on the alert, at once hospitalized the man, who soon died. Nigerian officials rushed to identify and to isolate all known to have been at risk. Ebola was contained.
An air travel shut-down would have kept Ebola contained. Almost all residents of Ebola epicenter countries can't afford any airline travel.
An air travel ban to/via China would be far more disruptive. But those costs are small compared to those arising from the spread of COVID-19 as it is, let alone the costs of a virus as lethal as is Ebola.
2
Pence has said nobody can speak publicly about the new Coronavirus until he's cleared it.
The way is SHOULD be: Pence should not be allowed to speak until Pence's words are cleared by Dr. Fauci.
Pence bungled HIV/AIDS management in Indiana causing an epidemic. Instead of following the advice of public health experts Pence asserted that the solution to the HIV epidemic was "to pray on it".
The most obsequious Trump supporter is Mike Pence and that's the only criteria Trump uses in selecting his appointees. And so now we're stuck with Pence as the Coronavirus Czar and IMO the death toll will rise because of it.
4
To say "Get Ready" without calmly telling us how (washing hands? that's it?) is as irresponsible as saying "Who knows? Maybe this will all go away." The latter, however less honest, is easier on the cardiac rhythms.
3
This is an unfortunate narrative that evidently will be made into a pandemic, even if it isn't. It's election year. Trump can't be taken out by attacking him as an entity, or on his record, or even by a programmatic congressional procedure; ergo one must change the target, and attack the public environment in which he operates. It's an old technique in warfare: burn down the villages, and the fields, of the enemy, or bomb his civilian population, which is more a psychological weapon, in order to dislodge his support. Turning civilians against their leaders is classic war manual policy, and the careful use of mass media, as Goebbels perfected, is central to success.
I never thought I would hear myself say this... but I agree with Trump. The news channels and papers are blowing this all out of proportion.
Meanwhile - "As of Feb. 22, in the current season there were at least 32 million cases of flu in the United States, 310,000 hospitalizations and 18,000 flu deaths, according to the C.D.C. Hospitalization rates among children and young adults this year have been unusually high."
source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/29/health/coronavirus-flu.html (hey look, that's today)
I canceled my subscription to the NYTimes yesterday over this. Also the anti-Trump thing is getting to ridiculously childish proportions. The editorial board doesn't do any journalistic service to the world at large by continuously cultivating the readership's rancor. Every bit as bad as the red-baiting of the 1950's.
4
I agree with the Editorial Board and would add one more important piece. As experienced by recent patients placed into quarantine, a mountain of bills results. That should not be the case. Many have neither the private resources or sufficient insurance coverage to pay for that, let along high intensity care should it be necessary. Pandemic response should include finding for patient care, at last until we get a universal healthcare system.
I might add that global climate change poses a far more grave, though somewhat slower, crisis. Perhaps we could extend proactive crisis management thinking to that problem as well.
3
What all you in the real media need to do is pound Trump daily on his defunding of the CDC and the dismantling of the worldwide infectious disease surveillance network that had been in place for decades. That is the most dangerous thing Trump has done and will affect all Americans.
Trump's complete ignorance was demonstrated when he said he did not want people doing nothing and we could hire more if needed. He and his sycophantic fellow ignoramuses are completely unaware of what those people do, so claim they are "doing nothing."
I worked at CDC in the Infectious Disease Branch. I worked on the anthrax bioterrorism attack in 2001. I worked on SARS. I worked on multitudes of other outbreaks, only some of which made our national news...West Nile virus, Rift Valley Fever virus, Nipah virus, Hendra virus, Hanta Virus, Ebola virus, and innumerable other smaller outbreaks. New ones come up annually and no one knows which will "break out."
Outbreaks do not take a break to allow us to get up to speed. They start, then they spread as fast as they are able. The only thing standing in their way is people IN PLACE AND READY TO RESPOND when it happens. Trumps claim that "we will hire more people if needed" is pure ignorance. He has no idea what he is dealing with, and sadly neither do any of the yes-men he has hired. All are utterly ignorant. This really proves how utterly unfit Trump is to lead the country.
1191
@Joe Rockbottom
Except that Trump did not defund the CDC.
He's been trying for years but the Congress has blocked defunding and has called for a funding increase.
17
@Joe Rockbottom I agree with your response totally!
39
@Fourteen14
I think you are mistaken and he definitely abolished the WH advisory panel of scientists established by Obama after ebola. Of course Trump would not have listened to the experts anyway because he prefers listening to his own very smart brain.
95
As we debate local response in our clinic, we have agreed that there is no way this is not spreading across the continent. Already many new cases are unaware of their mode of contamination. Very worrisome. The best bet, it would seem, is decrease contact with others as much as possible, and abandon unhealthy life habits ASAP as these likely contribute to serious complications.
As for where the illness came from, I have seen no medically compelling indication that this is an animal-sourced illness—at least not yet. The index cases in China didn’t even go near the purported wet markets. Like all Biowarfare labs, I think Wuhan’s Level 4 lab leaked. That might explain the virus’s perfect set of attributes: deadly, but not too deadly. Extremely infectious, especially during asymptomatic incubation, which is itself among the longest lasting know for such a virus. The only thing that MIGHT have helped stem the tide would have been extremely aggressive containment immediately upon recognition. But they were a month late for that! More than 1/2 of nations on earth have cases, mostly from unexpected sources. So, sadly another example, IMHO, of government acting both badly and incompetently. So for us, besides closing things and aggressive research, not much that we can do. So, wash your hands, avoid unnecessary contact, and keep an eye on your general health!
1
@Idahodoc "A group of 27 prominent public health scientists from outside China is pushing back against a steady stream of stories and even a scientific paper suggesting a laboratory in Wuhan, China, may be the origin of the outbreak of COVID-19": https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20200222090031338
3
They should close the schools now before it is too late. This virus may already be out of the bottle but there is still a chance to contain it. But that will take bold action like we have seen in other countries. Close the schools now.
1
We need to be careful about concluding that if the virus recedes in warm weather this would "break the transmission chain." Influenza began to sweep the globe in the spring of 1918, but many cases were mild. It returned with a cruel vengeance in the fall.
2
It makes me angry to hear officials saying not to buy filter masks because they need them. For an event THEY declared inevitable, they have failed to even stockpile ample amounts of these non-perishable items that cost pennies each. Don’t lay it on us — a twelve year-old knows that masks, hand sanitizer, and toilet paper disappear from shelves when a pandemic is looming.
7
The death rate is going to be 2%. It does not really matter if it is lower. Hospitals are overwhelmed in China. Delaying the onset keeps it from peaking.
King county and areas with confirmed community cases need to close schools. It is the difference between a peak of a few thousand cases or a hundred thousand all at once.
2
If we assume for a moment, and it is an assumption absent data at this point, and say the final infection rate is similar to flu and the final mortality rate is similar to a severe flu season......
IT IS STILL a crisis, that will overwhelm the nation and the healthcare infrastructure.
Why? Because unlike seasonal flu, there are no established and proven treatments beyond supportive care, AND there is no vaccine, so normal vaccine protocols cannot largely contain it to addressable levels like we can with seasonal flu.
Until an anti-viral treatment protocol is established, it's down to ventilators and IVs.. and that is something the nations healthcare infrastructure is not prepared for at these scales.
Until a vaccine is available for wide distribution and inoculation of the public, it is foolish to keep comparing this virus in the context of seasonal flu.
5
A big irony for me concerns instructions to the public to toss used tissues into the trash. Imagine the dangers this disposal of tissues poses to various sanitation workers and janitorial workers everywhere when they handle trash receptacles and the disposable bags inside. Ever time a disposal bag is closed by the worker an aerosol is formed that can potentially release Coronavirus directly onto the worker. These folks need training and protective gear now.
1
Right now, the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. While we need honesty from all governments, and we need to take precautions, shouting that the sky is falling when we really have no idea that that is the case is irresponsible. We may have a global pandemic, or maybe we don't. Maybe coronavirus is equivalent to catching a cold or a mild flu and that only those who have pre-existing health problems will have significant health issues. We really don't know what the infection rate is or the mortality rate and we don't know that many of the precautions already taken here won't be effective even if parts of the world are more severely impacted.
But saying that we're facing an inevitable crisis isn't the right approach. Dr. Messonnier may be correct, or maybe not. But stoking fear in what may be (or may not be) a crisis isn't a good idea. We need to keep the economy functioning, we need to keep essential items (like food and vodka) available. We need to know to ensure that we have a proportional response. We don't panic every flu season even though the likelihood in the US that we could have millions of cases and thousands of deaths -- but we don't act as if the world is coming to an end.
So quit getting out over your skis, media, particularly if your primary interest in all this is criticizing Trump. Ditto pols. Let's behave like adults and not try and scare everyone to death -- ok?
2
So if I get sick, am I going to have to call around and see who has the best price for coronavirus-related care?
Then do I have to ensure that all of my coronavirus caregivers are in-network?
I'm going to do some research now to ensure that my potential ambulance ride is covered, and make sure that they are preapproved by my insurance provider.
7
The first case in the US was a man in Washington State, in the same county where the outbreak is now—Snohomish. He returned from the Wuhan area on January 15 with no symptoms. He sought care on January 19 and was sent home. He was confirmed to have it on January 20 and I assume hospitalized. If the related cases in Snohomish are only being picked up now, that is over a full month after the initial virus was spread--January 15-January 19. The first new cases in Washington were announced just this past week. It seems like many cases in the US could have spread out from this period in mid January, and only are starting to get recognized now. The question is, why did the US wait so long to start testing? Are there other areas of the US where this "slow silent spread" have happened? I know the test kits were broken, but it also seems like there was a lack of urgency to get testing up to speed.
8
"In the United States, a coming general election has politicized what should be a clear public health priority."
This is false and I expect better from the New York Times. Donald Trump has politicized this public health threat, not the election. When responsible leaders push for a science based response to this menace, Donald Trump turns the issue into a test of his manhood and in so doing trivializes and "politicizes" everything.
This is his playbook - wash, rinse repeat. The job of this newspapar is to report the facts and inform us. Please do not create false equivalencies.
9
Yeah yeah. It's another variation on the flu to me, I'm not going to be impressed until it hits a million dead, and it really isn't going to do that in the first round. I remember the crazed panic about SARS too, and guess what, that turned out to be nothing at all. Ebola made more sense to panic over, and like most people, I don't know anyone who was affected by that.
Y'all should realize that something this panic is generating is intense racism towards Asians, because Americans tend to react to things with racism. The more the media pushes how terrifying this minor virus is, the more people avoid, verbally abuse, and even physically attack Asian-Americans.
So my reaction to this media-hyped senseless panic is not going to be buying a thousand face masks or becoming a hermit. I'm going to go to mainly Asian restaurants and businesses as much as I can, go shopping in Chinatown and so on, trying to do my part to combat the racist avoidance that is going on. And I'm going to apologize to Asian-Americans for how badly they're being treated, again, by foolish, racist Americans.
7
You failed to address authoritarian governments and their approach to making sure they look like, to the world, that everything is peachy.
The swift sharing of scientific data are key. Even Trump has decided that Pence and Co. will need to clear all press releases.
We see the influenza of 1918-1919 as a model for much of the pandemic predictions, and one of the firt parts of the analysis is that governments, at war or close to it, altered the truth and its dissemination in order to not show any weaknesses to their enemies.
1
Donald G. McNeil Jr.'s "To Take On the Coronavirus, Go Medieval on It" NYTimes - Feb. 28, 2020, was an intellectually superior response to Corona Virus than was this editorial.
He gave the President his due and he gave America the benefit of his years of science reporting - sans partisan politics.
Unrestricted globalism will spread a pandemic faster than any type of nationalism. Singing Kumbaya will not make us safer. At moments like this, containment and quarantine will ultimately save lives.
The NYTimes should realize just how dangerous this situation is, accept the President we have, and try to be of help. If there have been cuts to programs aimed at readiness, we can fix that. But don't blame Trump for Coronavirus - unless however you're willing to accept the blame for the idiocy of globalism which has placed the overwhelming majority of the necessary supply chain needed to fight a pandemic on someone else's shores.
2
Dr. Fauci was interviewed by Chris Mathews and explicitly stated he was NOT being muzzled. Surely you knew this but decided to perpetuate the falsehood. I don’t always agree with the Editorial Board but have never questioned its integrity. Not anymore.
7
What else could he say? Employees in every work environment know that they cannot make public statements without prior approval from their administrators and have to sign documents to that effect. However, at times like this, scientists and public health officials should be given more leeway in order to gain public trust and avoid the appearance of hiding details. They should be trusted to do their work diligently as they have many times in the past. Politics has nothing to do with it.
3
@Kevin
Yes, because Fauci was telling the truth, right?
The NYT did not invent the fact that the administration publicly stated that all government health information must be run through Pence.
3
Talk about politicizing Corona virus. The Federal government is not “recently” unprepared, but rather has not been prepared for quite some time under the leadership of Dr. Fauci and other long-serving leaders of NIH and CDC. And regardless of what is not understood about the modes of transmission, what is clear is that people are certainly one proven vector. Rejecting travel restrictions while promoting social distancing is simply a scientifically inconsistent view. Many of us recall the resistance to contact tracing -based on pure politics - during the early days of HIV. That didn’t turn out well, nor will blocking restrictions based on politics assist us now. When the editorial board is so consumed with their own politics, reason is the primary casualty.
5
We are not testing anything close to a reasonable number of Americans. The number of reported cases is low because of this, not because we have few people in the US affected by coronavirus. We had better get on it and fast, before it gets away from us.
6
Why did Rhode Island, the latest petri dish, make feverish attempts to contact all the people whose path crossed the latest case in the US but test only those who were symptomatic? That IS the problem, that we're not tracking properly - is it because we're so woefully behind that we don't have enough kits that work properly? And if so, can't we get them from Germany or Japan?
Why aren't we at least taking the temperatures of plane passengers returning to the US from infected areas in France and Italy? Can't the governors who pulled together to save climate change do the same for coronavirus? Can't we have voting by mail for the election in November - cheaper, more secure, and requires no gatherings at the polls or disinfecting machines for every vote?
7
There is another danger.
On sites like Politico, Hufpo, and even the NYT, there are people posting that there is nothing to worry about. That the whole thing is a Democratic plot to unseat Trump. They cite the miniscule numbers in the US now, implying that our current stats will not rise. They ridicule anyone expressing worry about the virus, and especially anyone with doubts about the ability of Trump to handle the situation.
In short, they are a public menace to any attempts to prepare.
Their disinformation appears to be working. I have never been a good preparer for "disasters". I never have anything stockpiled for potential electric outages. This time, I was determined to make sure my house had nonperishables, a good supply of tylenol and other cold medicines, and tissues. I went to my locals supermarket. I chatter with a couple store employees- including the pharmacist (as you need to go to the counter to buy sudafed). They told me they haven't noticed anyone stocking up on anything.
This is a very bad sign.
9
Here’s a good point to remember regarding Pence. He, and many others, have a skewed view of reality given their end times religious views. I know of some who share this view. When something like this happens their first reaction is-- the bible predicted it and -- Jesus is that much closer to returning for us. It's why they don't care one way or the other about climate change either. Some say well the bible said the earth and its riches has been given to us by god to do with as we please and if our actions cause negative consequences it all works for the good of those who love god anyways, so no biggie. Sounds crazy but that's how they think.
11
18,000 have died from influenza this season alone. Nearly 13,000 Americans died of H1N1 flu in Obama’s first year in office; a distinct infection from ordinary flu. Three years ago, more than 60,000 died in the US due to influenza.
In the last two decades we were also supposed to panic about Avian Flu; Swine Flu; SARS; MERS; Zika virus; West Nile virus; Ebola... not to mention bacterial scourges like MRSA and tuberculosis. Every year, a new pandemic is on the verge of ending civilization.
I’m not dismissing COVID-19. But it’s too soon to declare a pandemic.
3
@Keith Colonna A pandemic just means the disease is found worldwide. This is unfortunately true of COVID-19.
3
@Keith Colonna
Are you a doctor?
A nurse?
Someone who works in medical research?
A government employee involved in public health?
If not, why should you consider your opinion over that of the CDC and world medical officials who have already deemed the situation a pandemic?
4
Shore up local public health departments and local hospitals that will bear the brunt of handling the pneumonia cases.
6
Distressing, but not surprising, that the virus is being politicized just like everything else seems to be these days.
Can anything ever not be political?
5
And can anything ever not be caused by global warming?
1
I've heard of a few, younger, very healthy men in recent months who ended up in the hospital with flu like symptoms that were so bad they almost didn't make it. They were in the hospital for days. I remember how strange I thought this was and wondered if it was something new out there. Maybe a coincidence. Just got to keep on trying to deal with this.
5
Trump is responsible for weakening our public health infrastructure. This is a fact. Republicans don’t believe in public health as a function of the federal government. Whether this spirals out of control or not, we should hold them responsible, kick them out, and put in a government that acts in the public interest.
23
Interesting that you write this--"By 2018, that progress had been undone. The office was disbanded and the funds were rescinded" in passive voice, as if it happened all by itself. You know who did it--why not say so?
22
@Mark
They are justifiably shy about giving the man more reactive fodder to ply his fake news memes and general grievances.
he lives for this stuff....so best not to feed him if possible.
2
When is G-d going to be factored into the situation. a virus is a creation of his, as much as a human being. No person goes before his time, even if it appears completely accidental, a traffic accident or an overwhelming infection.
1
@Ann in that case, since G-d created everything and all things, including evil, it makes no sense to even acknowledge it or try to prevent it, since no one has any control at all. I'm a seminary student, and I say that attitude is a huge cop-out.
1
@Ann
God helps those who help themselves.
And, he has given each of us free will.
Therefore, we should prepare for the potential that "His" virus is quite bad.
If we followed your predestination nonsense, humans would do nothing to prepare for anything. Heck, why eat? You'll only starve to death "if its your time".
2
Nationalism and science denial in our national leadership is making a doomsday epidemic more likely. Too many voters, unfortunately mostly Republicans, are counting on the End Times and the Second Coming to alter the outcome.
We absolutely must have the kind of leader in the White House to steer this country out of the swamp we're in.
A favorite quote: "The water won't clear up until we get them hogs outta the creek." - Jim Hightower.
Vote Blue No Matter Who.
17
There are now over 3000 cases in Daegu, most linked to the South Korean cult that compels attendance at crowded observances.
It has now been reported by CNN, citing Kim Shin-Chang, "Director of International Missions" for the cult, that they have 357 members from Wuhan -- the official epicenter where SARS-CoV-2 was first spotted by the discerning ophthalmologist who sounded the alarm & himself eventually succumbed to the disease.
While Mr. Kim of course rejects any suggestion that the strict rules & demands of his sect have created a public health crisis at least in his own country, he does admit that members from Wuhan visited Daegu. Clearly, more contact tracing might reveal more.
But just as with 1918 Spanish flu the contagion did not actually start in Spain, we may still need to invest more time into research to fully elucidate the etiology of this epidemic in the Far East.
It is a positive development that the Chinese government has at long last banned the trade in wildlife, the consumption of exotic meats & even the eating of cats & dogs.
Although more & more people reject the eating of dogs, there are places & homes in South Korea where the eating of dogs is still practiced. It would be interesting to study if any members of the Daegu cult also practiced cooking & eating dogs -- and if they ever had communal meals.
4
@Maria Ashot
Why are you convinced that the eating of dogs has anything to do with the corona virus?
Do you have actual scientific evidence, or are you using this disease as a way to promote your belief that people should not eat dogs?
1
Trump has already tipped his hand about how he will play this new threat to his reelection: Blame the Democrats and the media for using the virus threat to take him down. As this crisis worsens, he is certain to accuse his political enemies of undermining his "tremendous" efforts. From what we know of Trump's record, he is less likely to foster cooperation at home and abroad than he is to seed more divisiveness, to attack all adversaries as his customary way of deflecting from his own incompetence and mismanagement.
13
The Trump administration, the GOP and MAGATS will remain in denial and reactive until they are personally threatened either politically, economically or personally.
7
I’m curious: In the private quarters of the WH, with whom and about what is trump talking regarding his and his familiy’s protection from the virus?
Is he getting advice, medicine, equipment, from Dr. Fauci, the CDC, NIH, the WHO kept from the public? Or are he and his loved ones being told to throughly wash their hands and avoid folks who are sneezing and coughing without more?
7
@Regards, LC
I do not know from any first hand information.
But, due to observing 3 years of Trump's Presidency, 30+ of his behavior as a private citizen, and his ordering all governmental persons to run all information about the virus through Pence first, I am nonetheless absolutely certain that Trump and his family know more about the virus and have everything they need to prevent their catching it. Much more than the rest of us have.
After all, Trump is a notorious germaphobe.
2
Why do I still see a photograph of two women at JFK wearing masks but not gloves??!! It is critical that we place a barrier between our hands and every surface in public places. Not latex gloves -- just gloves, wool, leather, cotton, doesn't matter. Each of us must prevent the virus from finding a warm, moist home. Also, breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth. No brainer. The hair follicles in your nose are designed to protect you.
Yes, training for an outbreak is critical. Each of us can do the basics to fight the virus.
4
@Christine A Roux
No, what is critical is that people learn and practice NOT putting hands anywhere near their faces when outside the home. Period.
Gloves will not protect the average user, because the virus may be relayed by hand, but does not infect through the hand. All a glove does is provide an additional surface to pick up the virus and then transmit it to your face where it can easily infect you.
Please.. people.. start demonstrating some common sense and actually listen to what health agencies are advising, and not advising. Health agencies are advising proper hand hygiene practices, and proper avoidance of contact of hands to face until they are fully and properly disinfected with soap and water hand wash.
@Christine A Roux
Why?
Because our national government has dropped the ball.
1
Here comes the Coronavirus pandemic and there goes our president treating it as a personal nuisance, totally obsessed with how it may reflect on his image. This is a presidency at the abyss and a nation in peril.
15
If, as the president believes, windmills cause cancer (whrrr whrrr whrrr) it should only be a few more days until he declares solar panels caused the coronavirus. I'm looking forward to hearing what sound a solar panel makes.
