A collection of key developments in the fight against COVID-19 (the actual virus is SARS-COV-2), posted throughout the week for those who just want the signal and not the noise. If there’s something you think we should include, sound off in the comments thread attached to the post.
Visit our Wuhan coronavirus status page and learn how to prepare for possible spread to your area. Scenarios, shopping lists, background info, and everything else you need, all in one place.
Previously: The previous day’s key developments post is here.
I started last Monday’s update with, “This is the week the US cases are going to start blowing up.” That’s both happening and it isn’t. Washington was supposed to have the US at 400 tests per day by last Friday, and that didn’t materialize. An Atlantic investigation could only verify that we’ve carried out 4,384 tests so far in the US: The Dangerous Delays in U.S. Coronavirus Testing Continue
So it still hasn’t gotten real, here, at least as far as the case count. But the markets are convinced, with interest rates plunging along with stock prices. Dow Dives More Than 2,000 Points; Steep Market Slide Triggered Trading Halt.
This week was the week that everyone figured out that it’s the hospital overcapacity — and not the virus’s headline case fatality rate — that will do us in. This is a good piece on this issue that is what I was working on for another publication but ended up nixing it because others already had the same angle by now: The Coronavirus Outbreak Is About To Put Hospital Capacity To A Severe Test.
Basically, we just don’t have the beds to service even a seasonal-flu-like level of infection with SARS-Cov-2 (i.e. 10 percent of the population infected). But we’ll have a lot more to say about that in a future post.
What Balaji Srinivasan is saying here is something worth thinking about, especially in light of every military’s tendency to confiscate needed supplies from the civilian populace in times of shortage.
I hope it doesn't get here. But if enough Americans die, the federal response may be put under DoD control.
The military has biodefense preparedness plans, can manage quarantines, has continuity-of-leadership plans, and may be the most broadly respected institution in America.
— Balaji S. Srinivasan (@balajis) March 8, 2020
Fearful of a Coronavirus Backlash, Some Asian-Americans Are Stocking Up on Guns. Outbreaks in Washington State and California have motivated first-time gun buyers — many of them Asian-Americans worried about racist attacks stemming from fears about the virus.
This data science deep dive into what’s about to happen here, soon, and why is very good. Read and share widely: Covid-19, your community, and you — a data science perspective
The entire nation of Italy is now on lockdown.
For Fear of Coronavirus, Israel Closes all Borders. “Foreign citizens will be granted entry into Israel only if they can meet the requirement of a 14-day home-quarantine”
Coronavirus in NY: Head of Port Authority Rick Cotton has coronavirus
“Suddenly, the ER is collapsing.” Read this translated thread from an Italian doctor working in the trenches of the outbreak:
1/ I may be repeating myself, but I want to fight this sense of security that I see outside of the epicenters, as if nothing was going to happen "here". The media in Europe are reassuring, politicians are reassuring, while there's little to be reassured of. #COVID19 #coronavirus
— Silvia Stringhini (@silviast9) March 9, 2020
This is a sobering but realistic piece from a former DHS official and someone whom I’ve followed with interest for a long time on Twitter. The U.S. Isn’t Ready for What’s About to Happen. “Even with a robust government response to the novel coronavirus, many people will be in peril. And the United States is anything but prepared.”
What Could Happen if the Coronavirus Closed Schools for Days, Weeks, or Even Months. “We can get a sense of what to expect from Hong Kong, where students have already been out of school for more than a month.”
Gates-funded program will soon offer home-testing kits for new coronavirus
People fighting over ‘rotten’ food on coronavirus-stricken Grand Princess cruise: passenger
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