Don’t forget to wash your hands.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned the country Tuesday that the coronavirus is soon expected to spread on a community level in the United States.
“The disruption to everyday life might be severe,” said Dr. Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
EMU is taking precautionary measures as the threat of coronavirus to the U.S. looms. Since the earliest stages of the outbreak, EMU’s health center has been in close contact with the Virginia Department of Health and non-governmental groups like the American College Health Foundation and the Council of Independent Colleges of Virginia.
Coronavirus, also termed “SARS-CoV-2” and “COVID-19,” was first detected in Wuhan City in China in 2019. More than 82,100 confirmed cases of the virus have been documented around the world as of Wednesday, including 59 in the United States, and at least 2,797 people have died from the virus. While the majority of cases (78,000) remain in China, the virus has spread rapidly to dozens of countries, especially impacting South Korea, Iran and Italy.
“As more and more countries experience community spread, successful containment at our borders becomes harder and harder,” Messonnier said. “Ultimately, we expect we will see community spread in this country. It’s not so much a question of if this will happen anymore, but rather more a question of when this will happen, and how many people in this country will have severe illness.”
No cases have been reported in Virginia. CNBC reported Wednesday that 83 Americans were voluntarily put under self-quarantine after returning to New York from China amid concerns they were exposed to the coronavirus. The LA Times reports California had 15 confirmed cases as of Wednesday. Orange County, Ca. and other areas and cities in California have declared local health emergencies. MarketWatch reports the DOW had its third-worst point drop in history on Monday, and the S&P 500 shed more than $1.7 trillion in value between Monday and Tuesday.
EMU’s health center sent a campus-wide email last week with a link to a video from CollegeHealthTV, and recently circulated an information sheet to staff and faculty. Irene Kniss, Director of Health Services at EMU, says hand-washing is the biggest thing students can do to keep themselves healthy.
“We remind people how important hand-washing is,” Kniss said. “It’s a matter of being cautious—not overly cautious—but washing your hands every time you eat, every time you go to the bathroom, after touching doorknobs, anything; making sure that when you’ve been around somebody that’s not feeling well that you wash your hands.”
“Let’s not panic about it,” Kniss said. “It’s been proven that you have to have contact with someone who actually had it. The unfortunate thing is the long incubation period; it can be anywhere from three to 14 days after coming into contact with [the virus] that you actually start having symptoms.”
College students, Kniss said, are generally among the healthier population and are not typically the ones at the highest risk. “If anybody has a lowered immune system, or is generally not in good health, those are the persons at risk,” she said.
Kniss said it is a possibility that EMU may need to reconsider its upcoming cross culturals, and whether to reconsider this year’s Summer Peacebuilding Institute (SPI) “with people coming in from all different countries.”
As a precaution, the health center has recently started asking students who come to the health center with flu-like symptoms if and when they last traveled outside the country.
Kniss said there is no proof that face masks prevent viruses, but she recommends that students who experience fevers or consistent coughing wear a face mask.
CNN last week highlighted a separate issue arising from the coronavirus: an increase in racist assaults and ignorant attacks against people of Asian descent in the U.S.
EMU junior Mariana Martinez said she experienced an encounter recently where someone refused to sit next to someone who “looked Asian.” She said she has heard stereotypes against Chinese people. Martinez said she is worried by the tactics being used to spread fear and rumors, and she fears the Trump administration’s response to the virus has been inadequate.
Senior Hannah Nichols said the whole thing feels “pretty surreal” and “kinda like a movie.”
“I feel so removed from the situation,” Nichols said. “It’s also kind of terrifying considering we have a cross cultural there [not currently] and individual students who we went to school with who are currently in China. I wonder how real it feels for them with [the virus] being in their back yard. I’m thinking of the individuals who are there now with SALT.”
Nichols noted “pre-existing tensions” between the U.S. and China and other Asian regions. “I wonder what this is going to do to the narrative moving forward,” she pondered.
