The spread of the mysterious coronavirus has Americans on edge.
A global pandemic is all but certain at this point.
And Donald Trump just gave this big coronavirus warning that you need to know about.
The numbers surrounding the coronavirus took a bad turn this week.
While previously the virus had been mostly contained within mainland China, there have now been widespread outbreaks in Iran, South Korea and Italy.
In Italy the number of cases reported is at 400, with a 25% jump within the last few days.
Iran has had 19 officially reported deaths, but Iranian health official said that the true number was closer to 50.
If the death rate in Iran is anywhere close to the 2.3% death rate that China and Italy have reported then there are thousands of people in Iran with the virus and the country only plans to quarantine individuals.
That will not be an effective way of stopping the spread of a disease that is contagious at least 14 days before symptoms appear.
The normal flu only takes four days for symptoms to appear on average.
Which means it’s significantly easier to stop the common flu from spreading than this new coronavirus.
The good thing is that the number of people who have the coronavirus are limited at the moment and will hopefully decrease as the flu season ends to the point where a successful vaccine would be able to eradicate it.
But because the virus is so hard to detect, the only way to slow this illness down is to stop daily interactions between normally healthy people.
It’s why China has shut entire cities down, and Italy has shut down nine towns and has quarantined 50,000 people.
Dr. Nancy Messonnier has warned that this probably will interrupt the daily lives of some Americans if the virus is going to be stopped.
“As more and more countries experience community spread, successful containment at our borders becomes harder and harder,” Messonnier said.
“It’s not a question of if this will happen but when this will happen and how many people in this country will have severe illnesses,” she continued. “Disruption to everyday life might be severe.”
This isn’t a time to panic. There’s a fair chance that some communities in America will have its schools, stores and public events closed down but that doesn’t mean that the coronavirus will gain a widespread foothold in America.
It would be a good idea to restock medicines, basic necessities like toilet paper and cleaning supplies and build up a supply of nonperishable foods and pet food.
Worrying and panicking won’t be helpful but thoughtfully planning is called for at this stage with a global pandemic being a serious possibility.
As Donald Trump said in his press announcement on the coronavirus, “We are ready to adapt and we’re ready to do whatever we have to as the disease spreads, if it spreads.”
So be ready.
