CORONA Main Coronavirus thread

EMICT

Veteran Member
Infectious Diseases‏ @InfectiousDz 6h6 hours ago

Infectious Diseases Retweeted Libby Casey

Coronavirus patient in Northern California had no known contact with anyone known to have coronavirus. This indicates community spread.

Not according to the CDC. This is their canned response to such nonsense about community spread...

i-can-t-hear-you-la-la-la-la.png
 

northern watch

TB Fanatic
Holger Zschaepitz‏ @Schuldensuehner 10m10 minutes ago

Stock Sell-Off deepens as Coronavirus spreads faster outside China, stoking global fears. Cases detected for first time in Brazil, Pakistan, Greece. NY monitoring dozens of people. Oil WTI slides <$49/bbl. Bonds gain w/US 10y yield hit fresh low at 1.29%. Gold $1650, Bitcoin 8.8k

ERwzXpRXkAA3dBX
 

Heliobas Disciple

TB Fanatic
Going back to the press conference.

I am really glad that the president put VP Pence in charge. I think a lot of people on his staff have accessibility issues, and don't always get face time with the president. While I'm sure Azar does get face time, I'm not sure he can ask for it any time and get it. It may have to be scheduled in by someone. Whereas if Pence wants to see Trump, I think he gets right in. So in that sense, the information will now get directly to Trump and won't be filtered by KellyAnn (who I don't trust at all) or Jared or Ivanka or whoever someone usually has to do through. I also thought it was sort of a funny in back-handed insult kind of way when he was asked why he assigned Pence if Azar was already working on it and he said Azar is too busy...as if being VP, Pence doesn't have anything else to do. I'm sure he didn't mean to insult Pence but it falls into so many of the stereotypes of VP's sitting around with nothing meaningful to do. But I think Pence is now the face of this because 1) Pence is able to get a meeting with the pres whenever he wants and no one can stop him and 2) he has a better 'face' for the admin. Azar had a hard time being grilled the other day, I don't think Pence would be treated the same and he's a consummate politician so can handle whatever they try to throw at him with aplomb. Also thought it was interesting that Nancy wasn't speaking for the CDC, when she has been their face on the subject for the last month and a half (and they also didn't have the head of the CDC speak. although he was on the stage) but they chose another woman to replace Nancy. I wonder if Trump was pissed at her for her remarks yesterday, or she's pissed at his, or they just didn't want them both on the same stage saying opposite things and having to explain the discrepancy, which was asked about anyway and Pres Trump handled the question really well.

HD
 

northern watch

TB Fanatic
Pandemic fears pummel stocks, push bond rally to fresh heights

Tom Westbrook
February 26, 2020 / 8:21 PM / Updated 25 minutes ago

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Stocks sunk deeper into the red on Thursday, oil prices fell and U.S. Treasuries rallied into record territory as more signs of the global spread of the coronavirus heightened fears of a pandemic.

Global markets have dropped for six straight days, wiping out more than $3.6 trillion in value. Much remains unknown about the virus that originated in China, but it is clear the ramifications of the world’s second biggest economy in lockdown for a month or more are vast.

Analysts have sharply downgraded their China and global growth forecasts, while policymakers from Asia, Europe and the United States have begun to prepare for a potentially steep economic downturn than initially anticipated.

E-mini futures for the S&P 500 were down 1.4% ESc1 and Europe appears set for a catch-up slump. EuroSTOXX 50 futures fell 2.7% STXEc1 and FTSE futures skidded 2.3% FFIc1.

Oil, sensitive to global growth given the vast energy consumption in a many countries, fell more than 1% to its cheapest in over a year.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS fell 0.5% and is down more than 4% for the week.

The yield on U.S. Treasuries, which falls when prices rise, dropped in to uncharted waters underneath 1.3% US10YT=RR. Bets on monetary easing in the United States have surged.

“I think the market is just pushing the Fed to cut rates,” said Stuart Oakley, Nomura’s global head of flow FX in Singapore.

“It’s a flight to quality as well,” he said.

“The news seems to be creating this mass hysteria everywhere, there’s panic that the world’s about to end, so people are getting out of risk and putting their money in safe havens and the biggest one of those are 10-year Treasury bond.”

GRAPHIC: Asian stock markets: here

China accounts for about 96% of cases but most new infections are now being reported elsewhere.

News on Thursday of a jump in cases in South Korea was accompanied by a warning that the virus may be spreading in California.

