Daryls Loc: Waco, TX

Some Facts.

1) The USA developed the first national pandemic flu plan and strategy way back in 2005. The current version is 2017! Each revision built upon the improvements made to previous versions and changes to our scientific knowledge regarding viruses and pandemics.

2) The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has made substantial progress in pandemic influenza preparedness since the 2005 Plan was released. In the current document, they highlight seven domains for 2017 - 2027. Those domains are: Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Activities; Community Mitigation Measures; Medical Countermeasures: Diagnostic Devices, Vaccines, Therapeutics, and
Respiratory Devices; Health Care System Preparedness and Response Activities; Communications and Public Outreach; Scientific Infrastructure and Preparedness; and Domestic and International Response Policy, Incident Management, and Global Partnerships and Capacity Building.

3) One key aspect of these domains is the second one - Community Mitigation Measures - Incorporating actions and response measures people and communities can take to help slow the spread of novel influenza virus. Community mitigation measures may be used from the earliest stages of an influenza pandemic, including the initial months when the most effective countermeasure—a vaccine against the new pandemic virus—might not yet be broadly available. [Our experts acknowledged in 2017 a new vaccine might not be available right after a new virus is recognized. So we developed contingencies to implement until one is made available.]

4) "These [seven] domains reflect an end-to-end systems approach to improving the way preparedness and response are integrated across sectors and disciplines, while remaining flexible for the conditions surrounding a specific pandemic. This will allow HHS to respond more quickly to a future influenza pandemic and, at the same time, strengthen our response to seasonal influenza to mitigate the next influenza pandemic."

5) We are implementing and following pandemic plans originally developed in 2005 and updated periodically. Just like we should be doing.

Finally,

6) The CDC states, "Human coronaviruses were first identified in the mid-1960s. The seven coronaviruses that can infect people are:

Common human coronaviruses
229E (alpha coronavirus)
NL63 (alpha coronavirus)
OC43 (beta coronavirus)
HKU1 (beta coronavirus)

Other human coronaviruses
MERS-CoV (the beta coronavirus that causes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS)
SARS-CoV (the beta coronavirus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS)
SARS-CoV-2 (the novel coronavirus that causes coronavirus disease 2019, or COVID-19)

So we have been working on coronaviruses for a long time, even under Obama and Bush.

QUESTION: We have been in a FLU pandemic for awhile now, which no one is talking about, and the WHO announced a few hours ago that the world is now in a COVID-19 pandemic. Which pandemic should we concentrate on - the flu which has killed over 16,000 so far in the USA alone or the COVID-19 which has killed 31 so far? We have a vaccine for flu, but none for COVID-19 yet.

Daryl

Xmsmn Loc: Minnesota

Well, since the flu does have a known vaccine, that answers the question for me that efforts to develop a vaccine for Covid-19 should be priority.

SMPhotography Loc: Pawleys Island, SC

This is my take on the evil, soon to wipe out all of mankind, coronavirus. And I spent the last 20 years as a clinical microbiologist so I am speaking from experience, not just through my butt like so many other "experts" have done. This whole "pandemic" thing is utter nonsense, most especially in this country. To date there have been less than 30 deaths from this virus. Compare and contrast to the Flu A/B virus mortality this year, which is now exceeding TWELVE THOUSAND by the latest CDC estimates. It does not take a masters level microbiologist like myself to figure out which is the far more pressing Public Health Threat. It is pure baseless Chicken Little hysteria.

And this is just my opinion, your may mileage may vary, but had this not been an election year, with huge implications at stake, this "pandemic viral infection" would have been barely mentioned. Regardless of what the talking heads on the Clown News Network tell you, coronavirus is NOT new. It was first isolated 40+ years ago and was most recently (before now) implicated in SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) over 17 years ago as well as MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome. And there are numerous strains of coronavirus, the discussion of which is outside the scope of this forum. I could go into great detail but I would probably put myself to sleep. The left are using this "pandemic" as a weapon against President Trump's administration, which for someone who was in healthcare as long as I was, is simply beyond the pale. But never let a good crisis go to waste, even if you have to manufacture one. And much to my disgust, the CDC is falling right in line with it. Treatment of diseases should NEVER be political. The President was quick and decisive in actions to minimize the spread of this infection. President Trump could singlehandedly eradicate cancer in an afternoon and the left and totally disingenuous "media" would still brutally criticize him.

