University of Minnesota doctor weighs in on coronavirus global health emergency
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - A Minnesota doctor helped weigh in on the World Health Organization’s decision to declare coronavirus outbreak a global emergency.
Dr. Mike Osterholm is the director for the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. He wrote a book a few years ago on how this type of outbreak would develop.
“Viruses don’t change their skin when they cross the political boundary, so what we are seeing in China is absolutely going to happen around the world and what is happening in China right now is very extensive transmission,” said Dr. Osterholm.
Thursday, Dr. Osterholm was on the phone consulting the World Health Organization in their decision to declare this epidemic as a global emergency. He just wishes they would have done so sooner.
“To designate something as a public health emergency really is in some ways misunderstood,” he said. “It really is an administrative action that allows the WHO more coordination between countries—it also provides aid to low-income countries that otherwise couldn’t respond.”
By the evening, the State Department issued a no travel advisory to China due to the outbreak.
While nearly 99 percent of the 7,874 cases of diagnosed coronavirus have been limited to China, infectious disease health experts say it's only a matter of time before these cases quickly multiple from human-to-human transmission in the United States.
In Minnesota, there have been two people monitored for possible symptoms that are very similar to the flu, but they all tested negative for coronavirus.
Thursday, Governor Tim Walz joined other governors across the country to take part in a conference call with the Secretary of Health and Human Services to discuss protocols of how to keep this virus at bay. Walz says the health department has been on the front lines of this epidemic from the beginning.
"What Minnesota is doing putting out the health alert to all the healthcare facilities, like here at the University of Minnesota, all the hospitals, physicians being trained contacting and asking people questions where they have traveled, Minnesota Health is sending these tests to the CDC and making sure these folks are isolated," said Governor Walz.