The US military is preparing for a “second wave” of coronavirus cases by next winter
"While it has yet to be seen whether the coronavirus will recede as temperatures increase in the northern hemisphere (and cases in tropical Singapore and southern hemisphere Australia may suggest the virus isn’t too sensitive to hot weather), some researchers have warned it could become a perennial winter threat.
Speaking at a Pentagon briefing Thursday, Nelson Michael, the director for infectious disease research at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, said that efforts to develop vaccines and an effective treatment plan might not be quick enough to wipe out the virus before the “second wave” next winter.
“This is a respiratory virus and they always give us trouble during cold weather, for obvious reasons. We’re all inside, the windows are closed, etcetera, so we typically call that the influenza or the flu season,” Nelson said.
He predicted the coronavirus may behave like the flu and give us “less trouble as the weather warms up,” but, he cautioned, it tends to come back when the weather gets cold again.
“This is why it’s really important to understand that a lot of what we’re doing now is getting ourselves ready for what we’re calling the second wave of this,” Nelson warned.
“We hope it doesn’t happen. If you remember SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), SARS came and went very quickly. We can’t count on that. We have to be ready that even if this epidemic begins to wane, we have to be ready for next winter when it may come back again.”" (CNN)
Trump admits coronavirus “might” impact US economy
"Donald Trump has admitted that the coronavirus “might have an impact” on the US economy but said it would pass, Reuters reports.
The US president has previously sought to play down the effects of the outbreak and predicted last week that the US stock market would bounce back after losses last week.
But asked at his first town hall meeting of the 2020 election season in Scranton, Pennsylvania if the outbreak would hurt the economy, he said:
“It certainly might have an impact. At the same time, I have to say people are now staying in the United States spending their money in the US, and I like that.
“It’s going to all work out. Everybody has to be calm. We have plans for every single possibility and I think that’s what we have to do. We hope it doesn’t last too long."…
“I think people are viewing us as having done a very good job. What we have to do is do a professional job. Nobody is blaming us for the virus,” he said. “This started in China.”" (Guardian)
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