Taiwan raised its epidemic response level to the highest possible. Japan’s Nikkei dropped 2% to a four-month low amid more worries that the Tokyo Olympic Games could be cancelled or shifted.

And on top of that a tour-bus guide in Japan also tested positive to the virus for a second time, raising questions about how the pathogen spreads.

“This feels like a consolidation, potentially before another leg down,” said Jeffrey Halley, Senior Market Analyst at brokerage OANDA by phone from Jakarta.

The only bright spot, ironically, was China’s stock market, which climbed in relief that domestically, at least, the containment efforts are showing signs of working.

NO EQUIVALENT SHOCK

At the same time as the breadth of the virus’ spread has knocked markets, analysts have been steadily revising their estimates of the economic damage higher.

J.P. Morgan now expects Chinese GDP to shrink 3.9% this quarter, while Capital Economics sees it contracting this year.

“There is no equivalent exogenous shock the world has gone through in the post-Bretton Woods period,” said Deutsche Bank analyst Alan Ruskin in a note.

“Work place disruption, trade interlinkages, business uncertainties, profit warnings, inability to pay, and capacity to service credit are all related supply-side issues that, in turn, generate demand effects on employment, disposable income, wealth and confidence.”

Only a dramatic ratcheting higher of bets on interest rate cuts in the United States has given pause to the huge flow of money from Asia into greenbacks in the currency markets.

From almost nothing a week ago, markets are pricing a roughly even chance of a Federal Reserve interest rate cut next month and have almost fully priced a cut by April. <0#FF:>

That was enough to help drag the China-sensitive Aussie dollar AUD=D3 from an 11-year low and lend support to the euro EUR=.

The Aussie last traded at $0.6550 and the euro lifted through $1.09 for the first time in two weeks to buy $1.0908.

The safe-haven Japanese yen JPY= firmed to 110.02 per dollar.

Reporting by Tom Westbrook; additional reporting by Paulina Duran in Sydney; editing by Richard Pullin & Shri Navaratnam

Asian stocks slide deeper as pandemic fears grow
 

Ragnarok

On and On, South of Heaven
There’s no need to get so sarcastic. It’s absolutely plausible. I did a quick 2 minute search on recent obituaries, and several popped up. I took screen shots of a couple of them. Tell me, is it normal for people who aren’t very young or very old to be dying from flu or pneumonia? What about this Asian student from New York?? No chance at all that could’ve been COVID-19, right?

Thank you!

:applaud:

I swear the 3-4 naysayers we have posting on this thread irritate the hell out of me!

Are they trying to convince US or THEMSELVES???

I just wish, if they are so self assured, they would start their own thread and leave this one for new information!

:mad:
 

Don Quixote

To dream the impossible dream...
I'm not a doctor so verify this through other sources. I read that the Chinese have ordered 10,000 vaporizers to spray colloidal silver mist into hospitals. We use homemade CS here and I'm considering buying a vaporizer to do the same thing in our home.
Best Doc

I think the Chinese are on to something.
I brew my own CS too, and use it in an "aroma diffuser" with a little EO in my bedroom.
If I get a cough, allergy attack, stuffy nose or sore throat I just click it on and the problem goes away in a matter of minutes.

1582788225504.png
It's claimed that if you run it for an hour or so it will disinfect a whole room and everything in it.
Might work on that pestilent cruise ship if you had a large capacity ultrasonic diffuser.
Have heard that ozone works pretty well too.
 

Ragnarok

On and On, South of Heaven
Since hearing of the pending presser earlier today, I have been struggling with the feeling that his choice of position - economy/stock market/business over the health of the public - could be a presidency killer.

I don't know who was responsible for preparing the President for tonight, but his persona of being invincible, undefeatable, and competent was severely damaged, imo. The reasons for his performance are moot...most people don't care. The perception was one of uncharacteristic weakness & and it will exact a tremendous price in the minds of many. His loyalty to the markets may be his downfall.

For me, I needed him to look in the camera and in a somber tone, acknowledge the difficulties we are facing and tell us he will keep us informed as the situation(s) develop. But, I'm old, and those are just my expectations of the President.

I pray for our President's health and clarity of mind. I pray for his strength to face the challenges that seem almost insurmountable to me.

And I pray for all of us that we each take the time to decompress & rest as we face & deal with our new realities.

Well stated!

