Laurie Garrett, science journalist and health policy analyst, talks with Rachel Maddow about the potential for the coronavirus to spread to the United States, and the steps for preparedness that are not being made that would better help the U.S. deal with the possibility of an emergency.
Laurie Garrett, science journalist and health policy analyst, talks with Rachel Maddow about the government response structure put in place by the Obama administration in response to Ebola that was removed by the Trump administration, leaving the U.S. unprepared for a potential spread of the coronavirus, and unlikely to follow China's model of containment.
The quarantine on the Diamond Princess cruise ship failed because adequate steps weren't taken to stop the spread of the virus aboard the ship itself, says a Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer.
"One of the most important rules of effective quarantine is to separate the sick from the well, that's the whole point," said Laurie Garrett, a former senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations.
"But in this case, the ship was quarantined, so it wasn't really, effectively, about separating the sick from the well, it was about separating the ship from the shore," she told The Current's Matt Galloway.
"And I think that's the fundamental failure."
Are China’s official reports, including claims that its control efforts are succeeding and the epidemic will soon peak, credible? Omens look bad. Once praised by the World Health Organization (WHO) and scientists worldwide for its quick, transparent response to the newly named COVID-19, China now faces international vilification and potential domestic unrest as it blunders through continued cover-ups, lies, and repression that have already failed to stop the virus and may well be fanning the flames of its spread.
Since the epidemic came to the world’s attention in early January it has been marked by startling moments when China’s health authorities announced dramatic surges in apparent cases of the disease, none more surprising than the sudden Feb. 12 adjustment that saw case numbers in Hubei province swell by 14,840 in a single day, pushing the national total to 59,804 cases. The adjustment, according to government officials, was due to a widening definition of the disease for just one place, Hubei Province, while authorities continue to limit their COVID-19 case descriptions elsewhere in China by a prior approach, counting smaller numbers.
Nothing spreads like fear.
Nine years after the release of Contagion, a Steven Soderbergh–directed epidemiology thriller bearing that tagline, an outbreak of a novel coronavirus in China’s Wuhan province—declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO), which has since renamed the disease it causes COVID-19—has sent shock waves through the world’s economy and incited panic far from the disease’s apparent point of origin.
Coronavirus has a new name: Covid-19. It has infected over 50,000 people and taken over 1,000 lives. But the crisis may be just beginning. And the response of governments from China to the United States may be only be making its potential toll worse. We speak with Pulitzer Prize winning science writer, Laurie Garrett, one of the world's preeminent experts on global public health issues about just how bad the situation is and about some of the most egregious missteps of our leaders to date. We also discuss the fact that as of right now there are multiple serious epidemics occurring simultaneously placing the global health system under unprecedented stress--a situation we could have prepared for but did not. Essential listening.
The Chinese doctor who warned the government about a possible coronavirus outbreak has died after contracting the virus while working at Wuhan Central Hospital. Thirty-four-year-old ophthalmologist Li Wenliang warned his fellow medical workers about coronavirus on December 30. He was then investigated by police and accused of “making false comments.” His death has sparked a wave of anger and outrage in China, where the hashtag “We want freedom of speech” went viral on Chinese social media site Weibo this week. The death toll from the coronavirus has now topped 630 people in China, with more than 31,000 confirmed cases worldwide. The central Chinese government has ordered officials in Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, to round up and quarantine all infected residents. Residents are being ordered to report family members who show symptoms of the virus to authorities. Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer Laurie Garrett says, “China is doing things that really no other nation on Earth could do” to contain the spread of the virus, including quarantining tens of millions of people. We spoke with Garrett just days before the whistleblower doctor died.
Only on the "CBS This Morning" podcast, CBS News contributor Dr. Tara Narula explores the public health and global policy implications of the coronoavirus epidemic with global health expert Laurie Garrett and expert on Chinese domestic and foreign policy, Elizabeth Economy. Garrett, a Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer, explains how the outbreak compares to other crises like the SARS outbreak in 2003. And Economy discusses what coronoavirus tells us about China, Chinese politics and President Xi Jinping.
To control the spread of coronavirus, China has locked down 60 million people in the city of Wuhan, winning high praise from the World Health Organization. Of course, that could never happen in the United States. So what could we do if hit by a comparable epidemic?
Not as much as we should, according to Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer and author Laurie Garrett.
Garrett, formerly with the Council on Foreign Relations, says the Trump administration “has intentionally rendered itself incapable” of responding effectively if a virus were spreading here.
When Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), declared the Wuhan coronavirus a public health emergency of international concern on Thursday, he praised China for taking “unprecedented” steps to control the deadly virus. “I have never seen for myself this kind of mobilization,” he noted. “China is actually setting a new standard for outbreak response.”
The epidemic control efforts unfolding today in China—including placing some 100 million citizens on lockdown, shutting down a national holiday, building enormous quarantine hospitals in days’ time, and ramping up 24-hour manufacturing of medical equipment—are indeed gargantuan. It’s impossible to watch them without wondering, “What would we do? How would my government respond if this virus spread across my country?”
As the coronavirus has spread not only all over mainland China, but also worldwide, panic is rising. Inside China there is a growing sense of helplessness, as the government is compelled to take drastic measures to stop the virus, including introducing some travel restrictions in Beijing. I have received panicked queries from journalists and public health workers in China, asking, “How can we protect ourselves and our families?”
The epidemic could have been controlled fairly easily three weeks ago had there been more openness, swift action, and no attempted cover-up. But now it’s too late, and this virus is spreading globally. Because there is no vaccine or treatment for nCoV2019—the Wuhan pneumonia—and infection has spread throughout China, the government is forced to turn to its 2003 SARS playbook. And that means entire cities must be cut off, and the population of the nation must be restricted in its movements and potential disease-spreading behavior. It is not surprising then that travel out of Beijing may be forbidden; the entire mainland could go on lockdown soon.
On this date 17 years ago, I was covering the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus for several months as it spread across Asia, eventually reaching 37 countries, sickening 8,098 people and killing 774 of them.
So, as I read the first reports of a cluster of animal-market related illnesses, with the first patient exhibiting symptoms of pneumonia as early as December 12, 2019, I had a chilling sense of déjà vu. By New Year's Eve, it was obvious something akin to SARS -- as it turns out, the Wuhan coronavirus is in the same family of viruses as SARS and MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome) -- was unfolding in China.
In an unfortunate turn of translation, China’s Xinhua News Agency described President Xi Jinping’s trip on Jan. 19 to Yunnan province with these words: “The amiable image of the people’s leader moved through the crowd and through the screen, infecting everyone.” It was a poor choice of words in a nation in the grips of an infectious respiratory disease epidemic.
But, in another way, the phrasing was entirely apt. China’s president isn’t literally responsible for infecting anyone, but his political agenda may turn out to be a root cause of the epidemic. By making the Belt and Road Initiative endeavor—a multitrillion-dollar program to expand Chinese trade and infrastructure around the world—the centerpiece of his foreign and economic policy, Xi has made it possible for a local disease to become a global menace.
Public health experts outside of mainland China are calling on Chinese authorities for transparency, after a mysterious outbreak of viral pneumonia was reported to have already infected 59 people since December in the Chinese city of Wuhan. On Jan. 5, 7 of the 59 cases were said to be “severe.”
The experts say that efforts to coverup outbreaks can have serious consequences for disease control for China’s neighboring regions.
It’s a question we may never know the answer to…. what caused the Covid-19 pandemic, and who’s to blame for it’s rapid spread?
Did Chinese officials act fast enough, or did they cover it up? Did the World Health Organisation step in early enough?
Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Laurie Garrett, the woman who went and inspected the scene of the crime for SARS, has been grappling with these questions…. and she joined Magic Drive to discuss this with Ryan Bridge.
A new independent report compiled at the request of the United Nations secretary-general warns that there is a “very real threat” of a pandemic sweeping the planet, killing up to 80 million people. A deadly pathogen, spread airborne around the world, the report says, could wipe out almost 5 percent of the global economy. And we’re not ready.
The ominous analysis was compiled by an independent panel, the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB), which was assembled last year in response to a request from the office of the U.N. secretary-general, and convened jointly by the World Bank and World Health Organization (WHO). Co-chaired by the former WHO head and former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland and the head of the international Red Cross, Elhadj As Sy, the GPMB commissioned expert studies and issued a scathing attack on the political, financial, and logistical state of pandemic preparedness affairs.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a new boss, Dr. Robert Redfield, who ignited controversy because of his dubious qualifications for the job and the over-the-top salary offer that came with it. Initially slated to earn $375,000 a year, Redfield faced questions from Democrats, led by Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, and last week agreed to work for $209,700 instead.
"Dr. Redfield did not want his compensation to become a distraction from the important work of the CDC and asked that his salary be reduced," Caitlin Oakley, spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, said Tuesday night.