9
You are getting to sound like Fox News, ie spreading fear, panic, misinformation.
Climate change extremists can be just as wrong as climate deniers. You can abuse anything including motherhood, apple pie and science and all three have been abused in the past.
In the very unlikely event this virus turns out to be a real calamity like the 1918 flu it is not because you said it, it is because of events beyond our control to predict it or treat it.
3
How do you know it is beyond our control to predict or treat?
6
@mmk thank you for your reply. While we certainly have made great strides re epidemics since the black plague in the Middle Ages, nevertheless these plagues continue to haunt us .
We can take measures to best control it and treat the worst of it but usually we have to wait till it takes it course.
It is very. much like forest fires. We can do our best to alleviate the worst outcomes but you can't fight mother nature and the fire will run its course till it burns out.
That is what I mean when I say it is beyond our control to predict or treat. We can only do damage control and try not to make it worse.,
1
@Paul
What are your medical bonafides to challenge what's in the article? If you really think its inaccurate, provide some links to reputable sites.
Frankly, I don't think you have bona fides, and have not researched the virus. Instead, you have a personal gut feeling about things. Such is not sufficient to publicly post against those trying to get people information they need, so that they prepare.
In short, you are a danger to the public's health.
1
Simply put ... whenever you dodge a bullet, one should take warning and learn from it, because the next time you may not dodge that bullet. This is something we all know to be self-evident and yet seldom follow.
6
Interesting that we can spend trillions on an over-defense against military action that might harm us but spend only several billion on under-defending ourselves against an enemy that is killing us in the here and now. Military defense of the body against what might be vs healthcare defense of the body against what is. We may have the most intelligent creatures that ever walked the earth among us but we sure have the dumbest as well.
11
We'll all be exposed eventually.
Best comment I’ve read, from University of Queensland professor Ian Mackay who said it was ¬unrealistic to expect that the COVID-19 virus could be contained.
“It doesn’t look like this virus is ever going to go back in its box,… so we’re likely to have an ¬endemic virus, or a virus that’s just with us for life. “
We already have four of these coronaviruses, mostly causing colds. We get them every year.
So it’s likely this might become one of those….. at some point in the coming months or years we’re all going to get infected because we’ve all been infected by these other endemic viruses”.
2
Thinking of the 2009 movie "The Happening", where everything collapses after a global virus overcomes incompetent leadership.
2
So, the Editorial Board states: “Mr. Trump has requested from Congress only $2.5 billion to address Covid-19 — far less than the $15 billion that experts say is needed. ...”
I’m sorry, but what experts haven’t over asked for funding and resources when ever there’s a crisis?
I would expect the Board and the NYTs to do better job of assessing the situation rather than just make it seem like such a stark contrast.
2
If an outbreak occurs here it is likely it will hit densely populated cities and the coasts first. Anyone that doesn't think this will be spun in to a failure of liberal elites and another catastrophe due to immigrants is not thinking things through. This administration will not only avoid any blame for its complete incompetence it will weaponize this tragedy into a political win.
8
Bingo, although as some red states watch blue states incubate a disease that will come their way, a blame-game attitude just might cost Trump re-election. Some of his supporters may not be as cruel and venal as he is.
3
The lack of paid sick leave in the United States is going to make this a lot worse.
A lot of jobs, particularly in low-wage jobs that involve working with the public: e.g. retail, restaurant, hospitality, etc do not provide sick leave
People who work these jobs frequently come into work sick because if you don't work you don't get paid and you need every dollar you can get--bills don't magically stop becoming due because you are sick.
Combining people coming into work sick with working with the public is going to make this very difficult to contain.
8
How long before Dr. Messonier if fired or forced to resign? Dr. Fauci may be safe because he won’t appear on the Sunday talk shows, but what does that say about him?
3
The President first moves were pulling out of the Paris agreement and the Iran Nuclear agreement. Our new budget is laden with new nuclear weapons, the weaponizing of space and new supersonic weapons
Our Vice President and Secretary of State believe in the Rapture.
The President doesn't know it but his very loyal administration is preparing for the end of times.
8
Unfortunately Trump blames Bill Gates for creating the virus.
1
These are all good suggestions, thanks, and this article was also specifically informative:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/29/health/coronavirus-flu.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
HOWEVER, as surely many will and have complained...how, how has Donald Trump made this, also this, about him??? Its an outrage! POTUS has set this up as a competition between him and media, him and the left, him vs conspirators.
Surely he has received criticism. Surely the virus may be more or less devastating, yet unknown. So what? He deserves criticism for purging expertise, jettisoning preparedness, etc, etc. He deserves criticism for making claims experts disavow. So what? ANY other president would have moved on by now (or not jettisoned the experts to begin with). ANY other President, when faced with similar criticism, would have taken the opportunity to rebut any misconceived criticism by accurately educating the public. I am so thoroughly disgusted that he’s politicized even this, as an opportunity to even further divide our country, such that I find myself almost (almost) hoping for a viral armageddon just to demonstrate his wrongness, his thorough wrongness. How warped!
3
Which party said anything political about the coronavirus? Yes, Republicans. I know Trump’s initial briefing included digs about the Democratic party describing the coronavirus a “hoax”. He also said the Democratic debate was partially responsible. Shorty after that news conference, Donald jr. lit into the Democratic Party for politicizing the virus. But who else, and especially which Democrat, (or media source) made the point that the coronavirus was a political issue other than the Trumps?
7
50% of Humans are below average. Add to that, selfish, shallow and frightened.
They also seem to be the ones in charge...
5
Epidemiologist: This is just the tip of the iceberg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7qS-CjZfYY&t=3s
The first death let's us know about how long the virus has been out in the public... already about 3-5 weeks. How many people have been infected during that time that we aren't tracking yet?
Spring Break is coming. Spring Break spans late February to mid-April, with March being the peak period. People from all over the country coming to a central location. Micro swim suits, beer and coronavirus masks.
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For those who mention China should regulate its wildlife markets, I think you've made a valid point. However, just FYI, "China just banned the trade and consumption of wild animals" (https://www.businessinsider.com/china-bans-wildlife-trade-consumption-coronavirus-2020-2). I'm curious how this has gone largely unreported in MSM. (not to say all MSM, NYT did had a low-key piece earlier.)
4
Having read many articles about the virus (NOT op-eds, and not anti-Trump rants), I'm wondering...
Washington State researchers think the virus may have been circulating in that state for 6 weeks or so. Could the same be true in California?
Plenty of people where I live travel regularly to and from China.
Back in mid January I had a very unusual (for me) cold--no runny nose, lots of coughing, and it lasted two weeks. I'm in my 70's.
Could I have had the virus in January? From what I've been reading lately, 85% of those infected have mild symptoms similar to mine.
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@Garagesaler: Have you been vaccinated for pneumonia?
So how do we address the matter of our homeless and other marginal groups of individuals on our streets.
Are there plans to detain and/ or isolate these folks in light of the contagious nature of the virus??
Going to be interesting to see what happens in California in this regard since they appear to be our epicenter at this juncture.
Thoughts??
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@DAWGPOUND HAR
Why should we violate their constitutional rights with unlawful detention?
Housing and medical care would be better, but the Trump administration does not have the humanity to do it.
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@Oceanviewer
So if a quarantine is ordered, folks with marginal lives who live on the streets should stay put??
Not going to happen!!
We will see.
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It’s all marketing; this thing is highly contagious but otherwise no different from other severe flus.
The media wants to compare it to the 1918 Spanish flu, but there are stark differences. The 1918 plague hit those with healthy immune systems especially hard, as if reacting to the antibodies attacking it. This explains the massive death toll; the more one’s immune system responded, the harder it hit.
Coronavirus seems to have little impact on healthy populations - which has no doubt led to underreporting and a huge upward bias in the mortality rate.
The way this virus acts also makes it virtually impossible to contain; it’s really comical to read all the hokum about “managing” an outbreak of this kind. It’s reminiscent of the calls to “do something” about Global Warming. We have no control over these things. But human nature forces us to act as if we’re somehow in charge.
2
@Skinny J: I think many people behave as if God is in charge.
@Skinny J, yeah, maybe. You have zero independent figures, and yet you want to make quantitative statistical statements. In the business, that's known as fakery.
1
It needs to be shouted from the rooftops that Trump’s decisions have made us significantly less prepared to deal with what’s coming than we would have been before he took office. We need to hold him accountable.
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The NYT and other News outlets need to face the fact that the reported numbers of cases around the world are completely inaccurate. Time to stop reporting this virus as if it is not EVERYWHERE already. This is so obvious.
People don't even know that they have it or had it. It is better now for people to be prepared than scared. It looks like it will be mild for most of us. Accept that it is here and in every community. Make sure you are up to date on your prescriptions and take care of yourself.
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@Dr. Girl
You may be right. You may be wrong.
NOBODY knows yet.
Best to stick with known facts, and then continue to expand on the "known" part of facts as they are revealed.
And.. current data indicates that 1 in 5 people who become infected will have serious side effects and need prompt supportive care in a medical facility to prevent death due to complications. I would not consider this a "most" will have a mild case scenario.... because nobody knows until after the fact who is the 1 in 5.
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@Chuck
How does it end up in a nursing home in Washington, if it has not already passed around that community? A high school? Evidence suggests that we are only seeing the more serious cases. The current numbers do not match the reality of where they are seeing unconnected cases. This is common sense. They never stopped it. It got here and has been here for longer than they first thought.
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@Dr. Girl
So should we all stay home for a month or two? That sounds like being prepared and being scared.
Or should we just wash our hands and not worry? That sounds like neither.
10
We have a vaccine for the flu, and still millions get infected every year, tens of thousands die. Mostly the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions, especially those with compromised immune systems or already less than optimally functioning cardiopulmonary systems. Always been that way, like it or not Mother Nature's infectious diseases prune the already sickest folks first.
In a country with a huge swath of the populace prone to anti-vaxxer conspiracy theories and somehow suspicious of science (while they drive cars and fly in planes, use electricity and computers and cellphones without a 2nd though!), how is a new vaccine going to work? If warm weather peters out the spread of the virus, so what? There's the southern hemisphere, we know the pattern from the good old fashioned influenza virus(es).
Yes, it's a pandemic. It was one a couple weeks ago, the WHO is always a day late and a dollar short. And we're woefully unprepared compared to other countries, our testing numbers are orders of magnitude less. In a country that basically invented genetic engineering, now taken over by hedge funds looking to charge Americans 5 figures plus for the newest "biologic" pharmaceuticals for their chronic diseases. Not so much profits in one time cures or preventions like vaccines. Every day now we'll be reading about a new cluster of cases somewhere, yesterday Seattle, today San Antonio.
Things are worse than it appears. AOA physician with a degree in bioengineering.
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@Ignatius J. Reilly, I need to correct you about your contention that virus’s always affect the elderly and immunity compromised. The Spanish flu was most devastating to the healthiest people in the prime of their lives. Likewise with some exceptions the AIDS virus.
Who knows how long this has been drifting around.
3 weeks before the virus news broke, a friend came down with a cough and low-grade fever.
She thought this odd because she had not had a cold in 3 years, when she started including probiotic yogurt in her diet.
Given the timing, she naturally wonders if she didn't have a mild C virus.
1
Maybe the US should start a global research fund. 100 billion? We can start labs in dozens of countries and hopefully prevent serious pandemics in the future.
3
History does not repeat itself, but it often echoes extremely loudly—and still goes unheard.
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Trump is ignoring the lessons of 1918 flu pandemic that killed millions, historian says [WASHINGTONPOST]
Now, as fears about the coronavirus spread, at least one historian is worried the Trump administration is failing to heed the lesson of one of the world’s worst pandemics: Don’t hide the truth.
The Spanish flu had a mortality rate of 2 percent — much higher than seasonal influenza strains, and similar to some early estimates about the coronavirus.
The Spanish flu killed more than 50 million people -- at a time when the world's population was around 1.8 billion. This death toll included more than 675,000 Americans. ... The flu outbreak hit the City of Brotherly Love a couple of days later, ultimately killing some 12,000 people in about six weeks.
The planet's population today is 7.7 billion. X 2%
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@Pray for Help
Recommended reading...
The article on this page entitled "How Does the Coronavirus compare With the Flu"
Knowledge like this may help control hysteria.
@Pray for Help
Sadly, as we all know, hiding the truth is the sine qua non of the Trump Administration.
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Is this new pandemic worse than, say, the flu that comes through with a new strain every few years? (e.g. Hong Kong flu etc.) It seems we really do not know how many flu cases there are each year in the US nor # of deaths linked with the flu. The CDC says 61,000 flu linked deaths in 2018. But we really don't know (particularly in the elderly and already in-firmed). The numbers available right now, particularly in China do not seem to be a huge difference for the flu or coronavirus? That would be good to know to understand the threat we are dealing with. Is the corona virus epidemic today worse than the flu "we know"? by how much?
@PH The flu cases per year in the U.S. are in the millions. If and when this virus reaches that many people, the number of deaths will outstrip the flu by an order of magnitude.
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@ondelettei I..we dont see the numbers in china telling us that. There are not 'impressive ' scary nos. of deaths. Its not being reported in China right now. It seems china does have a very very sizable no of cases... but flu like mortality
what this should say is the government should contract with private companies to manage defenses toward potential epidemic and cut out the red tape the cdc, headed by physicians, blotched the testing process, which is just a simple laboratory protocol. The FDA interfered further in allowing other avenues of testing without following obtuse protocols. there are many commercial suppliers with substantial expertise of pcr kits and other companies involved in diagnostics. Those should be on contract and retainer to be able to act immediately if there is an epidemic. The government head of these operations (currently Pence, Azar and Fauci) should be able to identify red tape and remove it despite all the push back they would receive in the news media. Extra funding is not necessarily the answer, but good management is. And good management never takes place in the public sector. This also shows the government should not be involved in something as complex as health care.
@sh Your everything for profit model is why we are most expensive in the world for #38 ranking for outcomes.The best ranked healthcare are not for profit managed by "we the People",not the hedge funds on Wall Street.
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The source of this China Wuhan coronavirus outbreak remains an unknown. In other words, whether this China Wuhan coronavirus has its origin in animals is not established.
As we think about the best candidates to put into political office in the 2020 election, let us hope that one lesson that can be taken from watching what may become a global pandemic explode is to value transparency, truth, and competence over policy.
We spend so much time evaluating candidates for executive positions at local, state, and federal levels on their policy positions when most of those require legislation, the province of legislators not executives. What is primarily required of executives is leadership and competent execution of government responsibilities.
Leadership and competent execution of government responsibilities along with truthfulness has been in dangerous short supply from the Trump administration. The few competent administrators, advisors, and others or those sometimes referred to as "the adults in the room" are gone. They have been replaced by the present cast of patients now in charge of this asylum.
It is time to replace them up and down the administrative chain with competent administrators and leaders. It is likely too late to save us from the consequences of this pandemic, but not too late to put us in a better position to cope with the next one. Let's get it done this November.
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Trump is ignoring the lessons of 1918 flu pandemic that killed millions, historian says [MSN]
The first wave wasn’t that bad. In the spring of 1918, a new strain of influenza hit military camps in Europe on both sides of World War I. Soldiers were affected, but not nearly as severely as they would be later.
Even so, Britain, France, Germany and other European governments kept it secret. They didn’t want to hand the other side a potential advantage.
Spain, on the other hand, was a neutral country in the war. When the disease hit there, the government and newspapers reported it accurately. Even the king got sick. So months later, when a bigger, deadlier wave swept across the globe, it seemed like it had started in Spain, even though it hadn’t. Simply because the Spanish told the truth, the virus was dubbed the “Spanish flu.”
Now, as fears about the coronavirus spread, at least one historian is worried the Trump administration is failing to heed the lesson of one of the world’s worst pandemics: Don’t hide the truth.
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@Pray for Help The media should refer to this as the "Trump Pandemic"
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There are millions of people living in poverty in this country; and for many, purchasing hand sanitizer, especially at what seems to be today’s inflated prices, is not in the cards.
Although, it would benefit us all if they did, doing so might mean forgoing a bus ride to work, or a snack for a homeless person.
Does the government have a plan for dealing with this inconvenient reality?
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@Oceanviewer Hand sanitizer is a last resort, washing hands is always preferable. Homeless people invariably have problems with hygiene, not just their hands but keeping their bodies clean in general.
In many cases this is because of a logic almost identical to that against needle exchanges. Just like local governments convince themselves that needle exchanges encourage or endorse addiction, they convince themselves that permanent facilities for hygiene for the homeless somehow encourage homelessness.
So we have a choice. Face the truth or get sick. Maybe this will change some attitudes in local government.
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This is a time for the men and women of science and public health to take the lead and not ignorant politicians who only worry about their political futures and financial fortunes and can only give us their prayers and good thoughts.
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Whatever should be done to combat and thwart the spread of the coronavirus, expect the Trump crime syndicate to do the exact opposite. That’s how they do business. If it affected wealthy White men from the Upper East Side, Trump would be more responsive. But he sees this as an effective way to thin out the underclass, so his tepid, misguided response is completely predictable.
10
Sad but true.
1
Having made over 10,000 phone calls and thousands of door knocks the main question I usual face is, "Will ______ raise my taxes?"
We had a Revolution over taxation.
As long as that household feels fine, they don't care.
Americans care until they have to pay.
It's all about personal freedom.
2
Throughout this all, I keep thinking about the saying, “A chain’s strength is only as strong as its weakest link.”
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I note with curious dismay that this very well thought out opinion piece leaves out ( except for one side note regarding Vice President, then Governor, Pence) one pandemic virus in its list of those for which the response was late or inadequate... the AIDS virus. Why was that virus not worthy of inclusion in the list?
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“[Trump] has also made some curious personnel choices in recent days...” Here are the answers to your curiosity: 1) Trump has created a fall guy by putting Pence in charge; 2) He is muzzling Fauci to control the narrative. Both are classic authoritarian moves, designed to protect the person in charge, not the people.
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You have just won the most astute comments prize for this editorial.
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@A Thinker, Not a Chanter. Pence is the "human shield".
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Now we will see whose "fire drills" are effective or just lame PR for public consumption. I certainly hope that our STATE governments are more effective than the federal abomination.
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This virus will hurt Trump supporters the most. The style over substance effort by Trump is self defeating. Bush learned this the hard way. I guess the death of thousands of Trump supporters will be the only way they learn. I don't mean Trump will learn, but the dead supporters won't vote for him again.
3
In the spirit of accuracy, Fauci, at a press conference, did say he’s not being squelched. Of course it could be he said that because he was standing next to Trump. And god knows we can’t afford to have Fauci fired (can you believe I have to write that?). We can only hope he was being truthful.
Secondly, not a great idea to show people wearing masks, without clarifying that disease experts do not recommend that, unless you’re the sick one.
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So many lessons to be learned ... where to begin?
Here are two:
* Animal agriculture is a clear and present danger to humanity and the planet.
* Governments that attempt to "muzzle" experts are a clear and present danger to democracy.
And on, and on....
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@CB Evans it was not animal agriculture that cause
this outbreak. it was people eating wild animals
kept and killed in unsanitary conditions in china's wet markets that did. Just like the SARS outbreak.
3
Trump has the ability to commit a selfless act and a win in this situation. It is a simple one and requires his dismissal of the ship of fools he chose to initially run the effort to control the virus in America. It would mean sending the Vice President, the lawyers and the investment bankers back to their regular jobs. He needs to hire an epidemiologist with a following that the citizens will believe. Trump then needs to do the impossible and shut his mouth and stop tweeting and allow that individual to do his/her job leading the effort to control the virus in the United States. Rather than going to his usual "gut instinct" which is often proven wrong, he needs to let that person get the job done, even if he doesn't like the optics for himself. Of course with Trump, that will never happen, hence the market will continue to drop and people will continue to panic. Truly this is his Waterloo, his Katrina and while Rome burns, Trump will fiddle.
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@ Bill-
You (or anyone) shouldn’t waste your time posting a list of things Trump should do if he were smart, because smart is one thing Trump is not.
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Burying ones head in the sand may actually protect one from the virus.
2
Finally, intelligent comments regarding the Coronavirus.
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Calling a spade a spade would be a start. Trump and the GOP are in denial. To them, the coronavirus pandemic is a hoax-it has spread to 46 countries out of 180 already, science and medicine is a hoax, climate change is a hoax,the 15 percent stock correction last week is a hoax, and gun deaths are a hoax. Trump and his party in live in denial of all reality and in ignorance.Trump's incompetence is total. He is clueless. News outlets across the world are simply broadcasting coronavirus news, and he blames the media. He is now using coronavirus as an excuse to restrict travel from muslim countries, and block immigrants-although americans who never travelled anywhere and may not even be in any contact with an immigrant, have caught the virus. Trump and the GOP have wanted to shutdown the cdc,nih, and who, and end all foreign aid, after slashing the aid-all this while. So poor countries with non-existent health care are now a breeding ground for coronavirus.
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I never thought I’d reach this extreme, but here we are. To save the world, simply vote a straight Democratic ticket this November.
No one who classifies as a Republican is fit for public office; not for dog catcher.
A third party vote is a vote for Trump.
Do not be lulled into thinking Trump is only supported by by ignorant yokels. The 0.1% are delighted with Trump and McConnell, and would be tickled pink to get Speaker McCarthy.
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@ Awestruck-
Amen, a million times over, amen.
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Why does Dr. Anthony Fauci, a renowned medical expert, allow himself to be muzzled by Trump, a pathological liar? Even Trump’s devout fans know he’s a liar. Americans need a spokesperson we can trust. Mindful of not causing unnecessary panic, Dr. Fauci and the expert’s should be in charge, not Trump, who is just mindful of his own political future.
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@Barbara Maybe Dr. Fauci would rather keep his job, instead of having it handed over to one of Trump's unqualified cronies.
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@Barbara Because he will get fired, that's why.
