KHN Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Thursday, Feb 13 2020
America Is Buying Time With Containment Strategy, CDC Director Says As 14th Coronavirus Case In U.S. Is Confirmed
CDC Director Robert Redfield says it's likely the U.S. is going to see human-to-human transmission and thus more cases of the coronavirus. "We're not going to be able to seal this virus from coming into this country," Redfield said. Meanwhile, the CDC says that some coronavirus testing kits that have been sent to states are flawed. And a 14th person tests positive for coronavirus.
Stat: CDC Director: More Person-To-Person Coronavirus Infections In U.S. Likely
Health officials believe there is still opportunity to prevent widespread transmission of the coronavirus in the United States, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday, even as he warned that more human-to-human transmission here is likely. "We're still going to see new cases. We're probably going to see human-to-human transmission within the United States," Dr. Robert Redfield said in an interview with STAT. (Branswell, 2/12)
The New York Times: Coronavirus Test Kits Sent To States Are Flawed, C.D.C. Says
Some of the coronavirus testing kits sent to state laboratories around the country have flaws and do not work properly, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Wednesday. The kits were meant to enable states to conduct their own testing and have results faster than they would by shipping samples to the C.D.C. in Atlanta. But the failure of the kits means that states that encountered problems with the test should not use it, and would still have to depend on the C.D.C.'s central lab, which could cause several days' delay in getting results. (Grady, 2/12)
The Wall Street Journal: Newly Confirmed Coronavirus Cases In China's Hubei Province Rise Sharply
The likely culprit is a reagent—a compound used to cause a chemical reaction—that isn't behaving consistently, health authorities said. The CDC is working to remanufacture the reagent and send it back out. This could result in delays in running diagnostics. Local and state health authorities were eager to access the tests themselves, to avoid the wait involved in sending samples through the CDC. (Mendell and Kubota, 2/12)
The Wall Street Journal: Test Kits For Novel Coronavirus Hit A Snag In The U.S.
Local and state health authorities are eager to access the tests themselves and avoid the wait time involved in sending all their samples through the CDC. Right now, the Illinois Department of Public Health can test for the virus, the first state in the country to do so. Some labs will face a delay in running the diagnostics, as health authorities work out the kinks in testing. "We are looking into all of these issues to understand what went wrong," Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the CDC said on a press call with reporters. "This is really part of a normal process and procedure, and we have the quality control set up specifically to allow us to identify these kinds of problems." (Abbott, 2/12)
CNN: Some Coronavirus Test Kits Shipped To States Are Not Working As Expected, The CDC Says
Some states notified the CDC that they were unable to validate the test, and the agency is remanufacturing a reagent used in the test that's not performing consistently. Not all states have been affected. The Illinois Department of Public Health said it has not had any issues with the kits and it's continuing with its testing for the coronavirus. (Karimi and Christensen, 2/13)
Miami Herald: Uncertainty Over Whether CDC Coronavirus Testing Kits Work
Florida health officials received testing kits for novel coronavirus earlier this week but can't use them yet because it's unclear whether the tests are working. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday morning said issues with the tests the agency has developed for the respiratory illness spreading rapidly through China surfaced after they were sent out to state labs. After state labs receive testing kits from the CDC, they must verify their accuracy, but the labs flagged "inconclusive results," or returns that were neither positive nor negative, CDC officials said on a call with journalists Wednesday. (Conarck, 2/12)
Cleveland Plain Dealer: National Council For Occupational Health And Safety Says Coronavirus Could Be A Health Risk To U.S. Healthcare, Transportation Workers
The National Council for Occupational Health and Safety on Wednesday declared Wuhan coronavirus a "significant occupational health risk for tens of millions of U.S. workers" and said that employers are responsible for implementing policies that keep workers safe.Workers in transportation industry and healthcare fields may be at the most at risk, the organization said on its website Wednesday. Workers in other industries may be at lower risk. Regardless, all workers "need guidance on assessing their risk of exposure." (Kilpatrick, 2/12)
Reuters: CDC Confirms 14th U.S. Case Of Coronavirus With Patient In San Diego
A second person evacuated from Wuhan, China, to a U.S. Marine base near San Diego has been diagnosed with the new coronavirus, raising the tally of confirmed cases in the United States to 14, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on Wednesday. The patient was among 232 individuals placed under quarantine at the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar after being airlifted from the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan earlier this month, CDC spokeswoman Ana Toro said. (Gorman, 2/12)
Los Angeles Times: Second Coronavirus Case Confirmed In San Diego
Like the first, which was announced Monday, the infected patient is an evacuee hospitalized with UC San Diego Health System shortly after arriving at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar on Friday. The university also said Wednesday that it has received an additional patient for testing from the quarantined group of evacuees living at Miramar, bringing the total to nine since last week. The three patients who remain under the university's care are said to be doing well; others have been returned to quarantine. (Sisson, 2/12)
The Hill: Fourteenth Case Of Coronavirus Diagnosed In US
"At this time there is no indication of person-to-person spread of this virus at the quarantine facility, but CDC will carry out a thorough contact investigation as part of its current response strategy to detect and contain any cases of infection with this virus," said Dr. Chris Braden, leader of CDC's on-site team. (Klar, 2/12)
ABC News: What Life Is Like Under Novel Coronavirus Quarantine
As novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, continues to spread around the globe, Americans are wrestling with an uncomfortable side effect of widespread infectious disease: the possibility of quarantine. A quarantine is designed to keep high-risk individuals who may have been exposed to the virus in isolation during the disease's infectious period, to see if they became sick. (Schumaker, 2/13)
MPR: If New Virus Gets Here, Health Systems Say They're Prepared
The university says that since Jan. 22, the Boynton pharmacy has sold more than 8,200 ear-loop masks. The U has suspended study-abroad travel to China and has been communicating with students and faculty about precautions to take while traveling. Golden said there are instructions greeting anyone coming into the Boynton offices about COVID-19. (Cox, 2/12)
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