The "China" Virus
Claudewell S. Thomas, MD, MPH, DLFAPA, is an established psychiatrist who is currently retired ,, He received his medical degree in 1956 at SUNY Downstate College of Medicine and specializes in social psychiatry, public health psychiatry, and forensic psychiatry. Dr. Thomas was board certified by the American Board of Psychiatry... more
POTUS insists on using the term "China" virus for Covid-19 and implies that Chinese concealment of the disease prevented the USA from being further ahead in prevention and treatment of the disease. The latest 60 minutes program courtesy of CBS and Bill Whittaker sheds a lot of light on this controversy.
While the Chinese government initially and probably for one year denied reports by Chinese physicians while imprisoning some, Chinese epidemiologists were following the path of the infection and geneticists were mapping the genetic signature of Covid-19. As a result, several companies are testing new and old drugs in clinical trials and several others are constructing vaccines. Unfortunately, both types of intervention require testing of the recipients. Despite the authoritarian protectionism, China made the genetic map available about November 2019 and other countries joined in the exploratory blocking efforts.
I have learned that my description of the coronary viruses as RNA viruses is not accurate only the body of the complex structure is RNA the coronas or crowns are DNA and protect the RNA as first interactors with tissue including the cells and chemicals of challenging immune systems. The salient point is that China gave us the wherewithal of our countermeasures much earlier than we began our efforts to procure beds, ventilators, masks, protective gowns, etc. Wuhan is not Nineveh, and China is not Wuhan.
Remobilizing the country's businesses in the face of the need to maximize social distancing is likely to keep the steep climb of the infection rate continuing. It is an economania as dangerous as the xenophobia of the China syndrome.
