Coronavirus In U.S.: Self-Quarantines, The First Case, More Evacuations, Race To Develop A Treatment, Emergency Funds And More

The New York Times: Inside The Race To Contain America’s First Coronavirus Case
It started with a stubborn cough. A visit to an urgent care facility. A test being sent off to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And then a 35-year-old resident of Snohomish County, Wash., being named the first confirmed case of the coronavirus in the United States. Hollianne Bruce, the lone epidemiologist assigned to the control of communicable diseases in the county’s public health office, jumped into action. Declining to wait for a C.D.C. team to arrive from Atlanta, she dialed up the patient, who had been taken to an isolation unit at a hospital. (Harmon, 2/5)

The New York Times: Fear And Takeout: 14 Days In Coronavirus ‘Self-Quarantine’
Claire Campbell expected to spend this semester studying in Shanghai. Instead, she is five days into a self-imposed quarantine at her parents’ house in South Carolina. She checks her temperature twice a day. She reads. And she waits for a family friend to slide takeout meals through the front door. “I am going stir crazy,” said Ms. Campbell, 20, a Clemson University student who returned from her study abroad trip months earlier than planned because of an outbreak of coronavirus in Wuhan, China, that has left hundreds dead and sickened thousands more. “Every day kind of melts together.” (Smith, Kanno-Youngs, Stockman and Swales, 2/4)

Politico: Coronavirus Quarantine, Travel Ban Could Backfire, Experts Fear
The Trump administration’s quarantine and travel ban in response to the Wuhan coronavirus could undercut international efforts to fight the outbreak by antagonizing Chinese leaders, as well as stigmatizing people of Asian descent, according to a growing chorus of public health experts and lawmakers. The World Health Organization’s top official on Tuesday repeated concern that moves that interfere with transportation and trade could harm efforts to address the crisis, though he didn’t directly name the United States. Meanwhile, unions representing flight attendants, nurses and teachers criticized the administration on Tuesday for not being forthcoming about what kind of screening and treatment individuals will undergo, and some members of Congress say they’re concerned the efforts could stoke racial discrimination. (Ollstein, 2/4)

The New York Times: Spreading Along With The Coronavirus: Confusion
As the coronavirus spreads across the world and airlines cancel flights to and from China, many travelers have been stuck in limbo. Some are trying to get refunds, while others are unsure of whether to rebook their trips for later dates or cancel them altogether. With the State Department issuing a “do not travel” advisory and a declaration by the World Health Organization of a global health emergency, the guidance to avoid mainland China is clear enough. Confusion reigns, however, for those with itineraries via China to other destinations. (Mzezewa, 2/4)

The Washington Post: ‘We’re Like Refugees’: Americans Departing Virus-Hit Wuhan Criticize U.S. Government Response
Some 530 Americans stuck in the Wuhan area were aboard two evacuation flights en route from China to the United States on Wednesday, after extended delays that appear to be linked to the political frictions between Beijing and Washington. The two planes from Kalitta Air, an American cargo carrier, arrived at Wuhan airport late Tuesday. Photos from the airport at 7 a.m. local time Wednesday showed medical staff in protective equipment carrying out health checks on passengers in masks. (Fifield, 2/4)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Sets Second Evacuation Of Americans From China
The U.S. government was preparing to evacuate by air hundreds of Americans from central China on Wednesday in response to the deadly coronavirus outbreak, as Beijing criticized Washington’s overall response as unhelpful. In the second such operation in a week following the December outbreak, two jetliners landed Tuesday in Wuhan to fly roughly 530 people to the U.S. in the evacuation, a person familiar with the planning said. (Areddy and Lin, 2/4)

CBS News: Hundreds More Americans Evacuated From Virus Outbreak Epicenter
Hundreds more Americans evacuated from the city at the center of the were landing in California Wednesday morning. The two planes, carrying about 350 people in total, were arriving at Travis Air Force Base in Northern California. One of them was to remain there while the other was to refuel before continuing on to Miramar Marine Corps Air Station in Southern California. All the passengers will spend up to two weeks under quarantine in California while they are monitored for symptoms of the potentially deadly new virus. (CBS News, 2/5)

CNN: At Least Three Chartered Flights Are Evacuating US Citizens From Wuhan This Week. An Official Says They Are Likely The Last
“The Department of State has no higher priority than the welfare and safety of US citizens abroad,” the official said. “US citizens currently in China should attempt to depart by commercial means.”(Holcombe, 2/5)

Stat: Chatbots Screening For New Coronavirus — And Turning Up The Flu
As the new coronavirus spreads, health-tech startups with medical chatbots are scrambling to update their algorithms to screen feverish and coughing Americans and advise whether they should be evaluated for infection with the virus. So far, these artificial intelligence-powered chatbots are turning up lots of people with the flu. That’s unsurprising at this time of year. It speaks to the small number of coronavirus cases in the U.S. — and how hard it may ultimately be for AI systems to differentiate among the myriad pathogens that cause the same flu-like symptoms that a mild case of the new virus appears to cause. The apps don’t appear to have been involved in turning up any patients who actually have the 2019-nCoV coronavirus — there have been 11 confirmed cases in the U.S. to date — nor is it clear whether any patients flagged by the chatbots have even proceeded to undergo lab testing. (Robbins and Brodwin, 2/5)

