What’s Important: Weathering the COVID-19 Crisis

摘要

On March 13, 2020, the President of the United States declared a national emergency in response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the novel SARS-CoV-2 virus . This comes as the global community races to grapple with a pandemic that has so far claimed nearly 10,000 lives and continues to spread at alarming rates . According to the World Health Organization (WHO), it took 3 months to reach the first 100,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases but only 12 days to reach the next 100,000 cases . Within the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 10,442 confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases spanning 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands as of March 19, 2020 . While multinational clinical trials are ongoing, there are currently no known medical treatments or vaccines available, and the focus has been on expediting diagnosis and slowing community transmission.