I hope hospitals are getting the support they need in Washington state. Testing still isn't happening like it should, but hopefully there is other support. Since it's not known to be very widespread elsewhere yet, even though it probably is, hopefully the focus on Washington state will help them get through it better. But I don't know what kind of federal resources they might be getting, if any. Eventually, when it's widespread across the United States, there is going to be nearly unprecedented burden, at least in modern times, on hospitals. At that point, there will be much less ability to move resources to areas that need it, because everyone is going to need it. But if they aren't getting help federally, they would probably be limited to resources within the state. I assume we don't have mechanisms for hospitals to share resources from one state to another, if not owned by the same company. (such as how power companies have arrangements when a storm hits an area hard)
Local and state governments, as well as private businesses, are leading this effort so far on coming closer to what needs to be done. On the federal level, I just hope behind the scenes things are working better than it seems. Probably not. (At the federal level, Friday was another terrible day for bad information being shared by some at that level.) A lot of big events are being canceled across the country which definitely needs to happen with more events at some point soon, if not everywhere already. A small amount of sporting events will not have crowds now, but it needs to be much more. It's good some large companies are having people work from home in some areas, but that doesn't represent how a lot of businesses are going to act, or could act. There are some schools that are closing for awhile, some having classes online. That's only going to increase too.
At least we did get some official word from the CDC that older Americans and those with serious medial conditions should stay home as much as possible. (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/specific-groups/high-risk-complications.html) Trying to have less people get infected is very important, especially that group. A third nursing home in Washington state now has the coronavirus. I know some have been critical of the original nursing home, but why would nurses be wearing masks and using new gloves going around from room to room? Why would people there not be allowed to interact with each other? Until these places knew they had it, they couldn't put into effect procedures to try and keep others from being infected. The problem is so many people can already be infected before the first person shows symptoms. While younger people are much less likely to get seriously ill, they still get it and spread it. Even if older people don't go out as much, if they live with someone that does, that could be a problem.
It's clear in Washington state that the outbreak there has been going on for awhile, about 6 to 7 weeks now. They are ahead of what most of the rest of the country will soon see. The virus is going to be widespread across the country soon. It probably already is. It's too late for it not to be most everywhere. The question is once it is, what will be the reaction be? If we don't act like South Korea, to some extent China (though not some of their extreme measures) and some other countries, in having most people at some point to stay home, we will be worse than they were.
I would like to note that no one should go on cruise ships any longer. Not right now. While the most recent one with infected passengers, the Grand Princess, might be going to a non-commercial port to let off passengers, presumably quarantining them all, I don't know if we'll continue to do that. And until it happens for them, I don't know if that will happen. Hopefully for the crew too. Cruise ships and nursing homes are dangerous places to be right now.
As I type this, Florida announced that two people died from the coronavirus here.
Info from the Florida Department of Health:
http://www.floridahealth.gov/diseases-and-conditions/COVID-19/
Daily coronavirus disease (COVID-2019) situation reports from WHO:
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/situation-reports
Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases map by Johns Hopkins University:
https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6
Originally from: https://systems.jhu.edu/research/public-health/ncov/ |