A nation with over 60% of its citizens enjoying all the dubious benefits of obesity and morbid obesity, with a food supply tainted by untold amounts of corn sugar and fructose. A population that enjoys nothing so much as sessile behaviors and has made the electric shopping cart a quaint natonal symbol. One who dares to criticise any of these monstrous evolutions is immediately subject to the opprobrium of the Politically Correct for such crimes as fat-shaming. Health is not priority one in the USA, surprise. Money-making and shopping are, however. Observe the sheer idiocy and lack of knowledge surrounding the "official response" to coronavirus because it will tell you everything about how America is now a third-world country in many ways.
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Why the eagle? I don’t get it, maybe I’m missing some obvious meaning. Why not the globe instead? That would be a more appropriate illustration to go with the medical paraphernalia.
The White House medical professionals yesterday said "the American public needs to go on with their normal lives" and "the risk is low."
Perhaps the risk is low, like a hurricane that is six days out and heading our way kind of low?
2
This New York Times editorial puts the 'elephant in the room' in sharp relief. To quote: "[Coronavirus] has now infected more than 83,000 people across more than 50 countries. Nearly 3,000 people have died."
Which is another way of saying, especially if you read today's Nicholas Kristof column as a companion piece to this one, so far, the coronavirus is not truly at 'pandemic' levels...yet. When the human toll rises by a magnitude of a couple more decimal points---say, 80-million infected, 3-million dead---then we'll be talking serious pandemic.
Until then, caution, forebearance and common sense should be the order of the day. Alarmism and hysteria---something mainstream media has done much to promulgate---does no one any favors.
I would suggest everyone to watch contagion, the movie. Eery similarities !
1
It appears Mother Nature may have her own economics ideas on how to deal with the planetary climate debacle: If you humans don't start burning less carbon and stop ruining the oasis I created for you, my solution is cut down on the number of humans burning fossil fuel in the first place.
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Just note if you think the government response has been tremendously positive then you can have comfort in the funding and handling our medical systems once government controls all payments (once you control all payments, you are the healthcare system).
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‘Government’ is us. Stopping the thinking that our government as some sort of entity that’s separate from the people is the first step. If we want a government that is effective we need to own that fact. The ‘us versus them’ mentality is hurtful and won’t help anything. We can make the government anything we want to; we cannot control corporate interests in the same way. That’s why healthcare provided by for profit corporations is so ineffective and expensive.
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A functioning government:
1. Would have optimized the 6 weeks of "learning time" afforded by China's catastrophic experience.
2. Would task trusted experts with delivering frequent updates to reassure concerned Americans.
3. Would be ready to spring into action with world-class protocols, procedures, staffing plans, equipment and medications.
4. Would assemble a taskforce of experts -- men AND women to manage the crisis. For "Thinking" American women, yesterday's photo of Mike Pence's male-only task force strips all outcomes, decisions & go-forward plans of any credibility. Period.
How many deaths will it take before we accept the reality that this government’s disdain for expertise, dismissal of science, reverence for greed, disrespect for women, and general ineptitude is bad for America?
12
My hospital issued info ( on internal website available to employees only) about personal protective equipment (PPE) shortage, they removed masks designated for patients and families from lobby and patient’s rooms. Security guards are going to screen visitors for signs of respiratory infections and issue masks if necessary! Wa are also informed that we should stay home if sick. Problem is not only with looming Covid-19 epidemics here, but with broken chain of supplies due to epidemics in China. Clearly it will negatively effect whole healthcare in this country due to shortage of essential supplies and necessity of rationing healthcare.
4
"Rampant misinformation and growing skepticism of science are imperiling public understanding of the crisis and governments’ response to it."
This is the Republican playbook for how to deal with a national health crisis. They could be getting military doctors ready to help patients across the US as China did, getting funding to local health departments, and making COVID-19 testing free to people so they actually can get tested.
10
If you are sick with any contageous illness, wear a mask. That should have been emphasized by Trump and Pence. It's not just for the corona virus but it works for those with the flu or measles, etc. Don't spread your germs around with coughs and handshakes.
Unlike in Japan where wearing masks is socially required when sick, there is a reluctance here, even an aversion to wearing masks. Is it vanity or not caring for others if they get your disease?
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This rule must be enforced in the workplace and in clinics.
Personally, I know of a large clinic here in CA that was very quick to post prominent signs warning patients not to enter if they had cold or flu symptoms, or had recently visited China.
Still, uncovered sneezers touched doorknobs and walked down the hallways along with everyone else, medical personnel and patients alike.
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Yes, and they are the ONLY people who should logically be wearing the masks.
It is not said nearly often enough that infection by inhalation is a very very small possibility. The droplets from sneezes and coughs are in the air for seconds.
The overwhelming majority of transmission occurs from contacting surfaces where those droplets have landed and the virus remains viable for hours.
So the well are wearing masks as a placebo. Most aren’t on or fit properly anyway. The ill wearing masks will help lessen the droplet spread to surfaces which others will touch later on.
Wash your hands and clean down surfaces when you are in public spaces. That, not masks, are the best pieces of advice for the healthy.
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@Edorampo I would love to find the proper mask to wear but they have become very hard to find and expensive
15
Sadly, our government was unprepared for this virus. The closing of an office in the White House and decrease in CDC funding led to a slow start and mis-steps in attacking the disease before community transmission started. the steps suggested here are elementary, but appointing the Vice-President, who has a poor record of responding to medical crises, rather than a medical specialist as point person will further slow the response, especially since now all US medical personnel must get permission from the VP's office before speaking publicly. It has become a political process rather than the medical process it should be.
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I couldn’t agree more. This outbreak and possible pandemic is a perfect example for why nationalism, loony conspiracy theories and physical barriers to entry are idiotic at best. It also illustrates why governments are important. All anti-government and even smaller government voters out there; my question to you is, how are we as a country going to meet the challenges that we cannot block with a wall and no science? Does Trump really know everything about everything? Is private business and/or praying going to take care of the problems and challenges? Is owning a gun going to keep us safe when pandemics strike? Is the freedom to eat the largest hamburger or drink that thirsty-two ounce sugary drink going to be worth it? Our entire ecosystem is falling apart and Trump and his sycophants are tearing down all of the protections we have and we don’t have enough as it is. Governments do things that the private sector will not do. Government is very important to serve and protect those who don't have money and power. It wasn’t perfect and there were many that were not being protected by either party but what we have now is going to make our world worse and we are going to be less prepared to respond properly when things go wrong. Trump naming Pence a czar of any kind is tone deaf and a farce. Message to Pence “First, the earth is not flat. Second, we cannot pray our way out of this one either”.
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@Robert Allen Despite all the trillions spent, including an extra trillion spent this year along over what is being taxed, suggests government can't even do what it currently does, much less giving it ever more power over your lives. Government has a role in such an outbreak, but it shows it can't even do that right, yet we're to trust them running our entire healthcare system next?
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@David It's not "government" that's the problem, it's THIS government. We need to change that in November! Vote!
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@David
When this administration and the Senate, run by conservatives, is actively working to dismantle government (for instance, by cutting funding for CDC and NIH, and killing off the CDC program that was specifically created - by Obama - to prepare for and respond to pandemics like this), it is no surprise that government is less effective. I suspect that if we lose Trump and the conservatives trying to torpedo government, it would be effective at doing what it should be doing. By the way, I trust the government far more to effectively manage health care than I do an insurance company. Tell me why you trust your health care decisions to someone whose main goal is to maximize profits by minimizing costs.
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The Governor of Washington State has made an official published statement about the financial assistance the state will provide to help businesses and employees survive the economic devastation that could result if 2 week isolation periods become widespread in that state.
Very wise and forward thinking!
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@Jean
Indeed. For in these here United States, businesses will want employess to come to work right up until its too late. Better to come up with funding to ease this urge.
20
@Jean Gov. Inslee is indeed very forward thinking as he has one of the best plans on climate change as well as on this outbreak. It’s a shame he dropped out of the race as he would make an excellent president.
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Please consider:
1. People who are sick will be unable to pay their rent, pay for essentials and survive financially.
2. Workers who need their paycheques will go to work, even if they are sick...spreading the virus.
3. In addition to the 'supply shock' of reduced production as factories/facilities are closed to quarantine/illness, there is also a 'demand shock' as incomes decline among those unable to work. Consumption will fall, hitting small businesses very hard, stressing their bottom line short-term and perhaps wiping them out long-term.
Much of this can be mitigated. Our objective should be to eliminate long term economic and social impacts so that when the virus actually 'burns itself out' and/or vaccines are produced, society will return to a state as close as possible to the pre-virus state.
I propose that Governments at all levels institute a kind of 'sick benefit' that would work like 'unemployment insurance'. Workers who declare themselves 'sick' should be given highly liquid compensation to keep them 'afloat' while they are sick. "Testing" for Corona virus will validate their 'claims' at some point: the blood test or whatever will be taken; 'sick benefit' funds released immediately; workers can then 'self-quarantine'; agencies arrange transport for food/medical deliveries "door-to-door" within communities.
I think this policy option should seriously be considered, debated and be ready for implementation upon 'Pandemic' status.
B.C.
5
According to the CDC Seasonal flu kills 291,000 to 646,000 people worldwide each year. The biggest argument is why then all the hype and attention to the corona virus . But suppose we just let nature take its course , it’s just plain dangerous to let an unknown pathogen go about its business . This is not about politics or the stock market, this is pure science.
2
Did you read the article? It spreads much easier than the flu and has a mortality rate that is 7-20 times higher than the seasonal flu.
10
In short, the proper course is exactly the opposite of Trump and his policies. There must be a large investment in the CDC and NIH not draconian budget cuts. There must be a public health strategy with emphasis on quick and accurate testing, protection of Public Health Medical personnel, adequate number of hospital facilities and respirators, and free hospital and medical care for the families and the victims.
There must be passage immediately of an additional 15 billion dollars to finance this strategy. It must be run and headed by infectious disease professionals; political partisans like Pence and Trump should have no significant role in enacting and managing these policies. They have no credibility and a track record of favoring political popularity over the truth and scientific facts!
4
What we must consider above all is this;
The 1918 influenza pandemic was the most severe pandemic in recent history. It was caused by an H1N1 virus with genes of avian origin. Although there is not universal consensus regarding where the virus originated, it spread worldwide during 1918-1919. In the United States, it was first identified in military personnel in spring 1918. It is estimated that about 500 million people or one-third of the world’s population became infected with this virus. The number of deaths was estimated to be at least 50 million worldwide with about 675,000 occurring in the United States.
A great contributor to the millions of deaths was that millions died from secondary bacterial infections died because there were no antibiotics to combat these infections. Children were particularly susceptible.
Today's modern medical treatments can treat the secondary infections. Furthermore we now know how to identify and track, determine vectors, of the virus thus enabling quarantine and other preventive measures to be put in place. Travel restrictions, washing hands, not attending events with large crowds and other measures can help as well.
We're not even close to facing the catastrophe of 1918. Unless of course our government totally fails us. With Pence in place as filter and suppressor of information I have no confidence that full and factual information will reach the public in a timely manner. For that reason, we must be acutely aware on our own.
4
The number one step in preparing the Nation and the world for this pandemic, or the next, would be to stop voting for republicans.
"Federal officials, responding directly to the Covid-19 crisis, have also apparently failed to adhere to even the most basic principles of infection control. Americans expect more from their government." It does seem to me that last sentence is no longer true. We seem to have bought into that broken old Reagan meme that the "government is the enemy."
Perhaps a pandemic might slow the rising nationalist fervors engulfing the world by showing that we are all vulnerable when acting alone, but as humans we still have the spark to come together and solve global problems.
We shall see.
Vote Blue
4
Senator Sanders will address this when elected President, fully funding and supporting preparation measures for pandemics
2
It is ironic that the ignorant pre-scientific belief that anteater scales can cure disease has led to a global pandemic that may kill, who knows, millions. The irony is compounded by the ignorant anti-science bias behind the dismantling of the government agency formed to protect and defend the public against exactly these perils.
What might be the root of this contempt of science? Perhaps it is party rooted in the hyper-competitive nature of our schools, the teaching methods of our schoolmarms and school masters, and our gilded age economic system that punishes academic failure with destitution.
1
@Robert M
Sorry, not anteater, but pangolin ... anteater doesn't have scales.
4
@Robert M "What might be the root of this contempt of science?" Ignorance, greed and avarice. Look to the WH.
1
I can imagine no worse response team to this crisis than the Trump administration. Trump himself doesn't even seem to care, Pence is profoundly unqualified, and the muzzling of those left in the government who are competent and qualified is a prescription for calamity. I don't believe in prayer, but I sure hope that those glassy-eyed Trump worshipers who do know something I don't.
3
its the virus, its the virus, its the virus. Quit the panic they have been around for millennia. They have been killing living things for the same amount of time. If you have a compromised immune system then you may have a problem, if not I would not worry too much about it. I dont.
1
Occurred to me recently vis a vis our healthcare system and status of our economy, if Covad picks up steam in the US, how many people are able to skip even a day of work? let alone hunker down for 2-3 weeks to guard against contaminating other people? Or how many parents who can afford to keep a sick kid at home and miss work and who otherwise send them on to school and hope for the best?
5
When thinking about our response to this potentially existential biological threat, the first word that comes to mind certainly has got to include the word 'Hubris'. Hubris of course, according to the Greeks, involved such great conceit, willful ignorance and such self regard that the very gods themselves were offended enough to send overwhelming calamities in the direction of the offender. And unfortunately, we in this country recently seem to have been living in an age guided by such a degree of hubris that arrogance and ignorance was not only practiced by our leadership, but considered by many to be our birthright.
As recently as this summer in fact, I recall that Greta Thunberg in her moving and insightful address to the UN and at Devos had spoken eloquently of our younger generations fears that our older generation ( yes, largely due to our massive sense of hubris) seemed to be forcing a reckoning by nature, on humankind. Predictably however, In this overblown environment of self regard,Thunberg was treated by our elected leadership like a Cassandra, calling Thunberg's warning as coming from nothing more than a, 'Chicken Little'.
Now, 6 months after the threat of the coronavirus has finally been acknowledged by leadership,the biggest question we now face seems to be if we recognize the threat that our own leadership (who, throughout their tenure, have been guided only by hubris) presents to this countries health and continued long term well being.
3
"...a second Ebola outbreak emerged in the Democratic Republic of Congo." Ebola has been, is and will forever be in the Congo.
And, now, the official disclaimer: "There is still a chance that Covid-19 will prove to be more fire drill than actual fire."
"Not in Africa, where basic public health capacity remains hobbled by a lack of investment and, in some cases, by political unrest and violence." Think Chinese belt and road. The Chinese are taking over Africa like loan sharks.
A profile of those that get the disease and later die, would be most helpful. What I gather thus far, children are not at risk. If children were more likely to die when they get this disease, President Trump would be labeled a mass murderer.
Liberals should expect Trump to come out of this unscathed. Which, in Trump's mind, he will have the most excellent, like the world has never seen before, political recovery.
And, he will tell us. At everyone of his rallies.
The stock market will recover. Bigly.
The US will rebound quicker than any other country.
To put things in perspective, more people die every day of every other cause, than Covid-19.
It's insane that to get test it would cost insured Americans $1500 and the non-insured $3500 for being tested. My friends in Korea have told me that the government is paying for all the testing fees and it is free of charge. If you don't have the symptoms and want to be tested, they only charge $150. That's the kind of healthcare system we need in America; a healthcare system managed by the country and affordable for everyone in the country not these outrageous bills!
10
Medicare for all. Enough said.
5
"Americans expect more from their government."
Really? If they did, they would be trying to get russia out of their election system. Apparently they have been lulled into a long sleep.
4
"Forget isolationism. One thing the current moment shows is the folly of presuming that viruses will respect borders..."
But, quarantines work?
1
@Mike According to one epidemiologist, "social distancing" (avoiding crowds and touching, e,g, handshakes and kissing) work just as well as quarantines, based on actual data. The presumption that containment is best is undercut, if the initial critical period of infection is not identified quickly enough. Our obvious lack of test kits allowed that period to pass.
"Social distancing" is now more appropriate.
1
@Slann Might a wall on our southern border be considered a form of social distancing?
Calling Fox News, calling Fox News. Please read this editorial and summarize it for Trump. Not his incompetence of course, but some basic things he can and should do for the nation. If you say it, he does it. Thank you.
3
Science has been politicized and this has been done by the Republicans.
1
@tom "Demonized" would be more accurate.
1
Yes, it's scary. And, yes, with the Germophobe in Chief at the helm, it's even scarier. But, I still have faith. Common sense washing hands, staying home when sick, etc. should be all we need. Don't cancel your trips yet.
The wrong person to deal with climate change was elected president and he is also the wrong person to deal with this coronavirus. Sadly, it appears if you can stir up enough hate against liberals in this country anyone can be elected president regardless of qualifications for the office. As long as there is Fox News it is unlikely this situation will change. The long era of at least reasonably qualified people being elected president may have ended and a new era of electing unqualified people may have begun. The number qualification for being president may be hating liberals and the ability to turn that into votes.
2
We may have an advantage with Trump as President during management of this crisis: he's a known germophobe. In theory, that should prompt him to do everything he can to keep this virus away from him, and that means, contained as much as possible in the US.
1
There is far far too much non-essential travel in the United States. The simplest most effective effort we can all make is to postpone travel, have teleconferences, videoconferences at least for now. Postpone vacations and visits to friends and family. Consider yourself a potentially lethal viral vector if you travel, one who may only cough for a day or two but can expose and then kill a young child with leukemia or a grandmother with your travel acquired infection.
2
Trump's incompetence is manifest in his handling of this pandemic. I do not trust anything that he says and the fact that he is trying to control the narrative of professional epidemiologists in the government with his lackey pence is even more disgusting. Trump's mendacity will come home to roost with his fans at one of his many rallies if the spread of the virus hits them and his claims that it is a Democratic hoax will have to be recognized by MAGA's.
All that Americans ask is for reliable information on how to minimize the threat, not self praise by Trump about how everything will miraculously be OK in a short time and that his staff is incredible or than Democrats have foisted the hoax on America. That the virus can survive on objects, like passports railings, currency, etc should be publicized, in addition to the common sense advice to wash one's hands thoroughly and not touch one's face, among other precautions. Mostly, no false information like that which Trump has announced repeatedly this week.
1
Assuming this editorial is correct that 83,000 people have been infected and 3,000 have died, the fatality rate so far has been 3.6%.
3
@Sylvia Yesterday morning (CNN) the numbers were 85,055 vs. 2,922, so closer to.3.4%, however, these numbers are fast moving targets, but it's clear this virus is 20 times more deadly than the flu (.1%), at this time.
We can hope people protect themselves and others, and it remains to be seen if warmer weather MAY have some affect on the infection rate.
2
Here are the facts and the reason that Corona should be taken seriously, despite what Trump, Fox and Limbaugh are saying.
The Trump enablers are all saying this is just like a cold or flu and everyone is overacting.
Last year about 40M people in the US got the flu and approximately 60K died. If that same number had acquired Cornoa, the death toll would have been in the area of 800K. This is NOT like any other flu.
We're reacting as a country and what is needed is clear and honest leadership. Unfortunantly we have Trump so we get neither.
No one should panic, everyone should take reasonable precautions to contain any spread and within the next 12-18 months we'll have a vacine. In the intrium early detection and care will greatly curb the downside.
4
Thank you Editors; this is the top issue of the day; please
continue to keep this on the front page until a clear path has
been made for combatting this pandemic.
5
"Barack Obama created a new office and established a special emergency fund to improve federal response efforts."
"By 2018, that progress had been undone."
Vote in November.
9
"There is still a chance that Covid-19 will prove to be more fire drill than actual fire."
I would change that to read:
"Like SARS, Ebola, Zika and swine flu, there is a better than even chance that Covid-19 will prove to be more fire drill than actual fire."
The United States is NOT China. Enough said.
3
Best advice from the fine folks who know and are based here at the CDC in Atlanta: Stay calm, stay clean(wash your hands thoroughly and often), get a flu shot and go about your life as normally as possible. But then again we risk our lives daily on the Mad Max interstates just to get to work. A flulike virus seems tame by comparison.
1
Trump's response to CoVid-19 is so ham-handed and ineffective it begs the question if his real plan is to allow the virus to ravage America and then cancel the election in November on the grounds that voting would be too dangerous.
2
This Corvid-19 could be a blessing in disguise for alerting humankind about the dangerous unsustainability of our global (dis)order and its monetary, fiscal, economic and social subsystems. In an other Times Opinion piece today about half dozen economists jointly come to the conclusion that Corvid-19 is testing the monetary/financial system and they show how inedequate the present monetary measures will be to control the pandemic.
While the editorial board’s analysis and prescriptions are good, they stand in isolation because the global health system has to be considered besides its health perspectives. I am arguing for a comprehensive approach to this 2020 emerging pandemic so that humankind can prepared when it becomes a full-blown pandemic.
I am also proposing a global solution to deal with the present and future pandemics and with the looming climate catastrophe by transforming the unjust, unsustainable, and therefore, unstable international monetary system by basing it on the carbon standard of a specific tonnage of CO2e per person. Pursuing this monetary approach, the financial system’s money creation ability will revert back to the public sector where, in president Lincoln’s words, money is not the master, but the servant. The commercial, intellectual, ecological and strategic dimensions of such monetary appraoch are seminally presented in Verhagen 2012"The Tierra Solution: Resolving the Climate Crisis through Monetary Transformation" (www.timun.net).
3
This is mother earth’s warning to us that what humankind is doing is not sustainable. Let’s look at the silver linings. The animals that people needlessly kill to eat might now have a chance to survive. Pangolin comes to mind. The air quality in China is now better now that factories have shut down albeit temporarily. Less oil used means less pollution. All temporary but you get the point.
2
Imagine how much easier it would be to contend with this virus if we had a functioning National Health system which would allow people to get tested and treated without worrying about medical bills? People fearful of seeking testing and treatment because of cost are a huge threat to all. Having people without health insurance and access to care are a threat to all.
