COVID-19 pandemic

“ There remains a need to continue this national emergency. The COVID-19 pandemic continues to cause significant risk to the public health and safety of the Nation. More than 500,000 people in this Nation have perished from the disease, and it is essential to continue to combat and respond to COVID-19 with the full capacity and capability of the Federal Government. ”

“ DR. WALENSKY: Thank you so much, Andy. I’m so glad to be back and joining you today. Today, I’m going to give you a brief update on the pandemic. As I mentioned on Friday, despite trends moving in the right direction, we remain in a very serious situation. COVID-19 continues to affect too many people, as we continue to mourn all of those lives that have been lost. ”

“ A week ago, in our first COVID response briefing, we committed to providing you with transparent science-based and up-to-date information about the pandemic. I hope that five briefings in, we’re starting to establish a pattern of providing the American people with the facts they need about the crisis and our response, driven by our experts and scientists.
We act every day based on the fact that we already have more than 440,000 fellow Americans who have died, 26 million Americans infected, and our ways of life totally upended. ”

“ The Task Force shall submit a final report to the COVID–19 Response Coordinator addressing any ongoing health inequities faced by COVID–19 survivors that may merit a public health response, describing the factors that contributed to disparities in COVID–19 outcomes, and recommending actions to combat such disparities in future pandemic responses. (c) Data Collection. ”

“ We must continue to be vigilant and committed to consistently taking the steps we — work to stop the spread of COVID-19.
Where the pandemic goes from here is dependent on our collective behavior and resolve to do our part to protect ourselves, our families, and our communities.
Together, we have the capacity to avoid another surge in our nation. I know people are tired; they want to get back to life, to normal. ”

“ Not only have these communities seen disproportionate cases of COVID-19, but they have also often had higher rates of chronic diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease that have resulted in increased hospitalizations and deaths. Additionally, survey data indicate that these communities are facing higher rates of stress, anxiety, and other mental health challenges as they navigate the pandemic. ”

“ I also noted that while the Federal Government, along with State and local governments, have taken preventive and proactive measures to slow the spread of the virus and to treat those affected, the spread of COVID–19 within our Nation’s communities threatens to strain our Nation’s healthcare systems. ”

“ The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) , the Surgeon General, and the National Institutes of Health have concluded that mask-wearing, physical distancing, appropriate ventilation, and timely testing can mitigate the risk of travelers spreading COVID–19. ”

“ How many people continue to have symptoms of COVID-19 or even, as we’ve seen, develop new symptoms that they did not have even as part of their acute infection? Importantly, what is the underlying biological cause of these prolonged symptoms? We refer to that as pathogenesis. What makes certain people vulnerable, while others recover fully and quickly and have no sequelae? ”

“ National Public Health Week has increased significance this year, as our Nation mourns the loss of more than half a million lives to COVID–19, and as we have come to recognize just how essential our public health efforts and public health workers truly are. ”

“ Over the past year, the virus keeps reminding us that the risks of actually getting COVID are quite significant. It’s cost us more than 500,000 friends and family members and has led to hospitalizations and prolonged symptoms for many, many more. ”

“ Now that we’re seeing the number of deaths decrease, is the — would you categorize coronavirus as moving into something more like the flu: less deadly, something that is more manageable for hospitals or hospital system?And also, just — is there any indication, given the year of data we have on transmission patterns, of whether warmer weather will have any impact on the spread of the virus? ”

“ But then you find out there’s a high risk of you getting infected with COVID-19 because of your condition. You and your loved one — and you and your loved ones have ever even greater risk of death and serious illness because of the preexisting conditions, so you turn it down. ”

“ COVID-19 continues to exact a tremendous toll on our nation. Like you, I want to be able to return to everyday activities and engage with our friends, families, and communities. Science and the protection of public health must guide us as we begin to resume these activities.
Today’s action represents an important first step; it is not our final destination. As more people get vaccinated, levels of COVID-19 infection decline in communities. ”

“ The virus does not survive as well in droplets of saliva. And that's important because a lot of testing being done is not necessarily being done, number one, with the COVID-19 virus, and number two, in saliva or respiratory fluids.
And thirdly, the virus dies the quickest in the presence of direct sunlight under these conditions. And when you — when you look at that chart, look at the aerosol as you breathe it; you put it in a room, 70 to 75 degrees, 20 percent humidity, low humidity, it lasts — the half-life is about an hour. ”

“ However, we have found, through experience over the past many months, that when one gets advanced disease, the hyper or aberrant inflammatory or immunological response gives as much to the morbidity and mortality as the actual virus replication itself. ”

“ New — new variants of the virus are spreading and they’re moving quickly. Cases are going back up. Hospitalizations are no longer declining. While deaths are still down — way down from January — they’re going up in some places. ”

“ A virus is transmissible and is virulent, and the degree of transmissibility and the degree of virulence can actually overlap and result — because you’ve heard us say on our briefings that a virus that has a greater degree of transmissibility will be making more people sick. ”

“ In addition, people who spend time with individuals at increased risk of severe illness should consider taking extra precautions even when the COVID-19 Community Level is low. At any level, people with or around those with higher risk for serious illness, people with symptoms of COVID-19 or individuals who are not up-to-date on COVID-19 vaccinations who had exposure to someone with COVID-19, or a positive test should take extra precautions to protect themselves and others. ”

“ A week passed, during which a bulletin from the Government Health Service announced official suspicion that the human race was suffering a mysterious, pandemic affliction which was as yet undiagnosed. Although the symptoms, as reported by hundreds of clinics, were relatively mild, the effect on the nation's economy was growing serious. ”

