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Medicine United States

Americans Should Prepare For Coronavirus Crisis in US, CDC Says (nbcnews.com) 253

Top U.S. public health officials said Tuesday that Americans should prepare for the spread of the coronavirus in communities across the country. From a report: "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, the head of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said during a media briefing Tuesday. Measures to contain the virus in the U.S. so far have involved restricting travel to and from China -- the center of the outbreak -- and isolating identified cases. But Messonnier said evidence that the virus is spreading to countries outside the region, such as Iran and Italy, has raised the CDC's "level of concern and expectation that we'll see spread" in the U.S.
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Americans Should Prepare For Coronavirus Crisis in US, CDC Says

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  • by michaelcole ( 704646 ) on Wednesday February 26, 2020 @10:12AM (#59768334)
    https://www.cdc.gov/media/rele... [cdc.gov] Welcome to the new flu. Don't touch wild animals.
  • by reanjr ( 588767 ) on Wednesday February 26, 2020 @10:16AM (#59768346) Homepage

    We're supposed to prepare? How, exactly? I kind of think this is out of our hands...

    • We're supposed to prepare? How, exactly?

      Stock up on limes.

      I'm ready.

    • Re:Prepare? (Score:5, Funny)

      by The Grim Reefer ( 1162755 ) on Wednesday February 26, 2020 @10:28AM (#59768384)

      We're supposed to prepare? How, exactly? I kind of think this is out of our hands...

      Stock up on toilet paper, ammo, canned food, and generator fuel. And get a flamethrower. I'm not sure what you'll need a flamethrower for, but they are great for zombies, aliens, sterilization of an area, wasp nests, heating canned food, getting nosey neighbors to leave you alone. Actually I'm not sure why you wouldn't have a flamethrower.

      • by murdocj ( 543661 )

        CDC used to have a great poster that showed how to prepare for the inevitable zombie apocalypse. Point being if you were prepared for that, you could probably handle lesser emergencies like power outages, disease outbreaks, etc.

      • > I'm not sure why you wouldn't have a flamethrower.

        The wife thinks it's a bit "excessive" and I "get that crazy look in my eye". But I am just having fun. . [youtube.com]

      • Actually I'm not sure why you wouldn't have a flamethrower.

        Because, it burns though that generator fuel too fast.. Stick with some landmines and claymores.

      • by gtall ( 79522 )

        Heheheh...reminds me of one bright spark who decided he really didn't like those ground wasps near his house. The use of gasoline should have given him a clue it wouldn't end well. It didn't, and took his house out. No statement from the ground wasps was available on what they thought of the whole affair.

    • I'm preparing for disruptions in the supply chain for some things I purchase on a regular basis. This virus isn't going to be a civilization ending Armageddon, but I do want to be prepared for the possibility of some temporary shortages.
      • I think that may prove to be the worst effect of the outbreak for average people (healthy and middle-age or younger). For most of us, it's going to be like a bad flu from which we recover. But the disruption of global supply chains may pose a bigger threat because they are inherently fragile. We used to import quite a bit of food from China and other places that will be impacted. Slowing the spread requires that people not gather and associate to the same extent they normally would, and the economic dis
    • Re:Prepare? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by hey! ( 33014 ) on Wednesday February 26, 2020 @10:53AM (#59768506) Homepage Journal

      Well, preparing starts with thinking. Understandably that doesn't get most people very far.

      Start with what's most important to you. Who would take care of your kids if you got sick? What will you do with them if their school is closed for a month or so? Who is going to check up on your parents? How will you keep your business running when customers are afraid to got here?

      *If* the thing reaches epidemic proportions here, the chances are still that you won't get it. If you do get it, the chances are you will fully recover. But well below the point where a thing like this forces you to finally confront your own mortality, it's going to have economic and practical effects, even on people who don't catch it.

    • The Wu, like it's cousin the Flu, is an infectious disease that is easily transmissible between humans. We're hoping the Wu is similar to the Flu in that it predominantly is experienced in Winter. We think washing hands and protecting the nose and mouth from contamination may slow the spread of the Wu.

      Coronavirus is too long and is also easily confused with a crappy beer. Covid-whatever is too technical.

      • And it may also be transmissible between humans, bats and snakes - but all of this is awaiting confirmation.

    • prepare by getting a shovel and digging your grave in the back yard, when you think you are close to dying lay down in it and start covering yourself up, the worst case scenario is the hospitals will be full of the sick and dying, doctors & nurses will be sick and dying too, and the government wont help anyone either because they will either be hiding in bunkers or sick and dying too
  • by jfdavis668 ( 1414919 ) on Wednesday February 26, 2020 @10:37AM (#59768430)
    Now this. What do we have to prepare for next? The end of Walmart as we know it?
    • Every time I feel like paying more for the same thing for no reason, I avoid Walmart.

