Ground Zero: When the Cure is Worse than the Disease

Every disease has its patient zero, and for the coronavirus Covid-19, patient zero was Wei Guixian, a 57 year old woman who worked as a seafood merchant in Wuhan’s Huanan market. At the market, social media images show that meat was traded alongside live bats, rats, snakes, wolf pups and koalas.

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that 41% of the first 138 patients diagnosed at one hospital in Wuhan, became infected in that hospital. Simply put: nearly half of the initial infections in this hospital appear to have been spread within the hospital itself.

The spread of MRSA is the same In the United States. Estimates of healthcare workers’ infection rates range from 50% to 90%.​

The first victim in the UK caught the coronavirus in her local hospital. Marita Edwards went to Newport’s Royal Gwent hospital for a routine gallbladder operation on 28 February. She was only given a test for Covid three weeks after she entered the hospital. She died the next day.

“If she had not been in hospital, she would be still be alive,” said her son, Stuart Loud told The Guardian. “Clearly there was a coronavirus infection in the hospital which claimed my mum’s life.”

In fact, many major clusters of Covid cases started in hospitals...

One factor driving the spread between retirement homes is the fact that many homes are part of chains, and staff move freely between care homes.  

In Italy only three victims in the entire country had no previous conditions. The average age of those who’ve died from the virus in Italy is 79.5. All of Italy’s victims under 40 have been males with serious existing medical conditions. The press, though, has seized on these younger victims.

In the US 80% of deaths so far have been in those 65 years and older, most severe outcome all occurring in people 85 and older, according to an analysis in today’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report from the CDC.

Countries should follow the Ten Commandments for beating this virus...