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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe U.S. Isn't Ready for What's About to Happen
The U.S. Isnt Ready for Whats About to Happen
Even with a robust government response to the novel coronavirus, many people will be in peril. And the United States is anything but prepared.
7:00 AM ET
Juliette Kayyem
Former Department of Homeland Security official and author of Security Mom
For the professionals who try to manage homeland-security threats, reassuring the public after a natural disaster or terrorist attackor amid a coronavirus outbreak like the one the world now facesis just part of the job. I am a former federal and state homeland-security official. I study safety and resiliency issues in an academic setting, advise companies on their emergency-response plans, and trade ideas with people in public health, law enforcement, and many other disciplines. Since the beginning of the disease now known as COVID-19, Ive also been receiving more and more text messages from nervous relatives and friends. The rash decisions that panic breeds have never made any emergency better. So like many others in my field, Ive been urging people, in as calm a tone as I can muster, to listen to experts and advising them about concrete steps they can take to keep their families, communities, and businesses safe. Wash your hands. Dont touch your face. Avoid large gatherings. Dont panic, and prepare as best you can.
Advice like mine is meant to be empowering, but now I fear it may also be misleading. If Americans conclude that life will continue mostly as normal, they may be wrong. The United States is far less prepared than other democratic nations experiencing outbreaks of the novel coronavirus. Low case counts so far may reflect not an absence of the pathogen but a woeful lack of testing.
Disruptions are almost certain to multiply in the weeks to come. Airlines are scaling back flights. Conferences, including Austins signature event, South by Southwest, are being canceled. The drop in imports is hurting global supply chains. Corporations are prohibiting their employees from traveling and attending mass gatherings. Stanford University just canceled its in-person classes for the rest of the winter quarter, and other institutions are likely to take similar steps. Government agencies and private companies alike will activate continuity-of-operations protocols, as they are called in my field. Get used to it.
Aggressive steps are essential to protecting the public from a deadly virus. Last week, the World Health Organization assessed the fatality rate at a shocking 3.4 percent, much higher than previously believed. Early on, many American medical experts withheld judgment about the limited data coming out of China, but information from around the world has now confirmed how severe COVID-19 is and how rapidly it is spreading. As Dr. Margaret Bordeaux, my colleague at the Security and Global Health Project at Harvards Kennedy School, told me, None of us want to be Chicken Little, but there is too much consistent data to not begin to rattle the cage pretty loudly.
Even if the United States were far more ready for COVID-19, the consequences could still be grievous. In my field, adequate preparation means having the plans, money, equipment, and expertise in place to avert all but a tiny percentage of the harms that might otherwise occur. Yet because of the nature of pandemics, even a level of preparation that looks robust to homeland-security experts could still fail to prevent thousands of deaths.
more...
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/us-isnt-ready-whats-about-happen/607636/
Blues Heron
(5,926 posts)3.4 of *reported* cases - doesn't include mild cases that didn't send the person to the dr. or hospital.
roamer65
(36,744 posts)Expect a lot violence at hospitals if/when they start to restrict patient entry into ICUs.
With all these guns its gonna get ugly.
If we assume an infection rate of 33 pct like 1918-1920, thats around 100 million. Italy says 10 pct will require intensive care...so that would be right around 10 million.
Wednesdays
(17,317 posts)and two thirds of those are already filled.
fescuerescue
(4,448 posts)This may be an event that changes permanently changes society. Worldwide.
This will change us more than 9/11 did.
lame54
(35,262 posts)Doubters
The flu kills more is their only response
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)Ignorance is Bliss. And the Ignorant will pay the highest price. Some among us remember the massive out breaks of various viral infections of the late forties and early fifties that required Vaccinations of most US citizens.
And those whom were infected,most had some lingering Health affect their whole life or passed because of those lingering effects.