{"id":248155,"date":"2020-03-13T02:08:53","date_gmt":"2020-03-13T06:08:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=248155"},"modified":"2020-03-13T02:08:53","modified_gmt":"2020-03-13T06:08:53","slug":"who-dont-expect-travel-bans-mother-nature-to-beat-virus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/03\/13\/who-dont-expect-travel-bans-mother-nature-to-beat-virus\/","title":{"rendered":"WHO: Don’t expect travel bans, ‘Mother Nature’ to beat virus"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Dr. Bruce Aylward, who led a WHO team in China during the raging COVID-19 outbreak there last month, said in an interview that travel bans \u201cgenerally aren’t part of the armamentarium you bring to bear on something like this.\u201d (File Photo by Micha\u0142 Parzuchowski\/Unsplash)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

GENEVA \u2014 Countries may gain time in the short-term as they limit travel to fight the new coronavirus pandemic, but the World Health Organization thinks overall that \u201cit doesn’t help to restrict movement,\u201d a top adviser to the U.N. health agency’s chief said Thursday.<\/p>\n

Dr. Bruce Aylward, who led a WHO team in China during the raging COVID-19 outbreak there last month, said in an interview that travel bans \u201cgenerally aren’t part of the armamentarium you bring to bear on something like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we found, as a general principle – not a general principle, a pretty robust principle – is that it doesn’t help to to restrict movement,\u201d Aylward, a former WHO emergencies chief, said outside a room at agency headquarters devoted to the outbreak. \u201cWhat you’re really interested in is: Where is the virus? The viruses in the cases, the viruses in their close contacts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aylward spoke a day after WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the worldwide spread of the virus now qualified as a pandemic and President Donald Trump announced temporary entry bans on travellers from most of Europe. Other countries also stepped up cross-border restrictions.<\/p>\n

He acknowledged that \u201cpeople are confused\u201d about the virus. He advised frequent hand-washing and other sanitary practices to avoid infection and getting tested quickly when someone suspects they’ve been exposed to the virus.<\/p>\n

Aylward also sought to dispel some myths and misconceptions about the virus. He said people shouldn’t worry about goods shipped from places with significant case numbers and remember that \u201csniffles\u201d aren’t a symptom of COVID-19 but a high fever and dry cough are.<\/p>\n

He alluded to comments by some that warmer weather might snuff out the virus.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany people ask, `Will this go away with the winter season?\u201d’ he said, noting that the epidemiological approach calls for locating and tracking the virus, and getting infected people out of circulation..<\/p>\n

\u201cI would not be betting on Mother Nature here,\u201d Aylward said. \u201cI would be betting on case-finding. Isolation (of patients). Contact tracing. Testing. Testing. Testing.\u201d<\/p>\n

For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.<\/p>\n

The vast majority who become infected recover. The World Health Organization says people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three to six weeks to recover.<\/p>\n

While the elderly or those with preexisting health conditions are considered most at risk, \u201cpeople 30, 40, 50-years-old get sick with COVID,\u201d Aylward said. \u201cMost of them will recover and be fine. Some of them won’t. And some of them even will die.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don’t know who. And we don’t know why,\u201d he said. \u201cThat’s very unsettling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aylward said he had \u201cphenomenal confidence in the ability of the U.S. to get this under control,\u201d noting how many epidemiologists in China \u2014 which has succeeded in minimizing new cases \u2014 had trained in the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey know how to do this stuff,\u201d he said of the U.S. experts. \u201cAnd they’ve trained thousands of people across the U.S. to get organized. You mobilize that army, and you beat this most recent of enemies.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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