Wednesday, February 19, 2020

75,201/2012. On WHO weekly call with Mike Ryan. 1700 health care workers have been infected. Starting to discuss the role of environmental (surfaces) spread of virus, particularly in the context of the Diamond Princess. Mike Ryan makes good point that the stringent control efforts of China are putting pressure on the virus not to spread. This is somewhat artificial. He is concerned that the virus in other countries that cannot be so draconian in control we might see a resurgence of the virus that is being artificially controlled in China. CDC Comms concerned that I am being too hard on the Japanese by sayng publicly that their quarantine failed. They contacted Courtney. Too bad. I tell it like it is. They completely messed up the infection control on the Diamond Princess. They had over 500 people infected on the ship. Problem is that Japanese are releasing people into the community from the ship without the complete 14 day quarantine. They consider being on the ship as quarantine when it is not. We have “do not board” orders on the people who have left the ship until they are off the ship for 14 days. PRESS: NPR “Morning Edition”; KCBS Radio (San Francisco); FOX Business News; Siriusx Radio – Michael Smerconish; Nextstar TV; Wall Street Journal Pocast; NBC Nightly News (did not show – may show in AM); PBS NewsHour (William Brangham); FOX News (Lou Dobbs)