Robert O. Schneider - An Unmitigated Disaster: Americas Response to COVID-19

Dr. George Diaz, an infectious diseases physician in Seattle, received a phone call from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on the afternoon of January 20, 2020. The CDC informed him that it had just recorded a positive test for a new strain of coronavirus in a thirty-five-year-old man who had recently returned to Washington State from Wuhan, China. The CDC also informed Dr. Diaz that it wanted to bring the patient to his hospital for treatment.

Dr. Diaz was in all probability not surprised with this news. He knew about the new coronavirus that had emerged in China and begun to circle the globe. He had to know this new virus would soon make its way to the United States. In fact, just two weeks previously, he and his hospital (Providence Regional Medical Center Everett, just outside of Seattle) had staged a tabletop drill that ran through the steps to be taken in caring for a patient with this new coronavirus. One would thus be correct in suspecting that the news just received from the CDC was not at all unexpected by Dr. Diaz or the hospital.

Upon arrival at Providence Regional, the patient would be kept in an isolation room, with only the nursing staff allowed to enter. Dr. Diaz communicated with his new patient through an intercom. On his fifth day in the hospital, the patient developed pneumonia. This was a serious development. Early indications from China suggested that an alarming and disproportionate number of patients infected with the new virus who developed pneumonia were dying. Dr. Diaz was aware of a new but untried antiviral medication, remdesivir, that he thought might be applicable to this new coronavirus. Having no other proven treatment options for the new virus, he proceeded to infuse the patient with the antiviral. Within the next twenty-four hours, the patient started to feel better. As he continued to improve, the patient was soon allowed to go home under supervision. He would, in time, recover fully.