03-11-2020, 02:08 AM
anonymouse1 wrote:
Not who I’d look to for medical info.
Maybe this is more up your alley:
The disease expert who warned us
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/10/opini...index.html
“Michael Osterholm, the infectious disease expert who has been warning for a decade and a half that the world will face a pandemic, says the US is ill-prepared to combat the coronavirus due to a shortage of equipment and supplies.
Osterholm, of the University of Minnesota, wrote in Foreign Affairs magazine in 2005 that, "This is a critical point in our history. Time is running out to prepare for the next pandemic. We must act now with decisiveness and purpose." He reiterated this point in his 2017 book, "Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs."
Osterholm discussed the coronavirus at a recent Washington, DC event at the New America think tank with Peter Bergen, CNN national security analyst and New America vice president.
He took issue with the idea that the flu is a more serious threat, saying the death toll from coronavirus could be much higher than that of a severe flu season. Osterholm said there's very little vacant capacity in the health care system to fully deal with the effects of the coronavirus. And he pointed out that there's a shortage of protective clothing for health care workers.
Osterholm also discussed the impact that widespread obesity might have on that fatality rate; the lack of much-needed ventilators and respirators at hospitals; the ubiquity of the virus and what that means for overseas travel, and he poured much cold water on the notion that this coronavirus might disappear as the weather warms. The [below] discussion was edited for length and clarity.”