{"id":38597,"date":"2020-02-26T22:54:31","date_gmt":"2020-02-27T04:54:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=38597"},"modified":"2020-02-26T22:54:31","modified_gmt":"2020-02-27T04:54:31","slug":"38597","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=38597","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Transcript for the CDC Telebriefing Update on COVID-19<\/a><\/p>\n

Audio recording\u00a0media icon<\/span>[MP3 \u2013 6 MB]<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\n

Please Note: This transcript is not edited and may contain errors.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Welcome and thank you for standing by.\u00a0 At this time, all participants are on listen-only mode until our question and answer session.\u00a0 At that time, if you would like to ask a question, please press star then one.\u00a0 Please be advised today\u2019s conference is being recorded.\u00a0 If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time.\u00a0 Now I would like to turn the meeting over to Mr. Benjamin Haynes.\u00a0 Thank you.\u00a0 You may begin.<\/p>\n

Thank you.\u00a0 And thank you all for joining us for today\u2019s update on CDC\u2019s COVID-19 response.\u00a0 We are joined by the director of CDC\u2019s national center for immunization and respiratory diseases who will give opening remarks. \u00a0I will now turn the call over.<\/p>\n

Thank you for joining us.\u00a0 The global novel coronavirus situation is rapidly evolving and expanding.\u00a0 There are still a lot of news coverage about community spread in a few countries since the last time we talked.<\/p>\n

This means that cases of COVID-19 are appearing without a known source of exposure.\u00a0 Communities include Hong Kong, Italy, Iran, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand.\u00a0 Community spread is often a trigger to begin implementing new strategies tailored to local circumstances that blunt the impact of disease and can slow the spread of virus.<\/p>\n

The fact this virus has caused illness \u2013 including illness resulting in death, and sustained person-to-person spread is concerning.\u00a0 These factors meet two of the criteria of the pandemic.\u00a0 The world moves closer towards meeting the third criteria.\u00a0 Worldwide spread of the new virus.<\/p>\n

The U.S. has been implementing an aggressive containment strategy that requires detecting, tracking, and isolating all cases.\u00a0 As much as possible and preventing more introduction of disease notably at points of entry.\u00a0 We\u2019ve restricted travel into the United States while also issuing extensive travel advisories for countries currently experiencing community spread.\u00a0 Our travel notices are changing almost daily.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve also enacted the first quarantine of this scale in the U.S. And are supporting the state department and HHS in repatriating citizens from high-risk areas.\u00a0 We are doing this with the goal of slowing the introduction of this new virus into the U.S. And buying us more time to prepare.\u00a0 To date, our containment strategies have been largely successful.\u00a0 As a result, we have very few cases in the United States and no spread in the community.\u00a0 But as more and more countries experience community spread, successful containment at our borders becomes harder and harder.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, we expect we will see community spread in this country.\u00a0 It\u2019s not so much a question of if this will happen anymore but rather more a question of exactly when this will happen and how many people in this country will have severe illness.\u00a0 We will maintain for as long as practical a dual approach where we continue measures to contain this disease but also employ strategies to minimize the impact on our communities.<\/p>\n

At this time, there\u2019s no vaccine to protect against this new virus and no medications approved to treat it.\u00a0 Non-pharmaceutical interventions or NPIs will be the most important tools in our response to this virus.\u00a0 What these interventions look like at the community level will vary depending on local conditions.\u00a0 What is appropriate for one community seeing local transmission won\u2019t necessarily be appropriate for a community where no local transmission has occurred.\u00a0 This parallel, proactive approach of containment and mitigation will delay the emergence of community spread in the United States while simultaneously reducing its ultimate impact.<\/p>\n

To illustrate how this works, I\u2019d like to share with you some of the specific recommendations made in the document I mentioned last Friday including some of the steps we would take here if needed.\u00a0 This document is called Community Mitigation Guidelines to Prevent Pandemic Influenza United States 2017.\u00a0 It draws from the findings of nearly 200 journal articles written between 1990 and 2016.<\/p>\n

This document looked at what can be done at the individual and community level during a pandemic when we don\u2019t have a vaccine or proven medical treatment for the disease.\u00a0 We\u2019re looking at data since 2016 and adjusting our recommendations to the specific circumstances of COVID-19.\u00a0 But this posted document provides a frame work for our response strategy.\u00a0 Based on what is known now, we would implement these NPI measures in a very aggressive, proactive way as he have been doing with our containment efforts.<\/p>\n