:applaud:
 

Old Gray Mare

TB Fanatic
Video at source link - OGM

Fair use.
Hawaii News Now

Officials: Prepare for coronavirus threat, but don’t ‘panic buy’

By HNN Staff | February 26, 2020 at 4:26 PM HST - Updated February 26 at 5:55 PM

HONOLULU, Hawaii (HawaiiNewsNow) - Amid growing fears about a potential outbreak of the coronavirus in the US, public health officials nationally and locally are urging people to prepare.

But officials are also urging residents not to “panic buy.”

The Hawaii Foodbank on Wednesday said that stockpiling high-demand items can have negative impacts on food pantries, reducing how much is donated to them.

“We are asking the public please do not make this an event,” said Hawaii Foodbank President and CEO Ron Mizutani. “So far, we do not have a reason to be purchasing that kind of food. I call it fear hoarding.”

[Read more: Trump urges calm even as US reports worrisome new virus case]
[Read more:
Residents urged to prepare for potential of coronavirus outbreak]

Mayor Kirk Caldwell echoed that message, asking people not to “over-react."

No one is currently being investigated or quarantined for coronavirus in the state.

But the state Health Department has urged residents to have a 14-day supply of food, water and other necessities on hand in case a coronavirus outbreak forces people to stay home.

Residents appear to have heard that message.

Many people worried about coronavirus headed to big box retailers to stock up on supplies. There was no widespread panic and supplies were being re-stocked quickly.

Personal shopper Laura Williams says lots of her customers getting key supplies.

“They are fearing that they are being a little irrational. They’re hoping they’re being a little irrational better safe than sorry,” Williams said.

She says her clients want toilet paper, canned goods and other non-perishable items and she’s thinking she should prepare, too.

Lt. Gov. Josh Green, who is also an ER doctor, is urging calm and said that the seasonal flu remains a bigger concern. “If you are feeling flu-ish, fever, aches right now you don’t have coronavirus, I’m almost certain, you have flu,” Green said.
He added that if there is an outbreak, the state has 166 air isolation rooms. Test kits for coronavirus won’t be available in Hawaii until mid-March.

Copyright 2020 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.

Link to source:
 

Texican

Live Free & Die Free.... God Freedom Country....
Points to ponder if it gets bad enough,
Martial law will be declared with a warning before rioters are shot....
The cities will be dead zones....
Those that live out in the sticks will survive....
Those that live in the cities will have high death rates due to the crowded conditions and the violence in the cities and demise of the health care system....
The November Election if one is held will be decided by the fly over country by rural voters....
China, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, South & Central America, Australia and Canada will implode....

Just another reason not to lie in the cities....

Texican....
 

Old Gray Mare

TB Fanatic
I think the Chinese are on to something.
I brew my own CS too, and use it in an "aroma diffuser" with a little EO in my bedroom.
If I get a cough, allergy attack, stuffy nose or sore throat I just click it on and the problem goes away in a matter of minutes.

It's claimed that if you run it for an hour or so it will disinfect a whole room and everything in it.
Might work on that pestilent cruise ship if you had a large capacity ultrasonic diffuser.
Have heard that ozone works pretty well too.
Do you think tossing a few old silver coins in the water reservoir of the vaporiser would help any?
 

Ragnarok

On and On, South of Heaven
Take a look at their 10-Q


Seems to be a fair assessment on your part. No income in the field they claim to have an answer for. Here is the real sauce from the the 10-Q

To date, we have not generated any revenue from the sale of potential mRNA medicines. Our revenue has been primarily derived from strategic alliances with Merck, Vertex and AstraZeneca, and from contracts with government-sponsored and private organizations including DARPA, BARDA, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to discover, develop, and commercialize potential mRNA medicines.

Thank you!

Just confirms my suspicions...
 

pops88

Girls with Guns Member
Word from Jonny Enlow-

Johnny + Elizabeth Enlow
2 hrs ·
Something new and important I did just hear from the Lord regarding the coronavirus. He was there when the virus was being engineered and He did His own counter engineering. In His tinkering He has caused it to be the most “susceptible to be affected by faith” virus that ever existed. He put a drop of something into the sinister engineering and it absolutely destroys the virus when exposed to faith. Prayers of faith. Actions of faith. Stands of faith. The virus can smell faith and it is decimated by it. I heard the roar of the virus turn to a whimper. This is a built in recipe for an explosion of salvations and of the miraculous and of every kind of spiritual encouragement. Again evil will pay a great price as fear and death will be swallowed up in victory. Haman will again hang on his own gallows and it will happen in more ways than one. We are in the days where God will always be greater than. Whatever card the enemy plays God will have the trump card to take the hand. Don’t bow to fear. Crush it instead. Courage is your friend. Jesus is your King.
 

pops88

Girls with Guns Member
My husband just got home from a trip and I was explaining my take on the president's press conference. He had the perfect synopsis. "So it's like the cat joke..."