So what to do to minimize infection? First and foremost, use good hand washing technique and wash your hands frequently and use hand sanitizer. This virus can be viable outside the human body for up to 24 hours. If you use the rest room, wash your hands thoroughly and use a paper towel to open the doorknob. Try to keep your hands away from your mouth and nose as much as possible. If you are feeling ill and especially if you are febrile, STAY HOME. If you are sick and must venture out, wear a surgical mask, available at any CVS to contain any and all droplets expelled by coughing or sneezing. This is the main mechanism of spreading it. Maintain at least 8 feet between people who are actively coughing and/or sneezing and look at what they may touch and avoid it. Common sense prevails.

fredpnm Loc: Corrales, NM

Given there is a vaccine for the flu (a general reference since in some years the vaccine is not designed for the flu virus people are getting) and we are still seeing a high number of deaths (reported in the 12,000+ range so far for this year's flu season, thank god we do have a vaccine. I hate to think what the number of deaths would be if there was no vaccine. As an FYI, in the 2017/18 season there was a reported 56,000 flu deaths. If you assume a flu season as 180 days, that's 311 deaths a DAY...

Now, getting people to actually get the vaccine each year is a huge challenge.

SMPhotography Loc: Pawleys Island, SC

The flu vaccine is also somewhat of a panacea. Right now the current flu vaccine immunizes against 4 strains of flu A and B; 2 of each. It is ignorant to think that these are the only strains out floating around. All viruses undergo something called "antigenic drift" which is a fancy microbiology/genetic term (I was a clinical microbiologist before I retired) for viruses mutating over time. Eventually the capsule/non-capsule antigens (proteins that illicit an immune response) change so a vaccine which was designed to illicit antibody production or other mechanisms of removal, which are outside the scope of this discussion, against the parent strain are no longer effective. Microbiology and bugs engage in a never ending game of "one-up-manship".

Xmsmn Loc: Minnesota

Just curious , SMP, how you correlate the global (non-US) issues with Covid-19 with a US election year.

SMPhotography Loc: Pawleys Island, SC

I do not concern myself with what is going on globally as it relates to OUR country. We have enough to worry about inside our borders to worry about the rest of this planet. The overwhelming number of fatalities on a global scale have been with people who either had no access to healthcare or were in China where "Chinese healthcare" is an oxymoron. Go back for the last 20+ years and look at the "health scare" that was associated with that election year. The left are desperate this year because they know they don't have squat to beat President Trump so they will do anything they can to deflect. It is pathetic and as a microbiologist it pisses me off to no end.

SMPhotography Loc: Pawleys Island, SC

The majority of people who die from Flu A/B fall into three broad categories:
1. The very young
2. The elderly
3. Those with compromised immune systems

The very young have an immature immune system. The immunity they posses comes primarily from what can cross the placenta (IgG antibodies) or what is passed on through breast feeding. With no immune response activated to fight the flu they are very vunerable.

The elderly are at the other end of the spectrum. As we age, our immune systems become weaker. I am not going into all of the mechanics of how the body activates an immune response to an antigen, that would take way too long, but suffice it to say, that at 65 or older, our bodies are not as well equipped to deal with the millions of insults our immune system suffers daily.

The last group includes, but is not limited to, patients with AIDS, transplant victims on immunosuppressant drugs, people with autoimmune diseases or cancer patients who are on radiation or chemotherapy, which can do a real number on our white blood cell counts. White blood cells, primarily lymphocytes and monocytes, are key to combating the millions of assaults (called insults) on our immune systems that occur daily. When their numbers are decimated the patient is left wide open to all kinds of bacterial and viral infections.

boberic Loc: Quiet Corner, Connecticut. Ex long Islander

The real problem with covid 19 is not the virus. It's the absurd panic

SMPhotography Loc: Pawleys Island, SC

Thank you, finally someone who gets it. 27 fatalities in this country from coronavirus and over 8000 from the flu. Which is the greater public health threat?

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

I greatly appreciate your professional information (my father was a microbiologist), but attributing a world wide issue to local politics and assigning the US and world’s reaction to some Machiavellian plot to prevent Donald Trump’s re-election is an amazingly right wing piece of imagination and paranoia and just plain silly. Please leave the politics out of this discussion, and just confine the thread to the technical details which you are competent to comment on. Your political comments will send this thread to the attic, and if you want to politicize this illness, that’s where it belongs. Btw, I agree with you about the contrast with influenza and number of deaths, but you have failed to mention the difference in death rate % from each.

No need to respond - I won’t be watching.

SMPhotography Loc: Pawleys Island, SC

You must be a liberal and apparently you don't listen to the Clown News Network or MS-LSD. I go there for entertainment. Do you even listen to what the dims in Congress are saying?

DIRTY HARRY Loc: Hartland, Michigan

It's that it spreads easier and faster than anything else out there right now...

DIRTY HARRY Loc: Hartland, Michigan

Here comes the FAUX NEWS TROLLS. The man provide actual technical information and you take the low road...

DIRTY HARRY Loc: Hartland, Michigan

'It's not like flu': Doctor's warning to those underestimating coronavirus

It’s a dismissive comment uttered, sometimes without much thought, among circles of friends or on social media.

But as the coronavirus reaches a critical point outside of China, simply passing off coronavirus as a ‘flu-like’ outbreak is a naive move, doctors and virologists have warned.