Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Behind The Scenes: State Department And CDC Waged Battle Over Flying Americans With Coronavirus Home
The Washington Post: Diamond Princess: State Department Flew Coronavirus-Infected Americans To The US Against CDC Advice
In the wee hours of a rainy Monday, more than a dozen buses sat on the tarmac at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport. Inside, 328 weary Americans wearing surgical masks and gloves waited anxiously to fly home after weeks in quarantine aboard the Diamond Princess, the luxury liner where the novel coronavirus had exploded into a shipwide epidemic. But as the buses idled, U.S. officials wrestled with troubling news. New test results showed that 14 passengers were infected with the virus. The U.S. State Department had promised that no one with the infection would be allowed to board the planes. A decision had to be made. Let them all fly? Or leave them behind in Japanese hospitals? (Sun, Bernstein, Mahtani and Achenbach, 2/20)
The Associated Press: 16 Cruise Ship Evacuees Being Moved To US Hospitals
Eleven Americans who were brought to the U.S. from a quarantined cruise ship have been moved to hospitals, because delayed Japanese test results showed they had the new virus that caused an outbreak in China, officials said Thursday. Five other people from the ship have shown symptoms of the virus and have also been taken to hospitals, said Scott Pauley, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spokesman. (Johnson, 2/20)
CNN: 11 Americans At Omaha Facility Tested Positive For Coronavirus, Hospital Says
everal people are exhibiting minor symptoms but others are not showing any symptoms, the release said. Bert Kelly, a CDC spokesman, told CNN that the agency has verified the results, bringing the total of confirmed cases of coronavirus in the United States to 26. The US Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness Response asked UNMC early Monday to take in 13 patients who had either tested positive, or had a high likelihood of testing positive, for the novel coronavirus.(Chavez and Silverman, 2/20)
The Wall Street Journal: Evacuation Of Diamond Princess Set Off Race For U.S. Hospital Beds
Evacuees who boarded buses to the airport on Sunday had been screened by two U.S. doctors who flew to Japan last week, said one of the doctors, James Lawler, an infectious disease physician. The doctors evaluated passengers’ possible symptoms and ability to endure a 10-hour flight to the U.S. on chartered cargo jets, he said. The pair of physicians lacked time and equipment to seek coronavirus tests for all disembarking Americans, said Dr. Lawler, who works with Nebraska Medicine, a network of hospitals and clinics affiliated with the University of Nebraska Medical Center, where he is co-director of the Global Center for Health Security. “It wasn’t an option,” he said. They finished evaluations shortly before buses left for the airport, he said, leaving them to decontaminate their gear before jumping in a cab that defied one-way roads to deliver the doctors in time to fly. (Evans, 2/20)
The Hill: Issues With CDC Coronavirus Test Pose Challenges For Expanded Screening
Expanded screening for the coronavirus has been postponed amid issues with a test developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Although the Trump administration had planned to expand screening to various state and local public health labs, only three of more than 100 such labs nationwide have verified th e CDC’s test for use, Politico reported. (Bukryk, 2/20)
Politico: Problems With CDC Coronavirus Test Delay Expanded U.S. Screening
The delay has also hampered CDC’s plan to screen samples collected by its national flu-surveillance network for the coronavirus, according to Peter Kyriacopoulos, APHL's senior director of public policy. CDC hopes to use public health labs in Chicago, New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle to screen samples that test negative for the flu and other common respiratory viruses for the coronavirus. CDC confirmed the problems with the coronavirus test, and with using its flu-surveillance network to screen for the virus. But the agency declined to answer further questions on the matter. (Lim, 2/20)
The Wall Street Journal: Japan Defends Handling Of Coronavirus-Struck Cruise Ship
Japanese officials defended their handling of cruise-ship virus victims after the first two passenger deaths were reported—one a woman in her 80s who had a fever for a week before getting to a hospital. South Korea, meanwhile, reported its first death from the Covid-19 coronavirus, while confirmed cases began to mount in Beijing and Iran announced emergency measures Thursday to stem the spread of the virus there after two people diagnosed with the illness died in the central city of Qom. (Inada and Mendell, 2/21)
Stat: Wuhan Quarantine Bought The World Time To Prepare For Covid-19