“ General Manner of Spread in Individual Localities. Having discussed the mode of propagation of influenza among individuals we will follow the disease as it attacks one person after another in a community and study the epidemiologic picture, drawn no longer with the individual as a unit, but with the community as the unit.
We must here distinguish between a primary epidemic, the first wave of a progressing pandemic, and the secondary type in which may be grouped those large or small recurrences which light up for a period of one to three or more years after the primary wave. ”

“ And when we see that uptick in cases, what we have seen before is that things really have a tendency to surge and surge big.We know that cases sometimes can be a week or two behind the behaviors that lead to those cases, the mixing that leads to those cases. We know that travel is up, and I just worry that we will see the surges that we saw over the summer and over the winter again. ”

“ Simple, proven ways to curtail epidemics, such as wearing face masks, hand washing, and avoiding hospitals where transmission rates might soar, can also prove effective in stemming the spread of a disease. ”

“ If you remember what I have said on multiple press conferences, that every time and every day you get more and more people vaccinated, sooner or later — hopefully sooner — that level of infection will get lower and lower. ”

“ Our common epidemic influenza or grip, occurring practically isolated or in very small outbreaks, belongs to the same type of disease as the pandemic variety, but is due to a mitigated form of the causative organism, one of decreased virulence and of shorter viability. ”

“ But the most careful and stringent quarantine regulations may not be sufficient absolutely to exclude the disease. The progress of medical and sanitary science has been such, however, that if approved precautions are taken at once to put all of our cities and towns in the best sanitary condition, and provision is made for isolating any sporadic cases and for a thorough disinfection, an epidemic can, I am sure, be avoided. ”

“ As a rule the virulence does not become so great as to cause a true pandemic, but at rare intervals, usually of decades, or thereabouts, the epidemic virus becomes so greatly enhanced, perhaps from passage to new territory and through non-immune individuals, that it eventually commences on its wild career around the earth. ”

“ They are also the diseases which have given rise to the most bitter controversies among medical men as to the means of their propagation and the best methods of prevention. Plague, cholera, yellow fever, and typhus are those with regard to which this difference of opinion has chiefly occurred—one party considering their chief cause to be contagion, or specific germs derived directly or indirectly from the bodies of the sick; the second party declaring that they are due to filth plus an unknown something, which is variously termed epidemic constitution, pandemic wave, Providence, or x. ”

“ But it is obvious that, in the majority of cases, it must be impossible to decide by which of these channels the disease is conveyed, from the nature of the intercourse between the physician and the patient.
3. It is not pretended that the contagion of puerperal fever must always be followed by the disease. It is true of all contagious diseases that they frequently spare those who appear to be fully submitted to their influence. Even the vaccine virus, fresh from the subject, fails every day to produce its legitimate effect, though every precaution is taken to insure its action. ”

“ Surely the places where dangerous infectious diseases are constantly propagated on a gigantic scale, and disseminated therefrom into the bodies of millions of animals and mankind, should be the very possible or probable source of epidemic disease. ”

“ As for reporting, you can’t combat a disease until you know where it is established and whither it is spreading. So, I say, any health officer who succeeds in spurring up the medical profession, and in dragging the Great White Plague out of its lurking-places into the light of day ought to have a medal.”
“What about the other diseases? Is the same true of them?”
“Not to the same extent. No man can tell when or why the epidemic diseases—scarlet fever, measles, whooping-cough, and diphtheria—come and go. By the way, what about your diphtheria death rate here?” ”

“ Do not interpret mild or moderate disease as lack of contagion, or that you're immune. You just happen to have a better immune system and the ability to fight the virus in a way that maybe older people or people with existing medical conditions can't. ”

“ III. Increased natural resistance of persons exposed to infection. Physical and nervous exhaustion should be avoided by paying due regard to rest, exercise, physical and mental labor, and hours of sleep. The evidence is conclusive, however, that youth and bodily vigor do not guarantee immunity to the disease.
The nature of the preventive measures practicable and necessary in any given community depends in a large part upon the nature of the community itself, as to population characteristics, industries, and so on, and upon the stage and type of the epidemic curve. ”

“ Sometimes we can distinguish a direction of spread in the relatively small community affected, it frequently being observed that the disease will start up in a large city which has experienced the illness during the first pandemic, and from there will spread to small nearby localities which may have remained free until that time. Again, any clearcut direction of spread may be entirely 45lacking. It is rare indeed that an epidemic following another by a short interval will follow a definite line over an entire country or continent. ”

“ It is important to call in medical aid when any suspicious symptoms arise, even when these symptoms do not appear to be urgent. If an infectious disease is not recognised in its early stage, it may be easily overlooked, and the patient cause a serious epidemic. ”

“ I sometimes hear people on radio or others talking about, "I'm immune to the virus." We don't know if the contagion levels are difference in age groups, but we know it's highly contagious to everyone. ”

“ At the present moment, when the subject of epidemics is attracting so much attention, it may be interesting to call attention to the more important diseases comprised under that head, and to point out some of the main facts connected with their origin and distribution. {422} The principal epidemic diseases, then, are: small-pox, scarlet-fever, measles, typhus, relapsing fever, Oriental plague, yellow fever, diarrhoea, typhoid or enteric fever, cholera, dysentery, ague and remittent fevers, influenza, the sweating sickness, and the dancing mania. ”

“ If the question is asked how we are to reconcile the great variations in the mortality of puerperal fever in different seasons and places with the supposition of contagion, I will answer it by another question from Mr. Farr's letter to the Registrar-General. He makes the statement that "five die weekly of small-pox in the metropolis when the disease is not epidemic,"—and adds, "The problem for solution is,—Why do the five deaths become 10, 15, 20, 31, 58, 88, weekly, and then progressively fall through the same measured steps?" ”