There are three categories of NPIs.\u00a0 Personal NPIs which include personal protective measures you can take every day and personal protective measures reserved for pandemics.\u00a0 Community NPIs which include social distancing measures designed to keep people who are sick away from others.\u00a0 And school closures and dismissals.\u00a0 And environmental NPIs which includes surface cleaning measures.\u00a0 NPIs routinely recommended for prevention of respiratory virus transmission include everyday personal protective measures.<\/p>\n

These are preventive measures we recommend during influenza season.\u00a0 These NPIs are recommended during a pandemic regardless of the severity level of the respiratory illness.\u00a0 Personal protective measures reserved for pandemics include voluntary home quarantine of household members who have been exposed to someone they live with who is sick.\u00a0 Now I\u2019d like to talk through some examples of what community NPIs look like.<\/p>\n

These are practical measures that can help limit exposure by reducing exposure in community settings.\u00a0 Students in smaller groups or in a severe pandemic, closing schools and using internet-based teleschooling to continue education.\u00a0 For adults, businesses can replace in-person meetings with video or telephone conferences and increase teleworking options.<\/p>\n

On a larger scale, communities may need to modify, postpone, or cancel mass gatherings.\u00a0 Looking at how to increase telehealth services and delaying elective surgery.\u00a0 The implementation of environmental NPIs would require everyone to consistently clean frequently touched surfaces and objects at home, at school, at work, and at large gatherings.<\/p>\n

Local communities will need to look at which NPIs to implement and when based on how transmission and disease is and what can be done locally.\u00a0 This will require flexibility and adaptations as disease progresses and new information becomes available.\u00a0 Some of these measures are better than none.\u00a0 But the maximum benefit occurs when the elements are layered upon each other.<\/p>\n

Some community level interventions that may be most effective in reducing the spread of a new virus like school closures are also the most likely to be associated with unwanted consequences and further disruptions.\u00a0 Secondary consequences of some of these measures might include missed work and loss of income. \u00a0I understand this whole situation may seem overwhelming and that disruption to everyday life may be severe.\u00a0 But these are things that people need to start thinking about now.<\/p>\n

I had a conversation with my family over breakfast this morning and I told my children that while I didn\u2019t think that they were at risk right now, we as a family need to be preparing for significant disruption of our lives.\u00a0 You should ask your children\u2019s school about their plans for school dismissals or school closures.<\/p>\n

If ask if there are plans for teleschool. \u00a0I contacted my local school superintendent this morning with exactly those questions.\u00a0 You should think about what you would do for childcare if schools or day cares close.\u00a0 If teleworking is an option for you.\u00a0 All of these questions can help you be better prepared for what might happen.<\/p>\n

CDC and other federal agencies have been practicing for this since the 2019 influenza pandemic.\u00a0 In the last two years, CDC has engaged in two pandemic influenza exercises that have required us to prepare for a severe pandemic and just this past year we had a whole of government exercise practicing similarly around a pandemic of influenza.<\/p>\n

Right now CDC is operationalizing all of its pandemic response plans working on multiple fronts including specific measures to prepare communities to respond to local transmission of the virus that causes COVID-19.\u00a0 Before I take questions, I want to address the issue of the test kits CDC is developing.<\/p>\n

I am frustrated like I know many of you are that we have had issues with our test. \u00a0I want to assure you that we are working to modify the kit and hope to send out a new version to state and local jurisdictions soon.\u00a0 There are currently 12 states or localities around the U.S. That can test samples as well as we are testing at CDC 400 samples were tested overnight.<\/p>\n

There is no current backlog or delay for testing at CDC.\u00a0 Commercial labs will also be coming online soon with their own tests.\u00a0 This will allow the greatest number of tests to happen closer to where potential cases are.\u00a0 Last, I want to recognize that people are concerned about this situation. \u00a0I would say rightfully so.\u00a0 I\u2019m concerned about the situation.\u00a0 CDC is concerned about the situation.\u00a0 But we are putting our concerns to work preparing.<\/p>\n

