Trump adviser Kudlow says to avoid Seattle after virus outbreak
WASHINGTON, D.C. —President Donald Trump’s economic adviser Larry Kudlow said Americans should avoid traveling to Seattle after an outbreak of coronavirus in the area.
“That would be a place you would avoid for now,” Kudlow said Friday in an interview on CNBC, as he also urged Americans not to overreact to the virus.
There have been 14 deaths from the coronavirus in the U.S., mostly in the Seattle area. The number of infections in the U.S. topped 200, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Kudlow said the U.S. should consider a targeted approach to providing financial assistance related to the virus.
“Let’s think about individuals who might lose paychecks because they have to stay home if they get the virus,” he said. “Let’s think about small businesses that might get hurt by this.”
He said airlines could be an industry targeted for assistance, but complimented executives for not requesting a bailout when they met with Trump earlier this week to discuss the outbreak.
A Standard & Poor’s index of major U.S. airlines reversed losses and climbed 3.1% at 10:25 a.m. in New York, led by United Airlines Holdings Inc. and Alaska Air Group Inc. Before Friday, the industry had been among the biggest losers in the stock market over the last two weeks.
Kudlow also said young, healthy people should go to work. “If you’re healthy, if you’re on the younger side, you should go about your business,” he said.
— Bloomberg News
Kreidler orders insurers to waive deductibles, copays for testing
State Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler issued an emergency order to Washington state health insurers requiring them to waive copays and deductibles for any consumer requiring testing for coronavirus (COVID-19).
Insurers also must allow a one-time early refill for prescription drugs and suspend any prior authorization requirement for treatment or testing of COVID-19.
In addition, if an insurer does not have enough medical providers in its network to provide testing and treatment for COVID-19, it must allow enrollees to be treated by another provider within a reasonable distance at no additional cost.
The order is effective immediately and applies to all state-regulated health insurance plans and short-term limited duration medical plans until May 4, 2020.
“Consumers are rightly concerned about prevention, testing and possible treatment,” Kreidler said. “My emergency order provides guidance to health insurers and should help reassure the public that we will take all necessary steps to protect them.”
Kreidler is using powers granted to him following the recent statewide emergency that Gov. Jay Inslee declared to protect Washington residents against the spread of the coronavirus.
When the governor issues an emergency proclamation, the commissioner can issue an emergency order related to health care coverage to ensure access to care. The order lasts 60 days and can be extended by the commissioner for an additional 30 days, as long as the governor’s emergency proclamation remains in effect.
— Grays Harbor News Group
Hotline, state adding staff
A state Department of Health hotline and call center established to field calls about the coronavirus has experienced a high volume of calls since Monday, sometimes resulting in dropped calls or long wait times.
But a spokeswoman for the department said Wednesday that the size of the call center has been quadrupled and “additional capacity” in the form of more phone lines is coming.
The department also is working on setting up a backup call center, but spokeswoman Danielle Koenig acknowledged they are dealing with some “technical hurdles.”
Koenig urged callers to be patient, and to check the DOH website about coronavirus before they call because many questions can be answered there.
One of the more common questions is “Am I at risk?” Koenig said that’s a topic covered on the DOH website.
Koenig also wanted to make clear Wednesday that if callers are sick, they should reach out to their doctor or clinic about their illness. Those answering calls in the call center are not in a position to diagnose, she said.
Symptoms include fever, cough and shortness of breath, which may occur two days to two weeks after exposure. The disease is especially dangerous for the elderly and others with weaker immune systems.
— The Olympian
Warm weather may not slow virus
President Donald Trump has assured Americans that warm weather will smother the coronavirus in the coming months. Epidemiologists say there simply isn’t enough information to say if that’s true.
While humid air has been shown to slow the spread of influenza in temperate regions, such as North America and Europe, there’s no way to know if this will happen with the coronavirus, Marc Lipsitch, a professor of epidemiology at Harvard University’s School of Public Health, wrote in a statement.
“Some have even suggested that the experience with SARS in 2003 provides evidence for this assertion,” he added. But it’s a myth that weather alone stopped the spread of SARS in 2003 — “it was killed by extremely intense public health interventions in mainland Chinese cities, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Canada and elsewhere.”
In a televised address last month, Trump said: “Now the virus we’re talking about having to do, you know a lot of people think that goes away in April with the heat, as the heat comes in.”
It’s also a myth to think that coronavirus will behave the same way the common cold reacts to the onset of summer, according to Lipsitch.
“Predicting how a novel virus will behave based on how others behave is always speculative, but sometimes we have to do so when we have little else to go on,” Lipsitch wrote. “The other reason this is a myth is that seasonal viruses that have been in the population for a long time behave differently from viruses that are newly introduced to the population.”
Few people have immunity to a new virus, he said. “The consequence is that new viruses — like pandemic influenza — can spread outside the normal season for their longer-established cousins.”
— Bloomberg News
