As trump is expressing his own America First bigotry and hyping up the xenophobia of his base by call this a foreign virus (read that as coming from China) we may be looking at him having to eat his words.
It would be truly ironic if the Chinese beat the United States on coming up with effective treatments and a vaccine for Covid-19. If this happened it would be in at least some part because they took the disease seriously and devoted major resources to dealing with it than our late starting medical community did.
Of course the breakthrough could come from scientists working in the World Health Organization. This would be another irony. Consider this:
Trump Seeks to Halve U.S. Funding for World Health Organization as Coronavirus Rages
Trump and I suspect the majority of his supporters think China is a backwards country while the United States is far and away the most modern nation in the world when it comes to medicine and everything else. (Let’s forget shall we about our ancient rail system, homeless problem, drug scourge, and support of polluting industries.)
Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (briefly as China CDC) is a governmental and national-level technical organization specialized on disease control and prevention and public health. Its mission is to create a safe and healthy environment, maintain social stability, ensure national security and promote the health of people through prevention and control of disease, injury and disability. Devoted itself to disease control and prevention, it sticks to relying on scientific research and values talent as fundamental element.
Under the leadership of National Health Commission, China CDC exerts its function in technical guidance and support of public health. Focusing on the key tasks of national disease prevention and control, China CDC studies on the strategies and measures for disease prevention and control, organizing and implementing the work plan for various kinds of disease prevention and control. It takes care of management of public health services, including food safety, occupational safety, health related product safety, radiological health, environmental health, as well as women and children’s health. China CDC forcefully carries out operational researches, and enhances technical instruction, training and quality controls in national disease prevention and control, as well as in public health service and plays the leading role nationwide in disease prevention and control, health emergency response and capacity building of public health information.
A commenter just reminded me of this story:
China built an emergency hospital to treat Wuhan coronavirus patients in just 10 days
There is a very good chance, as illustrated in the selection of articles below, that Chinese scientists may be closer to breakthroughs in solving the mysteries of how Covid-19 works, breaking the code as it were, the first step to treating and preventing it.
Not contend to wait for that:
Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma says he is donating 500,000 coronavirus testing kits and one million protective face masks to the United States, Reuters reports. The Chinese billionaire already has pledged 2 million protective masks to European countries. A first shipment of test kits, medical supplies and 500,000 masks intended for Italy, which has been hard-hit by the virus, arriving at Liege Airport in Belgium late Friday.
“The pandemic we face today can no longer be resolved by any individual country,” Ma said in a statement posted to Twitter. “We can’t beat this virus unless we eliminate boundaries to resources and share our know-how and hard-earned lessons.” The US has lagged behind other countries testing for the coronavirus.
Read the replies to the Jack Ma Foundation tweet below:
Here’s just a sample of what Chinese experts are doing to combat Covid-19:
Can Chinese Medicine Be Used for Prevention of Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)? A Review of Historical Classics, Research Evidence and Current Prevention Programs.
Based on historical records and human evidence of SARS and H1N1 influenza prevention, Chinese herbal formula could be an alternative approach for prevention of COVID-19 in high-risk population. Prospective, rigorous population studies are warranted to confirm the potential preventive effect of CM.
Related to the above: China’s Secret To Controlling The Covid-19 Outbreak Is Traditional Chinese Medicine Concoctions Used Alone Or In Conjunction With Antiviral Protocols
In a new peer reviewed study published in the Lancet (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1043661820307556?via%3Dihub) it was shown that out of 102 confirmed infected patients in one study at Hubei exhibiting mild symptoms of the Covid-19 disease, almost all recovered just on TCM concoctions alone with symptoms and fevers disappearing even shorter compared to using antivirals and CT scans showed drastic improvements to the lungs coupled with NATS (nucleic acid tests) that showed negative presence of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus (note that residual dormant amounts of the virus will exist in all recovered as the NATS cannot pick up viral loads less than 90 copies per ml properly )
'They know how to keep people alive': Why China's coronavirus response is better than you think
“If I get COVID, I’m going to China,” said Bruce Aylward, MD, a Canadian epidemiologist who led the WHO team on the ground in February, when the coronavirus was exploding in China. “They know how to keep people alive."
Chinese scientists identify two strains of the coronavirus, indicating it’s already mutated at least once
Researchers in China have found that two different types of the new coronavirus could be causing infections worldwide.
In a preliminary study published Tuesday, scientists at Peking University’s School of Life Sciences and the Institut Pasteur of Shanghai found that a more aggressive type of the new coronavirus had accounted for roughly 70% of analyzed strains, while 30% had been linked to a less aggressive type.
The more aggressive type of virus was found to be prevalent in the early stages of the outbreak in Wuhan — the Chinese city where COVID-19 was first detected late last year.
Characteristics of and Important Lessons From the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Outbreak in ChinaSummary of a Report of 72 314 Cases From the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention
Importantly, another major goal of China’s current outbreak response activities is to help “buy time” for science to catch up before COVID-19 becomes too widespread. China must now focus on adjusting tactics and strategies as new evidence becomes available.3,6 Much remains to be done and many questions remain unanswered. China is very grateful for the help it is receiving from the international scientific, health, and public health communities. The global society is more interconnected than ever, and emerging pathogens do not respect geopolitical boundaries. Proactive investment in public health infrastructure and capacity is crucial to effectively respond to epidemics like COVID-19, and it is critical to continue to improve international surveillance, cooperation, coordination, and communication about this major outbreak and to be even better prepared to respond to future new public health threats.
Clinical predictors of mortality due to COVID-19 based on an analysis of data of 150 patients from Wuhan, China
This is an example of just one study which was supported by the Emergency Project for the Prevention and Control of the Novel Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) Outbreak in Hubei Province, China, as well as the National Natural Science Foundation of China. My hunch is that this group and others managing the medical response to Coronavirus in China doesn’t have members like Jared Kushner, Dr. Deborah Birx who held up a simplistic flow chart designed by Jared Kushner while Trump described how Google was developing a website to help people get tested to COVID-19 which Google later stated that no website was in development as described by Donald Trump or Dr. Birx. (wiki) prompting my snarky diary yesterday, and Seema Verma (right), the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services approved communications subcontracts worth more than $2 million dollars of taxpayer funds on Republican-connected communications consultants and other expenses to boost her visibility and public image.
It isn’t just Jack Ma who is helping other countries:
Poll
Some of my friends know that I own Alibaba stock. This is why I was familiar with Jack Ma who was one of the co-founders of what is poised to become as big in Asia as Amazon plus Google combined are in the United States. I have a Google News alert set for Alibaba so got the news about what he has done. This gave me the idea for this story. Before today had you heard of Alibaba and/or Jack Ma?