Breaking news. The first case of coronavirus has been confirmed in Washington state by the CDC. The man flew in from China before the airport screening began.
Not too worried yet. (:
Do you think screening will stop the spread? Anyway screening is limited to three airports. Sea-Tac is not one of them. One could easily fly from China to Seattle.
It will be now?
I don’t mean to sound so pessimistic, but whenever one of the viral threats emerge, I think about The Wasteland:
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
Not saying that this coronavirus is “the big one,” but some day…
Stock market made a downturn on the news too…
^Eh, it’s still over 29,000. Not too worried about that.
Anything to turn the dumbhead VC’s attention to the fact that biotech and pharmaceutical companies can save lives. Shared office space, scooters, and endless apps - not so much.
Why waste resources? No direct flights from Wuhan to SEA. The infected pax apprently got through before the screening began.
They’ve added ATL and ORD TO LAX, SFO, and JFK. Think I’ll text a friendly caution to DS re the upcoming new year celebrations, which he likes to drop by. But he’s kind of obsessive about germs anyway.
Remember that movie a few years back about the global epidemic that started in a seafood market in Hong Kong? Contagion. Parts of it were filmed around Chicagoland, including the next suburb over. San Diego has no direct flights to China at least.
Is China screening them to prevent travel? That will be more effective in preventing the spread.
There’s the question of how, and how easily, it is spread, but to me the more important question is what the mortality rate is. So far, it doesn’t seem high, but the various governments sure are acting like it is a major threat.
Did this confirmed case fly through any other US airport before arriving in Washington?
News doesn’t say how he traveled, but I did find this:
“All passengers whose flights originate in Wuhan will be rerouted to one of these five airports.”
SARS was the same type of virus and was successfully contained. I assume this one will be as well, unless it is much more contagious than past coronavirus outbreaks.
All passengers whose flights originate in the Wuhan area will be required to fly into one of the three screened airports if they are coming to the US. So a person who goes from, say Wuhan to Bangkok and from there to the US will have to fly into JFK, LAX, or SFO for now. Don’t know whether this measure will be sufficient if the virus mutates well enough to be spread easily from person to person. And sometimes viruses become less lethal, as in the H1N1 flu that killed people in Mexico city, but became less virulent as it spread.
If someone from Wuhan travels to Beijing by car or trainand flies from there, they won’t be screened?
An update from our local paper with many details:
The patient is doing well. The officials praised him for proactively seeking help and connecting the dots. Health officials and coronavirus researchers say this strain appears to be less worrisome than the previous ones.
As noted in my earlier post, ATL and ORD have been added to the required airports for screening.
If people worried about texting and driving as much as they’re worrying about this, think how many lives would be saved!
The news media thrive on potential epidemic stories. But it’s human nature to be afraid of something you can’t see and that you can catch just by breathing and being around other people.
I don’t worry about texting and driving because I can control that (never do it). I can also watch out for other cars weaving on the road.