COVID-19 • Pandemic Panic – Not Yet…

February 28, 2020

Watching the response to COVID-19 has been disappointing.  Having worked as the hospital emergency preparedness coordinator during the H1N1 pandemic and on a cruise ship during a flu outbreak, this response is not going great.

Honest, concise information presented calmly and consistently is by far the best and cheapest weapon against pandemics.   With conflicting information streams and conspiracy theories, coming from an administration saddled with thousands of demonstrable lies; indeed, we are starting at a huge deficit. 

Until we can learn how to act in unison to eliminate COVID-19, we will have to learn how to live with it. And it’s not great. With a fatality rate likely 5-10 times that of seasonal flu, transmission through people who have little or no symptoms, and long survival times on surfaces, it’s going to be super stubborn.  It’s also likely to become something like flu; another in the community of pathogenic viruses that will be among us for the duration.

But it is nothing close to H5N1 flu, Nipah virus, MERS coronavirus – they kill and maim much more efficiently .  This is particularly fortunate with an administration that does not have the public trust. That combination could well be a nation killer.