Saturday, February 29, 2020
Very Efficient Italian Containment Of CoronaVirus - Foolishly Gets Isolated Anyway
Posted by Peter Quennell
1. Status Of Italian Responses As Of Saturday
With impressive rapidity, Italy’s epidemic-management machinery swung into action several weeks ago.
Only the Republic of Korea response so far has matched Italy’s in its speed, efficiency, professionalism, and level of funding.
Diagnostic test kits were widely made available almost immediately, the tests are free, infected cases have been isolated in special wards, mass tracking initiated, and detailed maps of known cases updated in real time online.
All public information is being provided by scientists.
The epidemiology maps show that the coronavirus hotspot is in the north-east of Italy.
That is actually farther from Rome than it is from France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia and Croatia.
Threatened countries everywhere should be busy learning from Italy’s first steps.
2. While US Bungles And Sparks Global Panic
By comparison, take a look at this as one of the US’s first reactions.
The Trump administration is eyeing steep cuts to global health funds in its 2021 budget proposal, slashing more than $3 billion in overall programs, including half of its annual funding to the World Health Organization (WHO), which is leading the fight against the deadly coronavirus outbreak.
American scientists have been pushed into the background and muzzled.
The self-serving politicians now in charge are wasting precious time fighting an emerging picture of massive bungling and of the deliberate destruction of epidemic-management capacity since 2016.
Strident warnings about Italy and other countries substitute for effective management. They are instilling zero confidence anywhere, as the global stockmarkets have just shown with a vengeance.
Rattled America tourists are flooding back, and some American colleges are insisting their exchange students head home.
Hard to believe but “home” includes some areas in the US far-west (including Seattle) which might soon be shown to have MORE cases than Italy, once the bungled testing in the US actually gets under way.
In a fine report from Italy in the Daily Beast Barbie Nadeau describes the US-provoked overreaction.
Even while European Union health ministers braved the “threat” and came to Rome this week to announce solidarity and plead that there is no need to close the borders to stem the spread, several countries and lots of companies are doing it anyway.
Late Friday, the Trump administration raised the safety threat level to the ominous “level 3,” which will almost certainly set off a global panic attack about this country….
Dr. Adrian Hyzler, chief medical officer of Healix International, says it is far too late to restrict travel to and from Italy and other places. The virus is now in nearly 60 countries, and he says trying to single out a few with higher numbers of infections is counterproductive.
“You cannot stop air travel without huge repercussions,” he told The Daily Beast. “To restrict travel now would be to shut the stable door after the horse has bolted! And anyway, how on earth would you do it on the continent? It’s practically impossible.”
Hyzler notes that the World Health Organization put out a statement saying travel restrictions should be “consistent and proportionate to local risk assessment” which means cancelling travel to a city like Rome, where just three people were infected, including two Chinese tourists and a researcher who flew in from China who have since recovered completely, doesn’t make sense.
Posted by Peter Quennell on 02/29/20 at 01:13 PM in
Comments
A Seattle-area man is now reported to have died, the first KNOWN American death within the US (one died in China).
Why its so hard to understand if the US is sitting on a ticking time bomb (and why the NYC stockmarkets have freaked so much) takes some explaining. .
First, the US did have a good system equal to Italy’s in place up through 2016 because of the SARS and Ebola epidemics elsewhere. Then it was quite deliberately decayed for ideological reasons, and the funding instead went to fund tax-cuts.
Second, as of the other day less than 400 Americans had been tested for the virus, in part because of a faulty test and in part because the test was only to be used in the first place on an extremely narrowly defined bunch.
In the same period, both Korea and Italy were well equipped and organized and have tested tens of thousands.
Third, the handling of the infected passengers and crew on the Diamond Princess cruise ship went seriously wrong from end to end, and literally hundreds of others on the flight back to California and at either end of the flight came into contact.
Some of those hopped onto other flights and headed to other parts of the US. They could be infected and carriers. Nobody has a clue where most of those are now.
Fourth, maybe 40,000 Americans die annually of regular flu, and the virus symptoms can be similar. Almost none of those recent deaths had been examined before they ended up in the cemetery.
