Everyone agrees the best way to treat this illness is test, trace and confine. That is what was done in the Asian countries. I heard that both in Hong Kong and Taiwan because of their experience with the SARS coronavirus outbreak back in 2003 which resulted in 8,096 cases and 774 deaths the people immediately started to isolate themselves and wear masks. (Again I suggest wearing masks is one of the most important things we can do but few seem to want to do it.) I’m told by Billy Fitz that in Taiwan they have had only two deaths.

We no longer can use the best method throughout the United States, as they say it is too late to close the stable doors after the horses have escaped. Yet it seems in some states where the cases are low it could still be followed but there is no national voice suggesting to those governors that this be done. It seems in Hong Kong the tracing was done by using cell phone tracking to determine where the person had been in the previous forty-eight hours.

1. I wrote at about 3:30 pm: “Just got in from a little walk. We are number one in coronavirus cases in the world. Within twenty-four hours we will have exceeded 100,000 positive cases. Three days ago-on March 24 at 5:00 p.m. we had 49,126.

We will also exceed 1,500 deaths. Three days ago we had 674. No one is predicting a let up. No one is taking any measures to seriously deal with it. Leadership from Washington is deficient and absent.”

I should have said within four hours. We now have 101,657 cases and 1,581 deaths. Look at Italy, almost a 1,000 deaths a day with a serious lock down. More than 4,800 healthcare workers in Italy have tested positive for coronavirus, accounting for about 9% of the country’s total cases.

How do we function when all the health care workers are sick? People here still walking around without masks and in groups as if nothing is happening. Where’s our leadership? Isn’t it time to take this seriously which we have not done.

I’m adding this after the

The way South Korea handled its Covid-19 outbreak is the way most responsible scientists and doctors recommend that it be done. Test, trace and isolate. As many people as possible are tested, when a positive person is found all those he or she had recently been in contact with and are tested, and those found with the virus are taken to isolation areas where they cannot spread the virus to another. That is the best way to handle it.

South Korea reported 9,241 cases and 131 deaths. It seems to have it under control.

China has reported 81,782 cases and 3,291 deaths. It seems to have it under control. Although the origin of the problem, its fear is now from the outside. It has banned foreigners from entering its shores.

The United States in part thanks to the governors has asked people to stay in their homes. Trump has not asked anything of the people other than they keep a socially respectable distance of six feet away from each other. Each night on television Trump presents a rosy picture which makes me think of the band leader of the Titantic playing away as the ship sinks.  Predictions by some are that the ship the United States is sinking.

It is best to keep the record straight when analyzing the reasons why Covid-19 has blasted such a hole in the United States Health Care system and its economy.

December 31, the China office of the World Health Organization heard the first reports of an unknown virus in the city of Wuhan that had caused a number of pneumonia cases.

January 7:  Chinese officials announced it has identified a new virus.

January 11: China announce the first death from the virus

January 13:  The first case outside of China.

January 17: Second death in Wuhan. Cases confirmed in U.S., France, Austria over the following days

January 22:  The death toll in China jumped to 17 with more than 550 infections

January 22. CNBC Reporter Joe Kernen asked, “Are there worries about a pandemic at this point?”

Trump replied, “No. Not at all. And—we’re—we have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It’s—going to be just fine.”

[ON this date former director of the CDC wrote an op-ed for the health care publication Stat warning the virus would continue spreading: “We need to learn – and fast – about how it spreads.”]

I’ve advocated we all make our own masks. They won’t give you the protection of a medical mask but they do provide up to 83% of that protection according to tests. The best protectors are the ones made from dish towels. Those made from cotton or cotton blend material such as undershirts give around 69% or more protection compared to the medical mask. The tests showed that making more layers do not add significantly to the protection.

There are many skeptics out there who pooh-poohed my suggestion. But one of them is not the Government. I read this is in Monday‘s New York Times: “Anderson Warlick, the chief executive of the textile company Parkdale Mills, said Mr. Navarro had called him early last week to ask what the company could make. By Saturday, Parkdale Mills joined Hanes, Fruit of the Loom and other companies in announcing a coalition to produce masks.  But they are not the kind hospitals most need. The new masks will be made of a three-ply underwear fabric, and do not provide the level of protection given by the N95 masks that health care workers need for intubation and other procedures. “It’s not something you’re going to wear in the operating room,” Mr. Warlick said of the companies’ mask. “But you’ve got people out there today — it’s kind of pitiful — wearing bandannas and everything else.”

 Few of those who read this will recall the way we used to dress in America. The change is as drastic as any of the other revolutions we have seen in America over the last third of the 20th century where we recognize the evil treatment of black Americans and enacted the Civil Rights Act; the mistreatment of women which was remedied by Title IX prohibiting discrimination against them by anyone receiving federal financial assistance; and the acceptance of and equal treatment of LGBTQ folk that came about after the Stonewall demonstrations where we were told: “we’re not going to take it anymore.”

Look at photos of men back in the fifties who are outside their houses. Almost all of them are wearing hats or scully caps or some other head covering. No self-respecting adult man would leave the house without his fedora. Then there was the understanding that women and girls wear head coverings when in church or when dressed up. Some may recall the Easter Parades with women wearing their garish hats and bonnets – which we see presently at the now suspended Kentucky Derby.

I wrote this article two or three days ago. I originally had a chart as the illustration to accompany it but it kept getting outdated so I thought the grim reaper was appropriate.  If you want an updated version of the spread of this virus you can go here or here.

On last Wednesday China reported that for the first time that there were no new cases of Covid-19 in the country since the epidemic began. The reports from Italy are increasingly depressing especially since it has 60 million people compared to China’s 1.3 billion. Well over 4,000 people have died there compared to the less than 3,500 people in China. China is now sending doctors and medical equipment to Italy.

China’s death rate  is 3.98% while Italy’s is 7.94%. The approach taken by China and Italy differed greatly when the virus first arrived. China, although somewhat slowly at first, began a major no questions asked crackdown confining people to their homes, taking those testing positive to separation centers, massively testing and shutting down all the operations of over fifty million people. It is now starting to return to normal with its fingers crossed.

The United States as of March 23, 2020, has 35,345 39,032, 41,200 cases and 473 501 deaths relating to coronavirus. The day before it had 30,788 and 390 deaths.

Worldwide the number of cases for the top five countries are: China 81,496; Italy 59,138, Spain 33,089 and Germany 27.289. The United States has climbed into third place.

Fortunately when it comes to deaths, we are not nearly as bad as five other countries: Italy, 5476; China 3,274; Spain 2,206;  Iran 1,812; France 676; and U.S. 473.

As shown in my post earlier today, the U.S. government is not taking the virus seriously. It plans just like the old smoothies to sail through the pandemic. There are some suggestion coming from the top that happy days will be here after 15 days.

Fortunately not all see the dawn coming so soon. Charlie Baker the governor of Massachusetts has just ordered all non-essential businesses in the state to close. It’s late but better late as they say. It is still not enough since people will be out and about. Other states have done the same thing: California, New York, Illinois, Ohio, New Jersey, Connecticut, Louisiana and Delaware. The total number of people affected by these orders is over 115 million people.