Cat on the Roof

A man goes on vacation for a few weeks and leaves his cat with his brother.
After a few days, he calls his brother and asks how his cat is doing. The brother tells him, “I’m sorry, but the cat died.”
The first man gets angry and says, “How could you just break it to me like that? You knew I’m not coming home for another week, you should have said something like, ‘The cat is on the roof and we can’t get it down,’ then the next day I’d call back and you’d say, ‘We got the cat down, but the vet says she’s in bad shape, she may not make it,’ and then the third day I’d call and THEN you’d tell me the cat had died. That way it wouldn’t come as such a shock and I’d have been able to build myself up to deal with it!”
The brother apologized.
Then the first man said, “I’m sorry for snapping at you like that, but you know how sudden tragedy is worse than gradual… Anyway, so how’s Mom?”
And then the brother says, “Well, she’s up on the roof and we can’t get her down.”
 

Old Gray Mare

TB Fanatic
Additional News video at link recommends: 14 day supply of food and 3 months of scripts. Sounds a little different from what I saw last time I checked Ready.gov. - OGM

Fair use.

Residents urged to prepare for potential of coronavirus outbreak

By HNN Staff | February 25, 2020 at 4:37 PM HST - Updated February 26 at 5:11 PM
HONOLULU, Hawaii (HawaiiNewsNow) - The state is urging residents to take steps now to prepare for the potential spread of the coronavirus to Hawaii amid a stark warning from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that the virus could cause a “significant disruption” to American life.

“It’s not so much a matter of if this will happen anymore, but rather more a question of exactly when this will happen and how many people in this country will have severe illness,” said Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

“We cannot hermetically seal off the United States to a virus, and we need to be realistic about that."

Although there are still no confirmed cases of coronavirus in Hawaii, the state Department of Health issued some guidance for what people can do to be ready, including by having a 14-day kit of emergency supplies at home.

“While there are no cases of COVID-19 identified in Hawaii at this time, state health officials do expect to eventually identify cases in Hawaii because this is a global health threat to our entire nation,” Health Department officials said, in a news release Tuesday.

“At this time, the imminent threat here in Hawaii is low.”
[Read more: US should expect coronavirus to spread, CDC says]

The state said to prepare for a potential outbreak, residents should:
  • Come up with a family plan to consider what measures you’d need to take to prevent the spread of illness.
  • Prepare a kit of emergency supplies, similar to those used during hurricane season. The kit should include 14 days worth of water, food and other necessities.
  • Set aside an emergency supply of any needed medication and keep a copy of your prescriptions. The DOH recommends a three-month supply.
The CDC also says that in addition to the travel restrictions already in place, school closures, working from home and delaying elective medical procedures may be necessary.

So far, the U.S. has seen about 60 of the roughly 81,000 confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide.

Copyright 2020 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.

Link to source:
 

Heliobas Disciple

TB Fanatic
THIS IS THE TRANSCRIPT OF THE CDC CALL FROM YESTERDAY.

I FORMATTED IT TO MAKE PARAGRAPHS.

IN TWO PARTS


(fair use applies)


Transcript for the CDC Telebriefing Update on COVID-19

Press Briefing Transcript
Wednesday, February 26, 2020

Please Note: This transcript is not edited and may contain errors.


Welcome and thank you for standing by. At this time, all participants are on listen-only mode until our question and answer session. At that time, if you would like to ask a question, please press star then one. Please be advised today’s conference is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. Now I would like to turn the meeting over to Mr. Benjamin Haynes. Thank you. You may begin.

Thank you. And thank you all for joining us for today’s update on CDC’s COVID-19 response. We are joined by the director of CDC’s national center for immunization and respiratory diseases who will give opening remarks. I will now turn the call over.

Thank you for joining us. The global novel coronavirus situation is rapidly evolving and expanding. There are still a lot of news coverage about community spread in a few countries since the last time we talked. This means that cases of COVID-19 are appearing without a known source of exposure.