4
I wish the NYT would post an in-depth article on the topic of deliberate defunding on pandemic preparation and response, which in my opinion has placed the US in a less secure/safe place than ever before. I never thought I would fear that my elected officials in the WH did not have the forethought, good judgement or concern to protect the health of the citizens. To me, this is dereliction of duty and impeachable all by itself. Trump should be voted out for incompetence and unfitness for office.
10
Schools need to be proactive in cancelling events for their students in which large groups congregate. This include events such a competitions as well as Disney trips. If we act like business as usual, this gets bad fast.
2
Last night I heard a Trump apologist say on television that of course Trump does not want a single person to die of the coronavirus, so all the criticisms of his response to the coronavirus are unwarranted. Aside from the self-serving nature of this argument, it make it clear that Trump is literally incapable of dealing with this emergency. Why? Because 1) he would have to admit that he had been wrong about something 2) he would have to acknowledge the role of expertise and knowledge in solving problems 3) he would have to recognize that he can't always get what he wants. The Trump way to deal with things he doesn't like is to deny first and then walk away. Neither will work in this situation.
3
Democracy seems to be all about the current election cycle. Period.
3
The Times is right that it would be great that it would be great if we could trust the government. It would also be great if we could trust the media.
There is nothing the media loves to do more than to spread fear. Whatever happened to ISIS, this existential threat with no planes, no missiles, no infrastructure and no real resources? The media has everyone glued to their seats with Trump, viruses, etc. They love it.
We will see what happens. Right now, this virus is not a bigger threat than a dozen other problems facing the world. Locusts may cause 20 million people to starve in East Africa, but that doesn't cause ratings to rise.
It's too bad that the response is judged by how much money is thrown at it rather than the information that is disseminated.
2
We came to New Zealand 15 years ago just for some adventure. While occasionally I think about returning to the US, the fact is healthcare will keep us overseas for the rest of our lives.
I'm guessing I will get this. I think most of us will. NZ just reported its first case.
Right now, I am very thankful I am not going to be dealing with this in the US.
11
I guess we'll need to add billions of dollars in funding for the COVID-19 public health containment effort to free college tuition, universal health care, medicare for all, universal basic income, student debt forgiveness, expansion of Federal Section 8 and food stamp programs, welfare payments. Did I miss anything?
2
@Tim Add public funding of all national election campaigns, making it illegal for private funding of said campaigns.
2
@Slann Yes, and let's not forget massive increases in federal unemployment funds and homeless shelters when ibid is implemented in a Sanders administration.
1
I have insurance through my job. A doctor's visit in my case has a copay of $100 and an ER visit costs me $200 and my hospital stays can result in a few thousand out of pocket.
Even if I suspected I have coronavirus or I might have coronavirus I would have to think twice to go to a doctor.
Now consider the situation for someone without insurance or someone who is an immigrant without legal status.
15
We have no idea how far and wide this thing has spread because we didn't have the right test kits or the latitude to use them at a very critical time. And we need those kits everywhere. OTC if possible.
3
One major way to prevent viral spread is to avoid large groups of people. Over the next month, these will be the largest moneymakers from large groups of people:
1. U.S. churches
2. NBA
3. NHL
4. NCAA/March Madness
So you can pray on this or root for your favorite team, but it is probably not a good idea to do it in person. Can we honestly say we are treating this pandemic as a real threat if any of #1-4 continue to gather all through March? It seems that greed will always be the final arbiter of decisions. If you do not agree, ask your pastor today or next weekend why they are still holding services.
124
@James
You forgot airports and air travel. Millions move through busy airports every day in the US
AND we just had a comment from someone on this article that they are symptomatic of something (exactly what is not known), had traveled over the weekend from the area near Seattle where a patient infected from community contact was confirmed. Said person is currently in the Bay Area of California, and instead of reaching out to county health to discuss if air travel is prudent in her case, she fully plans to go to the airport today, board a plan, and return home... while symptomatic of something. Mindless, careless, and very disturbing.
50
@Chuck Perhaps she doesn't want a $5000 bill that no one will help her pay to get a result that will result in further loss of income, making her net loss more like $10,000.
I know what the right thing to do is, but she may not be able to afford it. Even if she can, many cannot.
Now we get to the laughable premise that things like HSAs allow "patients to understand the true cost of care, allows them to decide how much to spend, and provides them with the freedom to seek treatment at a place of their choosing."
Or in this case, no treatment at all, because it's economically beneficial to avoid testing and treatment because there is literally no upside for the individual.
Sure, you can blame her - and the millions of others - for being "selfish". Or you can take a step back and realize when you're living paycheck to paycheck that going in to work, sick or not, is the only way you stay housed, fed, employed, and is the only way your kids aren't homeless.
People aren't fools - given the chance to choose between them and their family being in quarantine for a couple of weeks, with the concomitant loss of income, school time, and medical bills that will surely follow (because really, who IS going to pay for it?), versus not getting tested when there's no treatment and avoiding all of that, they're going to make the right call. For them.
37
@James
Add to your list all political rallies.
36
Children tend to not have very significant symptoms, and become unwitting carriers. The first time some kid brings it to a large urban elementary school in the USA will probably be the time it becomes uncontainable. Japan closed their schools.
6
"Prepare for the worst, but hope for the best"
That is the way we need to handle this crisis, and prepare for a world where people need to cooperate with each other to survive. Build walls between one another, and we succumb to fear and ignorance. Even if we do survive, what kind of life is that?
When Toronto was dealing with the SARs outbreak years ago Torontonian’s were comforted and reassured by two people, Dr’s Sheila Basrur and David Lowe. They provided accurate and timely information tirelessly throughout that crisis. Political messaging was refreshingly absent from their commentary. Although both have sadly passed since then, they will always be remembered for their steadying presence. They and the health care system kept us safe. Dr Anthony Fauci could play that role if the political crowd would back off.
7
As an economist
With the free movement of goods, people and services came the free movement of Sars, Swineflue and COVID-19
Yet another effect of globalization the proponent of which (Stiglitz, Krugman ) left out in the benefit analysis
1
WHO stats indicate if you are over 80 years old you have a 15% of dying if you contract the virus. By contrast, if you are under 40 years only you only have a 0.2% chance of dying (1 out of 500 chance of those that get it). If you are between 70-79 your chance of dying is 8%. Drops to 3.8% for 60-69. Basically it is killing the old and sick among us (co-morbidity is high in these age groups). That is unfortunate, but averaging numbers together makes it look much more potent for the average person than it is. And look at it this way, these will be typical mortality rates under Bernie Care anyway). Seriously, most elderly and sick can engage in social distancing while this plays out. Trying to stop this from happening is like trying to stop the flu from spreading. Not possible which is why we have a flu vaccine. Local health departments will do as good a job as possible to limit the damage it causes but people need to be responsible for their own behavior. Wash hands, don't touch face, minimize contact with large gatherings of people like sporting events and stay home when you feel sick and call your doctor. Thank goodness we have a vibrant pharmaceutical industry that is busting its tail to find a vaccine.
5
@bill: Vaccination for pneumonia makes a big difference in the elderly.
3
As always, I think it is important to look in the mirror before blaming other people.
For how long has this paper argued against Medicare for All, as "impractical" or "impossible"?
We are now in a position where a national, universal healthcare system may be a matter of survival.
How many people are not going to see a doctor because they don't have health insurance?
They are not going to see a doctor, and they are going to spread the disease.
3
Obamacare is available for all citizens, who are not on Medicare. Preexisting conditions are covered by both Medicare and Obamacare. But neither is free. After decades of paying a Medicare tax until age 65, I now pay about $5000 a year for Medicare and a supplemental insurance plan.
5
What? You mean healthcare is available in the US for people who can afford it?
Wow, that’s amazing. I never knew that.
Good thing we don’t have universal healthcare. Because people who can’t afford healthcare never get or transmit diseases.
3
It would be helpful if someone somewhere would create a reliable online “Sticky” containing a list of the latest recommendations for coping with the Coronavirus threat.
For example, Part A could include what to may of us seems obvious, like frequent handwashing, sneezing into your folded arm, keeping your hands away from your mouth and eyes, wiping down door handles / counter & desk tops/cellphones/keyboards, carrying hand sanitizer, etc.
Part B could contain practical suggestions on what to do if one fears symptomatic or asymptomatic exposure to the virus. Also, how about the worried well, or those with anxiety disorders? Are there local numbers for them to call?
Part C could consist of ways to buy and store food staples on a budget; with basic recipes for making simple, yet nutritious, meals. Face it, unlike our mothers and grandmothers, most Americans today probably don’t know how to cook more than a meal or two from scratch.
Part D might include additional practical tips for low -income/hourly wage/fixed-income individuals. They are not in the majority amongst the Times readership, but most of us probably have relatives or neighbors who fall into that category. For example, what's the latest on making DIY hand-sanitizers?
Part E could list numbers, if they exist, that medical professionals could call if they wished to volunteer their services.
8
"To wage the best fight against any pandemic, the country needs more than vaccines and medical supplies. It needs reliable diagnostics, advanced disease monitoring systems and sensible drug development. "
I disagree to some extent.
Since Richard Nixon this nation has been anti-intellectual and anti science. If President Kennedy had prevailed, we would not be the anti-scientific place we are now.
Do the editorialists share saunas with people from different countries, who do not read or write English? Most of my neighbors are new to America and do not speak English well. They don't have my back. Most of the general populace thinks of education as something to suffer through, not to gain from. And most of all, they don't read.
What the US needs is education, education seminars, educational outreach about all MICROBIAL life, which will teach people how to protect against microbial infections.
I dated a man from New Delhi who did speak and write English well. But his advanced college education failed to provide him with ANY BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE EDUCATION - zero. He did not know what a virus, bacteria, cells, or DNA or RNA, or reproductive cells, or how any of them worked. India's vast populace has never experienced a biological science class.
Within the US population, many highly educated visitors/green card holders/Visa holders, completely uneducated migrants and the general public are ignorant about biological science.
Education is the solution.
5
Here's one issue that has a larger global significance and may contain some reassurance to all, but I pose it only as a question, for I have no expertise. How is that In India, with a population of 1.3 billion; with its jostling crowds in the markets, trains and buses; with its millions of slum dwellers living in cheek-by-jowl surroundings in some of the most unsanitary conditions anywhere and with only interrupted daily access to clean water; with its abysmal public healthcare facilities and other inadequacies, only three cases of the virus have occurred so far? Those three were among the hundreds repatriated from Wuhan , they were confined to one southern state, Kerala, and they have been successfully treated. (Other cases affecting Indians occurred among the passengers and staff who were on that cruise ship in Yokohama and they remain in Japan).
In such a massively over-populated land, one would have expected an uncontrollable national health crisis by now, yet the smaller countries of Italy, South Korea, Japan, and Iran are the ones facing that kind of serious emergency.What is India doing right that is different from other countries facing this challenge? What can the WHO and Indian health officials share with the rest of the world? Or, what have they shared so far?
2
@VCM Of course, one answer may be that most of India is already in the warm to hot season and according to reports the virus doesn't survive well in hot weather. That may also
partly explain the relative meagerness of cases in all countries of the southern hemisphere right now. Brazil just had one --of someone returning from Italy.
It’s not just Trump to blame here. The blame goes deep and wide, and it’s foundations lay in a political system that is unable to think further ahead than the next election cycle.
Public heath is just one issue of many that requires a 50 to 100 year view, to fund, plan and solve properly. Politicians need to get into the business of helping to solve problems for the long term, rather than focusing on their own short term self interests. Trump does this worse than most others, but most politicians serve the short term over the long term any day of the week.
These long term necessities require a Constitutional Amendment to solve properly because we will never be able to fully trust the integrity of the politicians, of any party, to do the right thing.
8
Thank you for this timely, take-away from our current pandemic. The minute air travel became ubiquitous we became dependent on each other for mutual protection. This pandemic exposes just how dangerous our tribalism and extreme nationalism can be.
4
We've spent trillions on military arsenals, stockpiling missiles and bullets in the name of defense against our perceived enemies. We've spent trillions to create and maintain a strategic oil reserve to prevent disruption of oil supply so that we can continue producing. We're willing to spend trillions on corporate welfare to maintain the status- quo. And yet, when posed with a health crises, the leaders of our country place the populace at risk by denial, ignorance and ultimately apathy. One has to wonder if we are nothing more than a disposable commodity equivalent to a bullet or gallon of gas, or 'unit of production'. Welcome to the American Dream!
11
Affordable public health plans concentrate on prevention and cures. Most such systems also allow for private insurance with more frills and coverage for chronic care.
1
I have health insurance so I am one of the "fortunate" ones. Because the small nonprofit I work for does not offer an employer-sponsored plan, I pay my own premiums - over $500 a month (healthy, non-smoking, middle-aged female) or $6,200 annually.This for a high deductible and expensive surprise coinsurance amounts. Of course I think of costs - what it would cost me to be tested and/or treated.
Maybe the best I can hope for is a strategy of social distancing via self-quarantine. It's hard to contemplate, and difficult to know When and how to do the right thing.
7
One crucial element is sadly omitted from the list of actions necessary to fight this pandemic: accessible public healthcare, making coverage available to all citizens regardless of income. This alone would empower all to feel free to seek out medical care and guidance, at the very first signs of virus symptoms. Until we as a nation get a grip on the reality of universal healthcare as a right and necessity, we are collectively lost- and profoundly vulnerable.
12
@Danielle: Vaccination works best for all when most, if not all, get it.
Reality check:
35 million people had the flu, or flu-related sickness in 2019. 35,000 died. An average year.
Coronavirus so far 2020: 80,000 cases
2
Emergency Preparedness starts at home with each person. If we start there and are able to obtain unbiased information and provide the same unbiased information to authorities if circumstances dictate, then any unknowns should become less fearful.
Yet, when business leaders fail to implement Business Continuity Plans and /or fail to properly assess Risk Management analyses, then our personal Emergency Planning becomes that much more of importance to navigate through such times we are in now.
As the saying goes “ Failure in planning = a Failed Plan”.
3
FEMA has a helpful website and many booklets. I wonder how many people bother to read the materials and then take action. You might find useful, “Get Ready Now”. There is still plenty of time to assemble what you need. Everything I have fits in two Rubbermaid bins. I use and replace the foodstuffs when they are a few months from expiry.
But most people wrongly believe that someone else should take care of them.
Last year several boxes of medical masks and N95 masks that I decided were too many to keep, languished for days at my well attended garage sale. They were new and priced at about one third the store price. The current shortage reminds me of people I see rushing in to stores to buy a snow shovel when a heavy snowstorm is forecast.
There are at least two components here relevant to the federal government. First, yes, public health and preparing for epidemics are traditionally underfunded and underappreciated and too often left to local authorities. Federal support of vaccine production and availability are a bright spot, though it seems like anti-vax sentiments have made it to the Oval Office. The second is to not consider preparing for inevitable viral pandemics as important, at the level we invest in homeland security for other, much more improbable threats. That the White House has enthusiastically pumped money into military defense but tries to starve health defense shows lethally bad judgement.
8
@Steve: States do not standardize and coordinate through Congress, apparently to keep memories of slavery alive.
"Climate change and globalization were conspiring with an array of other forces to make it much easier for old animal diseases to morph into new human ones." The inference is novel or appears lazy thinking -- what is the evidence between climate change and the onset of the coronavirus? Pandemics have existed long before the recent, anthropocentric-based heating of the planet.
3
@Scott: The pandemics that swept the Americas when Europeans began to come ashore were a consequence of unprecedented mobility. The Mongol conquest of Asia brought bubonic plague from the far east to Europe.
Now things are pretty well homogenized.
@Scott: Ubiquitous human travel has commingled genomic molecules globally. Evolution is genomic Lego.
Add this to your list:
Take the fear out of getting help. Stop sending patients to collection and suing them for medical bills. Over 40% of Americans are afraid to go to the doctor or hospital when sick because of the cost, and being forced into bankruptcy, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. In my county in Washington State where the first person has died of the coronavirus the median income of patients whose wages are garnished for medical bills? $36,000 per year. State-mandated charity care is a failure. Outlaw punitive billing and collection.
24
@Sherry
Been there stateside. Parked in the hallway. Partner filling in insurance office before...etc...
Good luck dropping in on your doctor urgently as necessary for an assessment.
Dispatches from the front lines... I traveled from the new Seattle epicenter down to the Bay Area Friday for a weekend party. I wasn’t 100% but no thought of Coronavirus so I had dinner with a large group Friday night. Saturday morning I had a high fever, cough, the works. So I barricaded myself in my hotel room.
But now I have tons of questions and no answers. Should I get on a plane to go home? Should I get tested and where? Is it better to infect the Uber driver or take the train? I can’t find any answers online or in news articles.
Super honestly, without clear directions I’m going to get on a plane, take an Uber home and get in bed until I feel better. Why get tested if it won’t make a difference? If I have it it’s already everywhere.
This isn’t the time for crafted “messaging”. People need answers. I’m sure everyone on my plane today would have liked me to have the answers before boarding.
641
@Jane Too late for the people around you, but you (and anyone in this situation) should have picked up the telephone and called the County Health Department and asked them what you should do. I'm betting getting on a plane back to Seattle would not have been advised.
187
@Jane Well, Jane, that's a very thorny question. I think we all want "to go home to our own beds" when we don't feel well. But maybe best to call the health department and pose your questions to them. I bet they'd want to see you.
130
@Jane Recently my brother in law left for the airport with my sister feeling slightly unwell. By the time he was sitting waiting for his flight he had rapidly gotten much sicker and obviously had a fever.
They told the airline the situation and with no fees charged were encouraged NOT to fly that day.
Kudos to the airline who helped make the right choice easier.
255
So far, as pandemics go, I’m far more concerned about the more virulent strains of the global populism virus.
8
That virus is very hard to contain. Regressive public education and the highly efficient vector Facebook makes it very effective.
However, the virus doesn't kill you. It destroys the society your children will live in.
2
The CDC under Mr. Trump offered help long ago. China declined. China persecuted the unfortunate doctor whistle blower who died from the virus. China dropped the ball from the critical beginning but somehow nowadays that gets forgotten in the rush to politicize the illness. China is having its Chernobyl test and is failing miserably through denial and lack of expertise. The media has created hysteria regarding this virus in order to attack Trump while rattling the US stock market. The Flu of 1918-1919 killed an estimated 50 million with a kill rate of 50%. This virus has a kill rate of 2%. Not every person that comes in contact will get it and those that do have a 98% chance of a full recovery. The symptoms are generally mild. Don't buy the hysteria. Be aware but be not afraid.
5
You mean the CDC that can’t test patients in the US this far into the game?
Perhaps they are fortunate to have refused the “help”.
In any case, they needed and need soldiers, not generals to advise and observe. It seems that they made a competent response. I hope we can but I am not that optimistic.
8
@dudley thompson The current fatality rate appears to be around 3+%, and the Spanish Flu's fatality rate was closer to 2%, NOT 50%.
"Don't buy the hysteria", indeed.
We have much more accurate data today than in 1919.
3
@dudley thompson this is what happens with an autocratic gov. Hide, lie, to protect your power. Who knows how many infected people there really are in China. Beware of 45 and his push for autocracy.
3
Not to be glib but we just had a "eureka!" moment ... bats really are worrisome! So is not washing one's hands often enough. With most sincerity, we think this is the first of many fires to come. We are so sad that not enough care has been given to taking care of the earth. The earth will remain (and recover) long after we are gone. These are our random thoughts as we ponder this editorial.
4
It was disheartening and embarrassing, if not outright humiliating, to see a distinguished scientist, Dr. Faucci, who has worked with every administration since 1984, forced to publicly explain that he wasn’t muzzled at all, while telling us that several TV appearances were cancelled until his script was “cleared” by the white house.
22
@Garbolity
Saw the good doctor standing puppet-like and looking up at our Leader at the microphone .
Our Leader surrounded by the usual suspects and delivering truthiness and alternate facts.
Hail to our secondary Leader Pence taking in firm hand the controls he learned first hand as enlightened governor of the great state of Indiana.
My confidence increases by leaps if not bounds!
2
We’re just so benumbed by it all that we finally just throw up our hands and say, “whatever happens, happens”, leaving it to fate. ”Faith, hope, and charity” becomes the motto. Fate becomes the Great Hope.
All his life, trump has been able to escape the consequences of his actions while other people suffer in his stead. Until now, the damages have been mostly monetary—contractors stiffed, trump university students scammed—though loss of life has occurred in places like the southern border and Ukraine due to his misguided, self-serving decisions. Now, however, U.S. citizens face the real possibility of dying because of trump’s cruelty, malignant narcissism, and willful ignorance. The question is whether CORVID-19 will expose him to his base and weaken his support among his administrative minions and Republican congressional enablers. So far, the response of spin over substance, deflection over deliberation, and hoax over honesty has not made me optimistic that the answer will be yes.
13
Don't discount the evangelicals in Washington who have burrowed into powerful positions in the Trump administration.
The "christian" belief in the end times could employ subterfuge and sabotage instead of a forceful and cohesive response to this and future crises.
9
Meanwhile, Illinois has reported its 3rd coronavirus infection, in "suburban Cook County" - an area comprising about 3 million people. They won't tell us where. I have my suspicion, though - the first two cases, a husband and wife were hospitalized in Hoffman Estates, about 25 miles northwest of the city, two weeks ago. They have been released and currently reside god knows where. The wife had been in Wuhan, and passed the infection to her husband.
We don't know if this new case is related to those two - they won't tell us anything. It's all very mysterious. WHY won't they tell us anything? I thought transparency was supposed to be the watchword, but I guess not.
I might add, Illinois was the first state to begin coronavirus testing on its own, with confirming results pending on the third case from the CDC in Atlanta.
8
I don't know why no one has thought of this before. It's brilliant. So what you're saying is that if we just continue to pile more and more responsibility on a smaller and smaller group of people and we just take and take and take from anyone who works hard in the United States, all of the world's problems will be solved? Pure genius. That's Nobel prize material right there. Someone needs to get this out there ASAP. Maybe you could one day to even get a candidate for POTUS to push this same panacea.
2
@Douglas I have a relatively high level of comprehension, but I am struggling to see the connection that this comment has to the Editorial.
