American coronavirus policy's ineffectualness — has arguably turned into risk-taking excess
© 2020 Peter Free
17 February 2020
Who, I wonder, might have seen this coming?
From today's news:
Fourteen of the more than 300 people evacuated to the U.S. on Sunday from a quarantined cruise ship in Japan have tested positive for the new coronavirus, U.S. health officials said Monday.
The individuals, who were passengers on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, were asymptomatic and deemed able to fly back to the U.S. after testing negative for the virus two to three days earlier.
It was during the evacuation process that they tested positive for the virus, also known as COVID-19, the U.S. departments of State and Health and Human Services said.
“These individuals were moved in the most expeditious and safe manner to a specialized containment area on the evacuation aircraft to isolate them in accordance with standard protocols,” the departments said in a joint release.
© 2020 Nina Golgowski, 14 People Evacuated To U.S. From Japan Test Positive For Coronavirus, Huffington Post (17 February 2020)
Yeah, sure
Naturally, the 14 people did not infect anyone else before officials stumbled upon the fact they were contagious.
And equally (we are led to believe), the close quarters of the aircraft — and the alleged precautions taken — perfectly allowed the new patients to be completely isolated from everyone else.
That's even challenging to do in a teaching hospital that has elitely trained and specialized staffs.
What could easily happen now — pandemic
The US military has coronavirus "suspects" in quarantine on publicly reported American military bases.
When people fall ill, they are apparently transferred outside these quarantines into local or regional hospitals.
In both these protocols, lie the ingredients for escalating the COVID-19 epidemic.
In purely practical terms — leaving humane interests aside — one couldn't do this more surreptitiously and effectively, if one tried. See here and here.
The moral? — What is not unlikely to happen is . . .
. . . a future epidemiological map showing COVID-19 spreading through the United States from originating sites that:
prominently feature those quarantining military bases
and
their nearby hospitals.
The medical risk associated with evacuating Americans from the Diamond Princess is indicative of the United States' arguably too-lax mindset.
Keeping terrorism "over there" evidently does not apply to epidemics and probable pandemics.
I am not being as critical as I may seem. In my medically realistic view, epidemics of highly contagious respiratory viruses are going to spread globally, until the virus's innate characteristics stop (or cycle) them.
We get to wait and see what happens with this one.