No Borders, No Walls Can Stop Coronavirus from Spreading Across U.S.

By Heidi Creighton

This evening, President Trump will hold a press conference at the White House at 6:00 PM ET on the coronavirus as he announced this morning on Twitter.

At yesterday’s press conference in New Delhi, India, President Trump offered remarks that addressed the coronavirus: “…You may ask about the coronavirus, which is very well under control in our country. We have very few people with it, and the people that have it are — in all cases, I have not heard anything other.”

America’s borders are not secure from the coronavirus. It’s a global threat that will take a global effort to resolve. In the words of the WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, “This is a shared threat. We can only face it together, and we can only overcome it together. When we act together – countries, regional and global health organizations, the media, the private sector, and people everywhere – our collective strength is formidable. Alone, we lose. Together, we win.” (Source: February 24, 2020 Media Briefing)

In addition, building walls is not a strategy to secure our borders and keep the coronavirus from entering the U.S.

The “America First” strategy, will also not be effective in protecting, preventing, and preparing for the inevitable community spread of the coronavirus across the United States. 

A Global Effort is Required to Combat and Contain COVID-19

What is working is a global and collaborative effort. The World Health Organization (WHO) is holding daily and weekly briefings on COVID-19 on their progress tackling the coronavirus outbreak globally. Today’s briefing was hopeful but cautious, reporting that Outside China, there are now 2,790 cases in 37 countries, and 44 deaths, and that yesterday, the number of new cases reported outside China exceeded the number of new cases in China for the first time.

Close to twenty countries and organizations have pledged support including the U.S. and the EU to combat and contain COVID-19, and many countries (approx.. 9-14) have contained the virus.

According to Marta Seoane, External Relations Officer at WHO, the agency is tracking pledges to the extent possible by publishing the announcements from official sources here: https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/donors-and-partners/funding Progress to date shows pledges of $27,111,322 U.S. million. The Director General explained that most of these contributions are pledges at this time, however, they look forward to receiving the monies pledged as soon as possible.

WHO has declared the coronavirus outbreak a public health emergency of international concern, which is the agency’s highest level of alarm. WHO is not using the term “pandemic” at this time as it is not an accurate description of the situation at this time and would only increase fear and stigma.

One of the biggest challenges facing the global management of the coronavirus outbreak is the failure of affected countries to report data on the epidemic. WHO states that it cannot provide appropriate public health guidance without disaggregated data and detailed line lists and urges all countries to share data immediately.

United States Efforts on Coronavirus

Here in the U.S. as we await and prepare for the spread of the coronavirus, the CDC recommends that U.S. businesses, hospitals and communities begin preparing for the spread of COVID-19. The CDC also advises that people follow everyday measures to prevent the spread of respiratory viruses, such as hand washing and remaining at home when sick. The CDC reports that fourteen cases have been diagnosed in the United States, in addition to 39 cases among repatriated persons from high-risk settings, for a current total of 53 cases within the United States.

The HHS, led by Alex Azar II, provided a recent 2/25 briefing to provide the American public with updates on the coronavirus. He offered reassurance that the Trump Administration will continue to be aggressively transparent as the outbreak and the U.S. response evolve.

Research, Vaccines & Resources

WHO's R&D Blueprint has been activated to accelerate diagnostics, vaccines and therapeutics for the novel coronavirus. To view the latest reports on vaccines, go to:

https://www.who.int/blueprint/priority-diseases/key-action/novel-coronavirus/en/

WHO is also gathering global research on coronavirus disease (COVID-19) including the latest scientific findings and compiling it into a database found here:

https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/global-research-on-novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov

For daily information on the Coronavirus Disease 2019, both WHO and the CDC provide webpages and also update throughout the day via Twitter:

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/index.html

https://twitter.com/CDCgov

https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019

https://twitter.com/WHO

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