What to Know About the Coronavirus
For frequent, up-to-date information on the Coronavirus and what you can do, visit CDC.
On January 20, 2022, a new coronavirus outbreak caused the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee (IHR) to declare it as a “public health emergency of international concern.” The following day, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex M. Azar II declared a public health emergency for the United States.
Americans get transferred to military bases in the United States after COVID-19 spread through their cruise ship, the Diamond Princess. The ship had docked in Japan when the virus made its way on board.
Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that contain strains—a variant of microorganisms including a virus, bacterium, or fungus—which can infect both animals and people. Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) was first recognized in Wuhan, China, a city in Central China’s Hubei province. The city is currently under quarantine. COVID-19 causes respiratory symptoms ranging from a common cold to pneumonia to death. It is moderately infections, mainly passed from person to person, and has a mortality rate ranging from 0.7% to up to 4% worldwide. The seasonal flu has an annual mortality rate of less than 1%.
Most of the first cases of Wuhan Coronavirus are believed to have originated from an animal market, which has now been shut down. Originally, snakes were suspected as a potential suspect, but experts are proposing bats or pangolins. Currently, animal origin is still under investigation.
As of March 3, over 92,000 people spread across 65 countries have been infected with the coronavirus, the majority in China (over 80,000). However, these numbers aren’t the amount of current active cases\; many people have recovered from the virus. There are at least 108 cases in the United States, all connected with overseas travel, and two positive cases in San Diego.
The streets in Wuhan, China are vacant. The city was put in quarantine after outbreaks of COVID-19 began.
CDC—the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—has reported the risk level of visiting certain countries. China is the biggest avoidance for all non-essential travel, with Iran, Japan, Italy, and South Korea following as countries at risk. In response to the outbreak, some airlines have suspended or modified travel to mainland China.
The CDC has stated that Americans should prepare when the virus incorporates itself into their daily lives, which could include closing schools and working from home. The spread of COVID-19 is inevitable.
“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,” Dr. Nancy Messonnier said, a top director at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The virus had seemed to reach its apex during February, but the number of cases outside of mainland China has more than doubled over the last week. Currently, the virus isn’t showing signs of calming down.
Scientists are working to understand the virus and develop a vaccine, but an official vaccine hasn’t been declared yet. There is still a lot that’s unknown regarding COVID-19 as well as how the virus spreads, but from recent statistics, it is likely that the virus will continue to spread.
“There’s no numerical definition of a pandemic — like beauty, it’s in the eye of the beholder,” Infectious disease specialist William Schaffner said.”I think we’re right on the edge of it.”
Citizens in Nanning, China leave the streets empty as they stay in their homes. The sign reads “Wash you hands often, keep fresh air in; wear a face mask, prevent infection.”
CDC emphasizes that a coronavirus pandemic is not currently in the United States, however, the global situation is quickly growing. As COVID-19 is spreading around the world, officials say not to panic but to prepare. While a vaccine hasn’t been developed yet, researchers and scientists are working hard on developing one, and a number of precautions are recommended by CDC, including:
- Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water. If soap and water aren’t available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
- Avoid close contact with those that are sick. (6 feet)
- Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth if your hands aren’t washed.
- Clean and sanitize frequently touched objects and surfaces.
Also, the California Department of Public Health does not recommend using face masks as prevention and says that washing your hands gives better protection against infectious diseases.
Coronaviruses are nothing new. The Wuhan Coronavirus is, however. A lot is still unknown about COVID-19, but many scientists are researching and working on developing a vaccine right now. Though the spread of Coronavirus may be inevitable, the best thing to do is prepare and remember that global mortality rates are 4% or below, even less if China isn’t accounted for. The habits of COVID-19 are unpredictable, scientists don’t know how long this will last, though with all past outbreaks, this one will eventually come to an end.
Ansel ◊ Mar 31, 2020 at 8:34 am
As with everything there is a balance to be had, because somethings we can do to combat the virus can cause more harm in other areas than it can help combat the virus.
Ian Pankey ◊ Mar 28, 2020 at 4:13 pm
I didn’t post that as a response to anyone’s comment. It was just for informational purposes. Of course we shouldn’t panic. However, the logic behind the spread of the virus to 14 million people is clearly walked through with the R0 number. The key phrase is “in the absence of a control strategy.” So, if we do nothing and go about our daily lives as normal, that is about the number of infections we would see in 15 steps of the transmission. That should seem realistic given how many global infections there are currently, even while we have implemented such drastic measures to stop the spread of the virus.