Communities include Hong Kong, Italy, Iran, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand. Community spread is often a trigger to begin implementing new strategies tailored to local circumstances that blunt the impact of disease and can slow the spread of virus. The fact this virus has caused illness – including illness resulting in death, and sustained person-to-person spread is concerning. These factors meet two of the criteria of the pandemic. The world moves closer towards meeting the third criteria. Worldwide spread of the new virus.

The U.S. has been implementing an aggressive containment strategy that requires detecting, tracking, and isolating all cases as much as possible and preventing more introduction of disease notably at points of entry. We’ve restricted travel into the United States while also issuing extensive travel advisories for countries currently experiencing community spread. Our travel notices are changing almost daily. We’ve also enacted the first quarantine of this scale in the U.S. And are supporting the state department and HHS in repatriating citizens from high-risk areas.

We are doing this with the goal of slowing the introduction of this new virus into the U.S. and buying us more time to prepare. To date, our containment strategies have been largely successful. As a result, we have very few cases in the United States and no spread in the community. But as more and more countries experience community spread, successful containment at our borders becomes harder and harder. Ultimately, we expect we will see community spread in this country.

It’s not so much a question of if this will happen anymore but rather more a question of exactly when this will happen and how many people in this country will have severe illness.

We will maintain for as long as practical a dual approach where we continue measures to contain this disease but also employ strategies to minimize the impact on our communities. At this time, there’s no vaccine to protect against this new virus and no medications approved to treat it. Non-pharmaceutical interventions or NPIs will be the most important tools in our response to this virus.

What these interventions look like at the community level will vary depending on local conditions. What is appropriate for one community seeing local transmission won’t necessarily be appropriate for a community where no local transmission has occurred. This parallel, proactive approach of containment and mitigation will delay the emergence of community spread in the United States while simultaneously reducing its ultimate impact.

To illustrate how this works, I’d like to share with you some of the specific recommendations made in the document I mentioned last Friday including some of the steps we would take here if needed. This document is called Community Mitigation Guidelines to Prevent Pandemic Influenza United States 2017. It draws from the findings of nearly 200 journal articles written between 1990 and 2016. This document looked at what can be done at the individual and community level during a pandemic when we don’t have a vaccine or proven medical treatment for the disease. We’re looking at data since 2016 and adjusting our recommendations to the specific circumstances of COVID-19. But this posted document provides a frame work for our response strategy. Based on what is known now, we would implement these NPI measures in a very aggressive, proactive way as he have been doing with our containment efforts.

There are three categories of NPIs.

Personal NPIs which include personal protective measures you can take every day and personal protective measures reserved for pandemics.

Community NPIs which include social distancing measures designed to keep people who are sick away from others and school closures and dismissals.

And environmental NPIs which includes surface cleaning measures.

NPIs routinely recommended for prevention of respiratory virus transmission include everyday personal protective measures. These are preventive measures we recommend during influenza season. These NPIs are recommended during a pandemic regardless of the severity level of the respiratory illness. Personal protective measures reserved for pandemics include voluntary home quarantine of household members who have been exposed to someone they live with who is sick.
Now I’d like to talk through some examples of what community NPIs look like. These are practical measures that can help limit exposure by reducing exposure in community settings. Students in smaller groups or in a severe pandemic, closing schools and using internet-based teleschooling to continue education. For adults, businesses can replace in-person meetings with video or telephone conferences and increase teleworking options. On a larger scale, communities may need to modify, postpone, or cancel mass gatherings. Looking at how to increase telehealth services and delaying elective surgery.

The implementation of environmental NPIs would require everyone to consistently clean frequently touched surfaces and objects at home, at school, at work, and at large gatherings.

Local communities will need to look at which NPIs to implement and when based on how transmission and disease is and what can be done locally. This will require flexibility and adaptations as disease progresses and new information becomes available. Some of these measures are better than none. But the maximum benefit occurs when the elements are layered upon each other.

Some community level interventions that may be most effective in reducing the spread of a new virus like school closures are also the most likely to be associated with unwanted consequences and further disruptions. Secondary consequences of some of these measures might include missed work and loss of income.

