"Of course it is [a pandemic]. We're there. It doesn't matter what kind of terminology you use.... We can either use pandemic as a word that makes us all quake with fear or we can use it as a rallying cry to say, 'This is what we're going to do to fight it.' "
"We are not encouraging the use of these N95 respirators by the public. We are going to be in short supply anyway and we need to reserve these for our health care workers."
"No. 1, we've got to really shore up in our health care facilities around the country, making sure we have as much protective equipment available as possible [to protect against COVID-19]."
"And what should each of us do, beyond staying informed and washing our hands frequently? Keep calm and rational. It might be worth stocking some reserve of critical medications, for example — but not too much, ecause hoarding could create shortages."
"As chilling as it is to imagine this scenario, what happened in Wuhan, the Chinese city at the epicenter of the outbreak, will likely play out elsewhere, too. Hospitals might have to turn away all but the people most seriously ill."
"The coronavirus that causes COVID-19 seems to spread like influenza, through the air, person to person. Unlike Ebola, SARS and MERS, it can be transmitted by individuals before the onset of symptoms or even if they don’t become ill."
"Basically if you get tested and you’re found and you’re positive [for the COVID-19 virus], then we know. But how many people right now are not being tested who are just like this case in Canada?"
"[The United States] will have many of the same challenges that China is experiencing. We will have too few hospital beds needed for both COVID-19 cases and other patients with the background illnesses we would expect to see every day. In addition, there will not be nearly enough personal protective equipment (PPE) available to protect health-care workers."
"Using surgical masks, whether in public or being near a COVID-19 case, likely offers little protection against virus transmission. The size of airborne particles containing the virus and that are in the same shared air space near a case means the virus will find their way into the areas where the masks are not flush against the face."
"I don't think airport temperature checks have any major effect on stopping or even slowing down [COVID-19] transmission. We just don't have any good data to support that."
"I think companies are looking at it [COVID-19] in a way they hadn’t looked at it before because I think the disease itself is convincing people this has a potential to be around for a while."
"Governments must support private-sector manufacturers in providing N95s and other equipment to front-line health-care providers and other essential workers. In terms of minimizing illness and death, this will be more important than any border closing, airport screening or quarantine."
"It is no longer useful to debate how long and far this disease will spread. Public-health officials should stop trying to convince the public and political leaders we can contain this virus to China. One of the greatest hazards to the public in any crisis is misinformation from official sources."
"In a very real sense, what happens to our health-care workers will be the metric of how we respond to this unfolding [COVID-19] crisis. If we don’t do all we can to protect them, they will quickly transition from providers to patients, further stressing already overburdened facilities."
"What the hell happens when you introduce CWD into meat processing environments? If somebody's deer or elk comes through and it's contaminated, what does that mean for everything else behind it? I’ll tell you: it's not good because it's not easy to sterilize and decontaminate places and surfaces that become tainted with prions."
"The [COVID-19] numbers coming out of China right now have to be viewed with some real caution. Part of the challenge we have is that there very well may be at best only 10% of cases that are actually getting counted."
"Now is the time for every local and regional healthcare system to plan for the potential wave of [2019-nCoV] patients needing hospital beds, many requiring intensive care. Emergency departments will be overrun with 'real' cases and 'worried well' who need testing."
"Would we consider going to war and then ordering aircraft carriers or other weapon systems for the fight? Yet that is how we often deal with vaccines and drug treatments for diseases of epidemic potential."
