Coronavirus cases surge in China and abroad

What happened

Fears were growing this week that the new SARS-like coronavirus could spiral into a global pandemic, as the number of cases continued to multiply inside China and abroad despite Beijing’s unprecedented efforts to contain the disease. More than 6,000 cases of the respiratory virus—thought to have emerged from a live-animal market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan—have been confirmed so far in China, but experts believe the actual number is far higher. At least 133 people have died from the disease, which can be transmitted from person to person and has surfaced in 19 countries, including the U.S., Germany, Japan, and Australia. To stem the spread, Beijing has implemented the largest quarantine in human history, putting more than 50 million people across 17 cities on lockdown and shuttering public transport systems and schools. Streets and stores in Wuhan, home to 11 million people, are deserted. “It’s just a ghost town now,” said John McGory, an American teacher in the city.

At least five coronavirus cases have been confirmed in the U.S.; all of the patients had recently visited Wuhan. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the virus currently poses a low risk to the American public, but it advised Americans to avoid all nonessential travel to China. American Airlines and United Airlines cut their number of flights to China, and the White House said it was considering banning all direct flights to the country. “The whole world needs to be on alert,” said Dr. Mike Ryan of the World Health Organization.

What the editorials said

The outbreak has exposed “the vulnerabilities of China’s top-down government,” said The Wall Street Journal. While not as bad as the denial and inaction that allowed SARS to go global in 2002, Beijing’s response has been substandard, and accounts from authorities “seem to be changing by the hour.” Local officials, fearful of being punished for highlighting problems, downplayed the early risk, allowing the outbreak to build. Now Beijing is playing catch-up.

While China wrestles with the virus, the U.S. must “do more than wait and hope,” said The Washington Post. “A crash effort to develop an effective vaccine” is the first order of business. Second, we need to improve diagnostics. A test result currently takes four or five days; if infections spike, “the result could be delay, chaos, and uncertainty.” Hospitals should plot infection-control measures and stockpile protective gear for workers. The investment in all this will be high, “but less than the damages if preparedness is ignored.”

What the columnists said

Don’t panic, America, said Emily Baumgaertner in the Los Angeles Times. Perspective is needed, and right now the flu—which kills 35,000 Americans a year—is a bigger worry. The new coronavirus seems to cause only minor symptoms such as fever and coughing in healthy people. Experts believe many people may have contracted the virus and had such a mild reaction that nobody noticed. “All that most Americans need to do is wash their hands,” cover their mouths when coughing, and carry on as usual.

If China is serious about public health, it needs to ban “wet markets,” said Christian Walzer and Aili Kang in The Wall Street Journal. At live-animal markets such as the one in Wuhan, farmed and wild species from around the world are packed tightly together and sold for human consumption. Viral components are exchanged between species, creating novel viruses that can be transmitted from animal to human, “and later mutate so that they can transmit between humans.” SARS is thought to have originated at a wet market, and now this new coronavirus, too. If wet markets are allowed to stay in business, another outbreak is inevitable.

The Wuhan virus “should be a wake-up call for Congress,” said Eric Levitz in NYMag.com. Just months ago, researchers at Johns Hopkins ran a simulation of a hypothetical coronavirus spawned at a Brazilian pig farm, one that was treatment-resistant and, unlike the current virus, especially lethal. The result: 65 million dead in 18 months. The U.S. is the wealthiest nation in human history, and yet the CDC is spending a mere $500 million a year on emerging diseases. Humanity’s luck in avoiding a deadly pandemic may hold up a while longer. “But eventually, our good fortune will run out.” ■