Ansel ◊ Mar 18, 2020 at 10:15 am
I never argued against the legitimacy of the virus, I was arguing against panic which helps no one no matter serious the situation is.
Ansel ◊ Mar 18, 2020 at 10:13 am
Yes it seems completely likely that I will indirectly give the virus to 14 million people. Good job math
Ian Pankey ◊ Mar 16, 2020 at 12:32 pm
For anyone reading this comment section please read this text written by a doctor well informed about the situation.
So much confusion, misinformation and denial is bouncing around on social media about the coronavirus that I thought I would try to explain, in plain language, why the experts see this as such an emergency.
You will see the claim online that this virus is a lot like the viruses that cause colds, and that if you get it, it will probably just seem like a bad cold and you are very unlikely to die. Depending on who you are, these statements are probably true. But they are incomplete, and the missing information is the key to understanding the problem.
This is a coronavirus that is new to the human population, jumping into people late last year from some kind of animal, probably at a wildlife market in Wuhan, China. It is related to the viruses that cause colds, and acts a lot like them in many ways. It is very easy to transmit through the respiratory droplets that all of us give off. But nobody has ever been exposed to this before, which means nobody has any immunity to it.
The virus is now moving explosively through the human population. While most people will recover, about 20 percent of the people who catch it will wind up with a serious disease. They will get pneumonia that causes shortness of breath, and they may need hospitalization.
Some of those people will get so sick that they cannot be saved and will die of the pneumonia. The overall death rate for people who develop symptoms seems to be 2 or 3 percent. Once we have enough testing to find out how many people caught the virus but did not develop symptoms, that might come down to about 1 percent, optimistically.
This is a large number. It is at least 10 times higher than the mortality rate for the seasonal flu, for instance, which in some years kills 60,000 or 70,000 Americans. So just on that math, we could be looking at 600,000 or 700,000 dead in the United States. But it gets worse.
Older people with existing health problems are much more vulnerable, on average. The mortality rate of coronavirus among people over age 80 may be 15 or 20 percent. It appears to have 7 or 8 percent mortality for people aged 70 to 79. Here is the terrible part: If you are a healthy younger person, you can catch the virus and, without developing serious symptoms yourself, you can pass it along to older people. In other words, as the virus spreads, it is going to be very easy to go out and catch it, give it to your grandmother and kill her, even though you will not die yourself. You can catch it by touching a door knob or an elevator button.
Scientists measure the spread of an epidemic by a number called R0, or “R naught.” That number is calculated this way: for every person who develops the illness, how many other people do they give it to before they are cured (or dead) and no longer infectious? The R0 for coronavirus, in the absence of a control strategy, appears to be a number close to 3 – maybe a bit higher or lower, but in that ballpark. This is an extremely frightening number for such a deadly disease.
Suppose you catch the virus. You will give it to 3 other people, and they will each give it to three others, and so forth. Here is how the math works, where you, the “index case,” are the first line:
1
3
9
27
81
243
729
2,187
6,561
19,683
59,046
177,147
531,441
1,594,323
4,782,969
14,348,907
So, in just 15 steps of transmission, the virus has gone from just one index case to 14.3 million other people. Those 15 steps might take only a few weeks. The index person may be young and healthy, but many of those 14 million people will be old and sick, and they will likely die because they got a virus that started in one person’s throat.
The United States is not at this point yet, with millions infected, as best we can tell. We don’t really know, because testing is in short supply. We are many, many weeks behind other countries in rolling out widespread testing, so we don’t really have a clue how far the thing has spread. We do know that cases are starting to pop up all over the place, with many of the people having no known exposure to travelers from China, so that means this virus has escaped into our communities.
We do not have approved treatments, yet. We do not have a vaccine. The only tool we really have now is to try to slow down the chain of transmission.
This can be done. In other words, R0 is not fixed – it can be lowered by control measures. You can make a difference. If we can get the number below 1, the epidemic will die out. This is the point of the quarantines and the contact-tracing that you are hearing so much about in the news.