And now is the time for businesses, hospitals, community schools, and everyday people to begin preparing as well.\u00a0 Over the last few weeks, CDC has been on dozens of calls with different partners in the health, retail, education, and business sectors.\u00a0 In the hopes that employers begin to respond in a flexible way to differing levels of severity, to refine their business response plans as needed. \u00a0I also want to acknowledge the importance of uncertainty.\u00a0 During an outbreak with a new virus, there is a lot of uncertainty.\u00a0 Our guidance and advice are likely to be fluid subject to change as we learn more.\u00a0 We will continue to keep you updated.\u00a0 I\u2019d be happy to take a few questions now.<\/p>\n

Brittany, we\u2019re ready to take questions.<\/p>\n

Thank you.\u00a0 We\u2019ll now begin our question and answer session.\u00a0 If you would like to ask a question over the phone, press star, then one and record your name clearly when prompted.\u00a0 If you need to withdraw your question, press star then two.\u00a0 One moment as we wait for the first question.\u00a0 Our first question comes from Lisa from PBS.\u00a0 Your line is now open.<\/p>\n

Good morning.\u00a0 Thank you for doing this. \u00a0I have some more questions about the test kits.\u00a0 Thank you for what you gave us the update on, but can you go into more detail about how they work?\u00a0 Can any hospital now just kind of use a swab to get a sample and then send that to the CDC?\u00a0 And then how long do you estimate it will take to have the kits replaced so that more localities can actually do the analysis and do you have enough money for this kind of field work and test analysis right now?<\/p>\n

Okay.\u00a0 I\u2019m going to start from maybe the part of a patient perspective which is, you know, right now our focus is still on individuals with a travel history that would put them at risk for COVID-19.\u00a0 Or people who are close contacts of someone who has COVID-19.\u00a0 Those individuals when they are identified by a health care provider, the health care provider calls the health department.<\/p>\n

The health department helps them triage those patients to make\u00a0\u2014 and then the samples are worked with the health department.\u00a0 Now, as we move forward, though, if we are looking at the trajectory of expecting that there likely will be community spread of this virus in the united states, the case definition may change away from narrowly around people with travel.<\/p>\n

Again, that\u2019s what we would anticipate doing as there is community spread.\u00a0 If that happens, it will be more and more important that the clinicians have a full tool kit.\u00a0 That\u2019s why the availability of commercial kits would be so helpful.\u00a0 So in the short-term, it\u2019s the clinician calls the health department.\u00a0 And either the health department already has the test kit themselves or if they don\u2019t yet have it stood up, they send it to CDC.\u00a0 Our turnaround at CDC is within a day.<\/p>\n

There is a little bit of shipping time.\u00a0 But that\u2019s the process.\u00a0 In terms of timing, I think at this point what I would say is we are working as fast as we can.\u00a0 We understand the frustration of our partners in the health care sector, in health departments.\u00a0 You certainly can imagine we want to resolve this as quickly as possible.\u00a0 But we have to make sure that while resolving it, we keep to the highest level of quality assurance.\u00a0 Because as important as speed is, it is more important that we make sure that our results are correct.<\/p>\n

In terms of funding, there\u2019s already been funds available that are helping us with the activities that we have now that is the diagnostic testing at CDC.\u00a0 And we\u2019ll continue to proceed focused on our priorities which as I\u2019ve said are getting this test kit out to state health departments so they can be doing that themselves as an interim step to getting it commercially available would be a great advancement.\u00a0 Next question.<\/p>\n

Thank you.\u00a0 And our next question comes from Craig from KNX 1070 news radio Los Angeles. \u00a0Your line is now open.<\/p>\n

Thank you, doctor. \u00a0I appreciate your time.\u00a0 Couple of questions.\u00a0 There\u2019s been a lot of talk about what\u2019s being done to prepare for possible people who would be quarantined.\u00a0 I\u2019d like to know what that is.\u00a0 And also is the Chinese government leveling with you?\u00a0 Are they telling you the truth?\u00a0 Have they given you the straight dope, so to speak, as to what you need to know about the coronavirus?<\/p>\n

So in answer to your first question, I would say generally we are working on a daily basis with state and local health departments across the country on exactly those issues.\u00a0 What are the local considerations for quarantine or isolation and how can they be resolved?\u00a0 And in each location in the united states, it may end up being a slightly different answer.<\/p>\n

