Monday, March 16, 2020

CoViD-19: Conflicting Information

One of the things that is making the CoViD-19 (novel coronavirus) so especially dangerous is all of the conflicting information. I'm not talking about straight up misinformation and lies being spread by shady media, conspiracy theorists, or straight up deniers who don't believe the crisis is real, I'm talking about information that is constantly evolving and changing, because one, the number of people being tested is so low that the numbers beings shared daily may not adequately reflect the real numbers, and two, because it's novel--new--means science is trying to catch up with the virus itself and researchers and doctors and professionals around the world are trying to share information with each other, trying to let the public know as much as they can, while also trying not to disseminate false information. (read more after the jump)





One example of this is is whether or not someone can transmit CoViD-19 without showing symptoms. While watching NBC News San Diego, I was angered when the anchor said that Miles McPherson of The Rock Church was sharing that coronavirus can only be spread by people who are showing symptoms. After digging for information, I now know that this has actually been attributed to Wilma Wooten, M.D., Public Health Officer for the County of San Diego. She said, “If you are not actively displaying symptoms. The thinking right now is you can’t spread that to another person." Obviously I'm not a doctor or a scientist, but this information doesn't match other things that have been written nor the anecdotal spread we've seen from the cruise ships.

This article was attributed to Business Insider on February 24th but has been shared on other sites:
Chinese researchers confirmed that patients can transmit the coronavirus without showing symptoms. A woman passed it to 5 relatives.
A Person Can Carry And Transmit COVID-19 Without Showing Symptoms, Scientists Confirm
And a new one today:
Infected people without symptoms might be driving the spread of coronavirus more than we realized

And if asymptomatic people cannot spread CoVid-19, then why are we all holed up in our homes for the next two weeks to two months or beyond? There is a lot of information coming out daily, hourly even. As people are finally being tested, the numbers are increasing exponentially. And the people we're supposed to trust with information, like the County Of San Diego, apparently feel like they should still get their weekends to Netflix and Chill because as of 2am on 3/16, while they're updating their numbers daily, their last guideline update was still on March 13th. And why is Dr. Wooten spending her time spreading information specifically to Rock Church parishioners on March 15th and not updating the County at large at the massive changes that have occurred over the weekend since her March 12th update?

Look, I'm only trying to compile information so I can make the best decisions for my family like everyone else, but perhaps the reason people are being so defiant is because the people who are supposed to be looking out for us, from the top down, just don't feel like they are. So all I can say is do your own research, from valid and verified sources, and maybe pay attention to news from Wuhan and Italy and France and Germany, because by most estimates, we're not far behind their dire situations.

Harvard: Coronavirus Resource Center

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