–Extreme Isolation of Patients Will End as Containment Moves to ‘Mitigation’
By Denny Gulino
THE WHITE HOUSE (MaceNews) – The fourth and worst day of U.S. stocks losses this week toggled all remaining alarm bells on the Wall Streets of the world, lifting expectations for a Fed rate cut in three weeks above 60% while Vice President Mike Pence – the non-czar with czar-like authority – centralized the government’s crisis communications.
Some on Capitol Hill were already wondering if the Centers for Disease Control respiratory illness expert Nancy Messonnier – called a “truthteller” by one congressman – was purposely kept out of Wednesday night’s presidential press conference. When asked Thursday, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told the Ways & Means committee her prediction the virus would get worse in the U.S. needed “context.”
Pence named AIDS specialist Debbie Birx as “response coordinator.” No one expects she will rein in President Trump whose performance Wednesday night left some on the Hill from both sides of the aisle wondering if his attacks on Democratic leaders – saying Speaker Nancy Pelosi is “trying to start a panic” – was a productive leadership move. She responded Thursday that, “Now is not the time for name calling.”
In an almost passing reference, Trump Wednesday night said he was putting Pence in charge of the government’s anti-virus efforts, not HHS’s Azar. Azar in turn Thursday said he was fine with the appointment and expected the vice president to better command government resources than possible for HHS alone. He insisted the announcement was not a surprise.
Trump continued to say Pence should not be regarded as a formal crisis “czar” and will be working with Azar who earlier, as chairman of the interagency Corona Virus Task Force, had been described as leading the effort.
Investors mostly ignored the day’s economic statistics – January durables orders down 0.2%; initial claims 219,000 – as any data older than Monday became mostly irrelevant.
Not to be ignored were the correction-territory stock markets which have already had their deepest plummet in any week since the financial crisis, the elevated VIX, the low yields for Treasury securities and the increasingly dire predictions like the much cited Goldman Sachs analysis Thursday suggesting zero earnings growth for the year.
With selling accelerating into the close, the Dow industrials then finished down 4.42%, a point drop of 1190.95 that was the most ever. The S&P 500 also lost 4.42%, down 137.63 points. Nasdaq was a little worse, losing 4.61%, or 414.29 points.
The benchmark 10-year Treasury note late in the day was a 1.266% yield, and had been as low as 1.242% in mid morning.
Azar told the committee he has a “worry” that the nation’s “infection protocols in rural facilities” may not be up to the same standard of virus detection as their urban counterparts.
Yet there was from Azar’s morning answers to committee questions a statement that was perhaps the most reassuring of the week of continually negative virus news. All the scary isolation efforts and two-week quarantines that give the corona virus its apocalyptic Ebola-like ambience is not because it’s so deadly – it’s not -, but only the technique of the likely temporary “containment phase.” After containment becomes fruitless – widely seen as inevitable despite President Trump’s attempt to assure otherwise – the national medical protocol moves to a much gentler “mitigation phase.”
“We are right now in a very active containment phase,” Azar said. “And so that means an individual who tests positive for corona virus, we’re putting them into these types of Ebola-like isolation units that will look very extreme.”
However, he continued, “That’s not what’s indicated medically for these individuals. Most individuals who get this corona virus will have mild to moderate symptions and will be able to stay home and treat it like the flu or a severe cold and presented to a hospital only for urgent care.”
Azar went on, “So it’s really important we correct this impression that it will require this massive hospital isolation for normal patients. We’re in containment mode right now to stop any further spread. But once if we end up having broader spread, it will be a much more common approach … a severe flu season.”
Should everyone be wearing a mask under those circumstances? No, he said. “It’s also important that we don’t overscare and have people walking around with masks on,” he said. “That’s not the safe way to deal with things.”
What are recommended are the “same basic public health protocols for the common cold and flu which is proper hygiene, washing your hands, covering your mouth, not touching your face .. and staying home if you’re sick,” he said.-
In fact, the virus’s low rate of lethality and relatively mild symptoms are why it is likely to escape containment as those infected see it become less urgent to protect others. Yet the biggest unknown for investors is the extent to which the public shelters itself, cuts down on consumption and destroys economic demand – and for how long.
Azar said the two U.S. experts allowed to join the World Health Organization team within China indicated they had “productive” relationships with China’s doctors and will be reporting the results soon.
Also on the reassuring channel was the news from Starbucks that most of its outlets in China, 85% of nearly 4,300 coffee shops, are open and operating again.
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Contact this reporter: denny@macenews.com