Thousands of victims, the paper explains, are probably unaccounted for as the novel virus makes the rounds mostly on the coasts, at this point, but also inland. By March 1, some experts believe, there were already as many as 10,000 cases of the Wuhan coronavirus (CoVid-19) that still haven't been identified.
From the start, travel restrictions were almost nonexistent, and the Trump administration is still claiming that the pandemic is less important than the stock market. But the numbers speak for themselves with an estimated reproduction rate (R0) of about 2.5, meaning every infected person infects two to three others.
As we earlier noted, the R0 for the Wuhan coronavirus (CoVid-19) could even be as high as 7, though the numbers are all over the map depending on the source since this novel virus is still pretty new to the game.
"Released into a country of about 330 million, each of these travelers was assumed to have passed the virus to 2 to 2.5 people, each of whom in turn infected another 2 to 2.5 people, and so on," writes Melissa Healy for the Los Angeles Times.
"Tote up the nodes on this rapidly branching network of contacts and the number of victims balloons quickly," she adds.
Listen below as the Health Ranger warns that hospital beds in the United States will probably be completely overrun come late May:
WHO declares global pandemic for coronavirus
The takeaway from this paper and others like it that we've been reporting on is this: Regardless of what the government is claiming, there are likely far more cases of the Wuhan coronavirus (CoVid-19) than we're all being told. The official numbers are just the tip of the iceberg, in other words.
"Using their most optimistic assumptions, as few as 1,043 people in the United States have been infected with the novel coronavirus," Healy adds. "Under a more realistic scenario, that number could easily be as high as 9,484."
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) has finally declared this thing to be a global pandemic after holding out on the declaration for several months. More than 114 countries are known to be affected by it, and at least 4,000 people have died.
"This is the first pandemic caused by coronavirus," stated WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a briefing in Geneva, Switzerland, noting that the WHO has raised its health emergency to the highest level.
"WHO has been in full response mode since we were notified of the first cases," he added. "And we have called every day for countries to take urgent and aggressive action. We have rung the alarm bell loud and clear."
Eight different countries, including the U.S., are now reporting novel coronavirus cases in excess of 1,000. Worldwide, the virus is said to have infected around 120,000 – these, again, being the official numbers.
"In the past two weeks, the number of cases of COVID-19 outside China has increased 13-fold, and the number of affected countries has tripled," Tedros further warned.
"In the days and weeks ahead, we expect to see the number of cases, the number of deaths and the number of affected countries climb even higher," he stated, adding that the WHO is "deeply concerned, both by the alarming levels of spread and severity and by the alarming levels of inaction."
To keep up with the latest news about the Wuhan coronavirus (CoVid-19), check out the all-new Pandemic.news.
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