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> they don't have training, and the hospital itself has no plans in place

I have a difficult time grasping this part. It’s not like it’s something completely new. We encounter virus infections every year during flu season. The SARS outbreak was 18 years ago and MERS was 8 years ago. Did we not learn anything from it?

Sure, it was not as severe as SARS-CoV-2, but we should know how to handle it. I agree we should take precautions to stop spreading. But from seeing what is going on around here in EU, I am thinking that the panic is over-inflated and is doing more harm than good. Maybe it takes panic and fear to scare the majority of people into taking all precautions to stop the virus from spreading?




> The SARS outbreak was 18 years ago and MERS was 8 years ago. Did we not learn anything from it?

> Sure, it was not as severe as SARS-CoV-2, but we should know how to handle it.

The answer appears to be no, we didn't. Remember neither of those really hit here in the US.

CDC SARS FAQ [0]

> How many people contracted SARS in the United States during the 2003 outbreak? How many people died of SARS in the United States?

> In the United States, only eight persons were laboratory-confirmed as SARS cases. There were no SARS-related deaths in the United States. All of the eight persons with laboratory-confirmed SARS had traveled to areas where SARS-CoV transmission was occurring.

CDC MERS FAQ [1]

> Q: Has anyone in the United States gotten infected?

> A: Yes, two patients in the U.S. tested positive for MERS-CoV infection, both in May 2014.

The hospitals (nurses at them) that I've heard from say they don't have the masks on hand and they have received no training for how to deal with something like this on this scale. In fact they are being told things contrary to their training like having them wipe down the disposable shield of a CAPR [2] with bleach to re-use it (they are supposed to be single use).

They have limited (10 in the case of the CAPR shields in one hospital) because it's only required for specific diseases that they see few to no cases of per year. They don't have stockpiles of n95 masks because they could alway just order more if they needed them (same with CAPR). They are having to use the CAPR's temporarily because you need to pass a n95 mask fit test [3] (to insure nothing can get in) but the nurses haven't done that. At one hospital they just so happened (dumb luck) to have someone working that day that knew how to administer it and so they have been rushing to have nurses complete it.

> But from seeing what is going on around here in EU

What do you mean by this?

[0] https://www.cdc.gov/sars/about/faq.html

[1] https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/mers/faq.html

[2] http://www.lbs-biotech.com/products/personal-protection/max-...

[3] https://www.osha.gov/video/respiratory_protection/fittesting...




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