We’re in a state of emergency. The Wuhan coronavirus outbreak has spread to all 50 states. There are over 85,000 cases, and at least 1,200 deaths. New York City accounts for nearly half of the cases, but New Orleans could be the next hotbed. Mardis Gras is to blame. In NYC, the Chinese New Year festivities were also celebrated. In both cases, the risk of exposure is through the roof. All aspects of American industry have mobilized to do their part in combating this disease. My Pillow is shifting gears, making medical masks at a rate of 10k-50k a day. Seventy-five percent of its production capacity will be devoted to this effort. Distilleries are now making hand sanitizer. Apple has a new app that screens for Wuhan virus symptoms and a website that serves as a nerve center for the latest information on the virus as well. The tech giant does stress that this rollout does not serve as a substitute for the many health protocols recommended by experts.
And now, the U.S. military has made the call, asking some 800,000 retired medical personnel if they’re willing to return to service and volunteer to help stop the spread and treat the infected, according to ABC News. Some 9,000 retired U.S. Army personnel are coming out of retirement to help (via ABC News):
More than 9,000 retired soldiers have responded to the U.S. Army's call for retired medical personnel to assist with the response to the novel coronavirus pandemic, as hundreds of active duty soldiers deploy to support Army field hospitals in New York and Seattle.
Earlier this week, the Army sent a notification to more than 800,000 retired soldiers to gauge their willingness in returning to service in a volunteer capacity. In a Pentagon briefing on Thursday, Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville called the initial response "very, very positive."
Army Surgeon General Scott Dingle told reporters that these volunteers will "fill those holes" in military medical treatment facilities across the nation where some staff are now deployed to field hospitals, leaving vacancies in their traditional assignments.
[…]
But it's not just the Army that will lose medical personnel due to its response to the pandemic. More than a thousand Navy medical personnel have left their assignments for deployments aboard two Navy hospital ships that will dock in Los Angeles and New York City to take in non-coronavirus patients.
To assist with the shortfall in healthcare personnel, the federal government is making available more than 200 military medical students and graduate nursing students from the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences. The group, who are all active duty uniformed officers in the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Public Health Service, will have completed all of their requirements and graduate early to backfill their colleagues who are responding to the coronavirus.
While the liberal media and the Democrats have mocked the response by this administration because they want President Trump to fail, his approval in handling this crisis has shot through the roof, with some polls showing that 60 percent of Independents and over a quarter of Democrats back how the Trump White House is dealing with this outbreak. That’s was reported by CNN, by the way. It’s a serious virus. It’s contagious but hardly apocalyptic. We’re not nearing the levels of infections and deaths that we see from the seasonal flu yet, which kills tens of thousands of Americans every year. The vast majority who are infected will recover. That number is projected in the 90s of percent. And most will have mild symptoms, but that’s the double-edged sword. Those who have mild symptoms or are asymptomatic can spread this, hence the protocol on social distancing.
Be cautious, wash your hands, avoid touching your face, and stay home. We’ll get through this. Every aspect of American society is mobilizing to stop this virus, which so far has shown no signs of mutating.
Thank you to Rachel @Maddow for putting our Military on full display, and showing how GREAT a job the Federal Government is doing! Also, a special thanks to General Semonite, a Patriot of the highest order and a truly talented engineer and builder! pic.twitter.com/JRQlNpLbxv
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 27, 2020
Dr. Sanjay Gupta: "Something good that we learned this week is that the virus isn't mutating much." pic.twitter.com/trxK11qxCp
— The Hill (@thehill) March 27, 2020