      • Just make sure you're buying the same SKU, and not a "Walmart exclusive" version of the product... the latter will have plastic where there should be metal and end up in the landfill in short order.
  • Can I go home now?... How about now?.....Now? I'm ready!
  • I think it would be wise to ban all international travel and stop all incoming flights. I would much rather disrupt peoples travel plans rather than to put their lives in jeopardy. Besides, most business people would welcome a travel ban because no one really wants to get on an airplane right now, so it would give them an out to avoid travel they don't want to take anyway. We have teleconferencing so airplane travel is obsolete anyway. Everyone should call the White House comment line (google for the number

    • by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      Re "I think it would be wise to ban all international travel and stop all incoming flights."
      Nations wont do that due to tax income from education and holiday spending.
      Add in virtue signalling that they are still open to all. Political correctness.
      Govs said no to their best experts and trusted in the need for shopping, hotels, education spending and tax income.

      Re "We have teleconferencing" thats does not work for a nations real production lines, services, utility companies.
      Real people have to actuall
    • I think it would be wise to ban all international travel and stop all incoming flights

      I mean you could do that. The stock market would fucking go insane and an economic catastrophe that would take years to recover from would happen, but yeah, you totally could do that. I'm not saying keeping the stock market propped up is a reason to let people die, I'm just pointing out that, you're going to have serious knee jerks that have real world consequences if you did that. Once you sound the alarm, there going to be folks who hit the panic button.

  • Note: (Score:2, Informative)

    by Rei ( 128717 )

    Dr. Nancy Messonnier is not the head of the CDC, nor is she the head of the CDC division most applicable to this case (National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, NCEZID), nor is she the head of the CDC's response team to COVID-19. There are tens of thousands of medical professionals in the world with strong credentials, and any random one's views should not be treated as gospel.

    That said, that doesn't mean she's wrong. Iran's inaction (ongoing) has made it much harder to contain (now

    • So Yay for us Northerners, I guess.

      And we don't even know if Winter will slow down the Wu. Just cause the Flu doesn't spread as much in Summer doesn't mean the Wu is going to do the same.

    • Re:Note: (Score:5, Informative)

      by DRJlaw ( 946416 ) on Wednesday February 26, 2020 @11:41AM (#59768706)

      Dr. Nancy Messonnier is not the head of the CDC, nor is she the head of the CDC division most applicable to this case (National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, NCEZID), nor is she the head of the CDC's response team to COVID-19.

      Jesus Christ, you're a prat. "[T]he head of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention" provided a briefing concerning the spread of a respiratory disease and you, in your infinite and expert wisdom, declare that only the staff of the Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases division are qualified in the matter while implying that the COVID-19 response team is, what, completely separate from NCIRD?

      Well you're wrong [cdc.gov] (look at the center identified at the bottom of the page). She's not a random one [cdc.gov]. She's been briefing the situation since January [google.com]. NCEZID has not.

    • by gtall ( 79522 )

      A big problem for the Mid-East is they seem enamored with making pilgrimages to "holy" sites. That and the locals don't really give a flying rat's ass about borders. Given the authoritarian and incompetent governments, it is not a rosy picture. The continuous wars are not a recipe for effective health care. Neither is a religion who seems to have "fate" as a central tenet, i.e., if Allah wills it.

  • I'll personally close schools, work from home, and delay elective medical procedures.
  • Reinfection .... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by kbahey ( 102895 ) on Wednesday February 26, 2020 @01:01PM (#59769084) Homepage

    Thinking ahead, if this spreads, it will be a pandemic.
    But then what?
    Do people get lifetime immunity?
    Or will it keep circulating?

    Let us ignore the flu (H?N?) viruses for the moment. The problem for the flu is that it mutates every season, so vaccines are guesswork.

    Some cases of the Common Cold are indeed caused by viruses in the Coronavirus family.

    These include: Human coronavirus 229E (HCoV-229E), Human coronavirus OC43 (HCoV-OC43) and Human coronavirus HKU1.

    There is no vaccine so far for MERS or SARS (the closest to Covid19), so that is out, unless that new Moderna vaccine is proven.

    What about immunity for those surviving it? That does not seem to be the case for the Human Coronavirii that cause the Common Cold. And that is the bad part: it will reinfect, respread, and chances is that it will be severe or kill.

    That is scary.

    Can a virologist comment on any of this?

  • Dive in face first (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Diakoneo ( 853127 ) on Wednesday February 26, 2020 @01:37PM (#59769284)

    I'm taking an entirely different approach than everyone else. As soon as I hear of someone locally getting Coronavirus, I'm rushing down to the hospital and breathing near their face. Start touching my eyes, my nose, etc until I'm well infected.

    See, then I'll be one of the FIRST cases they treat, and I will have a fully staffed medical department to draw on. As the epidemic grows, resources will be stretched thin and my chances of getting treated drop dramatically. :-P

Don't panic.

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