Is it possible to get an update on Ms. Parkhill's mother? I think of them and this story and worry about them every time I hear of another patient passing away at the nursing home at the center of this episode.
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Where is the "transcript" plz?
I never believed there was only one confirmed case of coronavirus case in Washington for the following reasons:
Patient zero may have had mild symptoms on his flight to Seattle and while transiting thru Sea-Tac.
Patient zero had a cough for at least four days before he went to an urgent clinic. During that time he went to work and went about his daily life while inadvertently shedding the virus and potentially infecting others.
When he presented himself at the urgent care facility, he sat among other patients( for god knows how long) and then when it was his turn to see the staff at the urgent care none of the necessary precautions were taken because no one knew ahead of time he might be a case of covid-19.
During the press conference that follows, CDC personnel said they would monitored his closed contacts for fever and would not isolate them at home and they were free to go about their daily lives. So I was astonished CDC was not airing on the side of caution given that this virus just jumped the human animal barrier. I read later in the NY times that one of the PUI flew to Wisconsin without clearing with the authorities. I first read in the NY times tested negative for the virus. i later read she developed mild symptoms. However, there were no mention whether she was told to isolate at home and whether she complied this time. I read on WAPO the health authorities were only expecting 85% compliance from those who were in isolation with no mechanism to enforce it.
I commute by train and bus to work in Seattle. I am terrified and am taking tomorrow off. I could not focus on my work today. I can’t bear to listen to this podcast as it will terrify me even more.
I have never been so afraid in my life.
I have a mortgage. I must go back to work. I am in a high risk category. I am risking my life every day now and after a week of this, I’m a basket case.
NYT please do a story on how we can manage this psychological stress in a hot zone. If this virus doesn’t get me, my anxiety will.
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@Dorothy I can imagine how you feel. I’m retired, I’m 68. I’m in Victoria, BC. There is no known cases here but I suspect the virus is circulating. There are several cases in Vancouver.
I’m staying in. Is there any way you can work from home?
I don’t see why an at-risk person should be forced to go out in these conditions.
My sister & her husband are both at risk but they too are retired and staying home.
There has to be a better to handle this without people at risk having to go out.
Very disappointed at the sensationalism of this report. It's a smart-sounding presentation that essentialy just stokes fear. Shame on those responsible at The Daily, the NY Times, and American Public Media for creating it, and local stations for airing it.
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We need a steady pipeline over decades of educated people who become doctors, nurses, ER staff and first responders (law enforcement and other EMS staff) to develop a continuous robust base of trained personnel who are critical in these situations. This doesn’t happen when education, from elementary through post-high school, is subject to constant budget cuts.
We need to federally fund public schools rather than having them based on local property taxes to even out the quality of education available to ALL children no matter where they live.
While Trump and the Reps politically benefit from people who lack critical thinking skills and vote against their own economic, and public health interests, the result is that many Rep-dominated communities across America don’t have enough trained personnel.
Just as damaging, Trump and the Reps, through Faux “news,” have politically benefited from a post-truth, post-fact, post-evidence society and decimation of the 5th Estate (media). Trump’s 10,000+ lies and false narratives make our new post-truth society even more vulnerable.
The result is that people don’t trust gov agencies, the President, and our local elected officials. People look to conspiracy theories on Facebook and the lies on Faux, rather than vetted news organizations with journalistic integrity.
This creates a perfect storm for mass hysteria and when all these elements combine, the long-term cost to America is laid bare, and may prove catastrophic.
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@SMcStormy
You’re right - I’m a medical school instructor, and even with some of the rural-medicine breaks we provide here, it’s hard to see how anyone can afford medical training now.
And that goes for nursing, PT training - the works.
But I also think that the public overall has become very suspicious of science, of systematic, rational inquiry - or anything that represents the kind of expertise you gain from education, experience, and credentials. Students feel entitled to good grades whether they earn them or not. We have a vice president who doesn’t believe in evolution - and I don’t think Trump knows what DNA is, or whether viruses have any.
It’s extremely frustrating.
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@ZoProf/When I got my masters, I experienced the same thing: students who weren't doing the work, reading the material. Some of the work they turned in, that was public, was D work at best and they clearly hadn't put in the time. It blew me away.
Thankfully, in the doctoral program, this disappeared, but for those of us in professions where the job is healing people, you can't be prepared enough, can't know enough.
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Leave Mike B alone. We like his unique diction and cadence just fine.
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Shouldn't this have exploded already!? The virus has been in Seattle and the PNW since early January. 9+ weeks?! I am a scientist and took a ton of microbiology and epidemiology classes back in the day so I have a tiny clue behind the biology/ecology of this. The 24/7 news cycle is loving this but man I am getting fatigue from the endless coverage with little new info and apparently it's beyond containment already. Also, fatigued from the (lame) Democratic Party primary results but that's another story. When does summer/warm weather start? Need something to look forward to. Geez 2020 is getting off to a really bad start.
