Mayo Clinic COVID-19 Information

by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)

We're living through unprecedented times that most likely will worsen before improving — to what extent and for how long unknown.

So our daily activities must adjust to conditions in the interest of public and personal health and safety.

This too shall pass though not likely quickly or easily. 

Of greatest concern is whether COVID-19 outbreaks will exceed in numbers what medical capabilities of the US and other nations are able to handle — including hospitals turning away patients in need for lack of capacity and staff to treat them.

On its website, the Mayo Clinic (MC) provides valuable health-related information.

Indeed, there's "nothing more important than your health for you and your family," MC noted.

It calls COVID-19 "a newly identified respiratory virus in the coronavirus family, but it is more severe and spreads easily. Diagnosis is difficult because it shares several symptoms with influenza."

Like seasonal flu and influenza, it spreads person-to-person "through respiratory droplets" from coughing or sneezing, even touching an infected person or a surface area affected by a COVID-19 droplet that can stay active for hours or longer.

Why it's important to wash hands thoroughly during the day multiple times and avoid touching facial areas around the nose, mouth, eyes and ears with potentially unsanitary hands.

It's unclear how long the virus can stay active outside its host. "Expert estimates range from a few hours to up to nine days, depending on the type of surface, surrounding temperature and environment," MC explained.

Some COVID-19 infected people are asymptomatic. Not knowing they're carriers can unwittingly spread contagion to others.

Anyone concerned about having COVID-19 symptoms should self-isolate and get help. "Do not go to your health care provider or hospital without calling first," said MC.

Its facilities are "prepared to treat patients with COVID-19. Mayo also is prepared to do so at a pandemic level, if needed." 

MC "will treat patients as part of a community wide plan in coordination with public health authorities."

"Patients who test positive for COVID-19 are isolated and treated. Currently, there is no antiviral treatment for COVID-19." 

"Specific interventions are taken in more severe cases, or with patients with compromised immune systems or complex illnesses."

Healthy individuals are advised not to wear a face mask because it's minimally to not at all protective.

It should be worn by infected individuals or anyone with COVID-19 symptoms to prevent the spread of their respiratory droplets to others.

Their use as well as protective clothing is important for healthcare workers to avoid infection.

Last Sunday, the establishment media Washington Post explained that state-run/single-payer/universal healthcare is the most effective way to deal with an infectious disease outbreak like COVID-19.

"(P)ublic health experts say the single-payer, state-run systems are proving themselves relatively robust," WaPo noted, adding:

In congressional testimony days earlier, "a top (public) health official (said) the (US) rollout of testing was 'failing,' " — polar opposite the case in nations with single-payer systems.

South Korea and Denmark offer "drive-through" testing. Similar programs exist in other nations with state-run programs.

According to epidemiologist David Fisman, at times of public health crisis conditions, "having a healthcare system that's a public strategic asset rather than a business run for profit allows for a degree of coordination and optimal use of resources."

Physicians for a National Health Program co-founder Dr. David Himmelstein explained that America's "fragmented" 

(dysfunctional) system "leaves public health separate and disconnected from medical care, and provides no mechanism to appropriately balance funding priorities," adding:

"(P)ublic health accounts for less than 3 percent of overall health expenditures, a percentage that has been falling for decades, and is about half (or less) the proportion" of what's mandated in other developed countries.

In the US, "state and local health departments that are the front lines in dealing with epidemics have lost 50,000 positions since 2008 due to budget cuts."

A nation that spends countless trillions of dollars on militarism, warmaking, and corporate handouts doesn't give a damn about its ordinary people.

It's evident from what's going on now. At a time of nationwide public duress, no federal programs exist to provide healthcare for Americans with COVID-19 symptoms.

There's nothing to keep disease from spreading except what states and communities are doing on their own.

According to Left Voice.org: "Capitalism is an incubator for pandemics. Socialism is the solution."

Labels aside, governance of, by, and for everyone equitably in a world at peace is the only acceptable way.

It's polar opposite the humanly destructive American way — harming the vast majority to benefit the privileged few.

VISIT MY WEBSITE: stephenlendman.org (Home - Stephen Lendman). Contact at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html