There's quite a bit of "Monday Morning Quarterbacking" going on in the media right now. Everyone in the Trump hating media is using the Coronavirus as a political hammer to influence the electorate. So, a little background on the the virus.
Somewhere I read, and I can't find it, that this Coronavirus is the first major pandemic with asymptomatic spread. That is, people without symptoms are and have unknowingly spread the virus.
WaPo: 3/3/2020
“Experts assume there are many more infections than what are officially documented. Some people with infections may have mild or no symptoms, and they may never realize they carried the virus.
“Experts assume there are many more infections than what are officially documented. Some people with infections may have mild or no symptoms, and they may never realize they carried the virus.
(continued)
One of the most urgent questions is whether and to what extent people can spread the disease if they are not symptomatic.”
That's March 3rd, less than two weeks ago.
One of the most urgent questions is whether and to what extent people can spread the disease if they are not symptomatic.”
That's March 3rd, less than two weeks ago.
From the same article:
“In just two months, the novel coronavirus spread from a cluster in Wuhan, China, to an impending global pandemic with cases in more than 60 countries. This is unprecedented. Never before has a new pathogen emerged and caused a global spread like this."
“In just two months, the novel coronavirus spread from a cluster in Wuhan, China, to an impending global pandemic with cases in more than 60 countries. This is unprecedented. Never before has a new pathogen emerged and caused a global spread like this."
The discovery that the virus is spreading asymptomatically is critical when it comes to testing.
CDC briefing, 1/31/2020, Dr. Nancy Messonnier:
"...the emerging evidence this week of the growth and spread of this outbreak, the increase in deaths, and the incoming data...
CDC briefing, 1/31/2020, Dr. Nancy Messonnier:
"...the emerging evidence this week of the growth and spread of this outbreak, the increase in deaths, and the incoming data...
...about person-to-person transmission as well as concerning reports about asymptomatic spread. All of that data taken together has led CDC to make evidence-based recommendations,...
...and this has been driven from the perspective of CDC by scientifically evidence-based recommendations from CDC experts who have been working on exactly these kinds of issues for many years."
Regarding testing and the virus spreading asymptomatically, Dr. Messonnier noted:
And I think it’s really important to clarify, because I think our screening of people’s nose with this test has been misunderstood. This test was developed at CDC.
And I think it’s really important to clarify, because I think our screening of people’s nose with this test has been misunderstood. This test was developed at CDC.
It’s a test that was developed specifically to identify people who are ill with novel coronavirus. The issue is that we don’t know the sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive value of that test when we’re using it in people who aren’t yet sick.
So, we’re looking in somebody’s nose to see if they have the novel coronavirus there. But it’s possible, for example, that somebody already is asymptomatically incubating the disease.
We cannot, with the testing that we have now available at CDC, identify people in that phase, and I think that makes us concerned that this test, which is a point-in-time single test shouldn’t be relied upon to make a prediction
at an individual level as to whether somebody’s going to ¬– as to whether we can predict that person will become ill."
Essentially, the CDC was testing for the virus based on symptoms not knowing the virus could present and spread without symptoms. That testing had to stop.
Essentially, the CDC was testing for the virus based on symptoms not knowing the virus could present and spread without symptoms. That testing had to stop.
Dr. Messonnier: "But it’s going to be equally important ...that there’s going to be a team now going into China to look at their data, because the data of the epicenter of disease is perhaps the best data right now that will help us know...
...how to interpret this asymptomatic transmission. We need to know if that – how that is impacting the drivers of the outbreak and what role that has in the community transmission in China."
As of 1/31, we did not have access to that critical data.
As of 1/31, we did not have access to that critical data.
All the Trump hating media claiming that he should have done this or that about testing just needs to stop. The CDC did know know the virus could spread from an asymptomatic human and did not have access to China's data wrt asymptomatic spread as late as 1/31/2020.
This includes CNN, (3/14)
"There is also strong evidence that it can be transmitted by people who are just mildly ill or even presymptomatic. That means COVID-19 will be much harder to contain than the Middle East respiratory syndrome or severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS),
"There is also strong evidence that it can be transmitted by people who are just mildly ill or even presymptomatic. That means COVID-19 will be much harder to contain than the Middle East respiratory syndrome or severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS),
(continued) which were spread much less efficiently and only by symptomatic people," he (Bill Gates) wrote, using the scientific word for the disease caused by the virus.
