“Uncertainty is the story” of the new coronavirus. Nobody knows when it will hit the United States and other countries — or how hard it will hit.
That’s according to Dr. Seema Yasmin, director of the Stanford Health Communication Initiative and a clinical assistant professor in a media briefing Friday presented by the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism.
COVID-19 has not been deemed a pandemic by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the World Health Organization, but on Friday morning it had been diagnosed in 57 countries. The disease is moving so fast that any count is outdated by the time it is released, but the most recent numbers are 83,774 cases worldwide, with 2,867 deaths, the majority in China, where the virus first appeared.
Many experts, including Dr. Michael Mina, assistant professor of epidemiology at Harvard’s School of Public Health, believe that’s an undercount. It “would not be a stretch” to think the number of cases is 10 times higher, he said.
Even so, the fatality rate is believed to be less than 2%, and it’s not thought to be as transmittable as SARS or MERS, which are also coronaviruses. COVID-19 is “moderately transmissible and moderately severe,” Mina said.
Here are five things you may not know about COVID-19:
1. The illness, not the virus, is COVID-19. That’s shorthand for “coronavirus disease 2019,” while the virus that causes it is called “SARS-CoV-2.”
2. Breaking two habits can reduce spread of coronavirus (and flu and colds): Stop shaking hands. And pay attention now to how often you touch your face. The eyes, nose and mouth are the portals for respiratory virus. Consciously not touching one’s face is as crucial as the top prevention tip: Wash your hands a lot.
3. It was almost assuredly nature, not sloppiness or ill intent, that created COVID-19. The vast majority of virus experts dismiss speculation that the coronavirus was deliberately created or somehow released by a lab. Instead, there’s “good evidence there was no nefarious activity, just an unfortunate event that jumped into humans,” Mina said. It’s believed to have come from bats.
4. Xenophobia is rearing up in some communities, where people of Asian descent and their businesses are being targeted, as if they had some responsibility for the outbreak, as Vox, Forbes and other media outlets have reported.
It happened in Utah, too. According to The Washington Post, “The Shen Yun performances scheduled to begin Tuesday were preceded by days of inaccurate rumors circulating around Salt Lake City claiming that the dancers had recently come from South Korea and may pose a health risk, said Nicholas Rupp, a spokesman with the Salt Lake County Health Department.” It’s a New York City dance troupe.
Meanwhile, tourists are reportedly skipping visits to Chinatown in some cities, including San Francisco, although health experts say there’s nothing to fear.
5. Experts say to stock up on supplies, but don’t hoard. Keep a supply of certain items to last for two to four weeks, including: food, prescription medicine, ibuprofen and acetaminophen, hand sanitizer, masks (in case you’re living with someone who has the virus), surface disinfectants and toilet paper.
The point is to not have to go to the grocery store while you or someone with whom you live is sick. The masks, by the way, aren’t great prevention tools. But someone who’s ill can reduce transmission to others by wearing one. And those who provide care should, too.