Fifth, even if the picture is clarifying behind the official scenes, the experts on the government payrolls have been told not to say anything. Political control of the message is now akin to that crazy regime in north Korea.
NYC is at the stockmarket epicenter, and information is pouring in here about nation-wide business plans in light of all this mis-management.
Nice to have a front row seat, though I could have done without it.
Posted by Peter Quennell on 02/29/20 at 06:18 PM | #
The Seattle-area man’s death occured at the EvergreenHealth Medical Center in Kirkland, a few miles north of downtown.
Now this grim news, showing the speed of spread when unchecked, is reported by the LA Times:
About 27 of the 108 residents at the facility and 25 of the 180 staffers have symptoms of the virus, Dr. Jeffrey Duchin, health officer for Public Health Seattle and King County, said Saturday in a telebriefing with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Trump has been claiming that he has done exactly the right thing to save America (by banning Chinese visits).
No he hasn’t.
As widely agreed here in New York, Trump’s firing of the entire federal scientific staff (that would have handled that evacuation from Japan safely) makes him the prime cause of all the West Coast outbreaks.
Posted by Peter Quennell on 02/29/20 at 09:55 PM | #
Welcome back home to Seattle, UW exchange students returning from Italy. Feel any safer?
http://www.dailyuw.com/news/article_37db074c-5b39-11ea-b584-7b0360e1846c.html
Posted by Peter Quennell on 02/29/20 at 10:44 PM | #
This report on Seattle etc just went up: “Coronavirus Live Updates: New Fears Over Virus’s Spread in Washington State”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/01/world/coronavirus-news.html
Posted by Peter Quennell on 03/01/20 at 06:58 AM | #
Coronavirus has the world’s eye right now. TJMK friends please take Vitamin C in large doses. Maybe add B complex and D. Drink clean water, take hot baths, sleep more.
Personally I stand on Psalm 41:3 promise. If you consider the poor, “He will make all your bed in your sickness; he will strengthen you on your bed of languishing.” God himself promises to make your bed if you’re sick, if you remember the poor.
Posted by Hopeful on 03/01/20 at 09:22 PM | #
Thursday, and here in the US the avoidable muddle only seems worse. The US is still flying blinder than most countries.
Poor Seattle, hit very hard. Emergency room doctors are saying on TV that they still have not even one test kit for their entire hospitals.
Several thousand in one suburb just north of NYC have just been self-quarantined because of several cases but they may not see a test within a week. There’s that infected cruise ship off San Francisco bay.
***
Hopeful’s vitamin C advice is certainly on right lines for all of us, not least the nutritionally deprived poor.
Glutathione is the most powerful antioxidant in the body, and selenium is needed to put it to work. I’m told by colleagues in W.H.O. that there is an “insufficiency epidemic” of both across much of the global population right now.
Good news is your glutathione can easily be boosted, by taking several capsules of NAC a day along with that vitamin C and low doses of selenium and B6.
https://drhyman.com/blog/2010/05/19/glutathione-the-mother-of-all-antioxidants/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29337529
Posted by Peter Quennell on 03/05/20 at 03:46 PM | #
Regarding the Coronavirus, here is a useful vid:
Posted by DavidB on 03/06/20 at 05:52 AM | #
Good catch, DavidB. A professional Canadian production with 2.6 million views so far. It’s become the video at the top of the post now.
A recovering patient was interviewed on the 2-hour CNN global townhall last night (worth watching if it shows up on YouTube).
He described the respiratory storm as lasting 6-8 hours with a spike in temperature (the fever) and difficulty in breathing without a respirator. After that it was mostly over. He seemed surprised that there were not more flu-type symptoms, watery red eyes for example.
Posted by Peter Quennell on 03/06/20 at 09:32 AM | #
Thanks to David for sharing the video from Dr. Lyn. It’s very concise and clear. Thankfully he virus is not a major problem here. I hope it remains so.
Thanks, also for the vitamin tips.
Posted by Julan on 03/06/20 at 06:35 PM | #
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