1
There is a lot of confusion about the Coronvirus from the trump administration which is really not very helpful. As we begin to face a global "Real Fire" I have a Public Health request.
Is there an "agreed" upon list of recommended procedures that people in the country should be aware of to prevent exposure to the Coronavirus and prepare?
I have heard the following list from various media but an official scientific country-wide list would be Helpful.
1. Preparation...Not Panic.
2. If you have been exposed to people that have traveled to
affected countries...get tested.
3. Wash your hands.
4. Carry and use Hand Sanitizer.
5. Don't touch your face.
6. Cough in your sleeve.
7. Move away from people coughing and sneezing.
8. Flu shorts.
9. More??
I know and understand that the Coronavirus is not an 'epidemic' in the United States but I also see and fear the number of patients in the country increasing.
89
@Lalo
A very sensible list. Still, "flu shorts" are best saved for the warmer weather.
37
@Lalo Sensible, but you can no longer find hand sanitizer on the shelves of any stores. Same goes for 90% alcohol and masks and sanitizing wipes. Gone; nothing. In our family, we've resorted to making our own hand sanitizer from alcohol that we purchased weeks ago and glycerin which we grabbed the last few bottles of from the shelves last night and then re-used bottles of empty hand-sanitizer.
13
@Casual Observer
Isopropol alcohol DOES NOT DISINFECT.
Isopropol alcohol is a bi-product from oil refinement. It is a white oil b-product.
It cleans surfaces of dirt ONLY.
Iodine is a disinfectant that one can place on human skin and wash off to disinfect from a variety but not all microbes.
9
Like all these viruses and warnings, Trump did not appear out of nowhere. It was a deadly combination of Republicanism head-in-the-sand and just-say-no to common sense that brought us to a point where climate change and viral outbreaks are battled by cartoon superheroes instead of real ones.
9
We already know of the developing medical emergency of microbial multidrug resistance. With the use (overuse) of antibiotics, we have selected microbes resistant to antimicrobial drugs creating pathogens we cannot currently treat. The good news is that advances in technology will enable the generation of new drugs and better ways to identify pathogens to better personalize treatment. Unfortunately, the American healthcare business model introduces significant obstacles. A successful drug will be used by a patient for only a short time to clear the infection unlike drugs treating chronic conditions. Thus, private companies will need to charge exorbitant prices to turn a profit. In the last year, 2 start-ups ( Melinta and Achaogen) developing promising new antimicrobial agents have filed for bankruptcy. A government funded, not for profit model is likely required to deal with this developing crisis.
4
For three decades, the goal of the Republican party has been to shrink government down to a size wherein the words of one Grover Norquist, it could be drowned in a bathtub. Congratulations GOP, we've reached the point where a pandemic may beat us to the tub.
16
The need for universal healthcare available in every industrialized nation in the world except the United States is naturally missing from the Board's list. It is the first line of defence against this new assault on humanity. The New York Times simply cannot bring itself to suggest that the current pay-or-die system must be replaced even in the face of a pandemic that will otherwise result in untold numbers of unnecessary deaths and suffering. Prior to the emergence of CoV-2, hospitals were overwhelmed by the uninsured seeking treatment in ER's. Unless socialized medicine is implemented, an avoidable catastrophe is inevitable.
12
The Republicans do not “ believe “ in Science and Facts. Unfortunately for ALL of us, Science and Facts are not interested in their opinions.
Having this Regime, even this political party, in charge of a Response to a looming Pandemic is catastrophic, perhaps even in a civilization threatening way.
Like having a Plumber actually performing Neurosurgery. And no offense to Plumbers, my Father was one.
Good Luck.
14
Sorry, Editorial Board, to sound so fatalistic:
Rising temperatures, rising seas, extreme weather events, wildfires and now pandemic: Mother Nature's way of restoring balance to an out-of-balance, over-populated, badly-behaving human population. We cannot control ourselves, so nature will step in to do what we cannot.
10
What we need is to shut the borders and work to reestablish the medical/pharmaceutical manufacturing IN this country. The shameful outsourcing of the past two decades allowed by our political and business “leadership” has put us at great risk and opened us up to new vectors of disease from our globalization “partners”...
1
@Alex C
Sorry Alex. While improving support for the development of new medications is good, shutting the borders is the proverbial case of closing the barn door after the horse has escaped. The coronavirus is already here, in this country and spreading. What is the point of closing borders. Viruses don't respect arbitrary lines.
The best response is to have clear protocols for evaluating and segregating potential cases, and establishing free health care screenings for everyone in every city and state so that no one is dissuaded from getting checked for symptoms by the cost. That is how you slow and eventually contain and curtail viral outbreak. Get people who may be infected into the health care system as soon as possible and treat them appropriately.
3
"Federal officials, responding directly to the Covid-19 crisis, have also apparently failed to adhere to even the most basic principles of infection control."
The problem exists at all levels.
A family member who is a 40+ year big city ICU Nurse is tells us that the meetings she has been in with Hospital management is nothing but a big joke. The joke in on the line level Nurses.
The so-called protocols are so shoddy as to be meaningless. If and when a fair number of people hit the Hospitals, the infection will spread out from there like wildfire.
They do not have the physical room or the staff to deal with anything approaching proper. "most basic principles of infection control".
They do not even have the staff available to wash down things like portable x-ray machines in a timely fashion. Every piece of equipment must be cleaned before it is moved anyplace.
They are telling the staff to just use a regular gown with an open back. They are telling staff not to wear booties over their shoes. They are not prepared to give Nurses full head covering respirators, telling them a regular N95 mask is good enough.
If a big city ICU RN that has seen it all, over her four plus decades of helping us all, is worried...then you should be to.
The Nursing Staff of the United Sates is about to enter a Trumpian Casino. The only game is that casino is Russian Roulette.
11
Those, most especially Trump, counting on the quick design, test, and release of a vaccine are delusional.
While I know that all Trump cares about is early access for him and his family personally, and as president he will surely be at the front of the line... pushing others out of the way as he did in one notable gathering of leaders of the free world in Europe..
..the fact is... healthcare workers and support staff will receive it first, because they need to be immune and online helping the critically ill. Then other government workers will be next, then high risk category patients, followed by the general population. This effectively means that a vaccine for wide use in the population is at least a year away... and that may not be soon enough for the next round of this virus when the fall season comes later this year.
As a world community, we are just going to have to suffer through this, and many will lose loved ones to this virus... and for the most part I put that on the backs of this administration, and even the CDC (who has badly fumbled on rolling out in field test kits so that healthcare workers are not fighting this virus blind).
The US being woefully unprepared for this is an extreme understatement, and we are notably less prepared in 2020 than we were when Trump took office in 2017. Trump and his administration effectively crippled the US capability to detect, monitor, and respond to any pandemic virus.
10
Some Americans expect more from (and value) their government, but too many others are busy flying Gadsden flags and arming themselves to the teeth against their fellow citizens and and the big bad government.
4
Clearly, this hyperbolic overacting by the meditation to influence markets and governmental decisions and prop up fear. Fear mongers. If this is pandemic, then fake news is also a pandemic.
2
@Pilot
What? Clearly sentences need a verb.
Fragments with"meditation" head for grammar crashes.
It seems kind of unfair vegetarians will get this virus, considering all these outbreaks seem to start with humans eating animals.
2
I am a Professor of Medical Genetics. One responder questioned my qualification. To all of you -you can Google me Dan Liebermann (2 Ns!)
Reading about the unexplained cases of coronavirus in the US and elsewhere raises the possibility that the Coronavirus was for a long time indigenous to humans where only recently a pathogenic variant or unknown co-factor. result in a flu. If true, asymptomatic carriers were for a long time present in the human population. I suspect that population wide screening will show that in every country a certain % of the population are corona virus carriers. The test kit just enables to quantitate indigenous coronavirus carriers that have been there long ago. In other words, it may well be that the hundred of thousands of people that are known to come down with the flu each year in spite of the flu vaccine, actually were infected with the Coronavirus instead to the 4 variants of the common types of influenza viruses: A, B, C and D. The bottomline-Covid-19 is essentially a flu with low mortality rates like the common flu that may have went molecularly undiagnosed for a long time. Caution & 14 days quarantine of carriers are a good approach until a vaccine is at hand, but all the hype and economical panic may have much more dangerous consequences than the virus itself.
6
@lieberma
With sincere respect, you are describing a hypothesis. Indeed, maybe your hypothesis is correct, and maybe not.
Imagine yourself as the decision-maker here. Would you be willing to risk lives on a hypothesis? Questions may have previously arisen about your qualifications simply because of contradictions in your writing, covered over with confidence. I responded to your previous post(s).
2
@Aaron
"Would you be willing to risk lives on a hypothesis? "
How did you jump rots conclusion if ou read carefully I said
"Caution & 14 days quarantine of carriers are a good approach until a vaccine is at hand, but all the hype and economical panic may have much more dangerous consequences than the virus itself"
@Aaron
correction
"Would you be willing to risk lives on a hypothesis? " How did you jump to this conclusion if you read carefully I said "Caution & 14 days quarantine of carriers are a good approach until a vaccine is at hand, but all the hype and economical panic may have much more dangerous consequences than the virus itself"
.
1
Seems to me the Press should be making a much bigger deal about John Bolton dissolving the Global Health Security and biodefense team of the National Security Council. May 10,2018
This is a huge mistake made by the Trump Administration which put our health and security at risk.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2018/05/10/top-white-house-official-in-charge-of-pandemic-response-exits-abruptly/
"The abrupt departure of Rear Adm. Timothy Ziemer from the National Security Council means no senior administration official is now focused solely on global health security. Ziemer’s departure, along with the breakup of his team, comes at a time when many experts say the country is already underprepared for the increasing risks of a pandemic or bioterrorism attack.
Ziemer’s last day was Tuesday, the same day a new Ebola outbreak was declared in Congo. He is not being replaced.
Pandemic preparedness and global health security are issues that require government-wide responses, experts say, as well as the leadership of a high-ranking official within the White House who is assigned only this role."
6
I read this morning about an 11 year old girl who nursed all 9 of her families members during the Spanish Flu. We will re-learn some important lessons in the months ahead. One is the strength and resilience of women. One is that the entire world is interconnected, even if we want to pretend it is not. An essential one, as we approach an election, is that showmanship is not leadership. Keep calm and carry on. Tell our leaders you do not support them being " Penny wise and Pound foolish."
4
We are being led by a man who has no interest in science (or even facts). His latest federal budget proposal slashed funding for CDC and HHS. His administration has a history of muzzling scientists in the EPA, the Forest Service, and HHS. He ran for President on killing the Affordable Car Act. He is last man to be trusted to manage this potential crisis!!
10
@Frederick But he did shut down air travel between the affected area and the US. I wonder if a democrat would have done that?
1
@479 All that happened too late. Too late because, due to the lack of functional test kits, there was no way to determine the location and size of outbreaks. We're still in that situation.
Why did this "administration" fire the Pandemic Response team? Why did they cut the CDC's funding in half? Those questions deserve clear answers (in the form of a new administration).
2
This short sighted, dysfunctional government is exactly the Ayn Randian depiction so sought after by the Far right GOP. Everyone for themselves lads, and all that. That is of course, until Covid-19 comes knocking on their door. Is it any wonder the stock market is tanking, no one believes a word coming out of the Presidents mouth. His choice of leadership is not only mind boggling, but affirms to anyone who cares to listen, just how deeply deluded this administration is. Excuse me, while I go pray on it.
10
@Valerie Wells
Is Trump panicking?
With a 6 TRILLION dollar stock market loss so far, yep he's in a panic.
That's why he appointed Pence to solve it.
1
Neutral and true information is the best way to counteract speculation and panic. The Trump administration has chosen to suppress information by censoring what is released to the public - therefore the President and his team of cynical “alternative fact” promoters are responsible for the now rampant speculation coming from basically everywhere. You might call this whatever you want - I call it “incompetence“.
8
Having worked in public health my entire career (my last position was working on the Navajo Reservation in Crownpoint and Shiprock, New Mexico), I've come to deplore the way our federal government "does" health.
Only in Japan is the equivalent of our F.D.A. taking data seriously.
Watch what they do - what they recommend - for medicines and vaccines. Here, Public Citizen advises to wait seven years before an accurate safety profile of any of them becomes clear.
Is this really the best that this nation can do? Apparently so.
5
We all hope this thing fizzles, including those who despise Trump and his entourage. Only a political nut-case would hope for a lot of sick and dead Americans to score political points.
Fizzle or no, we can now see, in life and livelihood terms, the human misery and death that go along with willful ignorance, incompetence, and lying. People will die because of this. In places we don't see, people will die that did not need to. Why do we tolerate lying and incompetence by our government?
We also see the horrific costs of our shambles of a health care system. Capitalism is terrific for generating wealth - there is no better economic system. But it is an awful, inhuman, and deadly, way to provide health care, starting with public needs, like detection and preparedness, and continuing on to individual care. We have more uninsured people than most countries have total population and most of them are live hand to mouth. Do we expect them to stay home when they get sick? See a doctor? No, they can't. Lose a paycheck and they can't pay the rent. An emergency room bill will destroy their lives.
Our healthcare system is not intended for all Americans. Only the well off. That is not what politicians, of both parties, have told us for years. They lied then; the current crowd is lying now.
Can't we agree that continuing with the healthcare system we have is too dangerous? Can't we agree that lying, incompetence, and unpreparedness are unacceptable in our government?
469
@Roy M. Barbee
While I applaud your comment, you clearly haven’t read the other comments on this piece.
I’d also keep in mind that there are dozens of private, capitalist companies already working to come up with a vaccine and collect the riches that will come with a successful outcome.
They wouldn’t have the infrastructure, expertise and ability to react swiftly if there wasn’t a profit motive.
8
@Roy M. Barbee If you want to criticize a government for "lying, incompetence and unpreparedness", you should - first and foremost - point your finger at China.
President Xi Jinping's renewal of China's original governing ethos - the fear and brutality instituted by China's founder, Mao Zedong- causes local officials to fear for their career and even life, if they anger someone more senior.
Mr. Trump fires subordinates willy-nilly. But those subordinates - if they've been law-abiding - don't have to fear prison, let alone a death sentence. The Vindman brothers - who have served with distinction - will continue their military careers. Their seniors understand they did their duty to the very best of their very considerable abilities.
No health care system has enough hospital beds to accommodate the hundreds of thousands - or millions - made sick by a sneeze-transmissible, highly-lethal disease. If you know otherwise, cite to published and public sources.
Read about the end-World War I flu pandemic, cause by a bird flu virus (Type H1N1) that adapted to humans. There was then no vaccine, as viruses were not understood.
We have no vaccine against COVID-19. We have better life-support gear, but not enough of it for all who would need it, if COVID-19 were as virulent as was the end-World War I H1N1 flu virus.
In short, a rant against "capitalism" is simply misdirected.
4
@Jay E. Simkin Capitalist companies can and are helping by developing drugs and tests to deal with the virus. But that does not address the problem that faces people without health insurance and/or paid sick leave. If you can't afford to take time off from work to seek medical care or if you fear being fired for doing so then you will have to go to work sick. Dealing with this type of medical crisis becomes more challenging when a significant portion of the population is in that situation.
30
We need these things too....a plan for hospitals to deal with a HUGE influx of critically ill patients.....a plan to help hospitals pay for the care of those patients......testing for everybody and quickly......a plan to move medical personnel to the areas where they are needed (as China did).....a plan to ramp up local health departments... and a plan for a new CDC that is released from Trump's orders....to attack this as they never have before. We have a wonderful medical infrastructure but the scale of this disease will quickly overwhelm it.
102
@Somebody
“plan for a new CDC that is released from Trump's orders”
Congress should immediately pass VETO-PROOF legislation making this happen.
18
@Somebody
And let’s see what happens to whoever brings up what all this will cost. Whether it’s climate change or the inevitable pandemic, we like to talk about big issues, but you don’t get elected by doing anything about them.
7
The GOP has 'starved the beast". No Republican will ever voluntarily invest and fund any public service departments, so the best strategy remains "vote blue no matter who".
14
The photograph accompanying this editorial of the two women wearing the masks is a good example of the spread of misinformation. First, their masks are not the right kind, secondly, they are loose around the edges, and third, unless they have the virus, wearing the masks are not going to help them unless they follow other strict protocols like hand-washing. Yes, the Trump administration is deeply flawed to be able to handle any real crisis, evident by these last few days. The CDC recommends informed individual actions, which makes sense given that we can't rely on this administration to provide any real guidance anyway. Look at China.
3
"Americans expect more from their government."
Yes, we do. For three years, this administration has dealt with issue after issue, and not once has it attempted to implement long-range solutions that will extend beyond the current administration. And up until now, every one of the issues we have faced were self-induced by a woefully inept so-called president.
And now he (and by extension, we) have to deal with an issue that wasn't created by his marketing team.
So far, I am not impressed.
5
It is certain that asymptomatic persons may carry and transmit the virus.
It is also clear that the CDC and DHS did not use the three week interval from the time the virus was first reported in China to the time when exposed US citizens returned home to make sure that test kits worked, were in abundance, that anyone in contact with a patient be tested and that the results could be ascertained quickly where the testing was done.
So right now there is no way to control a hot spot and no way to prevent the spread in the US.
It is a failure of competence.
One additional item of interest is the absence of symptoms in children. Could they be the carriers of the virus? We will not know for a long time until testing kits are available and the results are readily available.
10
@Edward B. Blau: New pathogens require new test kits. Some unique feature of the pathogen, perhaps a stretch of DNA or RNA, has to be isolated and replicated, and the product attached to a tagging molecule that indicates a positive by some means, such as fluorescence, when it is retained by the corresponding feature of the pathogen.
@Steve Bolger Somehow, South Korea, Italy and Iran were able to mass produce working test kits. We could not. We missed a critical window for identifying and containing the infection.
2
@Steve Bolger I am aware of that. The CDC is aware of that but they were asleep at the switch.
How much of a role did the budget cuts to the CDC have?
If you live in USA, ask yourself: if you feel you're coming down with something, a cold, a flu, do you think about $$$ first? How much does it cost to see a doctor? How much is emergency vehicle charge if your health demands being rushed to the hospital? What about the hospital bills that follow? Do you have health insurance? The kind of insurance that cover all or most expenditures? Would you rather die than to bankrupt your whole family? Perhaps you wishfully hope it's just a mild flu and don't tell anyone you're sick. Most Americans can't handle a $400- emergency cost.
Sounds like a good scenario why more people might get infected by a highly contagious virus.
429
@Observer
I don't worry about the economic impact to me and my family. It is what it is, and we keep reserves aside specifically for when an emergency pops up.
I do however cringe at any prospect of stepping into a medical care clinic or facility for any non-virus related treatment and risking contracting the virus as a result.
Right now... the healthcare system itself is an apparent vector for the virus to move across the community. When I visited an ER at the local hospital a month ago for treatment for my daughter for an severe cut that needed assessment and sutures.... the ER, at 3:00 in the morning was literally packed with patients waiting for care, and more then half of them had been pre screened and then forced to wear masks before entering ER to sit and wait for treatment. It was an un-nerving experience simply because while at that time these were likely flu patients, we had already had confirmed cases of COVID-19 in our county and being isolated and monitored by the county health department (who by the way, was one of the first to be authorized for field testing of the virus by the CDC).
14
@Observer Going to a hospital for something other than an imminently-serious matter is foolhardy. The reason: hospitals are filled with those, plainly ill.
Hospitals are more dangerous places than are battlefields. In a war zone, one can sometimes know, who is an enemy. In a war zone, one will usually have weapons.
But in a hospital, a staffer - who has not washed his/her hands, is an enemy, even if wearing a "friendly" uniform. In a hospital, invisible things can kill, instantly. On a battlefield, one can sometimes see an enemy.
In short, money is simply not relevant when it comes to combating a highly-lethal and sneeze-transmissible disease. Viruses do not "know' the difference between wealthy and poor; black, white, Asian, etc.; tall or short, etc.
Pandemic highly-lethal diseases have no panacea. Going to a hospital during such an event is akin to running towards a fire, having drenched one's self with gasoline.
8
@Observer
Dear Canadian:
Every County in a US State, has a director of public health. If a US resident/person cannot afford to take an ambulance to the hospital, I believe the County will step in, fast. The County's have duties to protect their residents/visitors and citizens alike.
There at a hospital special isolation measures will be exercised.
Though say, at UC Davis Med, the executive Nurse complained, public ally, about the lack of this that and the other, when in fact, UC Davis Medical Hospital has enormous numbers of protocols to follow. There is a huge number of line item actions nurses and medical professionals are required in California to follow (by law and corporate by laws).
Hospital stays are unheard of in the US now. Patient's have surgery and go home within 12 hours. Hospitals push patients out, rather than tend to them. And it is probably because it is expensive to keep a patient in house over night.
The US is going to have a huge problem with providing hospital beds. We don't have a sufficient number to accommodate a huge break out of this Covid-19 disease.
8
Short term... the virus is here and must be coped with.
Longer term.... as in next winter.... this particular virus may do what the 1918 flu virus did --> after a fairly mild first round in 1918, it came back with a vengeance in 1919 and killed 10s of millions in what appears to be either a wider total breakout, or perhaps a mutation in round 2.
People discounting the severity of this particular outbreak may in the end be attending mass grave funerals somewhere in the US where one or more of their loved ones are in a large open grave being buried... simply because even grave/cremation details will be overwhelmed.
Further... the decimation of the healthcare workforce by this virus will amplify the effects of the virus as it continues to propagate. Just one confirmed patient recently in Vacaville resulted in the temporary loss of 128 healthcare workers from the health community where this person lives as they were forced to self-quarantine as a precaution from being an in-system vector for more infections.
5
You forgot one: universal health care. If we're to ever be able to contain deadly viruses in the future, we're going to need everyone to have access to health care. Right now, even some of the insured will be unable to go to the doctor because they won't be able to pay the co-pays and the deductibles.
