Following The Virus
Claudewell S. Thomas, MD, MPH, DLFAPA, is an established psychiatrist who is currently retired ,, He received his medical degree in 1956 at SUNY Downstate College of Medicine and specializes in social psychiatry, public health psychiatry, and forensic psychiatry. Dr. Thomas was board certified by the American Board of Psychiatry... more
What is known is much less than what is not known. We are closer to the truth if we talk about the known as what is likely to be true. What is known is that the coronavirus has appeared on all of the world's continents except Antarctica. It is likely to be true that 3,000 or so people have died from the disease, most in China. It is known that reported deaths have occurred in Italy, Syria, England, Ireland, Germany, Japan, India, Egypt, Cambodia, Thailand, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Turkey, Israel, etc. It is known that states of emergency are being declared increasingly in the USA. It is known that clinical trials of antiviral agents are underway in at least two areas but these are limited in scope and involve, two different agents. It is known that these agents may not work and that the limited results are six months to a year away. It is known that we have no vaccines and that vaccine preparation depends on positive testing for the virus in the face of inadequate testing materials and cumbersome approval protocols.
It is therefore not surprising that most of the data about the virus comes from foreign sources and must be categorized as likely because of censorship and national interest. From Chinese research, it is likely that there are two strains of coronavirus evolving simultaneously, 70% of the evolving virus is Covid-19 evolving rapidly and carrying a 3.4% mortality. The other is Covid-19 evolving slowly carrying a 0% mortality but only 30% of the total viral package. This is the variety that may not even indicate its presence. These results are preliminary and require repeat testing and corroboration according to Chinese scientists. What is known is that front line Chinese battlers of the epidemic are suffering huge losses and replacements are increasingly hard to supply despite the militarization of the struggle.
Back in the U.S.A., what is known is that V.P. Pence is reluctantly giving over most of the discourse to Public Health professionals who despite HHS publicists are advising working from home, school closings, some transportation restrictions, etc. What is not known is how far the President will go in undermining the national effort by advising a Fox audience that vaccines are around the corner, that the disease might simply go away, that people should go to work etc. In the meantime, it is known that American deaths are up to 10 and infections are beyond 300 from Covid-19.