Our focus is on the best health of the individual whom we are working with in terms of whether they need quarantine or isolation.\u00a0 In terms of the Chinese government, there has been a WHO team on the ground in China as well in Wuhan.\u00a0 There are data coming out from those efforts.\u00a0 We have a lot of information from china.<\/p>\n

Frankly, we have a lot of new information from all the other countries around the world now that are reporting community spread and we are as quickly as possible trying to synthesize that information.\u00a0 It is providing us more data in terms of making our own estimations in the U.S. Of what we\u2019re going to see.\u00a0 Communities that are having community spread are certainly very informative in terms of what we might expect in the united states.<\/p>\n

And I think that whole body of evidence is frankly coming really quickly at us.\u00a0 That\u2019s why we have a team of people here at CDC synthesizing it all.<\/p>\n

Next question, please.<\/p>\n

Thank you.\u00a0 And our next question comes from Megan from STAT.\u00a0 Your line is now open.<\/p>\n

Hi there.\u00a0 Thank you so much for taking my question.\u00a0 I\u2019m wondering if you could expand a little bit on whether you are reconsidering testing people with travel history to other countries now where they might be infected. \u00a0And I\u2019m also wondering if you could say whether or not the agency has considered getting tests from another country that\u2019s supplying tests to other nations as well.<\/p>\n

So the answer to the first question is certainly, we\u2019re considering what the spread of illness in other countries looks like and how it impacts the potential risk the Americans traveling abroad in those countries.\u00a0 Those conversations are going on as we speak.\u00a0 We obviously are working closely with the partners on those considerations.\u00a0 And when there is new information in terms of case definitions, we\u2019ll definitely publicize that broadly.<\/p>\n

You know, as I said, we are still at the stage of containment, but we are already starting to plan for mitigation.\u00a0 And part of the mitigation planning is the participation of community spread in the united states.\u00a0 And as that happens, it would certainly dramatically impact how we\u2019re considering who is on the case.\u00a0 As you can imagine, the symptoms of novel coronavirus look a lot like other viral respiratory diseases that are circulating this time of year.<\/p>\n

So it\u2019s going to be difficult for clinicians to differentiate fully on the basis of those\u00a0\u2014 solely on the basis of the symptoms.\u00a0 In terms of diagnostic tests, what I would say is we\u2019re working closely with FDA on this.\u00a0 And obviously with the state and local health department partners.\u00a0 And I think that we are rapidly moving towards getting those kits more available in the U.S.\u00a0 In the systems that we have.<\/p>\n

Really I think we\u2019re close. \u00a0I just wouldn\u2019t want to give an estimate of when until we\u2019re there.\u00a0 But I think we\u2019re close.\u00a0 And remember, a dozen states now have the kit and are testing and there\u2019s tests available in the U.S.\u00a0 So I think we\u2019re making forward progress.<\/p>\n

Thank you.\u00a0 And our next question comes from Lena Sun from Washington Post.\u00a0 Your line is now open.<\/p>\n

Thank you. \u00a0I had a couple questions.\u00a0 One is if a dozen states have the kit, then do they still need to send those tests to CDC for confirmation?\u00a0 Which are the states that have the tests?\u00a0 And more broadly, your comments today seem to represent a significant escalation in the sort of severity and urgency of the now.\u00a0 At a briefing this morning for Congress, I believe some members were told that we now face a very strong chance of an extremely serious outbreak.\u00a0 Is that the CDC\u2019s feeling right now that we face an extremely strong chance of a serious outbreak?<\/p>\n

Okay.\u00a0 So let\u2019s see.\u00a0 The first question, it\u2019s 12 state or local health departments.\u00a0 And so it\u2019s not 12 states total.\u00a0 We are still as a point of part of how we roll out these tests, those tests that are positive still do come to CDC for confirmation. \u00a0I think that\u2019s just part of a normal process to ensure we are keeping to the utmost quality control.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t have a list of state or local health departments in front of me, but I think we can provide that.\u00a0 In terms of a change in tone, I guess what I would say is as I look back on the scripts of the telebriefings that we\u2019ve given over the past month, we have for a long time been saying\u00a0\u2014 we have for many weeks been saying that while we hope this is not going to be severe, we are planning as if it is.<\/p>\n