9
@Kate In every other western country, healthcare is recognized as a right. Not here, and we're paying the price, as we have the most expensive healthcare "system" on the planet, but the 37th in quality of healthcare. Time to change!
2
Why was the special emergency fund to improve federal response efforts rescinded? Answer. For decades Republicans have been unceasingly nickle and diming the Federal Budget to (A) fund tax-cuts for the very wealthy, and (B) to "starve the beast", so as to "prove" the Federal gov't can't act effectively. Will they've succeeded, as the current crisis demonstrates, and richly deserve our "appreciation".
8
Why is there no outrage over the lack of testing kits?
Oh of course...
No testing kits, no report of cases.
9
@JM And no clue about the scope of the problem, no clue about where to focus healthcare, as a result. We blew it.
1
Anthony Fauci is a household name for physicians world over for his contribution to successive editions of the Internal Medicine text book Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine. His wealth of knowledge in the field of infectious diseases should be an asset to manage the present crisis. Muzzling him is akin to Chinese censorship about the outbreaks. Regarding vaccines, the time line Fauci has proposed seems too long to be of any help for the present epidemic and could be of little help if one observes the pattern of corona viral infections in the past decades. The strain hasn't struck widely a second time as it did the first time in each case. And calling the virus causing present epidemic by different names than that has been universally accepted will only create confusion amidst the public.
7
@An Island
He said before TV cameras he was not being muzzled.
But I did not believe it!
That’s how bad things are under this dictatorship.
5
Excellent piece. The NY Times remains our daily miracle.
6
@Stephanie Lauren
“The daily miracle” - that’s exactly what we called it back in the early 90’s when it turned out we could get it delivered in the Midwest. Every morning. (Except when they would throw it on the roof! But generally they brought another.)
When we got so old we felt the amount of daily “required reading” was too much, we let go of our paper subscription.
But we were on the web and I quickly added a digital one.
Yes, the Times is a wonderful member of our Free Press.
Vote wisely!
3
At a cafe, a man has a repeated dry cough. I ask if we can assume he doesn’t have coronavirus. He says yes but you never know.
Such self-centeredness is how it will spread.
2
As we have seen one thing that the stable genius (SG) wants is to undo anything that President Obama did. So of course he has eliminated programs/positions President Obama put in place during the Ebola epidemic or he has reduced funding for programs that made our country better prepared to deal with this situation.
The SG’ priorities have been cutting taxes for the rich, destroying alliances, building the wall, separating families at the border and putting people in cages. Let’s not forget golfing. Plus the SG has left many positions in government agencies unfilled. This lack of personnel with experience adds to the inability of the SG and his administration to deal with the threat of the spread of this virus.
We’ll see how the proponents of smaller government deal with this crisis in the making. I hope that it won’t be anywhere near the one that China faces because I don’t want people to suffer and die. It may turn out to be a mild outbreak of the virus. In which case the SG and his enablers will say: “we told you it was a hoax being spread by the MSM and the Democrats.” The SG will instantaneously forgot about the need for a vaccine for COVID-19. And he will continue the gutting of the agencies that are there for the benefit of Americans.
9
Vladimir Putin must be developing a routine around checking items off his list.
He is monitoring Trumps progress with great satisfaction no doubt and must be completely satisfied with his asset in the Oval Office.
Trump is the investment that keeps paying off in the piecemeal destruction of our country.
It must be especially satisfying that the Republican Party was thrown in as an unexpected bonus.
5
@interested party "The grift that keeps on giving."
The stock markets' response to this coronavirus pandemic was inevitable and Trump can take no credit for their rapid decline, just as he should have taken no credit for theirs steady rise since 2009, until last week. But his administration's response to the viral spread in the U.S. may finally wake up the American voters and the Republican enablers of incompetence it the White House. Will "Covid-19" be the straw that finally breaks the camel's back?
1
There is more than ample reason to distrust anyone speaking on behalf of this administration on virtually anything, and the fact that Pence is now supposed to clear ALL statements about the 'hoax' epidemic contradicts Fauci's claim that he hasn't been muzzled.
9
Cutting out the CDC epidemic response team created by Obama in the 2018 budget should be reason enough to vote trump out of office. The administration's response so far only re-enforces that. "America first!"? A world-wide crisis like this shows the folly of such an egotistical world view. Like climate change, epidemics do not observe national boundaries and cannot be prayed or threatened away.
9
Trump seems to often mistake the effective containment of a threat for the absence of any threat at all. His favorite word seems to be ”hoax”, despite an abundance of evidence that such threats are usually no such thing (think climate change). It seems to have gone completely over his head that the control he thinks he wields over the markets has evaporated in the face of such a threat, and he still seems unwilling to acknowledge as much, talking of a “miracle” saving us instead. If this virus turns into a pandemic, we will all suffer from what has shown itself to be a history of short sightedness.
2
Fill in the blank:
"Nobody knew ___________________ could be so complicated!"
a) healthcare
b) trade wars
c) pandemics
d) all of the above
15
We ignore, global warming, our third world infrastructure, highest economic inequity in advanced economies, industrial monopolies, where we pay higher in health, transportation, education, communication, than other countries, mostly because of the GOP's half century old trickle-down economics, ignoring the corona-virus, is a typical GOP playbook. After all didn't GOP's St. Reagan ignored the aids crises for years before it became a pandemic.
The media doesn't need to skew coronavirus coverage to damage the GOP and Trump as Pelosi once said, the president will self impeach or self damage. Appointing a evangelistic christian, who doesn't believe in science, who needs to have his wife with him if another woman is present, etc. a czar for this medical chaos, doesn't give us confidence this GOP administration.
4
"the world would do well to remember this time what it seems to have forgotten again and again."
Unfortunately, one of our two major political parties cannot think more then two days ahead - unless it's about how to install a autocratic dictator while still maintaining the semblance of a democracy - and they refuse to provide funding for anything other than billion dollar jets and 30 second television commercials promoting lower taxes for the wealthy.
And the "vision" of our five-star orange clown of a leader, Donald Trump, barely reaches the end of his nose - let alone the end of his tie.
So I can tell you, with great certainty, what Trump and the GOP's response will be after this latest pandemic crises has subsided - absolutely NOTHING. (Other than more cuts to the meager health programs that still remain)
2
"The best strategy for thwarting this epidemic . . . is to help other nations — wherever they are — fight humanity’s common enemy over there before we have to fight it over here."
Right. Only one problem. Other countries, like Iran and China, have to be willing to accept our help in fighting this epidemic over there.
1
We are controlled by a capitalist economic system that rewards short term gains over long term benefits. We have elected a capitalist stooge to operate our administration. Every system the administration supports must be connected to a monetary gain. Trump continues to cut and down size any department of division that doesn't show a "profit", as if profit was the purpose of government. We have seen all social services, education, healthcare support cut under Trump. This needs to be turned around. Trump is killing our government services, and selling its assets off to the highest bidder.
4
Would you trust your life or death health decisions to trump?
The most important health decision any of us can make this year is to vote .
12
I’m incredibly upset about this last sentence. It implies that there was an opportunity for our health officials to be in China. This is an authoritative government with a near century of death on its hands. And then they covered it up for months. Just like Chernobyl. How are we supposed to coordinate a response when a response was not allowed? Pre-emptive strikes?
The WHO is complicit in this cover up. Everyone about to die is on their hands. Including, possibly, this writer. I’m not alone in my dislike of our administration’s response. But the failure of the host government and international umbrella are to blame for the goose stepping. And, according to this article, they barely are mentioned.
Thankfully, I did not pay for this print because it obviously is complicit in the coverup and therefore worthless.
Because climate change is responsible for this virus’ leak from a level 4 facility and the host country’s disregard of the population.
Orange man bad.
1
Doctor Fauci stated yesterday on national TV that he had not been 'muzzled'. He specified that he had scheduled several TV appearances before VP Pence was named to head the federal response. Fauci cancelled those appearances so he could coordinate them with VP Pence.
4
In the recent past, prominent Republicans widely peddled the conspiracy that Hillary Clinton was running a child sex slave ring inside a DC pizza joint. It caused someone to fire bullets into the restaurant while customers and employees were inside.
Additionally, trump used a Sharpie pen to alter the NWS-predicted path of a hurricane. That change in information could have prompted hospitals to relocate patients, including those in the ICU and NICU, potentially worsening those patients' already delicate situations.
Just the other day, junior was on television shrieking that Democrats want the virus to "kill millions of Americans" so that dad loses in 2020. It's the kind of irrational screaming that results in a disaffected misfit harming others.
Yet Republicans constantly whine that it's the media sowing doubt on the information Republicans are putting out there about the corona virus.
Republicans are beyond tiresome. Really.
Enough, already.
9
How is harvesting and consumption of a civet or pangolin
in China any different from harvesting and consumption
of a deer, rabbit, bear, antelope in the United States?
We also kill and eat rattlesnakes, possums, ducks, geese.
After all, that's what we say the guns are for.
We may shoot them in the wilderness, but then we bring the
carcasses back to the city, often tied on top of the car
to show it off.
1
Of course it's coming. Anyone with any knowledge knew it would happen. Our only hope is for medical science to mitigate the effects of a pandemic and leave the politicians out of the decision making. Better yet, put Mr. Trump and Sen. Schumer in quarantine until it is over.
2
The current administration is culpable for impugning scientific remedies and assessments. This administration has sought to limit access to healthcare by adding barriers to Medicaid. Budgets for the CDC have also been affected. But to stand in front of reporters yesterday and claim "No one has done more...." to stem the spread of COVID19 is an outrageous falsehood. The person in the White House is more concerned about Wall Street right now and his re election. Blaming the media and Democrats for sensationalizing a disease? Seriously ?
25
All the obfuscation coming out of the White House about this potential pandemic is quite discouraging, but not surprising. Again they are hiding something, in this case the bald face facts that in 2009 Obama's CDC budget was $6B and rose to 11.6B by 2016. In 2017, it declined very modestly, but in 2018 the Trump administration cut it from over $11B to 6.5B and then in 2019 they shaved off another billion, brining the CDC budget to 5.5B -- less than half the amount of Obama's last year.
The obfuscation and politicizing of the virus by the Trump administration was in full display during his campaign speech a few days ago when he made the claim Democrats were "politicizing" the virus and their acts are a "hoax" because his administration has done a marvelous job managing the potential pandemic. He failed to mention that such a wonder performance was being done with less than half the funds the CDC received only three years ago.
The CDC publishes its annual budget and it can be found on a simple government search. Not sure the NYT allows links or I would paste it here. But search "Center for Disease Control budgets, 2008-2019" and you will find the results on the first page of Google. The budget summary appears on P8 of the report each year. I read through all of the budgets since 2008 and the facts are astonishing. The budget has been more than halved since 2016.
Maybe Trump thinks he can do a marvelous job by cutting a budget by half and appointing Pence. I don't.
530
@Jack Smith Still haven't heard why the test kit mess occurred, and how that was "fixed". Other countries, South Korea, Italy and Iran, have done thousands of tests while we were hamstrung into only hundreds. The most critical time for testing of potential infected people is at the beginning of an outbreak. We missed that window, big time.
But it was heartening to see the reappearance of the Surgeon General (in print), even if it was only to plead that people not buy face masks. Odd, but I was concerned the SG's job had been eliminated. Confusion is the byword of this third-rate administration.
26
@Jack Smith Your points, likely correct, are not relevant. The reason: few corona viruses (seven, to be exact) are known to have adapted to humans. Thus, no matter how large the CDC's budget, it is next-to-impossible for anyone to predict which virus will mutate, and so become a lethal threat to humans.
And, if the CDC were properly funded, its emphasis should be on influenza, which is far more lethal than COVID-19 has been, or is likely to be, absent a mutation. Again, mutations are random.
If you want to criticize the Trump Administration, complain that they were slow to shut-down air travel to/via China. That should have been done so soon as it was clear a new, and lethal virus had emerged.
When a ship is holed below the water-line, sailors run to close all water-tight doors, to contain flooding, and so to save the ship.
While an air-travel shut-down to/via China would be disruptive, that was the only way to contain a new disease, for which there's no vaccine. Even if a vaccine is soon developed and proved, it will take time to make enough. And should COVID-19 virus mutate, a new vaccine could become useless.
3
@Jack Smith
Fact Check:
"Democratic presidential contenders are describing the federal infectious-disease bureaucracy as rudderless and ill-prepared for the coronavirus threat because of budget cuts and ham-handed leadership by President Donald Trump. That’s a distorted picture. For starters, Trump hasn’t succeeded in cutting the budget.
He’s proposed cuts but Congress ignored him and increased financing instead. The National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention aren’t suffering from budget cuts that never took effect."
from AP here:
https://apnews.com/d36d6c4de29f4d04beda3db00cb46104
Or here from ABCNews:
"In fact, all of Trump’s budget proposals have called for cuts to CDC funding, but Congress has intervened each time by passing spending bills with year-over-year increases for the CDC that Trump then signed into law."
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-cut-cdcs-budget-democrats-claim-analysis/story?id=69233170
2
I was a teenager in 1968 when the Hong Kong flu was going around. One day in the afternoon I felt fine and 20 minutes later I had a temperature of 104.
It appears the vast majority of these cases result in flu like symptoms for a few days and then subside. A very small minority of persons with compromised immune systems and the elderly with pre-existing medical issues are at highest risk.
I watched the White House news conference with Trump and his specialists. Face masks? Forget it. If you are in a crowded elevator or the aisle of a grocery store and somebody sneezes, chances are you are going to get it too.
6
@JSS
Every single cancer survivor is living with a compromised immune system. All of them. The same is true for all people who have had organ transplants and who are being treated for any number of chronic conditions.
Think about the number of people in your own family who are over sixty, and/or who have or have had cancer, and tell us again that “only” a “very small minority “ are at risk.
5
@Chickpea
You are correct Chickpea. My mother died of small cell carcinoma of the lung and she had a compromised immune system. My mother in law died of pancreatic cancer and she had a compromised immune system.
My point was these folks are at highest risk, as always. You should be aware of that.
1
It seems to me fairly obvious that many people can't afford to take care of their medical needs, so when/if they might get sick (perhaps it's a new virus!) they won't go to a doctor, or the hospital. I know myself, an appointment with my doctor would be about 6-8 weeks out (I'd be well or dead by then), and no thanks, I'm not paying $250 again for an ambulance ride to the hospital about 4 miles away, just to wait in an emergency room and plead my case. And if it's some other thing, then I'm out the ambulance cost, and I'm in a hospital with who knows what sick people. I have no confidence the hospital is clean, sanitized for a novel virus. And there are many out there like me. This is what comes from a piece-meal private health care system, with no safety nets. You don't allow guns into Congress (though they're ok in churches and schools), but the virus can't be stopped by any scanner. How will lawmakers stay safe?
10
The time has come to take our health care out of the hands of profiteers. What is the state of our anti-viral response? How many doses of Tamiflu are available? What, if any, supplies of antibiotics are available? Which palms need to be greased? Who's egos need to be stroked?
We have that kind of president. (With apologies to RMN, who was twice the man of Trump.)
5
Before it’s over, trump will probably have very american climb inside his or her personal Zorb to provide a portable isolation chamber.
It might actually work. And it might also reduce traffic fatalities.
I know. That’s a bad joke.
But have you heard anything better from trump or his minions?
3
@Steve Ell "It's going to disappear. One day it's like a miracle, it will disappear,"
I was hoping that buffoon was talking about his presidency.
I was just reading today the story of three young Italian scientists, all female, who managed to isolate the Italian strain of the COVID-19 virus and who undoubtedly have contributed hugely to the development of the “cocktail” of antiviral medicines that Italian doctors are successfully giving to infected patients, with encouraging results.
I was shocked to learn that these brilliant young scientists all have temporary jobs, no permanent work contracts, and they all earn less than 1200 dollars per month. It is not just an American problem. Around the world, our most brilliant scientific minds are undervalued, underpaid, vilified while parasitical, unproductive leeches working in “finance” rake in millions and millions for producing absolutely nothing of value to humanity.
Unless us humans, as a global civilization, recognize the importance and true value of science over parasitic and empty finance, we are never going to solve any of the real challenges to our survival.
1176
@Andy f
My nephew in Spain, a lung specialist who works in the finest hospital in Madrid is on contracts lasting only months long. With a new baby.
This kind of thing, in Europe, is related to the previous down turn, what in Spain was the “la crisis.”
Humanity needs to prioritize heath in world where even the environment is working against it.
84
@Andy No we only love athletes. Billion dollar sports stadiums are the norm. A man like Patrick Mahomes with a photographic memory could have accomplished anything in life, maybe even worked as a scientist to cure disease. And yet he chose fame and fortune of the NFL.
59
@Harry B
Look at what Orban is doing in Hungary. Diverting money into football stadiums while the health care system crumbles.
67
CDC spokesman, Dr. Fair, said on Meet the Press that many people weren't tested because they didn't meet criteria, which have now been changed. He basically reported that there are likely many more in US with the virus but we don't know where we are yet.
16
@M Davis That doesn't ring true. It seems much more likely those testing criteria were put in place to hide the fact that we faced (still face) a severe shortage of test kits. Her in CA we received 200, and they didn't work ("bad component"). Fumble!
2
Right. At a time when the world is looking at perhaps the most daunting public health challenge it has faced since the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918-1920, the US has an utterly inept federal government that doesn’t believe in science and can be trusted only to lie with every word issued. Having said that, if this virus realizes its full potential, it seems unlikely that the best of health care systems would be overwhelmed. Under Trump-Pence...fuggedabouddit. I am in the category of individuals who, if struck by COVID-19, is likely to die. I’m not going to freak out, now or ever. It’s already too late for that. The country panicking will help nothing. Take common sense precautions, hope you’re lucky; and for the sake of those affected by the next superbug, vote the Republicans out in November.
36
Add another step: return to making our drugs in America. There is no reason to import drugs, save corporate greed to improve profit margins. We still do not know what happens when someone takes a drug made in a country where the coronavirus may be present in the laboratory and passed through the drugs. India and China, big Pharma's go-to countries for drug production are lax in their standards. We have had several incidences last year and in 2018 where blood pressure drugs made in both had to be recalled due to contamination. Return safety and the related research and production jobs related to drug manufacture and distribution back to the United States where standards of safety can be monitored and ensured.
14
@Sierra
Drugs have no set price/value.
Same drug available at one outlet compared to another varies widely. And is not controlled or governed by country of origin.
Detroit to Windsor,Canada. Busload of US oldsters.
Prescriptions in hand. OOOAAHH!!
Savings.
1
And watch, we will learn absolutely nothing from this outbreak as well. Humanity’s short-sightedness is truly astounding.
10
It’s a leadership issue, not simply human shortsightedness, which is a byproduct of poor leadership. We had a short episode of good leadership under Obama, now long gone.
1
In my area, school children are given free breakfasts and lunches They are routinely sent home with breakfast and lunch items to last the weekend as well. We need a plan in place In case schools are closed, as they might be, for up to a month.
As my family stocks up on whatever we need to self quarantine or handle an extended work at home situation, we buy a bit extra and send it to food pantries or other agencies in need..and know were fortunate to be able to do so. . Pet food. Diapers. Soap. etc
I’m not sure food pantries will be open if other agencies are forced to close or if they'll even have enough volunteers to stay open. But if this virus hits cities and towns, , large and small, as hard as it might, the need will certainly be there.
Would welcome any suggestions on help the most economically stressed if cities and towns get hit as hard as they could. If kids stay home. If families can’t work. Etc.
35
This virus might drive home the need for universal health care. Already there are quite a few stories of people tested for the virus or put into quarantine, who were then stuck with a massive medical bill. That’s definitely going to drive down the number of people getting themselves checked out.
30
I do agree with many comments about having an agency like CDC or WHO to be completely in-charge of the response to this type of crisis, rather than someone like Mr. Trump or Mr. Pence, but a competent President could make a big difference the next time around..
27
@JCA: It's a polymath's job, but politics devours such people.
Dr. Elizabeth Birx is a very interesting choice to be White House coordinator for the coronavirus response. I don't know her, but as the US Global AIDS Coordinator for PEPFAR and previously in CDC, she would have had to work diplomatically and strategically with multiple US government agencies, with foreign governments, with congress, and with NGOs. PEPFAR has had bipartisan support. Her appointment looks like a positive step to me.
8
There is one upside to being trapped in a lock down- you find a new appreciation for food products. Buckwheat Noodles. Don't call em Soba noodles, they were Chinese centuries before they were Japanese.
Garlic, ginger, soy sauce, chinese cooking wine, and you have a lockdown meal in 3 minutes.
9
This comment is wonderful. I’m going to make your “lockdown meal” today, as written, in solidarity.
Seventeen years ago, Ontario specifically Toronto, was one of the centers of the SARS outbreak. In the aftermath it became apparent how under prepared we were. How do you prepare for the unknown? You'll learn. A pause in the step. An extra two three or four washes of the hands. A self consciousness that wasn't there before. Did I touch that? Things will change until this gets sorted out. Good up to date info at Ontario public health website.
10
One would hope that the dramatic improvements in our ability to identify and genetically sequence new virus threats and the ability to rapidly develop effective vaccines and other therapeutics would be a way to deal with emerging contagion threats. Dr. Fauci indicated that one or more vaccines may be generated in the next few weeks; however, due to the need for testing for safety and efficacy, the earliest one could be deployed is in a year from now. One year from now, it will not be needed. It is patently absurd to have a cure after the fact. There have been incredible advances in biological science which have brought us to this point, but no real advances in the basic mechanism for Phase 1,2 and 3 trials to demonstrate safety and efficacy. This seems to be the rate limiting step in getting an effective treatment or vaccine out. It also limits the potential profit motivation for commercial development because of the enormous investment in a product which will be no longer necessary as soon as it is available. Vaccines are generally safe whether or not they are effective. The potential number of people who could be saved by a streamlined process would seem to dramatically outweigh the potential risk. Perhaps phase 1,2 and 3 trials can be initiated simultaneously with real time data collection and analysis online. Perhaps AI or “big data” type of analysis would help. Real-time outcome data and analysis may allow efficacy and safety to be proven very rapidly.