When the Chinese government blocked most travel into and out of the city at the center of the Covid-19 outbreak in late January, many public health experts took to social media and op-ed pages to decry the measure as not only draconian and a violation of individual rights but also as ineffective: This largest quarantine in history — the city, Wuhan, has a population of 11 million, and the lockdown has been expanded — would have little effect on the course of the epidemic, they argued. As the U.S. and other countries imposed travel restrictions, even the World Health Organization questioned whether they were a good idea. But early evidence is causing some disease fighters to reconsider. (Begley, 2/21)
And in other news about the global response to the coronavirus —
NPR: Coronavirus Treatment In Isolation: One U.S. Patient's Story
What's it like living with a coronavirus infection, isolated in a biocontainment unit? For Carl Goldman, diagnosed this week in Nebraska, his condition doesn't feel any different from a typical cold, he told NPR's Noel King. But the treatment is unusual: Doctors visit him each day wearing hazmat suits, and hospital staff wave at him from behind double-sealed windows. (Renken, 2/20)
NPR: Evacuated From Wuhan, U.S. Man Reflects On Coronavirus Quarantine And Transition Home
The first Americans quarantined after evacuation from Wuhan, China, the center of this winter's coronavirus outbreak, are now beginning to settle back into normal routines. For 24-year-old Daniel Wethli, a history buff who majored in philosophy as an undergrad, leaving Wuhan last month at the urging of the U.S. State Department was bittersweet. His family was glad to hear he was safe and headed home as the virus spread through the city he'd moved to as a Fulbright scholar in December. (Neighmond, 2/20)
St. Louis Post Dispatch: She Made It Through Two Weeks Of Quarantine. Now It’s Time For Dinner With Her Husband.
Tao Warren has been alone and under quarantine at home for nearly two weeks after returning from visiting her father in China. Health officials imposed the precautionary measures on her when she returned to the United States on Feb. 7. She has not had any symptoms of coronavirus. (Kohler, 2/20)
San Francisco Chronicle: Hundreds In Bay Area Self-Isolating, Watching For Coronavirus Symptoms
Hundreds of people who recently traveled from China back home to the Bay Area are quarantining themselves under the watch of local public health officials in an unprecedented national effort to slow and possibly stop the spread of the new coronavirus in the United States. Authorities have asked about 6,700 people in California to isolate and monitor themselves for symptoms of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new virus, according to the California Department of Public Health. (Allday, Moench and Ho, 2/20)
The New York Times: South Korea Confirms A Jump In Coronavirus Infections
South Korea said on Friday that the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus infections rose to 156, a near tripling over three days. Among the 52 new cases reported on Friday, 41 are in Daegu, a city of about two and half million people in the southeastern part of the country, and the surrounding region, South Korean disease control officials said in a statement. Among those, 39 were connected to a church called Shincheonji. (2/20)
Los Angeles Times: South Korea Ups Emergency Response As Viral Cases Surge
The spike forced officials to focus on steps to contain the domestic spread of the disease, not just its entry from abroad. Most of the new cases have been reported since Wednesday. The increase, especially in and around Daegu city in the southeast, has raised fears the outbreak is overwhelming the region’s medical system. Many of the cases have been linked to a church in the city. (2/21)
Los Angeles Times: Ukrainians Hurl Stones At Coronavirus Evacuees From China
Ukraine’s effort to quarantine more than 70 people evacuated from China over the new coronavirus outbreak plunged into chaos Thursday as local residents opposing the move hurled stones at the evacuees and clashed with police. Officials denounced the violence and the country’s health minister pledged to join the evacuees’ quarantine for two weeks in a bid to reassure protesters who fear they’ll be infected. (2/20)
The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Outbreak Tests World Bank’s Pandemic Insurance
It’s the third month of the coronavirus outbreak, and investors still don’t know whether the first-ever pandemic-insurance policy will pay out. The World Bank issued pandemic-catastrophe bonds in 2017, a novel test of the ability to insure against global epidemics. The issuance marked an effort to expand the use of catastrophe bonds—financial instruments that were designed to help investors bet against natural disasters like hurricanes—to a new category of global risks. (Friedman, 2/20)