It is now likely that the majority of Americans will get this virus. But slowing it down is still crucial. Why? Because the healthcare system has limited resources. We only have about a million hospital beds in America. We have well under a million ventilators. If millions of Americans get sick enough to need treatment, we will have a calamity on our hands. What will happen is a form of battlefield triage, where the doctors focus on trying to treat the young and allow the older people to die.
This is not theoretical. It is already happening in Italy, where people over 65 are being left alone on hospital gurneys to die from pneumonia. There is simply not enough medical capacity to take care of them. The United States appears to be about two weeks behind Italy on the epidemic growth curve.
What do we need to do now? We need to cancel all large gatherings – all of them. You have probably seen that the N.B.A. has postponed the rest of its season. Other sporting events, concerts, plays and everything else involving large audiences in a small space – all of it needs to be canceled. Even if these events take place, do not go to them. No lectures, no plays, no movies, no cruises – nothing.
Stay at home as much as possible. Stay out of restaurants. I would cancel any travel that is not absolutely essential. Work from home if you possibly can. You may have to go buy groceries and medicine, of course, but make the trips quick and purposeful. Wash your hands assiduously after you have been in public places, for a full 20 seconds, soaping up thoroughly and being sure to get between the fingers. Sunlight and alcohol will kill the virus.
And please stop passing around statements on social media claiming that the situation is not serious or is being exaggerated. This is a national crisis, and conveying misinformation to your friends and family may put their lives in danger.
Ansel ◊ Mar 12, 2020 at 1:53 pm
Christina
First I would like to address the “growth” of the coronavirus. Like I said in my comment before and you completely ignored. There is a difference between the active cases of a virus and the total cases. Diseases and viruses spread its what they do. Just by seeing that 10 more people on the news have the virus does not mean it is “spreading rapidly”. Believe it or not people can recover from the coronavirus. There are 120,000 total cases that includes people who have recovered and no longer have the disease. And just to clarify I never said that 9/11 was worse than the coronavirus in terms of the death toll. However the effect on air travel within a country should not be the same. If a disease that originated from a foreign country causes the same fear of air travel as an event in which 5 planes are crashed into buildings that is when things have gone far beyond reasonable. Finally, to say that the US will have the WORST death toll because of a lack of medicare is completely unreasonable for many reasons. Firstly medicare will do nothing if there is no cure to the virus. Second all people who have recovered from the virus have recovered through natural ways without assistance from drugs or antibiotics. Finally, if you think that the US will have a worse death toll than other second and third world countries you would be completely wrong because America has some of the best medical research teams in the world. In addition the majority of people who died were older than 40 and had pre-existing medical conditions. Like I said before the real danger in the coronavirus is not the disease itself but how people react about it.
If you personally are worried about the coronavirus what will definitely help is going to walmart and buying all the hand sanitizer and toilet paper. If you don’t do that you will most definitely die from the coronavirus.
Christian Rocha ◊ Mar 10, 2020 at 10:20 pm
Ansel what do you mean less people have the virus now vs a month ago. A month ago there were 800 cases now there are 1,000 in the us alone. There are over 120,000 cases in the entire world. Italy is completely quarantined as well as most of china. The news does blow it up but it is still very serious. you said 9/11 was more serious? there were 3,000 deaths in 9/11. 4,500 people have died of corona. The first case in the US was about 2 weeks ago now 31 people in the US have died from it . This isn’t just a disease in china anymore its everywhere and its killing people everywhere. The US might have the highest death rate due to people not having medicare.
Ansel ◊ Mar 10, 2020 at 4:06 pm
The press is misleading in the way it updates the public about the spread of the Coronavirus. Because there are two ways you can measure the spread of the Coronavirus. The spread of the Coronavirus as depicted by many news sources is completely misleading because they show how the total number of Coronavirus cases. The Coronavirus is well beyond its height as far as active cases go. The virus is always spreading but less people have the virus now than they did a month ago. It is a well known fact that bad news sells better than good news and the press is capitalizing on this at the expense of the general public. Conventions are closing like the Natural Products Expo in Anaheim, California; or Minecraft Festival in Orlando,, Florida. In addition airline traffic is at its lowest since 9/11 which was a far more catastrophic event in terms of damage done. The only thing to warrant this is a disease on the other side of the world. The press is causing people to panic which in turn negatively impacts businesses and events. The worst part of the coronavirus isn’t the small amount deaths it causes but the way fear of it controls our society.