As Pandemic Looms, World's Top Disease Fighter Engages Xi

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

(Bloomberg) -- Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has perhaps the most thankless job in global public health. As director-general of the World Health Organization, the former Ethiopian health minister is racing against time to prevent a dangerous new coronavirus in China from precipitating a worldwide pandemic.

Yet containing and unlocking the secrets of a novel virus that emerged in Wuhan, once a flourishing mega-city of 11 million, is only part of the challenge. Tedros is also engaged in a delicate diplomatic dance with a Chinese government that’s sensitive to perceived slights and a big financial supporter of countries across Africa, including Ethiopia, where he also served as foreign minister and a high-ranking member of its former ruling coalition.

Tedros needs the support of China’s all-powerful President Xi Jinping to increase on-the-ground access for the world’s best infectious disease experts. Xi, meanwhile, is facing public anger over his government’s handling of the crisis and has bristled at foreign criticism.

As the world’s first responder to public health crises, Tedros must “strike this complicated balance between being a member-state organization and being this evidence-based beacon on a hill,” said Rebecca Katz, director of Georgetown University’s Center for Global Health Science and Security. “It’s not a job that I would want to do.”

The viral disease, known as Covid-19, has killed more than 2,400 people and reached four continents in less than two months. On Jan. 30, Tedros, after initially hesitating, declared an international emergency. Now, with new hot spots emerging in Japan, South Korea and Iran, Tedros’s team may need to declare a pandemic if the virus keeps spreading.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/as-pandemic-looms-worlds-top-disease-fighter-engages-xi/ar-BB10iQ6S?li=BBnb7Kz

[doc03]

1. I thought Trump was the world's top disease fighter nt

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

2. No he's just the top disease

[smirkymonkey]

12. Beat me to it.

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. I'd read that the definition of pandemic was that it had spread to 2 continents.

Is that correct????

[defacto7]

5. A pandemic is an endemic of disease

that has spread over a wide area which may include multiple continents or worldwide. Think the Russian Flu 19th century, Spanish Flu 1918, Asian Flu 1958, Hong Kong Flu 1968. The Spanish flu killed 50 to 100 million people. The Hong Kong flu killed about 1 million worldwide and 34,000 in the US.

[defacto7]

4. The stats of the article are old.

Last edited Mon Feb 24, 2020, 11:09 AM - Edit history (2)

2/23/20 8AM ET

735 new cases
160 deaths
Total cases 79,744
Of the cases with an outcome 91% recoverd, 9% died.
Of the remaining active cases 23% are in serious or critical condition.

EDIT: I'll make one more edit because the data coming in yesterday became confused. Checking stats in the evening can be problematic because many reporting sources can't keep up with them. The best time in North America for checking stats for the previous day worldwide is after 8AM and before 1PM ET. After 1 they become more erratic as the sources are compiling and confirming.

[Nonhlanhla]

6. Those numbers have been readjusted

I saw the numbers you mention, and they frightened me, but they might have been a mistake, because they have been changed. About 570 new infections today (including 161 in S. Korea) and about 151 deaths total today. Total deaths at 2592 (9% of completed cases). I hope these lower numbers are correct!

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

[Quixote1818]

7. The death rate for those who contracted it after Feb. 1st is only 1%

Snip:

You’re better off getting it this month than last month. Those who became ill before January 10, 2020 had an up to 15% mortality, whereas those who became ill after February 1, 2020 have had less than 1% mortality. This is likely due to extremely heightened awareness of potential for infection, with resultant earlier recognition and earlier interventions.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/ninashapiro/2020/02/22/sex-does-matter-when-it-comes-to-coronavirus/#73fc549ea436

[Nonhlanhla]

8. That's very interesting

Thanks for sharing that. The total death percentage among known outcomes has been falling gradually for days now, from around 20% to currently 9%, which confirms what you're saying.

[defacto7]

10. They have devised a different method of computing

because this is new territory. All the calculations are posted on the worldometer site. The old 2-4% number is not relevant. They are calculating based on those with outcomes, recovered plus deaths. That percentage is more accurate when trying to compare it with the end of an epidemic. The death % is fluctuating and slightly dropping and is 9% at this point. I personally don't follow media reports, just the stats coming from the sources. Both have their problems but at least with the stats the data isn't likely biased even though the revisions can be a ride.

[defacto7]

9. Yes I just noticed. They went up then dropped.

It must have had something to do with the delay that was posted. I'm going to edit those figures. Thanks

I noticed many of the figures are mixed between the previous update and the new. It must be difficult to keep track.

[defacto7]

11. Just so you know those numbers are updated again

It seems they are erratic certain times of the day due to the difficulty compiling. It seems the best time to check stats in the US is between 8AM and 1PM when the previous day's data is complete.

[Nonhlanhla]

13. Yes, they adjust the numbers constantly

I follow it pretty closely. Last night they had, for a few brief moments, a very inflated number (including nearly 1000 deaths in China yesterday), which was subsequently adjusted to around 150. Clearly some computing mistake.

But who knows what the real numbers are...