Will we be able to contain COVID-19? Probably not. This window of opportunity had already closed in December 2019. Now, the world has to deal with this situation.
The question now is: What may authorities do to alleviate this crisis.
Closing borders is just a measure to show action by authorities. A virus will not be stopped by a border. COVID-19 is found globally already. Now it is time to act responsibly.
Governments do have the time to prepare for epidemics. Hospitals need to be prepared for emergency to have enough capacity and beds available. Hospitals need to have sufficiently trained medical personnel, and a stock of protective clothing. Medical personnel need to know how to operate and behave in an ongoing emergency situation. It is important to keep medication and drugs in stock for emergency treatment and intensive care. Areas for infected and non-infected persons need to be separated. Such isolation is a common practice in modern hospitals, but it is time-, personnel-, and cost-intense, so capacities are limited.
Spread of the virus is most efficient at events with many participants. In the current situation, it is wise to cancel such events in regions of infection hot spots, as is the case in Venice, Italy, right now.
Information is key. People need to have access to facts based on science and medicine. Government media should inform responsibly based on scientific facts and not on rumors. Unfortunately, there are too many publications that try to produce headlines with unfounded claims. This has to stop. In our opinion journalists are bound by an ethic. Why invite an actor or a model to a talk show opinionating on a serious disease while ignoring the experts?
In most cases COVID-19 results in a mild disease. The mortality rate published at the moment is based on spotty data. Infections range from mild symptoms to severe illness, so many cases will go undetected. This means, the current mortality rate of 2 % will decline with more case reports.
Show some responsibility! There are measures to protect yourself and the people around you, for details see our first blog post, published on February 17th, 2020.
Better be safe than sorry! Do not attend hot spot areas or packed events that are just for fun, stay at home and keep safe. In our times, we do have modern communication via internet. You don’t have to attend every event or meeting. You won’t miss a thing.
One more thing you should do, if you haven’t done it yet: Get a flu shot. For once, you protect yourself from Influenza, a disease that last season killed more than 20,000 people in Germany alone. Second, you alleviate hospitals from dealing with your Influenza infection that could have been prevented by vaccination. You won’t occupy an isolation room that is needed for a COVID-19 case. You will keep open free capacities for Coronavirus emergencies. Be responsible to yourself, your family, friends, and your community.
Take care and stay tuned,
Sabine and Joerg