1
@Heart Doc NY: There must be some common vaccine vehicle molecule capable of carrying the immune-system activating component(s) of viruses, so that only testing for efficacy should be necessary.
2
@Heart Doc NY
Clinical trials are important since predicting human response to a drug or treatment is very difficult without testing on humans.
Recruiting patients can take months after a contractual framework is in place (trial are expensive because a lot of money change hands between drug company, hospital, practitioners, consultants). Then you have to run multiple rounds with increasing scale to minimize risk of adverse effects and deaths and follow people for sufficient time for delayed effects. Quite a few drugs have been pulled out of the market even after going through 3 phases of clinical trials before being found too dangerous in post market studies.
Vaccines may be in a different category than drugs taken daily for years, still deployment need to be phased in carefully. This is a hard thing to speed up like making babies...still take nine months.
2
Whose interest is it to whip up hysteria around the Coronavirus outbreak? As the editorial correctly reminds us, hundreds of thousands of people are killed each year by strains of influenza. So why all this talk about shutting down schools and factories, and to curtail travel? Keeping people at home angry and fearful, is never a good thing. Common sense suggests that society should continue to function as per usual, while at the same time take care as best we can of those affected by the virus.
8
@Antonio Casella Unlike the seasonal flu, no one is immune to this virus. Also unlike the flu, it does *seem* to have a higher death rate. I am by no means "hysterical," but I do worry about my elderly parents in Seattle. I would like to see some protective measures taken, on behalf of them and others who are the most vulnerable.
24
@Antonio Casella : "Whose interest is it to whip up hysteria around the Coronavirus outbreak?" As the songs says:
Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you're always afraid
Step out of line, the men come and take you away.
1
@Antonio Casella Gee - if the mortality in Wuhan and environs is an accurate indicia of motality, then we are speaking about death tolls of up to 3.9% infected. Are you willing to bet the farm that this is nothing to be worried about if 100 million are infected and between 400,000 to 3.9 million die.
2
Wouldn’t it be nice to live in a country that gave all it’s citizens access to medical care in times such as these?
And wouldn’t it be nice if people could get said medical care without the fear of bankruptcy?
The US voting public should remember this latest crisis and vote accordingly come November.
55
@CC Agree- and the US voting public should also understand that universal healthcare is in the interest of national secuirity. Without acces to healthcare many people with this virus will risk going undetected because of the cost involved.
23
@CC
I would suggest people vote like their lives depend upon starting with Super Tuesday as to who gets to be the Dem nominee. We know exactly who supports a universal health care program for all and everyone else who doesn't.
The 2020 election is not about beating Trump, it is all about hiring representatives that will enact programs and policies that will make people's lives better across the board.
20
@CC
Complete an application for admission to medical school, go through the meat grinder of training to become a doctor, then work for a minimal stipend to cover your spartan living expenses.
Then you will have personally made a contribution toward lowering health care costs. If you are not willing to do this, then encourage academically talented people to follow that path.
Good Luck.
3
Looking forward, the CDC must be given the regulatory authority to resist the kinds of crass politicization of public health issues we have seen from President Trump. Its ability to prepare for and execute plans for addressing pandemics such as Covid-19 should not be subject solely to executive branch oversight but directed by a panel of learned infectious disease specialists such as Dr. Fauci whose work is vital to the common good. The federal government can fund the CDC but in critical situations such as this we should not count on political leaders to run it.
19
@Will g
Congress should swiftly pass VETO-PROOF legislation providing for exactly what you propose.
9
@Will: Most of the time there is no public health panic, so it becomes difficult to justify maintaining the infrastructure to deal with infrequent crises caused by pathogen mutations.
3
@Steve Bolger My house has never burned down. Yet we support the fire department.
While I whole-heartedly agree with the overall opinion stated, the
statement:" Covid-19, the disease caused by this new virus, appears to be between seven and 20 times more deadly than seasonal flu, .". is, as far as I know, completely erroneous. There has been nothing stated anywhere to justify that conclusion. The mortality rate for this virus is 2%-3%; the flu is far more deadly.
That is not to say that it is an extremely serious situation and our response to this reflects poor preparedness.
3
@LS Mortality rate for seasonal flu is .1%. The mortality rate for Covid-19 is thought to be 2%.
21
@LS , the disease caused by this new virus, appears to be between seven and 20 times more deadly than seasonal flu, which on average kills between 300,000 and 650,000 people globally each year. But that fatality rate could prove to be much lower, especially if it turns out that many milder cases have evaded detection.
Read the last paragraph...
4
@LS: People self-prescribe antibiotics for viral infections, which can facilitate complication with pneumonia. I wonder what pathologists are finding.
With respect to contact tracing...it is a time consuming but critical aspect of controlling epidemics.
Perhaps the government could develop a program to train and certify volunteers to work the phones and internet to contact the typically long list of people who have been exposed to the virus via contact to a diagnosed vector case. Volunteers could work from home using phone and internet.
Such a credentialed program would be similar to skilled volunteers who work as election judges/officials, guardian ad litem, and other trained volunteer civic functions. A program like this could reduce the cost of managing epidemics as well as speed up the process of finding people who have been exposed to pathogen so they can receive appropriate medical attention sooner and reduce the spread of the disease.
5
@Michele These people might be able to employ the iPhone tracking info that the Times reported recently to see where people actually went in actual time.
1
@Michele
Only those willing to sign an Oath to Dear Leader need apply.
Sadly...
Fortunately, Obama during his administration, purchased and stockpiled enormous quantities of medical supplies, and funded and set up special emergency treatment facilities throughout the country. This was done because of the threats from other viruses. When Trump says the country is prepared, it is because of that work done earlier which took years to complete. Obama thought that the preparedness was adequate. However, it is unrealistic for citizens to expect Trump to add huge amounts to that preparedness in just a few weeks. It costs more money and Trump asked for at least an additional 2.5 billion dollars to fight the virus. Unfortunately, many days later, Democrats in Congress still haven’t decided what they want to include in their funding bill.
10
Can you change the naming rules to avoid the confusion with the common cold? I understand that this is a so called beta corona virus--therefore:
SARS==>B-COVID-2003
MERS==>B-COVID-2012
(Wuhan)==>B-COVID-2019
@Rock Winchester .......uh, and who profited from this supply build-up? wouldn't be Obama contributors would it? Always look behind the P.R. curtain to find out who's making money from this 'crisis'.
In August 2002, NIAID held a meeting in Chantilly, VA that included industry experts in medicine, public health, engineering, defense, and counterterrorism to inform us that in response to the Anthrax attacks (which later proved to be an act of domestic terrorism), Congress have given NIH/NIAID $10B to build a network of regional and national Biocontainment labs as a frontline resource for combating a future bioterrorist attack. The only reason action was taken so swiftly was because it was called terrorism. Why don’t we have a similar response to Pandemics? Because they are not terrorism and our leaders lack the political will to do the right thing.
8
@Jeffrey Schantz A few major players like the World Health Organization with a network of epidemologists; and the C.D.C. with its expertise in developing working vaccines. The Military is also aware of the threat and takes extraordinary precautions..........never forget the U.S. is a developer of the most deadly germs and viruses in the world.
"Fort Detrick, Md., was created in the middle of World War II and became the center for America's biological warfare efforts. But that role shifted in 1969, the government says, to focus solely on defense against the threat of biological weapons.
Then called Detrick Air Field, the science and research facility housed four biological agent production plants."
So we are leaders in biological warfare and know how to stem outbreaks as well.
We probably need a lot more ventilators than we have. That alone can prove disastrous. A comparison of the degree of hospitalization between say seasonal flu and Covid 19 would be interesting. It could give an idea of the number of ventilators, hospital beds, health care workers etc. needed. I'm sure the CDC people have thought of this and already have a rough estimate of what's needed. The fatality rate itself need not be that high to create a catastrophic situation.
9
@James F Traynor: Pneumonia immunization should be encouraged. It is a common killing complication of influenza, and probably covid 19 too.
The coronavirus is really a mysterious disease. First the victims had been exposed to others who had the disease. Now an American has died who was no where near anyone with the illness. There is so much we do not know and this is what is so frightening. With other diseases, we knew the origins but this one is so puzzling. Everyone is scared to death.
Yesterday I tried to buy a hand sanitizer and they were sold out of every brand. I went to many stores and had no success. I finally went to my supermarket and the manager said they were getting 60 cases on Tuesday. People are taking this very seriously and with good reason. People are afraid because we know so little about this. We have never experienced anything like this before in America.
I have faith that we will find out more by our excellent scientists and medical professionals. They are working tirelessly and researching extensively to come up with information and results. They want this to end immediately and stop this scourge. We all do.
3
@KMW
'Now an American has died who was no where near anyone with the illness. "
We don't know that for sure. It's possible, but more likely the American who died was in contact with someone with the virus who may not have been showing acute symptoms or any at all.
8
@KMW
Actually, the person who died in Washington State was around people that had the illness. Researchers are finding that the virus is likely airborne so you just need to be in the same space where an infected person had been.
5
I visited a local dollar store and they had cases of 11 ounce bottles of sanitizer available for one dollar a bottle. The nearby Aldi’s also has the pump bottles for $1.29 each. Other stores also have plenty of stock. You may need to go to a store instead of shopping online.
1
What goes around comes around. The USA has led the world in thinking banning travel from high-risk counties is a good idea. Given how uniquely unprepared the US is for a pandemic, structurally, without health care for 30% of its own population, odds are high that the outbreak will be quite a bit worse in the USA than in other developed nations. At which time they will ban flights FROM the USA to their own country. Cause that's what to do, right?
17
I have no doubt that the this virus will spread in this country. Looking at the picture of the Washington State health workers and EMS crews removing those suspected nursing home patients, it appears that none of them are wearing the proper masks to protect them from this virus. Hopefully, these individuals are being closely monitored. The mask needed are not in great supply or easily tolerated when worn and hospitals are scrambling to acquire them.
9
How are we going to protect the uninsured and workers dependent on hourly wages? They could become the human vectors that spread the disease.
The Post had a story yesterday describing how the gig workers and those in lower skilled service jobs are paid as contract workers and thus often have no health benefits. The companies that hire them are really not obligated to protect their healths.
These gig/service workers are more likely to come in contact with hundreds of people because they are our ride-sharing drivers, food preparation workers, nursing home aides & delivery people. Now couple that with the possibility that if they come in for medical assistance, they may be quarantined (thereby losing ability to work) and billed for the medical costs of a mandatory quarantine.
Now add to the earlier downplaying of the severity and risk of getting the virus, by the administration and its supporters.
Many of the gig workers will gamble that they will be ok rather than seek medical attention. They won't risk bankruptcy or homelessness due to the accruing of large medical bills and not being able to work (caused by an imposed quarantine). We literally have the perfect storm. This is an even bigger problem than we realize....the answers will probably require us to rethink our health care system AND our labor laws.
31
So each state must decide how it wants such people regularly screened/ tested in some cases. And probably the state should bear the cost.
@Jean so absolving the federal govt role in this means your country is made up of 50 mini nations? Not even the EU operates like that. States like CT and WA might financially be able to do it, but many states like OK, AK, MS and AL are probably not equipped to handle the financial impact. Also, what do you do with the people losing their job because they are quarantined or too sick to go to work? The state should pay their bills like rent and utilities so they don't become homeless? Seems you have a nation without any leadership at all.
14
Washington state’s Governor isn’t waiting for the federal government. He is acting pronto.
In the Trump era, that is reality.
8
Some additional thoughts on COV-19. Here are some additional items that I thought of after my last submission of a few minutes ago. All viruses mutate. In the press so far, I haven't seen any reports, although I know labs are working on this issue. For a person exposed and lab validated, a COV-19 infection will likely be respiratory, although it can be found in the gastrointestinal tract, quarantine is mandatory. We can expect the virus to mutate and the mutant form may be more infectious and dangerous. This is an important consideration for the smaller alveolar sacs in the lungs. Infection here will generate fluid which will promote pneumonia. Immunity will help stem the effects.
This will be a viral pneumonia and not susceptible to antibiotics. A workable vaccine is at least months away. Any health care institution is likely to have already put a priority on additional ventilators.
16
@Douglas Lloyd MD Except like SARS this Coronavirus is likely to have a comparatively low mutation rate because of its error correcting mechanism which the common flu lacks and should limit its ability to mutate into something more lethal.
5
Reportedly common variety flu virus takes between 12,000 and 65,000 Americans yearly over the past decade. Yet such fatality levels have not encouraged a major national preventive response. Nor are flu deaths widely discussed in the media. Apparently Americans accept such annual incidence of flu fatalities as part of the natural order.
What seems different this time is the sudden surge of Coronavirus fatalities reported in China. With the implication that its only a matter of time before the U.S. is similarly infected. But that ignores the vast differences in health systems between the 2 nations.
One wonders is the Coronavirus has been “politicized’ in America. Judging by the loss in our equity markets the costs of the Coronavirus to date have far exceeded any health issue. One wonders whether we’d have had a similar response in a non-Presidential election year. Or whether with the “Impeachment Story” now behind us its time to refocus attention on anothr major national issue.
For the world’s leading economy with an unparalleled health/medical system the national response to the Coronavirus seems “over the top”. Making us wonder what a major league pandemic with high mortalities would entail upon our nation.
1
@Peter I Berman Our health system may be good, but the actual "health" of a nation that consumes massive quantities of refined sugar and carbs, exercises little, and is generally obese, is NOT good. That's why the Coronavirus will likely explode in the US, if it gains a foothaold.
7
@Laeterna
50% of Chinese men smoke and China has the worst air pollution on earth.
I’d venture to say that makes for far worse health outcomes with a respiratory virus than eating too many Oreos.
2
@Peter I Berman
If everyone had health care, we wouldn't be afraid that people who were sick would not get medical care
however since our for profit system will bill these people for an examination they will not come in for care.
So one person infects several people and more people and no one should worry?
Trump didn't even know who died and we should have confidence in Pence who let people die from HIV
Not everyone is an elite who can isolate themselves from being on the subways, laundry rooms etc
5
Take every dime Trump has attempted to transfer to building his wall, double it (Maybe by undoing some of the corporate tax cuts?) and distribute the money to the CDC, National Institutes of Health, VA, and the states (Thru the CDC?).
Enough of this Republican-Reptilian fascination with cutting spending; Somehow explain this to the Trump "Base" when they complain about foreseeable problems in the nest six months. Vote them (Republicans) out (At Local, State and federal level) in November. Their policies for the last Generation will make this crisis much worse than it could have been, and guarantee worse ones in the future.
39
@Ozark Ork we don’t cut spending.
Ever had the Flu? What about Food Poisoning like Norovirus?
I have and depending on the case, life itself can be miserable.
Coronavirus (CoV), Myers-CoV, SARS-CoV etc is a new strain that has not been previously identified in humans.
Get this, and you could die a very painful death.
Can you avoid it? Well, yes if you take the proper precautions. Isolate yourself in a germ free environment. That means NO contact with other human beings.
Of course that’s not going to happen. So–what should we do in the future? Hire professionals to keep us safe. Vote like your life depends on it because it really does.
41
We spend $800 Billion / year on weapons and weapons specialists. It trains young people to explode, shoot, kill. We spend $42 Billion / year on the NIH. It trains people to build labs, understand the world, cure disease.
Think how American stature could be raised by means of an effective Covid19 vaccine that we give away to the world for free. Instead, it's likely the Chinese will develop a vaccine first and then we'll be faced with the choice of trusting it and paying them for it or waiting around for something from our NIH.
That will be Trump's comeuppance.
28
@larkspur
Even worse is 99% of them don't do any shooting/killing/exploding, they just sit around on government military bases while collecting tons of taxpayer funded welfare benefits that are absolutely not available to the people (us) paying for them. Free movers, free housing, free healthcare, guaranteed pay raises, free college, etc.
1
@Monsp: I'm the son of a military man. He fought in WWII. I lived on military bases until I was 14. Yes we got good medical care and if lucky free base housing but the pay was abysmal. After 30 years in the military my father retired and became a school janitor which paid more than his pay as a Senior Master Sergeant with 30 years of service. If you want a military that can actually protect us in case of war, you have to take good care of your people.
1
@Jeff
I understand and agree that it costs money to have a well trained, motivated, armed military.
But, the threats to national security are no longer regular troops pitting one or two nations against our standing army.
Look at the Trillions it cost to fight the war in Afghanistan for 18 years. Did it stem the flow of heroin? Did it make Afghans safer or more educated? Perhaps in some communities. Did Osama Bin Laden spend Trillions to train a few suicide commandos to spark the war that we've been too proud to quit or admit we lost?
Think if we had spent Trillions on healthcare instead, all other things being equal with military spending. We'd be much better trained, motivated, and armed to fight the war on Covid19 and any other new public health crisis.
2
472 - that is the number of tests that have been done according to the CDC web site as of this morning 3/1/20.
The CDC had completed to date less than 500 tests. America has NO IDEA how many people have this virus! I consider myself one of the luckier ones who have insurance and my deductible and out of pocket maximum have been met so if I need medical attention, it (hopefully) won’t cost me out of pocket $$$ when the time comes to be tested.
In the great country of America, my government months into this global health crisis has tested only 472 cases. We should all be very afraid.
26
@Donna Mac, it is absolutely frightening. South Korea is running around 6000 tests a day. The virus is probably circulating in every state by now and no one knows it, because we are not aggressively testing for it.
3
@Donna Mac yes...it shows just how bad the US healthcare system is compared to other countries.
4
@Donna Mac ...Relax. You are overlooking General (now Doctor) Bonespurs’ anticipated miracle wherein the virus will simply float out to sea with the advent of Spring.
2
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3767950/How-spot-society-DOOMED-Researchers-reveal-signs-civilization-set-collapse.html ran a very thought provoking article vis-à-vis the current coronovirus crisis, titled “How to spot if society is doomed: Researchers reveal the signs that show civilization are set to collapse”.
Authors theorized in a study published to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, “that it has been seen all throughout human history – a bustling community experiences a population boom and technological advancement until, seemingly overnight, it plummets into total collapse. By analyzing archaeological records of the European Neolithic communities, which existed roughly 9,000 years ago, researchers have identified the early warning signals linked to societal downfall” after the authors examined 2,378 archaeological sites from nine regions of Neolithic Europe.
During this period, the communities experienced massive population growth as a result of the emergence of agriculture and the technological advancements that followed.
While these developments may seem beneficial, they also led to ‘periods of devastating societal instability that we are only now beginning to understand,’ the authors wrote.
‘It remains unclear whether modern technological innovation can continue to outpace demand and it is important for sustainability scientists to consider the possibility that generic mechanisms can contribute to demographic collapse".
4
In his great and unmatched wisdom, Trump fired the Pandemic Response Team in 2018. Instead, we have Mike Pence in charge. No reason to panic.
49
@Peter It is always a wise move to put in charge of an epidemic a person who believes that all illnesses are god's retribution for the people not being "Conservative Christians".
Thank you Editorial Board for an essential review of what an advanced 21st Century country would be able to provide when faced by the threat of a pandemi.
Thank you Edwin, Reader Pick number 1, former CDC physician and epidemiologist, for presenting essential arguments that Mike Pence surely is incapable of dealing with.
All of the above frees me to note that a countryman of mine, Martin Hägglund, Professor of Comparative Literature and Humanities at Yale, in his role as philosopher, has written a profound book explaining the fatal flaw in having an evangelical Pence as responsible official, one who believes that he does not have to worry about This Life, because he, Pence, if he were to die from Covid-19 would be given eternal life.
The book:
"This Life - Secular Faith and Spiritual Freedom"
The message: Make the most of this life and make it possible for others to do the same. This Life is the only one you will ever have.
I believe that ACO, who was presented yesterday in an extraordinary many-page profile in my newspaper, Dagens Nyheter,is familiar with Hägglund's book. More power to her now but especially through this decade.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Citizen US SE
8
@Larry Lundgren - AOC, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, sorry a slip of the keys. She was presented in an extraordinary profile in Dagens Nyheter Lördag yesterday, an interview-essay presentation, many pages long introducing Swedish readers via a much more nuanced presentation than I am used to seeing in the Times.
Maybe she can help realize Martin Luther King's late in life goals, all presented beautifully by Martin Hägglund in the closing section of This Life. I recommend that presentation even if you never read the full book.
@Larry Lundgren
You use to provide an interesting, and often counter balancing perspective, to many of these comments, especially to Socrates.
Now, you've become the equivalent of a one hit wonder with your incessant extolling of the virtues of life in Sweden and how much better they do everything.
Good for the people of Sweden - and for you having the wherewithal to hop from here to there and back.
However, the relevance of the way the Swedes do it has little to no transferability to life here in these United States.
Like the climate change signals, coronavirus pandemic or the earlier such virus caused diseases are reminders to humanity not to upset the delicate balance between the Nature and the humans. Again, whatever the toxic rhetoric by the ignorant populist leaders about the secured and safe national borders, or the attempts to belittle the threat of the coronavirus as Trump is doing, the pandemic knows no borders similar to the global commons. What's required is globally coordinated common effort of both preventive and curative nature involving better screening/monitoring, quarantyiing of infected areas and persons, testing and correct treatment protocols, avoiding panic and curbing social contagion of disinformation, even any attempt to cover up the gravity of the situation.
11
Appointing Pence could also just be plain political calculation and self-preservation, the lens through which Trump views everything.
If Pence does well, this is used in the bid for re-election.
If he does NOT do well, he can be a great scapegoat. Trump does not need Pence anymore in order to get the religious vote. He can get that all on his own by now. Trump may be itching to appoint a vice president he trusts more, or a woman to lay down claims that he can't reach those (Ivanka? Hope Hicks?). However, dumping Pence out of the blue will seem strange. But not if he has botched the corona response. Easy to throw him under the bus then.
Either way, Trump wins.
Contained = Look at Trump & Pence, aren't they a great team?
Disaster = easy scapegoat, look how I am getting rid of people that do not function well.
18
My prediction: Pence will have no meaningful impact on this one way or another, except, perhaps, to provide some comic relief.