I understand this whole situation may seem overwhelming and that disruption to everyday life may be severe. But these are things that people need to start thinking about now. I had a conversation with my family over breakfast this morning and I told my children that while I didn’t think that they were at risk right now, we as a family need to be preparing for significant disruption of our lives. You should ask your children’s school about their plans for school dismissals or school closures. If ask if there are plans for teleschool. I contacted my local school superintendent this morning with exactly those questions. You should think about what you would do for childcare if schools or day cares close. If teleworking is an option for you. All of these questions can help you be better prepared for what might happen.

CDC and other federal agencies have been practicing for this since the 2019 influenza pandemic. In the last two years, CDC has engaged in two pandemic influenza exercises that have required us to prepare for a severe pandemic and just this past year we had a whole of government exercise practicing similarly around a pandemic of influenza. Right now CDC is operationalizing all of its pandemic response plans working on multiple fronts including specific measures to prepare communities to respond to local transmission of the virus that causes COVID-19.

Before I take questions, I want to address the issue of the test kits CDC is developing. I am frustrated like I know many of you are that we have had issues with our test. I want to assure you that we are working to modify the kit and hope to send out a new version to state and local jurisdictions soon.

There are currently 12 states or localities around the U.S. that can test samples as well as we are testing at CDC. 400 samples were tested overnight. There is no current backlog or delay for testing at CDC. Commercial labs will also be coming online soon with their own tests. This will allow the greatest number of tests to happen closer to where potential cases are.

Last, I want to recognize that people are concerned about this situation. I would say rightfully so. I’m concerned about the situation. CDC is concerned about the situation. But we are putting our concerns to work preparing. And now is the time for businesses, hospitals, community schools, and everyday people to begin preparing as well.

Over the last few weeks, CDC has been on dozens of calls with different partners in the health, retail, education, and business sectors in the hopes that employers begin to respond in a flexible way to differing levels of severity, to refine their business response plans as needed. I also want to acknowledge the importance of uncertainty. During an outbreak with a new virus, there is a lot of uncertainty. Our guidance and advice are likely to be fluid subject to change as we learn more. We will continue to keep you updated. I’d be happy to take a few questions now.

Brittany, we’re ready to take questions.

Thank you. We’ll now begin our question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question over the phone, press star, then one and record your name clearly when prompted. If you need to withdraw your question, press star then two. One moment as we wait for the first question. Our first question comes from Lisa from PBS. Your line is now open.

Q: Good morning. Thank you for doing this. I have some more questions about the test kits. Thank you for what you gave us the update on, but can you go into more detail about how they work? Can any hospital now just kind of use a swab to get a sample and then send that to the CDC? And then how long do you estimate it will take to have the kits replaced so that more localities can actually do the analysis and do you have enough money for this kind of field work and test analysis right now?

A: Okay. I’m going to start from maybe the part of a patient perspective which is, you know, right now our focus is still on individuals with a travel history that would put them at risk for COVID-19. Or people who are close contacts of someone who has COVID-19. Those individuals when they are identified by a health care provider, the health care provider calls the health department. The health department helps them triage those patients to make — and then the samples are worked with the health department.

Now, as we move forward, though, if we are looking at the trajectory of expecting that there likely will be community spread of this virus in the united states, the case definition may change away from narrowly around people with travel. Again, that’s what we would anticipate doing as there is community spread. If that happens, it will be more and more important that the clinicians have a full tool kit. That’s why the availability of commercial kits would be so helpful. So in the short-term, it’s the clinician calls the health department. And either the health department already has the test kit themselves or if they don’t yet have it stood up, they send it to CDC. Our turnaround at CDC is within a day. There is a little bit of shipping time. But that’s the process.

In terms of timing, I think at this point what I would say is we are working as fast as we can. We understand the frustration of our partners in the health care sector, in health departments. You certainly can imagine we want to resolve this as quickly as possible. But we have to make sure that while resolving it, we keep to the highest level of quality assurance. Because as important as speed is, it is more important that we make sure that our results are correct.

In terms of funding, there’s already been funds available that are helping us with the activities that we have now that is the diagnostic testing at CDC. And we’ll continue to proceed focused on our priorities which as I’ve said are getting this test kit out to state health departments so they can be doing that themselves as an interim step to getting it commercially available would be a great advancement. Next question.

Thank you. And our next question comes from Craig from KNX 1070 news radio Los Angeles. Your line is now open.

Q: Thank you, doctor. I appreciate your time. Couple of questions. There’s been a lot of talk about what’s being done to prepare for possible people who would be quarantined. I’d like to know what that is. And also is the Chinese government leveling with you? Are they telling you the truth? Have they given you the straight dope, so to speak, as to what you need to know about the coronavirus?

