News from the flood of school closings and event cancellations meant to slow the COVID-19 pandemic is overwhelming. Snicker at the empty store shelves if you will, but it is clear everyone is making this up as they go, especially authorities at the highest levels.
Spain on Saturday followed Italy in advising people not to leave their homes except to purchase supplies or to work if they cannot work from home. France has closed museums, cafes and restaurants. The World Heath Organization has declared Europe the new epicenter of the outbreak. Multiple countries there are closing their borders to travel.
Nike is closing all its stores in the U.S and in other parts of the world from Monday until March 27. That new tracksuit or golf apparel will have to wait.
Confusion will be my epitaph
Here in the U.S., the Donald Trump administration’s travel restrictions caused at major airports just the sort of commingling of potential carriers that health officials hoped to prevent. “Contemplating travel right now is confusing,” declares a New York Times headline. Thousands last night did not need a headline to know that.
Advice for treating the disease changes almost daily. French authorities now warn against taking anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen for fever. They may simply aggravate the infection. Officials there now recommend paracetamol (acetaminophen) instead.
As I crawl a cracked and broken path
The Trump administration seems perpetually behind the curve. On Friday, Trump finally declared a national emergency. In a Saturday press conference, the administration announced it advised nursing homes Friday to “restrict all visitors effective immediately,” including all non-essential personnel. But the home where my mother-in-law lives here in Asheville went into lockdown on Monday. We visited with her last night through her window, Life Care Center- style.
The administration claimed Saturday we will soon have capacity to test people in their cars, something cities in a half-dozen states have already implemented. Trump touted a new bill providing “free coronavirus testing for all Americans who should be tested” (emphasis mine). Vice President Mike Pence claimed a website would be available soon where they can be screened for whether “a test is in order” because “we want to make sure that people are being tested that have the symptoms.”
In that same press conference claiming the long-awaited tests will be available any day via the “extraordinary strength of our private sector,” Dr. Deborah Birx of the coronavirus task force seemed to downplay people with respiratory symptoms getting tested:
Finally I want to conclude with something that’s very important. When you are tested and our results look very similar to South Korea now to date where South Korea, 96 plus percent of people with symptoms were negative. That means also that they had respiratory symptoms.
Birx reminded listeners that a negative test today does not mean you won’t be negative tomorrow, so continue to take precautions. Clear?
Birx observed that a many people under 20 “are potentially asymptomatic and spreading the virus.” Thus, there is risk of asymptomatic young people we don’t test spreading the virus because they don’t know they have it because we refuse to test them because they’re asymptomatic. Clear?
If we make it, we can all sit back and laugh
Finally, Trump himself claimed he himself had been tested for the virus. He had drawn criticism for not self-isolating after exposure to multiple people since diagnosed with the virus, and after shaking nearly every hand in sight at his Rose Garden briefing on Friday. Last night, the White House released a statement from the president’s personal physician that Trump had tested negative. By now, you should trust Trump’s personal physicians, yes?
Local officials from around the country are worried about the readiness of the U.S. public health system, citing a sharply limited number of ventilators to help some of the sickest coronavirus patients and an inadequate supply of critical care beds in a hospital industry that has gone through years of cutbacks in inpatient beds.
As they prepare for an expected influx of patients, local public health officials painted a picture of a system with only a limited “surge” capacity, and stressed the importance of social distancing as a crucial way to keep the numbers of patients at a level the system can handle.
Add to that, “South Korea has 12.3 hospital beds per 1,000 people. The US has 2.8,” Vox reports. And that extraordinary private sector? After for-profit HCA Healthcare took over our hospital system here, complaints have spiked and the quality of care has rapidly declined. The state attorney general is investigating.
Confusion will be my epitaph
As I crawl a cracked and broken path
If we make it, we can all sit back and laugh
But I fear, tomorrow, I’ll be crying
Yes, I fear, tomorrow, I’ll be crying
Yes, I fear, tomorrow, I’ll be crying
UPDATE: Added S. Korea/Italy comparison tweet.
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