The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Doctor: 80% of people diagnosed will have a mild illness
CROMWELL — One strong message came out of Friday’s coronavirus workshop sponsored by Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce: Becoming alarmed about the situation is counterproductive.
Dr. Alina Filozo, the infectious disease section chief at Middlesex Health, relayed the information during a panel discussion, “Coronavirus: Understand the Facts, Misinformation and the Public Health Response,” at the Courtyard by Marriott.
“Don’t panic. You can panic when I panic,” Filozo told approximately 100 chamber members in the audience.
The presentation was crammed with information, but was also leavened with flashes of real humor, as when Filozo said, “Antibiotics don’t work for this. Nothing is better than chicken soup. So your mother was right.”
She also offered a possible timeline for when the current crisis may abate. She looked how long it took China, where the virus first appeared, to get the situation under control: three months.
The virus dies when the temperature reaches 86 degrees, “so I’m looking toward mid-July,” Filozov said. But, “There’s no indication that it won’t come
back in September.”
Amid a welter of confusing and often dangerously wrong misinformation, Vin Capece, Middlesex Health president and CEO, brought four of the hospital’s doctors to the meeting to explain the COVID-19 virus, what it is, and how to deal with it.
They took turns breaking down what is known and best practices for trying to get it under control, while also offering chamber members ideas for actions they can take in their businesses.
Chamber President Larry McHugh said, as the coronavirus first took hold in the United States three weeks ago, he reached out to Capece about organizing the program. “Vin didn’t wait even one second before he said yes,” McHugh said.
“Our goal is to get information out and try and educate people,” and, by doing so, “hopefully reduce some of the panic that might be out there,” Capece said.
Filozov began the program by defining what COVID-19 is. The “Co” is for corona, which means crown; “Vi” is virus, “D” is disease, and “19” is the year it was discovered. Despite all the anxiety it has generated, Filozov said humans are not the intended target of the virus — bats are. Coronavirus is similar to SARS and MERS, other respiratory diseases that have surfaced in the past 20 years.
But “coronavirus is not the flu,” Filozov said emphatically. Roughly “80 percent of the people who get COVID-19 will have a mild illness.” It is “transmitted in droplets that are secreted from the eyes, the nose and the mouth,” which is why professionals say, “Don’t touch your face,” and if you do, “Wash your hands.”
Vaccines are being developed, and Filozov said the hope is that tests for the virus — which have been largely unavailable — may be in supply by next week. But Capece,
Filozov and other panel members said even then, most people will not be tested.
Tests will show one of three things, Filozov said: “You’re dead, the virus is dead, or you have some residual parts of the virus in your system.”
Jodi Parisi, Middlesex’s infection protection manager, said the key to defeating the outbreak is to break the chain of infection. “And that can be done by washing your hands. That’s the number one way to prevent an infection.”
“The coronavirus needs a reservoir to live,” Parisi said, adding that an unguarded cough “is a portal of exit” for the virus.
She called upon business owners to “encourage your people to stay home if they are sick.” If people think they have COVID-19 symptoms, “Call your doctor. Don’t show up at a medical facility unannounced.
“We’re trying to limit the number of people you interact with,” she said.
Even people who do call before they come to the hospital will be met in the parking lot, and then, more often than not, sent home. “As much as we can, we want to keep this outside our walls to protect our staff,” explained Dr. John Bankoff, the chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine.
Middlesex is working to get a hotline for people to call; officials hope it will be up and running next week. “This is something we prepare for all the time,” Bankoff said.
The hospital developed a protocol during the Ebola outbreak in 2014. “It’s what we use now,” he said.
Jim Hite, the director of environmental safety and protective services at Middlesex, spoke directly to the business people in the audience, urging them “Involve your staff in the decision-making process. They’ll be looking to you for direction. Educate your staff. Do tabletop exercises with your staff. Consider alternate locations.”
People who have the virus should self-quarantine for 14 days, and wait for 48 hours after being fever free before returning to work, Hite added.
Dr. Matthew Lundquist, medical director of occupational medicine and employee health services, seconded Hite’s remarks. The best advice employers can give their employees is “Do not panic. Wash your hands. Don’t come to work if you’re sick.”
The last three weeks have been a rollercoaster of actions and reactions, with events changing daily. Parisi urged people to make the effort at least one day a week to wall themselves off from the clamor by doing yoga, meditating or reading a book.
One audience member said with the cacophony of information, rumor, surmise and opinion, “Who should we believe now that we don’t have Walter Cronkite anymore?”
That is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the panelists all agreed. “This is a health issue, not a political issue,” Filozov said.