A: So in answer to your first question, I would say generally we are working on a daily basis with state and local health departments across the country on exactly those issues. What are the local considerations for quarantine or isolation and how can they be resolved? And in each location in the united states, it may end up being a slightly different answer. Our focus is on the best health of the individual whom we are working with in terms of whether they need quarantine or isolation.

In terms of the Chinese government, there has been a WHO team on the ground in China as well in Wuhan. There are data coming out from those efforts. We have a lot of information from china. Frankly, we have a lot of new information from all the other countries around the world now that are reporting community spread and we are as quickly as possible trying to synthesize that information. It is providing us more data in terms of making our own estimations in the U.S. Of what we’re going to see. Communities that are having community spread are certainly very informative in terms of what we might expect in the united states. And I think that whole body of evidence is frankly coming really quickly at us. That’s why we have a team of people here at CDC synthesizing it all.

Next question, please.

Thank you. And our next question comes from Megan from STAT. Your line is now open.

Q: Hi there. Thank you so much for taking my question. I’m wondering if you could expand a little bit on whether you are reconsidering testing people with travel history to other countries now where they might be infected. And I’m also wondering if you could say whether or not the agency has considered getting tests from another country that’s supplying tests to other nations as well.

A: So the answer to the first question is certainly, we’re considering what the spread of illness in other countries looks like and how it impacts the potential risk the Americans traveling abroad in those countries. Those conversations are going on as we speak. We obviously are working closely with the partners on those considerations. And when there is new information in terms of case definitions, we’ll definitely publicize that broadly. You know, as I said, we are still at the stage of containment, but we are already starting to plan for mitigation. And part of the mitigation planning is the participation of community spread in the united states. And as that happens, it would certainly dramatically impact how we’re considering who is on the case. As you can imagine, the symptoms of novel coronavirus look a lot like other viral respiratory diseases that are circulating this time of year. So it’s going to be difficult for clinicians to differentiate fully on the basis of those — solely on the basis of the symptoms.

In terms of diagnostic tests, what I would say is we’re working closely with FDA on this. And obviously with the state and local health department partners. And I think that we are rapidly moving towards getting those kits more available in the U.S. In the systems that we have. Really I think we’re close. I just wouldn’t want to give an estimate of when until we’re there. But I think we’re close. And remember, a dozen states now have the kit and are testing and there’s tests available in the U.S. So I think we’re making forward progress.

Thank you. And our next question comes from Lena Sun from Washington Post. Your line is now open.

Q: Thank you. I had a couple questions. One is if a dozen states have the kit, then do they still need to send those tests to CDC for confirmation? Which are the states that have the tests? And more broadly, your comments today seem to represent a significant escalation in the sort of severity and urgency of the now. At a briefing this morning for Congress, I believe some members were told that we now face a very strong chance of an extremely serious outbreak. Is that the CDC’s feeling right now that we face an extremely strong chance of a serious outbreak?

A: Okay. So let’s see. The first question, it’s 12 state or local health departments. And so it’s not 12 states total. We are still as a point of part of how we roll out these tests, those tests that are positive still do come to CDC for confirmation. I think that’s just part of a normal process to ensure we are keeping to the utmost quality control. I don’t have a list of state or local health departments in front of me, but I think we can provide that.

In terms of a change in tone, I guess what I would say is as I look back on the scripts of the telebriefings that we’ve given over the past month, we have for a long time been saying — we have for many weeks been saying that while we hope this is not going to be severe, we are planning as if it is. The data over the last week and the spread in other countries has certainly raised our level of concern and raised our level of expectation that we are going to have community spread here. So I think that that’s perhaps the change of tone you’ve seen.

I think what we still don’t know is what that will look like as many of you know. We can have community spread in the united states and have it be reasonably mild. We could have community spread in the united states and have it be very severe. And so that is what — that is what we don’t completely know yet. And we certainly also don’t exactly know when it’s going to happen. I think it would be nice for everybody if we could say, you know, on this date is when it’s going to start. We don’t know that yet. And so that’s why we’re asking folks in every sector as well as people within their families to start planning for this because as we’ve seen from the recent countries that have had community spread when it is hit in those countries, it has moved quite rapidly. So we want to make sure that the American public is prepared.
 
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