As the coronavirus epidemic worsens in China
and the virus trickles beyond the country's borders, U.S. officials are taking
precautions, just in case the virus becomes "the next pandemic."
Today, the U.S. declared a public health
emergency, while stressing the risk to the U.S. public is low. "Our goal
is to do all we can do to keep it that way," Dr. Robert Redfield, the
director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said during a
White House press briefing today (Jan. 31).
Starting on Sunday, Feb. 2, U.S. citizens,
permanent residents and immediate family who have been in the Hubei province in
China will be subjected to a mandatory two-week quarantine. "Foreign
nationals" who have traveled to China in the past 14 days won't be allowed
in the U.S., officials announced during the briefing. What's more, if Americans
visited any other part of China, they will be screened at airports and asked to
self-quarantine for 14 days, they said.
The 195 Americans who were flown from Wuhan
to the U.S. will also be quarantined for 14 days, the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) announced earlier today (Jan. 31) during a
separate news conference. The last time the CDC ordered such a quarantine was
over 50 years ago, for smallpox.
"While we recognize this is an
unprecedented action, we are facing an unprecedented public health
threat," Dr. Nancy Messonnier, the director of the CDC's National Center
for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said during a news conference. "We are preparing as if
this were the next pandemic, but we're hopeful still that this is not and will
not be the case."
The passengers will be held at a U.S. air
base in Ontario, California, where medical staff will monitor their health, for
two weeks, Messonnier said. All of the passengers have so far tested negative
for the virus — but a negative initial screening test does not guarantee that
these people won't later get sick, she said.
"The issue is that we don't know the
sensitivity, specificity and positive predictive value of that test when we're
using it in people who aren't yet sick," she said. In other words, the
tests might not be sensitive enough to detect the lower levels of virus that
would be present in people who are infected but aren't yet showing symptoms.
Meanwhile, the magnitude of the epidemic in
China is increasing, with a 26% increase in infections since yesterday alone,
Messonnier said. There are now nearly 213 deaths associated with the virus and
10,000 infections, mostly on mainland China.
It's still unclear how severe the disease is,
but "the information that's coming in from China suggests that there is
significant mortality associated with this disease," Messonnier said. That
being said, it's difficult to calculate the disease severity, especially
because more severe cases tend to be reported first, which throws off
calculations, she added.
But it's increasingly clear that the virus is
capable of spreading between people. Yesterday, the CDC announced the first
case of person-to-person transmission in the U.S., between an Illinois resident
who had traveled to Wuhan and her husband.
What's more, scientists found that the virus
can spread even when an infected person doesn't yet have symptoms. A
33-year-old, otherwise healthy German businessman was infected with the virus
when he met with a business partner from China who was infected with the
coronavirus but didn't show any symptoms. The virus appears to have hopped from
her to the businessman and from the businessman to other colleagues in Germany,
according to a new case report published today (Jan. 31) in The New England
Journal of Medicine.
Yesterday (Jan.30), the World Health
Organization announced that the new coronavirus outbreak is a public health
emergency of international concern and the U.S. put a "level 4"
travel advisory in place — the most extreme level with the recommendation that
people not travel to China at all. Three major airlines — United, American and
Delta — announced today that they were canceling all flights to China.
"We would rather be remembered for
overreacting than underreacting," Messonnier said. But she noted that the
virus is not spreading around the U.S., and they don't currently recommend the
use of face masks for the general American public.
"Please do not let fear or panic guide your actions," Messonnier said. There are about 4 million Chinese Americans living in the U.S., so "please do not assume that just because someone is of Asian descent that they have this new coronavirus."
Editor's Note: This story was updated with
additional information on flight restrictions and quarantines, and to clarify
that the virus appears to have hopped from a businesswoman in China to her
business partner in Germany, who in turn, may have infected other colleagues.
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