The data over the last week and the spread in other countries has certainly raised our level of concern and raised our level of expectation that we are going to have community spread here.\u00a0 So I think that that\u2019s perhaps the change of tone you\u2019ve seen. \u00a0I think what we still don\u2019t know is what that will look like as many of you know.\u00a0 We can have community spread in the united states and have it be reasonably mild.<\/p>\n

We could have community spread in the united states and have it be very severe.\u00a0 And so that is what\u00a0\u2014 that is what we don\u2019t completely know yet.\u00a0 And we certainly also don\u2019t exactly know when it\u2019s going to happen. \u00a0I think it would be nice for everybody if we could say, you know, on this date is when it\u2019s going to start.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t know that yet.\u00a0 And so that\u2019s why we\u2019re asking folks in every sector as well as people within their families to start planning for this because as we\u2019ve seen from the recent countries that have had community spread when it is hit in those countries, it has moved quite rapidly.\u00a0 So we want to make sure that the American public is prepared.<\/p>\n

Thank you. \u00a0And as a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one.\u00a0 Limit to one question and one follow-up.\u00a0 Our next question comes from Eben from Fox news.\u00a0 Your line is now open.<\/p>\n

Thank you very much for doing the call today.\u00a0 There has been some political back and forth now that democrats are accusing the president which essentially means the administration and everything that falls under that as being ill prepared for coronavirus, requesting too little of amount in terms of their request for $2.5 billion.\u00a0 Do you feel that we are ill prepared from a financial standpoint? \u00a0I know you are a clinician and I don\u2019t want you to get too much into politics, but do you have what you need to do your job?<\/p>\n

I guess I\u2019ll answer that two ways.\u00a0 The first is HHS can provide information or answer questions about the funds that are available.\u00a0 What I can say from my perspective is I\u2019ve been at CDC for 25 years and that if you asked public health officials over the course of that time what they feared as an expectation, it was something exactly like this.<\/p>\n

And so the idea that we might have a pandemic of influenza or a pandemic of a respiratory viral infection is something that we\u2019ve known about and have been planning and preparing for.\u00a0 That\u2019s why we at CDC have been exercising with the state and local health departments.\u00a0 That\u2019s why the whole of government exercise last year, that\u2019s why we\u2019ve invested so much on the foundation we are now responding.\u00a0 But that being said, we are never going to ever be able to be so completely prepared that we\u2019re prepared for any inevitability.<\/p>\n

We always are going to find that diseases surprise us and that there was some consideration that is slightly different from what we planned for.\u00a0 So have we made a lot of progress in the 25 years I\u2019ve been here?\u00a0 Yes. \u00a0Are we better prepared today than we were 20 years ago?\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 But are we completely prepared?\u00a0 You know, diseases surprise us and therefore we need to be reacting to the current situation even if it differs from what we planned for.<\/p>\n

You know, in general we are asking the American public to work with us to prepare in the expectation that this could be bad. \u00a0I continue to hope that in the end we\u2019ll look back and feel like we are over-prepared, but that is a better place to be in than being under-prepared.<\/p>\n

And just like the preparedness for a pandemic influenza provides such a strong foundation for this response, any preparedness we do as a country, at schools, businesses, within our families will always be helpful for whatever the next event is.\u00a0 And so I don\u2019t think in general that preparedness will ever go to waste.<\/p>\n

Next question, please.<\/p>\n

Thank you.\u00a0 Our next question comes from Mike from A.P.\u00a0 Your line is now open.<\/p>\n

Hi.\u00a0 Thank you for taking my call.\u00a0 If I could ask a couple.\u00a0 One is just the latest case count, it\u2019s been a little confusing for some of us just to sort out exactly how many U.S.\u00a0 Cases there are and how they\u2019re being sorted out.\u00a0 Second, if you could speak to your best and latest understanding of the severity of the disease.<\/p>\n

Of course there\u2019s some news today about the WHO mission coming back and statements about not finding a lot of undetected cases. \u00a0I was wondering if that\u2019s related to CDC gearing up for these NPIs.\u00a0 And lastly, talking about the exercising you\u2019ve been doing, what was the weakness or weaknesses that kept coming up in the exercises that you\u2019re most concerned about and you\u2019re really trying to stay on top of now that we have a real time experience happening?\u00a0 Thank you.<\/p>\n

