Emergencies

As the media swarms the coronavirus story, most news articles focus on numbers of cases and deaths, new locations of cases, etc.

Lost in the shuffle are the important public health insights about how viruses work and humans respond. To help improve understanding of an emerging outbreak’s complex dynamics, GHN has reached out to some of the world’s most respected global health experts for their quick "reality checks" on key issues related to the outbreak.

Hospitals facing a possible need for 5X to 10X the number of beds they have. Doctors and nurses resorting to bandanas because they lack masks. Refrigerated trucks outside hospitals holding the dead.

It’s been more than a century since the US health care system has faced anything like the COVID-19 pandemic.

The challenges confronting hospitals, doctors, and nurses will likely mount in the coming weeks, says Vivek Murthy, former US Surgeon General and current Distinguished Policy Scholar in Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Even so, Murthy finds encouraging signs of resilience.