And our wonderfully wise "president" Trump has now placed a gag order on all federal agencies regarding any release of info about coronavirus. All releases of info must now be cleared by VP Pence who has absolutely no medical background (though he says that god speaks to him).

If a vaccine is ever developed the administration, which has an ear for the anti-vaxers, will probably keep it under wraps.

Sleep tight al

> though he says that god speaks to him

Poor Mikey. If God wanted to sit down one-on-one with him alone, Mikey wouldn't do it. Mikey wouldn't have dinner alone with God, either.

He will not meet alone in his office, with a woman.

Sad.

Pence in charge is scary. He couldn't get reelected governor of Indiana. That should tell us something.

The scary thing is that when people can not get information from official and reliable channels they will turn to rumors and sources that do not have accurate information and everything will get worse. What little can be done to prevent the spread of this virus probably will not happen because of our Presidents fear that accurate information will hurt his reelection changes.

Yesterday San Mateo County Public Health Officer put out this statement:

"Statement from the Health Officer
I share the concerns of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): we all need to be prepared for COVID-19 to spread within the United States. Our lives may be significantly disrupted by the measures needed to respond to a global pandemic. A pandemic is a global occurrence of an infectious disease. A pandemic is a disaster with unique characteristics. The two most important differences between a pandemic and other disasters are that the whole world is going through this disaster at the same time and people may become fearful of other people. The current COVID-19 outbreak clearly has the potential to turn into a severe pandemic. This is a difficult message to share, but it is important to recognize how difficult the times ahead may be.

County Health continues to work with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and our state and local partners to manage testing and monitoring of persons who have been exposed to COVID-19. But our focus is changing from a containment strategy to one of community mitigation—taking steps to lessen the impact of the disease. County Health and our public and private partners are increasing our ability to respond and are planning for a sustained response to COVID-19. I advise that individuals, schools, business and all other sectors of our community take immediate steps to be prepared. Now is the time for you to prepare.

How the world operates during a pandemic is different from how the world operates normally. This is not business as usual. With a pandemic comes significant disruption to supply chains (the process of how things get from where they are made to where they are used), transportation, and travel. Even if the disease is not spreading in our area, we may face difficulty obtaining the goods and services we are accustomed to, public events may be cancelled, and our ability to travel might be restricted.

San Mateo County Health continues to advise that the steps to prevent the spread of flu will also guard against the spread of COVID-19: cover your cough and sneeze, wash your hands frequently, avoid shaking hands and touching your face with unwashed hands, and if you are not feeling well or are experiencing cold, flu, or other symptoms, contact your primary care provider and stay home from school or work.

Here are the most important things for you to consider to improve your personal and organizational preparedness:

What matters most is how households, neighborhoods, community groups, businesses, and other organizations prepare. What does that mean? Preparedness equals self-sufficiency. Government will help where it can, but it may have a limited ability to respond directly due to the scale of the disruptions.

Individual and community preparations should focus on three tasks—reducing each person’s chance of getting sick (see both individual and more general public health recommendations below), helping households with basic survival needs during a pandemic, and minimizing and coping with larger disruptions in how the normal day-to-day world works.

All businesses and other organizations should now review their continuity of operations plans for how they will operate if their employees are unable to work and how they will interact with members of the public and prepare to implement these plans soon.

All medical facilities and providers should review their surge plans for how to handle increased numbers of patients and be prepared to implement.

Getting ready for a pandemic is largely about preparing for possible shortages. In a pandemic, supply chain disruptions are inevitable, but are also unpredictable.
Since it contains vital supplies, a good start is to make sure your earthquake kit is up to date and ready to go. Of course, having supplies beyond the typical earthquake kit is a good idea. What you decide to have on hand is based on your individual and family situation.

One likely shortage will be medications. You should attempt to obtain a couple of months supply for your critical meds.

If you have other critical supply needs, you should conserve them and stock up on them now.

Now is also the time to think about how you will care for loved ones at home if they or you are sick and how you would limit spread within the family.
Frequent and appropriate hand-washing is far from a perfect solution, but it’s easy, under your control, and has no significant downside.

Like washing your hands, wearing a surgical mask may help a bit but you need to know that surgical masks don’t offer much protection when they are worn by people who are well. They are most helpful when worn by those who are already sick, so that they are less likely to transmit the disease to others. Surgical masks are already in short supply and should be prioritized for use in health care settings.

You should use a barrier, such as a paper towel or tissue, to touch commonly touched surfaces, such as bathroom door handles or elevator buttons.

I am not asking for implementation of the activities below at this time, and the implementation of these activities is not imminent, but these are the types of activities we may need to implement in the future:

Social distancing—staying at least 6 feet away from all other people and avoiding shaking hands—will be important

School closings present a particularly vexing social distancing dilemma but may be necessary to protect public health. These closings may be extensive and extended.