Okay.\u00a0 So let me\u00a0\u2014 so let me start by saying that I know the case counts can be confusing. \u00a0I will try to sort out what the numbers are as of today and try to explain why it perhaps is a little confusing.\u00a0 There remain 14 confirmed U.S.\u00a0 Cases.\u00a0 We are separating out the cases among repatriated individuals.\u00a0 So those are 14 U.S. Cases.\u00a0 12 of those are travelers who returned from an area where disease is circulating.\u00a0 Two of those are close contacts of another case.\u00a0 That\u2019s 14.<\/p>\n

There are three novel coronavirus patients among people who are repatriated from Hubei that is in the repatriated flights.\u00a0 And our website says 36 because we updated this yesterday, but in fact as of this morning, there are 40 positives among individuals repatriated from the \u201cDiamond Princess.\u201d\u00a0 so these are Americans who were on board the \u201cDiamond Princess\u201d\u00a0 repatriated back to the United States.\u00a0 And that\u2019s 40.<\/p>\n

So that means just to go back that there are 14 confirmed cases picked up through the U.S. public health systems.\u00a0 And 40 plus 3 makes 43 among individuals repatriated into the United States. \u00a0I do hope that helps.\u00a0 In terms of the severity, I think that there are a variety of reports that give information about severity.\u00a0 We\u2019ve looked at severity among people, among reported people from Hubei.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve looked at reported people from elsewhere in china.\u00a0 And certainly the data coming out from Korea and Iran and Italy suggests also deaths which are concerning.\u00a0 In terms of our messaging today, I really would say that it is more driven by the community spread in other countries than it is specifically from data from china.<\/p>\n

And so I think it really is the spreading of COVID-19 through other countries that makes all of us feel that the risk of spread in the united states has\u00a0\u2014 is increasing.\u00a0 In terms of exercising, you know, there are always small and big things that we learn from exercising.\u00a0 Maybe two specific things I\u2019ll point out is that our exercising did show us that if we had a pandemic, there were going to be supply issues.<\/p>\n

And I think that we are now across the whole of government thinking through and working on those supply issues.\u00a0 One of them is enough protection for health care workers.\u00a0 This is clearly a priority. The health care workers put themselves on the front line caring for ill patients and has to be a priority to make sure they are protected.\u00a0 Another issue is the NPIs.\u00a0 The non-pharmaceutical interventions.<\/p>\n

We have worked across governmental sectors to get input into our planning guidance.\u00a0 But it\u2019s one thing to plan for those NPIs.\u00a0 It\u2019s certainly another thing to be able to implement them at a large scale.\u00a0 And I think one of the reasons that we\u2019re talking about this so proactively today is that we recognize that implementing NPIs at this level that we want to prepare the american people that their lives could be interrupted.\u00a0 Next.<\/p>\n

Thank you.\u00a0 Our next question comes from Eric of ABC news.\u00a0 Your line is open.<\/p>\n

Thanks, Benjamin.\u00a0 Thanks, Nancy for taking our questions.\u00a0 I\u2019m wondering like the chicken and the egg with the case definition and the testing.\u00a0 If you\u2019re telling us today it\u2019s not a question of if but when there\u2019ll be community spread and it\u2019s very difficult to\u00a0\u2014 for clinicians to know the difference between flu and COVID-19, how come you\u2019re not widening the case definition to test more people?<\/p>\n

So let me answer that two ways.\u00a0 One is that we have more than one layer of surveillance. \u00a0I think I talked about this in a previous call, but maybe just to talk about it a little more.\u00a0 There is a specific patient-under-investigation case definition that really does focus on travel because that is where the cases that are picked up through our public health systems are.\u00a0 But we are also aware and concerned about the possibility for broader spread in the U.S.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why the Secretary and we announced last week that we were going to be doing more community-based surveillance relying on the infrastructure of our influenza.\u00a0 So we have already started that surveillance system.\u00a0 We\u2019re rapidly working within the next couple weeks to expand that more broadly.\u00a0 As well, we have a variety of other more community-oriented surveillance systems that we\u2019re working to stand up to be able to look for those cases in the community.\u00a0 So this is proceeding in stages with the one surveillance but community surveillance also rapidly starting.<\/p>\n

