COVID-19 is now the 3rd leading cause of death in the United States. The U.S. represent about 25 percent of COVID-19 cases (4.4 million) and deaths (170,000) worldwide today while consisting of less than 5 percent of the population.
In a commentary released ahead of print in The American Journal of Medicine, scientists from Florida Atlantic University’s Schmidt College of Medicine and a partner, compare reactions to the pandemic from 2 democratic republics: South Korea and the U.S., showing plain distinctions in public health techniques, which have actually caused worrying distinctions in cases and deaths from COVID-19. After adjusting for the 6.5 fold distinctions in populations, the U.S. has actually suffered 47 times more cases and 79 times more deaths than South Korea.
At the start of the pandemic, South Korea had more COVID-19 cases than anywhere else worldwide beyond China. Today, they have around 14,269 cases and 300 deaths. Ironically, the general public health techniques they used carefully followed those established and presented by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which previously acted as a clinical beacon for such activities worldwide. South Korea set up efficient containment and mitigation techniques, which they preserved in location up until brand-new cases and deaths were virtually nonexistent.
In contrast to South Korea, the U.S. federal government installed a postponed and fragmented action, which they preserved just up until a “flattening of the curve,” according to the scientists. Further, containment and mitigation techniques were piecemeal and arised from private reactions of private states. Ironically, following the 2013 forecast of an upcoming pandemic by the Gates Foundation, it was the U.S. federal government that developed a Pandemic Emergency Response Task Force, putting the U.S. as No. 1 worldwide by the World Health Organization (WHO) in their capability to include and alleviate any future pandemics. This job force was dissolved in 2017, and today the U.S. in the No. 1 area worldwide in COVID-19 cases and deaths.
In addition, the U.S. federal government has actually eliminated the CDC from its years’ long functions of getting and supplying analyses of security information on COVID-19. The authors keep in mind that this continues a longstanding pattern of politicization of the CDC, which is producing continuing damage to its longstanding credibility of around the world regard and affection.
“The anticipated number of deaths from COVID-19 may become comparable to the most lethal epidemic of influenza in U.S. history, which occurred from 1918 to 1919 when approximately 675,000 Americans died,” stated Charles H. Hennekens, M.D., Dr.PH, senior author and the very first Sir Richard Doll Professor and senior scholastic consultant in FAU’s Schmidt College of Medicine. “In stark contrast to both the current U.S. epidemic of COVID-19 and the Spanish Flu of 1918-19, the 2018-19 flu season affected about 42.9 million Americans, of which 647,000 were hospitalized and about 61,200 died.”
The authors raise the specter that, if the existing varieties of cases and deaths and their trajectories in the U.S. continue, a collaborated nationwide shutdown of enough period, which was not attained formerly, might end up being needed. For example, the ongoing rapid development of the infection in the U.S. is shown by the noticeably reducing variety of days to accomplish each million case from 97 to 44 to 28 to 15 days.
The U.S. stays the center of the pandemic around the world, due, a minimum of in part, to the enormous rise in cases in Florida, California, Arizona, and Texas. Moreover, just California and Texas have actually released statewide mask requireds. The authors additional state that the failure to alleviate COVID-19 in the U.S. will incapacitate the health care shipment system also reduce the capability to supply lifesaving procedures for clients with COVID-19 or other severe conditions. They additional state that it is more essential than ever that the U.S. desert “pandemic politics” and focus entirely on efficient public health techniques.
Measures such as those used by South Korea, specifically prevalent, totally free and fast, point-of-care screening, precise tracing and quarantine of all contacts along with masking, social distancing, crowd avoidance, and regular hand and face cleaning, are most likely to be a minimum of as efficient as any safe vaccine that might be established and authorized for prevalent usage by the public in the U.S. and worldwide.
“In the U.S., there is an urgent need for a unified national approach for the implementation of effective public health mitigation strategies including social distancing, masking, avoidance of crowds, as well as frequent hand and face washing,” stated Joshua Solano, M.D., very first author and an assistant teacher of integrated medical science and director of quality enhancement and client security in FAU’s Schmidt College of Medicine.
South Korea is not alone in functioning as a design for the world for COVID-19 as comparable successes have actually been attained in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Germany, Iceland, the United Arab Emirates, Greece, and Argentina.
###
Reference: “Public Health Strategies Contain and Mitigate COVID-19: A Tale of Two Democracies” by Joshua J. Solano, MD; Dennis G. Maki, MD; Terry A. Adirim, MD, Miles Per Hour, MBA; Richard D. Shih, MD and Charles H. Hennekens, MD, DrPH, 15 August 2020, The American Journal of Medicine.
DOI: 10.1016/j.amjmed.2020.08.001
Co-authors of the commentary are Terry Adirim, M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A., teacher and chair of the Department of Integrated Medical Sciences and senior associate dean for medical affairs, FAU’s Schmidt College of Medicine; Richard D. Shih, M.D., teacher of integrated medical science and department director of emergency situation medication, FAU’s Schmidt College of Medicine; and Dennis G. Maki, M.D., teacher of medication, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, and a globally renowned contagious illness clinician and epidemiologist. Maki and Hennekens served together for 2 years as lieutenant leaders in the U.S. Public Health Service as epidemic intelligence service officers with the CDC.