@KevInPDX ,
does not it frighten you a bit that, despite of all knowledge this country amassed on the subject, the folks in charge on location seem to understand so little of where this is going and what to do about it other than confining infected people in a hotel?
@Peter Melzer
The CDC is the Federal Agency in charge of setting rules, protocols and guiding individual states thru the minefield of the covid-19.
Turn your ire on them. However, doing so may mean pointing the finger at the Trump administration. Something some would rather not do.
Buying a motel to quarantine people is not the only initiative state authorities are taking. They are making it possible for people with no medical insurance to seek and access medical care for covid-19. They also set up a coronavirus hotline to answer questions ordinary folks may have regarding the illness. Another initiative they announce was for medical insurance to wave copays and deductible for coronavirus testing. Read more about it here: https://www.insurance.wa.gov/news/kreidler-orders-washington-health-insurers-waive-deductibles-and-copays-coronavirus-testing
Getting information disseminated quickly and accurately should be the primary motivation of our health officials and government. I am concerned that our federal government, directed by The White House, is impeding timely release of information. Thank you, NYTimes for doing this reporting.
@Gary McMillen
You shouldn’t be “concerned”.... You can be certain that Trump eviscerated the CDC and big parts of NIH as a matter of principle.
I was really looking forward to hearing this! Just to hear the perspective on the Corona Virus in the US.
Listening to this, is terrifying! You are just fueling the panic rather than helping to educate people about the virus itself and how everyone single of them can do something to prevent the virus from spreading. It’s as simple as washing your hands regularly! And to be very clear for most people this is nothing more than a cough or a mild flu.
@Doro/even if Covid-19 is not as lethal as it could be is first, besides the point and second, anything we can do to convince governments, federal to local that they need to be prepared for these things is a good thing.
The next one is coming and it may be far more lethal. We should be prepared. This better be a learning experience for those in charge.
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It is gut-wrenching to hear the story of the Parkhill family and those like her.
They deserve better than this anemic response and a president who gives himself A+++ rating for his administration's response to the crisis.
I am one of The Daily’s biggest fans. It usually provides excellent reporting and behind the scenes information. I was so disappointed in today’s episode about the Coronavirus outbreak in Washington State. It felt like a tug on the heart strings piece, which was fine - it humanized this potential crisis. But there was no balancing with public health data, no interviews with public health experts who might have said that some of what is going on with the people in the nursing home is normal operating procedure - very scary to be sure, but it’s hard and scary to be quarantined. And that this is about poor communications. Or maybe they would have said - this is bad, things should be done differently. Should we feel that things are out of control, that experts don’t know what to do - where’s the information that supports that? It felt like fear mongering and we don’t need that.
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In this day and age, only stone-cold-idiots would cut the CDC and related federal agency’s budgets.
We are in the age of viral pandemics and are on the verge of antibiotic-resistant infection epidemics. We need robust federal and state systems in place, and ready to spin up when these happen. And it is “when” and it is “these happen.” Its not a question of “if” or a singular “what.”
While I live in a place with good medical infrastructure (fingers crossed for *when* it gets here), I have close friends who are at ground zero in Washington state that doesn’t have this and it’s a nightmare. She struggles to get good medical care on a normal day. Covid-19 is demonstrating daily that they are woefully unprepared for disasters. They have nothing to “spin up.”
Communities all across the country better be scrambling right now to make sure EMS, Law Enforcement and ER’s all have the appropriate equipment, and lots of it. They better be doing mock trainings for donning this equipment and they should practice using it in the field, over and over.
They also better be hiring people, doctors and other medical staff and building or making available facilities that can function as quarantine beds with the appropriate medical equipment for those with respiratory distress.
And even if Covid-19 burns out, all of the above will NOT be time and resources wasted - Because the next one is just around the corner....
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Wow. I went to listen to The Daily this morning and instead I got an earful of hysterical Fox-type fear-mongering.
PLEASE , stop. STOP.
It’s a virus. A fluish respiratory illness. It’s spreading rapidly because most people don’t even know they have it! Translation: it’s not that bad unless you’re high-risk. If you smoke, are elderly, or have an already compromised immune system then do take extra care. Everyone else? wash your hands, get some fresh air and stop listening to the news.
@ElleAZ
Add to the list of of those who are at high risk: obesity, diabetes, hypertension, kidney disease, and cancer.
New topics, please! Way too many back to back episodes covering the primaries and Coronavirus. I'm burned out and bored!
@Court Sad story bro.
I haven’t listened to the podcast yet, but I feel like this statement:
“ A strategy of containment was supposed to protect Washington State from the coronavirus. It didn’t. So what led to the first major outbreak of the pathogen in the United States?”
Is a bit inflammatory. At no point has my state of Washington issued any sort of containment strategy. So far every communication has been along the lines of... “don’t worry and wash your hands.” It wasn’t until yesterday King county said more along the lines of “you should probably stay home unless you have to go out.” And still the rest of the state is still saying, “boy, I’m sure glad we don’t have it in our county.”