COVID 19 – A Novel Virus

COVID 19 – A novel virus, the pandemic that caused world-wide economic disruption, in the year 2020. It all began late in 2019, in Wuhan, China, and spread like wildfire throughout the world. The response to this virus has been one of the most controversial subjects of modern times.

We found ourselves, as a country, responding to a worldwide health emergency and we were not prepared. We received false information from China and The WHO in regard to the danger of this virus.

We received faulty advice — in the beginning — from all of our health experts, including Dr. Anthony Fauci. The medical experts and analysts made many mistakes throughout this very challenging time. This was and still is a very fluid crisis, with data being analyzed daily. As fast as the information comes in, it can change as we are learning. Essentially, we were unprepared and we suffered as a result.

COVID 19 – A Novel Virus

This COVID19 is a ‘novel’ virus, which means:

It was new to the scientific community
We had no knowledge of how it worked
We had no prior knowledge of how to treat it
We were scrambling to learn how to treat this
We didn’t know what we needed to fight this
We got caught with our pants down

A Novel Virus

December 31 — Wuhan Municipal Health Commission reported:
- A “cluster of cases of pneumonia” in Wuhan
- A novel coronavirus was eventually identified

January 4 — The WHO reported:
- That there was a cluster of pneumonia cases
- With NO DEATHS in Wuhan, Hubei province

January 6-8 — CDC issues a series of alerts:
- Travel warnings for Americans wishing to go to China to take extra precautions
- It also says it is closely monitoring the virus
- There are no known cases in the US

January 12 — China publically shared
- The genetic sequence of COVID -19

January 13 — Officials confirm a case of COVID in Thailand
- The first recorded case outside of China

January 14 –WHO’s noted in a press briefing
- There may have been limited human-to-human transmission of the coronavirus (in the 41 confirmed cases), mainly through family members
- There was a risk of a possible wider outbreak
- Human-to-human transmission would not be surprising given our experience with SARS, MERS, and other respiratory pathogens.

January 16 — Screening passengers arriving from Wuhan
- The CDC holds a briefing on the virus and officials say the US will start to screen passengers arriving from or connecting through Wuhan.

January 21 — First US case confirmed
- By a traveler who had recently visited China and returned to Washington state.

January 22 — WHO issued a statement
- Saying that there was evidence of human-to-human transmission in Wuhan

January 22 — Trump says at a news conference
- That the US has coronavirus “totally under control”
- “It’s one person coming in from China”
- “We have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.”

January 29 — US coronavirus task force created
- The White House starts its coronavirus response task force
- Headed by US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar

January 31: Trump blocks travel from China
- Trump issues an executive order blocking entry to the US
- From anyone who has been in China in the last 14 days
- It does not apply to US residents and family members or spouses of US residents or citizens
- The order becomes effective on February 2
- Azar also declares the coronavirus a public health emergency

Continued