Concerning the Chinese coronavirus, a reader points out …
It’s already here …..
Indeed it is:
A case of the new coronavirus from China has been confirmed in a patient just north of Seattle, federal health officials said Tuesday. The mysterious pneumonia-like illness has killed at least six people and sickened hundreds of others in Asia, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. …
The patient in Washington, a resident of Snohomish County, is a man in his 30s. The CDC said he arrived in the United States around Jan. 15 after having visited Wuhan. He hadn’t, however, visited the seafood market where the virus is said to have originated. [NBC News]
So it appears to definitely be inter-human mobile. And here’s a new term for me:
Health officials don’t know how easily the infection spreads between people. One infectious disease expert expressed concern that it could be transmitted through so-called super-spreaders — highly infectious patients able to sicken dozens of people at once.
This is not a carrier, who is someone who spreads a disease but doesn’t suffer from it; super-spreaders are simply more virulent than the general run. Perhaps they provide a more salubrious environment for the pathogen than the average human.
