Coronavirus Could Spread Rapidly in the U.S.; Trump Rails Against Dems for Wasting Time Amid Coronoavirus Epidemic

Trump rails against Dems ‘wasting time’ amid coronavirus threat

By Tyler Olson. As his administration is working to organize its response to the coronavirus threat in the United States, President Trump slammed Democrats overnight for allegedly “wasting time” going after him.

A series of late-night tweets marked the latest exchange between the White House and congressional Democrats over the outbreak, with each side simultaneously urging the other not to politicize the potential crisis yet also taking shots at press conferences and on social media — complicating efforts to work together.

So, the Coronavirus, which started in China and spread to various countries throughout the world, but very slowly in the U.S. because President Trump closed our border, and ended flights, VERY EARLY, is now being blamed, by the Do Nothing Democrats, to be the fault of “Trump”.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 28, 2020

. . . House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., released a joint statement Thursday on what they want to see in a funding bill to help fight the coronavirus that also included what appeared to be a swipe at Trump.

“The United States government must do more to address the spread of the deadly coronavirus in a smart, strategic, and serious way and we stand ready to work in a bipartisan fashion in Congress and with the administration to achieve this necessary goal,” the statement read. “Lives are at stake—this is not the time for name-calling or playing politics.” (Read more from this story HERE)

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Coronavirus Could Spread Rapidly in U.S.

By Daily Beast. . . .Though novel 2019 coronavirus cases in the United States have so far ticked up in fits and starts, experts on deadly diseases say Americans should be prepared to see an overnight boom in cases that mirror the skyrocketing outbreaks in Italy and South Korea.

At last count from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there were 60 confirmed novel 2019 coronavirus cases in the U.S. One of those cases—in northern California—marked the first case of unknown origin, as The Washington Post first reported Wednesday. Fourteen patients came through the American health system after traveling to China or having close contact with someone who had. The rest were either repatriated individuals who fled the vicinity of the virus’s origin in China on State Department-chartered planes or else were rescued from the disastrous Diamond Princess cruise ship outbreak.

Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the CDC, acknowledged Tuesday that community spread—when cases are detected in an area but the source of the infection is not known—was very likely to cause more infections in the United States. The case in California, which a CDC statement said was “picked up by astute clinicians,” appeared to prove her right, and set the stage for a serious test of American health infrastructure after years of atrophy.

In Italy, officials have not been able to trace the origin of infections, which skyrocketed from just four on Friday to more than 528 by Thursday, killing at least 14 people. While each country faces its own health and containment challenges, experts say, there is little reason to believe the United States won’t soon face a similar coronavirus surge, even as President Trump on Wednesday urged calm and put Vice President Mike Pence in charge of the disease’s containment.

“It’s possible to say suddenly we’ll have 20 or 30 cases from one particular place,” said Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, an adjunct professor of epidemiology at the University of California Los Angeles who previously worked for the CDC. “People should expect that, but people should not be overly concerned about that. If we were testing everyone for the common cold, we would find hundreds of thousands of cases.” (Read more from “It’s Spreading: Coronavirus Could Explode Overnight in the U.S.” HERE)

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