Brittany, we have time for two more questions, please.<\/p>\n

Thank you.\u00a0 And our next question comes from Lauren from San Antonio Express News.\u00a0 Your line is now open.<\/p>\n

Thank you for taking my call. \u00a0I wanted to ask about the 14-day incubation period that has been reiterated by many public health officials including the quarantine of the evacuees.\u00a0 We\u2019ve seen some isolated reports coming from other countries suggesting that it is possible that the incubation period has been longer in some individuals in other countries who have been quarantined for more than 14 days.\u00a0 And I was wondering if you guys have any reason to suspect whether the incubation period may be longer than 14 days for those of Wuhan that have been released from their quarantine.<\/p>\n

Thank you.\u00a0 That\u2019s actually a really important question.\u00a0 And something we\u2019re looking at closely.\u00a0 Some of the reports that you\u2019ve seen are reports in the media, not reports in peer reviewed literature.\u00a0 And it impacts our ability to fully scientifically evaluate them.\u00a0 As I\u2019ve said in previous meetings, there are a team of\u00a0\u2014 there are more than 50 modeling mathematical modeling groups in the United States all working with us to look at a variety of issues around this response to novel coronavirus.<\/p>\n

One of the things they\u2019re certainly analyzing is all of the available data on the incubation period.\u00a0 And the data so far still supports using 14 days as the top window.\u00a0 In terms of isolated reports elsewhere, there are a variety of possibilities.\u00a0 One possibility is\u00a0\u2014 there\u2019s a variety of possibilities \u2013 what we\u2019ll do is continue to synthesize and evaluate the available data trying to make a data-driven decision.\u00a0 And if more data becomes available that suggests a longer incubation period, we will certainly be visible and public about that. \u00a0I think at this point, we\u2019re still comfortable that 14 days is the appropriate top line for that.<\/p>\n

Last question, please.<\/p>\n

Thank you.\u00a0 And our final question comes from Ben from CNN.\u00a0 Your line is now open.<\/p>\n

Hi, thanks so much for taking my question.\u00a0 This morning while he was traveling in India, President Trump said that he thinks that the coronavirus is a problem that is going to go away.\u00a0 He seems very optimistic about this and we\u2019re trying to figure out exactly why he believes so strongly that to be the case.\u00a0 And so my question for you is what information is your agency specifically giving the president and the White House about the current state of the coronavirus outbreak?<\/p>\n

As you imagine, we brief the Secretary daily and the Secretary is the lead of the White House task force.\u00a0 And Ddr. Redfield the CDC director is briefing them daily.\u00a0 In terms of the course of this illness, we have a\u00a0\u2014 again, a team of mathematical modelers working with us to try to predict the trajectory.\u00a0 One hypothesis is that we could be hopeful that this could potentially be seasonal.<\/p>\n

Other viral respiratory diseases are seasonal including influenza and therefore in many viral respiratory diseases, we do see a decrease in disease in spring and summer.\u00a0 And so we could certainly be optimistic that this disease will follow suit. But we\u2019re not going to know that until time keeps ticking forward.\u00a0 We\u2019re going to be, again, preparing as if this is going to continue, preparing as if we\u2019re going to see community spread in the near term.<\/p>\n

But I\u2019m always going to be hopeful that that disease will decline either for the summer or that, you know, we\u2019ll be over-prepared and we won\u2019t see the high levels of transmission here in the U.S.<\/p>\n

Thank you, doctor.\u00a0 And thank you, all, for joining us for today\u2019s briefing. Please visit CDC\u2019s 2019 novel coronavirus website for continued updates.\u00a0 And if you have further questions, please call the main media line at 404-639-3286 or email media@CDC.gov.\u00a0 Thank you.<\/p>\n

Thank you for your participation in today\u2019s conference.\u00a0 All participants may disconnect at this time.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Transcript for the CDC Telebriefing Update on COVID-19 Audio recording\u00a0media icon[MP3 \u2013 6 MB] Please Note: This transcript is not edited and may contain errors. Welcome and thank you for standing by.\u00a0 At this time, all participants are on listen-only mode until our question and answer session.\u00a0 At that time, if you would like to … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-medicine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38597"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38598,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38597\/revisions\/38598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}