1
@Lisa Trump has forgotten where the buck stops and it’s not with Pence.
International and in-country tourism is already taking a big hit, a situation far beyond government control.
For example, my wife and I have canceled a Baltic cruise for this June because:
1. Most cruise lines reserve the right to alter or curtail the schedule/itinerary without refunds; and cancel-for-any reason insurance will be about half the cost of the cruise.
2. We are both over 70 and thus at higher risk of becoming seriously ill or even dying from COVID-19 if we catch it.
3. In the best of times cruise ships are floating Petri dishes that easily spread noroviruses; note the current COVID-19 transmissions on the Diamond Princess.
4. While our cruise ports are in countries that now have fewer than 25 cases, the coronavirus could become a pandemic affecting many countries, including all 7 of those on our itinerary. Our nightmare scenario is that we or other passengers contract the disease prior to boarding the ship, aboard or in port. Do we want to be treated or quarantined on the ship or in Europe where Medicare is not accepted? No way.
For us the medical/financial risks are just too great, so for 2020 we are planning to limit our travel to US destinations we can reach easily by car. Over time we will evaluate the coronavirus situation and see how cruise lines, airlines and foreign countries are coping. There’s always next year.
5
@Mon Ray: I just cancelled a 6 week vacation to Europe because of the Coronavirus.
1
Fund Community Health Centers and Community Mental Heath Centers - they are the backbone of our public health infrastructure, they are where the most vulnerable patients actually get their care.
5
@Kenneth, Thanks a million! I work in an FQHC. My patients are economically vulnerable. People always ask, "Why don't you open up a private practice?" And I respond, "There are enough psych providers in private practice; I'm needed in the public sector." And now with this...
6
@Kenneth
You are so right! FQHCs have suffered under federal cuts along with the CDC and NIH. Covid-19 may become an unfortunate illustration of these mistakes. Many of us know what is needed to address this.
2
Mother Nature always seems to remind Homo Sapien that She is ultimately in control.
Science Deniers need to understand their inherent limitations and take advice from those in the Scientific Community who will help to guide us through this time.
9
So, yes, we've had many viruses arise over the years, and despite fear and panic spread by the media, they have turned out to be the usual, striking the weak, the unhealthy, or the very old, and fading away by springtime.
But this time, some in the media can't conceal their hoping against hope for a really terrible outcome, a mishandling of the "crisis" on a grand scale, and widespread panic and many deaths, as many as possible. All in order to trash the President you so despise. This is TDS at its most virulent.
3
@jaco there’s no solid scientific basis for closing borders as a mechanism to stop the spread of the virus.
@HoneyBee Oh please. Go read the history of the 1918 Pandemic (https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/1918-commemoration/pandemic-timeline-1918.htm). There were multiple waves of outbreak, later ones far more devastating than earlier ones.
And where, please be specific, has any media hoped against hope for this outbreak to be bad? Yes, they have rightly pointed out Trump's cutting budgets and assigning a crucial post to someone who doesn't believe in science. You know for a fact if the shoe where on the other foot Republicans would be howling.
@jaco: It is because viruses do not respect borders that we need to fight it at home and overseas. What the editorial is really saying is that to protect America, we need to spend more money and effort is eliminating medical risk before they get to America.
It is interesting to me that the Times editorial board sees "authoritarianism" in China as a detriment to their response. I would offer that the ineptitude in our White House, our politicization of this health issue, and our national divisions will severely hamper American response. Any attempt by our President to paint this as a cabal further divides us and stymies the opportunity we might have to best prepare.
3
@David Hoffman “authoritarianism “ as in suppressing information about the outbreak when it first occurred and so delaying any effective responses. This made the problem much worse.
1
@Imperato I understand how the Times was approaching it, and I concur that the initial Chinese response was subterfuge. I am no apologist regarding the ugly face of "authoritarianism", but I believe their subsequent measures are something we horribly divided Americans would struggle to implement. We are made impotent by our shouting, and our divisions. Where our President had an opportunity to be heroic, he chose to be small, partisan and political
Some days, it feels like the real virus is humanity.
10
One or two puppies in your house: very cute and lovable.
Ten thousand puppies in your house: not so much.
My grandmother, whom I never knew, died within 3 days after contracting the Spanish Flue, which started in Kansas and was transported to Africa, Southern Africa, by troops returning from WW1.
The hygienic conditions in South Africa at that time, were minimal. The consequences of the death of a young mother with 5 very young children, for our family, were enormous. In a struggling country, who wanted to take on 5 young children. The ensuring poverty and abandonment has left its mark on the following 3 Generations.
The Coronavirus has now reached Nigeria and will probably reach Sub Sahara in the next months, whose governments are hopelessly ill equipped for such a battle.Even more alarming is that the basic, and I mean basic programs, I.e. wash your hands regularly, avoid touching your face and nose, have not been launched. The lack of preparedness of these countries and the cluelessness of the general public of what is bearing down on them, is truly frightening. God bless Africa and all the Sub Sahara countries.
10
"detection"---yes, and when the U.S gets up-to-speed with, say, a country like South Korea that has plenty of detection equipment which tests some 5,000+ people a day, then we'll see the higher numbers here in the U.S. Yet what can be said about a species that destroys the animal, mammalian, and insect habitats all around the globe, all the while digging, drilling and destroying arable lands with extractive industries unaccountable for their externalities? Over the last decade China has supplanted a human mass the size of the U.S. population into urbanized "super regions" in order to spur-on consumption. What flourishes as people leave their rural husbandry for the quick money to be had in the cities? Chemicals and pesticides that wipe-out bees and other "friendly insects": Are they a short-term boon and a long-term menace? Now where do these viruses, microbes, bacteria go to survive themselves? Drought moves people into cities, and wars start (Syria); global warming and climate change have crops moving north in North America, and bark-beetle larvae move in to decimate forests. Again, let us walk through Hubert Reeves' words: "Man worships an invisible God and destroys a visible Nature; unaware that this Nature he’s destroying is this God he’s worshipping." We are being made "aware" now, and yet the worship of short-term profits still reigns supreme for this species. Unfortunately, or fortunately, the Earth, for its own recovery, has no choice but to 'thin the herd.'
5
@JD It is a basic principle of field biology:
When the population of a species overpopulates/stresses its environment, natural process (i.e. drought,famine,plague) will check that population.
1
To see just what globalism has brought us - and to always see the good of it - is crazy. There are downsides to everything, if taken to extremes. To argue that isolationism is not the answer, may have its place - but to bow to the priests of this ungodly cosmopolitan globalism is just keeping us going down the same path. If excessive consumption is going to save us - vote for the globalists. What's wrong with sustainability? What's wrong with smaller is better? What are we getting out of taking every piece of the earth and weaving it into an over-populated, over-polluted world system? The lesson of the Bible's Tower of Babel is there for a reason.
1
The unknown is always scarier than the known. People who reject belief in magic and build solid foundations of hard knowledge gain a sense of confidence that they can handle the unexpected.
7
@Steve Bolger
Totally agree.
There is nothing wrong with a REALISTIC fear. (A tiger loose in the neighborhood, for example.)
But unrealistic anxiety is not helpful. And when society is told lies by a mendacious president (and his underlings), this can lead to irrational anxiety and even panic.
Better we know however much medicine and science can tell us. Along with wise advice. Even if these lead to fears. Fear is a rational response to realistic dangers!
1
The president dwells in a reality show. Ratings are paramount. Unable to feel empathy or compassion, he will now spend his time avoiding germs. This will take on fantastical proportions. He may remove himself to Mar a Lago and force others to wear hazmat suits around him. Mr. Pence will be praying. Melania will stand confused in Manolo Blahniks. Perhaps Ivanka and Jared will take a prolonged vacation. Meanwhile, Americans will be baffled by the flow of info from FOX entertainment. Should I buy that mask on Ebay for $2000? Stay tuned for Season Two: The Great purge. Ratings will be great.
6
wonderful that we can find so many reasons to throw darts at Trump, politicizing a tragic pandemic unfolding.
The CDC budget has not been cut, despite much fear mongering that it had. Yes, the buffoon Trump suggested cutting it, but it was not actually cut. To suggest otherwise is merely repeating a lie and promoting intellectual dishonesty.
Yes, the world needs to be prepared. Yes, the decades of preparation could have been better. Yet to blame Trump repeatedly shows your main motivation in writing this editorial. I'm appalled.
2
@Roger P stop spreading falsehoods.
This will be used to extract more wealth from the middle class. The cost to test for the virus is 3200 dollars. Soon it will be 5000 then 10k . This will be the catalyst to elect Senator Sanders and the birth of unizersal healthcare. The for profit or you die healthcare system needs to be dismantled.
6
Perhaps the US should follow France's lead and ban large gatherings of people. Except for trump rallies.
8
"muzzling Dr. Anthony Fauci,"
Dear NYT- Dr. Fauci said, in the news conference Saturday, in plain English to the American people that he had NOT been "muzzled." He said his cancellations had been misconstrued.
So what is it? Explain please. There is no indication from this quote that the opinion is that Fauci was under pressure to say he was not muzzled.
Was he pressured to say his cancellations were not actually muzzling? I'd like to know, as it is an issue of trust. I accept that this editorial is Opinion, but opinion needs to be based on facts.
2
@mouseone There is more than ample reason to distrust anyone speaking on behalf of this administration, and the fact that Pence is now supposed to clear ALL statements about the 'hoax' epidemic contradicts Fauci's claim that he hasn't been muzzled.
1
Actually, other than adhering to the advice of long-term experts right now, the best solution to COVID-19 and its cousins to come, would be to vote BLUE in overwhelming numbers in November. Trump and Republican sycophants in the House and Senate need to be sent packing ASAP.
Should this pandemic continue into the Fall, our ability to cast our votes could be rendered moot. The deliberately bumbling and dismissive response by the Trump administration practically guarantees that COVID-19 and the "horse is already out of the barn" efforts to contain it will be widespread. People will either be sick, dying, and/or socially isolating to protect themselves from the virus. They will not gather in crowds to vote.
In this perilous time of dictator leanings at the helm of our government, in order to guarantee that we have the opportunity to vote in November, we need to have the supplies, infrastructure, planning, and personnel in place to enable ALL voters to have easy access to and extra time to submit postage-paid, mail-in, absentee ballots for the November election. This needs to happen now!
Part of dealing effectively with this pandemic and preparing for the next and the next and the next is putting leaders in place who believe in science and who have the good of ALL Americans and visitors at heart. Vote BLUE.
4
If this monstrous government gets this wrong, any longer, we won't need an election to redress its criminal negligence. But we will need surviving voters to affirm a sane succession.
3
Mike Pence running anything that requires science or technology is absolutely frightening. It's like dispatching a dog catcher to a five alarm fire. When I think of the term "task irrelevant behavior" I think of the Trump Administration.
9
No worries, folks. When the world catches fire, there's a simple solution: cut taxes. (Yup, that's what Mr. Trump is now contemplating.) Tax cuts: the Republican snake oil that cures all ills.
One thing is clear: universal health care is urgently needed in this country. How many people infected with the coronavirus will not go to the doctor because they can't afford to? How will that complicate our efforts to contain the epidemic?
12
Pandemics are like forest fires. If you try to prevent forest fires, you end up with more dead foliage, which leads to even larger fires when they do come. Throughout the history of mankind, pandemics have been there when the population gets too large, and the condition becomes too overcrowded. If you grow bacteria in a petri dish, the population reaches a peak, then decline. The human population has pretty much continued growing for the past 100 years at a rate that is unprecedented. We are now packing 10 million or more souls into cities. Imagine one megacity today is equal to the population of the whole world at the end of the dark ages. No matter how cleaver man has become, he still cannot vanquish nature. As we increasingly encroach on the habitats of other species, and exploit nature for our own gratification, new diseases will continue to appear, and catastrophe is all but unavoidable.
1
Let's be clear about what has been happening to stall, undermine and even eliminate policies that were designed to protect the public--it's the Republican party that has dismantled well thought out policies to protect us all. There is blame to be assigned, and Republicans deserve to be named for their pernicious and destructive actions against the American public.
14
@Elizabeth Bennett
Well vote that ignorant GOP woman out of office . Your in a red state vote her out. I heard her nastiness on TV and she raised money off of her ignorance.
Storm her town hall meetings, be active everyone who has GOP running for reelections. Do not forget what is going on here.
I listened to some of the first press brief and most of the 2nd one. It sure would have been nice if one of the reporters had gotten to ask if Doktor Pence believes this is all just part of ‘God’s plan’
10
There must be agreed upon and enforced international laws, regulations, and inspections of the basic health practices. It should be obvious to everyone that pandemics of lethal diseases are coming from countries (China, Mexico, Congo etc) where safe and clean water, food, and air are not mandated by their governments.
America is currently demanding through ongoing negotiations that China stop violating recognized international patents and matters of protected intellectual property. We must also demand that China immediately put an end to the very global health hazards it alone creates. More than any other country, China is ground zero for viruses and infectious diseases that cause serious harm not only to the world's economy, but gravely threaten human health and well being.
2
@Ok Joe: The effectiveness of vaccines increases with participation. When enough people are immunized, the pathogen can't propagate. The US falls far short of achieving this, due to causes ranging from costs to religious beliefs.
5
@Steve Bolger
You are correct. Achieving 100% vaccination compliance is very difficult as, for example, the Gates Foundation has found with polio, even when the vaccine is >95% effective and cost is not an issue. Religious and political beliefs are the bane of rational scientific facts.
3
Pandemics, like climate change disasters, are planetary events. Their mitigation will take planetary solutions. We can let them run their course and desimate untold numbers of people. Which seems to be the end result of the politics of Trump and the current GOP. Or we can recognize that we are one of many highly intergrated countries economically, evironmentally, and politcally on the planet. Those that run our country politically and economically must understand this. The power of the politics and economics of the Green New Deal, Universal Heath Care and Government control of our Markets is that it will lead to greater cooperation with the other nations of the world in solving these planetary problems. There is an election coming up. There is a clear and present danger and a clear choice.
4
You should see the postings of health care professionals who are commenting on how Donald Trump is managing this pandemic. Needless to say, they are not at all flattering. One person put it this way: Donald Trump may be president, but HE IS NO LEADER.
14
@Jean W. Griffith
It's pretty clear message that this outrageous delay of testing kits is designed to delay the report of the real number of cases spreading in this country.
No test kits, no report of cases.
10
Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst.
If you’re in a high risk group, be sure your affairs are in order. Take precautions as advised by trustworthy medical experts.
NB: We are in an election year. We need to be sure voters can vote - even if the virus is circulating or we are in the midst of a pandemic.
To ensure that every voter can cast a vote - without being exposed to waiting in lines or being part of large group - EVERY STATE must pass legislation mandating that ballots be mailed to every registered voter. Ideally postage free, so there’s no need to go to the post office either.
This is vital for our democratic Republic. And it’s wise because it protects every voter, whether healthy or not, by ensuring they will be able to vote - without danger of contracting the virus.
15
I cannot entirely agree with the conclusion of the article to "forget isolationism." The report makes the case of how ill-prepared the United States is for a pandemic. One point mentions a global problem of "trust and lingering trade wars." The rest of the article focuses on the United States' issues of aid, preparedness, and scientific thinking. Solving American problems requires a focus on America.
If anything, the pandemic shows the weakness of a global world view. When one country has an economic downturn, the rest of the world has a decline — with few strong nations to help. China's manufacturing of prescription drugs, medical supplies, and vital supplies leaves America in a dangerous position without a swift manufacturing response.
I am not saying global thinking is unnecessary to combat the pandemic. A worldwide standard is essential to prevent the spread of the virus and find a vaccine. The problem is the article's conclusion.
The Editorial Board describes a "folly" to think the "viruses will respect borders." Closing borders and restricting travel has slowed the spread of the virus worldwide. Given the significant deficiencies in the American system, time offers a chance to prepare.
The article ends with a strategy of helping "other nations" before "we have to fight it over here." By The New York Times reports, the coronavirus is here in the United States and spreading. At some point, the United States has to shift focus to protect and save its people.
8
@A Women
Why Trump doesnt care about the American people . We are all stooges to his never ending reality show
Sharing knowledge is what this country has been about for decades. Now go it alone will slow down the research process.
The point isn't simply that for the vast majority of people who contract it, COVID-19 is a fairly a mild condition (the mantra of "the common cold.") The point is that the virus has raised concerns among the experts not despite its low fatality rate, but because of it. Unlike some of the killer pandemics of the recent past HFN1 (avian flu), COVID-19 isn't readily detected (i.e. it presents like an ordinary respiratory disease, or perhaps in some carriers it's entirely asymptomatic). What that means is that it's easily "seeded" and quickly spread, not only among those who won't suffer terrible consequences but also to those who will, and die. It's one thing to console oneself with the thought that the virus probably won't kill the many thousands of people who get it, another to realize that it masquerades under precisely these conditions (lulling us all into thinking it's not that bad) and will therefore be close to impossible to contain. And, so far, it looks like it can also reinfect. (See recent reporting in South China News). Containment — I don’t mean walls—is crucial -- but for that to work, there needs to be a systematic, widespread effort to test large populations before particular individuals become virulent carriers. None of that is happening in the United States and probably won’t under the indifferent Trump and the hapless, praying, Pence.
11
How will this affect the working poor? It's good advice to stay home while you're showing symptoms and likely contagious. How to do that when you don't receive paid sick leave and you need to work every hour you're scheduled just to meet your bills?
26
Virus coat protein evolution is a biochemical process not a political one. What is it going to take for the current administration to get this?
8
There already is a pandemic. COVID-19 is being transmitted person-to-person in several continents. That is what a pandemic is. The WHO has not used the word. There can be no disease control reason for that, so the reason must be political and to avoid ‘stigmatisation’.
17
@Andrew Nielsen it’s clearly a political not a scientific decision.
2
This epidemic will prove Trump's narcissism and incompetence more than anything else he has done, which is saying something. For DT and Mulvaney to claim that COVID-19 is a Democratic hoax is the ultimate in irresponsibility. Of course, so far, only mostly blue states on the west coast have been affected, and who cares about those states-he won't win them so it does not concern him. If the virus hits a battleground state or a red state, watch him swing into action then. Scientists have predicted a major epidemic for years but humans never seem to try to avoid or prepare for disasters as well they respond to them. We have not learned much from the past so we are destined, and doomed, to repeat it, I guess.
29
@CJ - Would have Obama gone on an Apology Tour because the US is to blame for everything?
1
I was reading in the Times yesterday that S. Korea is testing thousands of people. Hundreds of people are being tested in E.U. Even Iran is testing people. How is it that this country has so few testing kits? A week or two goes by until some people get tested because state health departments can’t get kits from the CDC. It’s like we’re living in a third world country. And trump is to blame for part of our lagging response. In fact, that trump calls the disease a hoax came as no surprise to me.
38
@Kb
Trump is to blame entirely for the lagging response.
1
@Kb ya get what ya pay for ( and elect). Turns out if you don’t fund health and science you don’t get much.
Vote blue no matter who. Your life just might depend on it.
1
One important simple measure needs to be taken. Quickly put in place the capacity to manufacture hundreds of millions of face masks (those that are effectual). These should be distributed free of charge, including in the United States.
12
@humanist Face masks have to be worn by infected patients to protect the healthy. Do you think hundreds of millions will be infected? And if they are will they wear face masks?
2
@humanist
Madam or Sir
'Free' is an adjective which is antithetical to health care in the United States.
Is the coronavirus bad, yes but will it kill everybody, not a chance.
We have to remember what FDR said, the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
What we need more of is reporting on the cases that have had the virus and recovered, we need to know that there is a positive side to this disease.
8
Trump disbanded the federal agencies charged with protecting us against pandemics. Now he puts another incompetent, Pence, in charge of dealing with the deadly situation. It is not likely that the problem will be resolved while Trump is in office.
35
@Clark Landrum
Which agencies were disbanded? CDC, HHS,
National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases are all stil in place
3
@Max Gold
Are they fully funded and staffed?
2
@Max Gold see the National Security Council group for pandemics as an example.
1
What this article is telling me is that the Flu and it’s cousins are increasing in name and number and now we even have a season for it. There has to be a better answer than a bat I would like to know the correlation of global warming and the increase in flues.
6
The flu tends to disappear in the summer...so global warming would most likely help the situation
I wonder when your officials will stop claiming that your “everything” is the best in the world.
I just saw M. Alex Azar making the claim that the US has the best system in the world.
What is the basis for that affirmation?
39
@Jacques Berube Because the overwhelming majority of Americans have zero experience with the rest of the world so they just naturally assume they're the best at everything. They don't even understand the difference between socialism and social democracy. In terms of quality of life America ranks 33rd in the world now. 33rd!
Where America is great is if you're rich. If you make 250k+ a year than America works really well for you. For the other 95%? Not so much.
75
@Halsy America today only works for the wealthy.
1
@Jacques Berube
But ALAS, the U.S. is SLOWEST in providing Medical personnel with Covid-19 TEST KITS the key to reporting the actually number infected.
No wonder we have reports of such low numbers of cases...they're not being tested!
3
"His administration also launched a global initiative meant to help high-risk, low-income countries prepare for future outbreaks. By 2018, that progress had been undone. The office was disbanded and the funds were rescinded, even as a second Ebola outbreak emerged in the Democratic Republic of Congo."
The media should have given far far far more attention to that budget cut at the time instead of allowing its daily agenda to be driven by Trump's twitter rants
40
Watching Trump's rambling press conference yesterday gave me zero confidence that this country is prepared for any communicable disease outbreak. How much longer Trump can deny science remains to be seen. But, though he will surely try, he cannot sanely deny illness and its consequences. Trump's concern for himself is all-consuming to the point where it precludes concern for others. Remember in November.
50
@Frank
Trump to reporters on Friday:
"We're ordering a lot of, uh, elements that, frankly, we wouldn't be ordering unless it was something like this. But we're ordering a lot of different elements of medical."
So articulate, this President.
2
@Frank
Yes. Evocative of Jim Jones' death cult which denied followers the ability to question authority to their detriment.