Event/mass gathering cancellation

Extensive increase in the amount of remote working or teleworking.
Under all circumstances, stop touching you face, eyes, nose, or mouth with your unwashed hands.

Rationing (a process of prioritizing distribution and use) of critical supplies may need to occur.

To get ourselves through the hard times that may be coming, your community may need volunteers. Think now about the skills you have and how can you help your community.

Other public health interventions that have been used with some effect in other countries include commandeering of both real estate or personal property, conscription, curfew, and cordons. It is unlikely that these interventions would be used here due to practical considerations.

Scott Morrow, MD, MPH
San Mateo County Health Officer
February 27, 2020"

Earlier this week the City and County of San Francisco declared a public health emergency to mobilize city resources, accelerate emergency planning, streamline staffing, coordinate agencies across the city, allow for future reimbursement by the state and federal governments and raise awareness throughout San Francisco about how everyone can prepare in the event that COVID-19(novel coronavirus) appears in the community.

Santa Clara County, Orange County and San Diego County have also already made similar declarations.

Here in Menlo Park, our City efforts are coordinated through the County of San Mateo. The County of San Mateo has not yet declared such an emergency. However, I have spoken to officials in the County and want to assure neighbors, I have been told preparation is well underway.

Below I have included the websites for San Mateo County, Stanford Hospital, the CDC, and State of California Department of Public Health. I hope these resources are helpful to those who may have questions.

San Mateo County Department of Public Health
Web Link

Stanford Medical Center
Web Link

US CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention)
Web Link

State of California Department of Public Health
Web Link

Please don't hesitate to reach out if I can be of further assistance.

With kind regards,
Ray Mueller
Menlo Park City Councilmember

Preparing yourself and your family for a possible pandemic takes time

An excellent guide ( which was produced by Menlo Park and Atherton residents) for making such preparations was produced in response to the avian flu pandemic and was then revised for the swine flu pandemic. This document was circulated world wide and translated into a number of languages. 

It remains a well tested and proven generic plan for any pandemic.

Here is an Almanac link to the Citizen's Guide:

Web Link

"Influenza Pandemic Preparation and Response: A Citizen’s
Guide describes possible consequences of an influenza
pandemic, and makes it clear that individuals
and families can and must know what to do should
a pandemic occur. It also describes how those
with this knowledge can help to educate others
in the simple measures that will mitigate and limit
the negative impact of an influenza pandemic on
the world’s communities. Public health authorities
throughout the world agree that the responsibility
to respond to a public health emergency such
as pandemic influenza cannot be fully placed on
health workers and other primary responders, who
may themselves become incapacitated by illness
and death. It is thus each individual’s responsibility,
alone or collectively, to plan for and respond to
a pandemic in the home and/or in the community.
Influenza Pandemic Preparation and Response: A Citizen’s
Guide clearly describes, in lay terms, the actions that
each of us can take."

-David L. Heymann, M.D.
former World Health Organization, Executive Director, Communicable Diseases

It's past time to call the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, a pandemic and "time to push people to prepare, and guide their prep," according to risk communication experts.

Medical messaging about containing or stopping the spread of the virus is doing more harm than good, write Peter Sandman, PhD, and Jody Lanard, MD, both based in New York City, in a recent blog post.

"We are near-certain that the desperate-sounding last-ditch containment messaging of recent days is contributing to a massive global misperception," they warn.

"The most crucial (and overdue) risk communication task…is to help people visualize their communities when 'keeping it out' – containment – is no longer relevant."

Basic facts:

Covid 19 is much more easily transmitted than the seasonal flu

Covid 19 is much more deadly than the seasonal flu

Today the seasonal flu is much more prevalent than Covid 19

Tomorrow no one yet know how prevalent Covid 19 will be

You get to decide how worried you should be and how much effort you should take to protect your family and yourself knowing that you have preparation choices available today that will disappear when Covid 19 spreads.

Worrywart. President Trump says it'll go away. We should all invest in his stock market.

Heed the man.

Mary Ellen Carroll, executive director of S.F.'s Department of Emergency Management,

"It's all about preparedness. The most overlooked part about preparedness is looking out for your neighbors, your friends, your family. We know the elderly are at most risk of getting sick from this disease."

This afternoon (Friday 2/28) another "in the wild" case is reported in Santa Clara County.

"Second U.S. coronavirus case of unknown origin confirmed in Santa Clara County. Troubling report suggests the virus may be circulating in the community." www.mercurynews.com/2020/02/28/santa-clara-county-announces-new-coronavirus-case/