Stat: In Race To Develop Coronavirus Treatment, Regeneron Sees An Inside Track
One of them is that what works in lab mice often fails in actual people. But that’s where Regeneron — a $38 billion company that crafted a treatment for Ebola virus — believes it has a leg up. Decades ago, the company set out to bend the curve of drug development by genetically engineering a mouse to have a fully human immune system. That means if you inject it with a foreign agent, it’ll generate human antibodies to fight the perceived infection. One of those antibodies became Eylea, Regeneron’s blockbuster treatment for macular degeneration, and another grew into Dupixent, the company’s multibillion-dollar eczema drug.Now, Regeneron is betting its chimeric mice can come through in 2019-nCoV. (Garde, 2/5)

The Hill: HHS, Pharmaceutical Firm Collaborating On Coronavirus Treatment
HHS is working with the company through a unit known as the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA). “Working as public-private partners like we have with Regeneron since 2014, we can move rapidly to respond to new global health threats,” said BARDA Director Rick Bright. (Sullivan, 2/4)

Los Angeles Times: Coronavirus Fears, Rumors, Misinformation Roil Alhambra Schools
As fear about the novel coronavirus has gripped communities throughout the country, the Alhambra Unified School District has grappled with how to inform students and parents about the realities of the illness while combating misinformation and fear-based rumors. Hoaxes about the presence of the coronavirus in unaffected areas of the San Gabriel Valley have sparked further concerns within the community, prompting some students to wear protective face masks to school — something the school district has discouraged. (Shalby, 2/4)

The Hill: US Lawmakers Push WHO To Recognize Taiwan As Independent State As Coronavirus Outbreak Continues
U.S. lawmakers are pushing legislation that would work toward granting Taiwan recognition in the World Health Organization (WHO) in light of the coronavirus outbreak that has left Taiwan subject to flight bans and limited information. The WHO — a branch of the United Nations — has relayed communication on the virus to China, which considers Taiwan a Chinese territory with an illegitimate independent government. The island’s status as a nation is a matter of international disagreement: the U.S., Japan, Canada and the European Union all recognize Taiwan as a sovereign state, while the UN and Chinese allies consider Taiwan a province of China. Taiwanese officials claim they have received little information on the virus from WHO while also struggling to communicate with Chinese officials as they attempted to evacuate Taiwanese citizens from Wuhan, where the virus originated. Taiwan has 10 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, and on Monday night quarantined 247 people repatriated to the island after being stranded in Wuhan. (Moreno, 2/4)

The Hill: Democrats Urge Emergency Funding For Coronavirus Outbreak
House Democrats on Tuesday urged Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar to request a package of emergency supplemental funding to deal with the coronavirus outbreak. “Further resources will be necessary to support an aggressive and comprehensive government-wide response to the 2019 novel Coronavirus, both domestically and internationally,” House Appropriations Chairwoman Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) and Labor, Health and Human Services subcommittee Chairwoman Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) wrote Azar in a letter. “We strongly urge the Administration to transmit a request to Congress for emergency supplemental appropriations to respond to this public health emergency. We urge the Administration to submit the emergency supplemental request no later than Monday, February 10, along with its submittal of the fiscal year 2021 President’s Budget,” they added. (Elis, 2/4)

Bloomberg: U.S. Readies for Coronavirus Pandemic Some Experts Now See as Likely
Just a couple of weeks ago, scientists held out hope the new coronavirus could be largely contained within China. Now they know its spread can be minimized at best, and governments are planning for the worst. “It is not a matter of if—it is a matter of when,” said Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security and a spokesman for the Infectious Diseases Society of America. “There is not a doubt this is going to end up in most countries eventually.” The U.S., with 11 diagnosed cases so far, plans to quarantine at military bases potentially more than 1,000 Americans evacuated from China’s Hubei province. State health departments are activating emergency programs to isolate the potentially infected—a piecemeal approach that could range from specialized facilities to hotels. Some hospitals have tents in stock to use as emergency isolation wards. (Langreth and Cortez, 2/4)

CNN: What It Means To Be Under The Coronavirus Federal Quarantine In The US 
What federal quarantine entails exactly can depend on the circumstances, said James Hodge, director at the Center for Public Health Law and Policy at Arizona State University. Generally, individuals facing a mandatory quarantine are under a direct order from federal authorities to stay in the same place for a brief period of time while medical professionals assess whether they have been infected with a particular disease. In this latest case, people are being ordered to stay in facilities designated by the federal government, although in other potential situations, they could be confined to a hospital or their own homes, Hodge told CNN. (Kaur, 2/4)

Boston Globe: In Quincy, Crowds Thin As First Coronavirus Case In Massachusetts Spurs Precautions, Fears
Coronavirus fears are mounting now that the first case has been diagnosed in Massachusetts, particularly in Quincy, home to the state’s second-largest population of Asian Americans outside of Boston. On Saturday, state health officials confirmed coronavirus in a University of Massachusetts Boston student who returned to Boston last week from Wuhan, the Chinese city at the center of the outbreak. (Pan and Freyer, 2/4)

San Francisco Chronicle: ‘Nightmare For Silicon Valley’: China Coronavirus Travel Ban Strands Workers, Entrepreneurs
The lethal coronavirus outbreak has halted visa processing, closed the border to foreign nationals who were recently in China, and limited flights — hitting Bay Area companies and their employees with work visas hard. (Moench, 2/4)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Coronavirus Outbreak: Philadelphia-Area Businesses Are Beginning To Feel The Sting
About 40 Chinese motorcycle enthusiasts fly to Pennsylvania every August to spend two weeks riding iconic Harley Davidsons through the rolling hills of the Keystone State. The Knighthawk Tours and Experience USA Tours — operated by U-Combination Technology of Wayne for more than a decade — often result in the sales of dozens of Harley hogs. As tourists “experience authentic American riding culture,” they spend tens of thousands of dollars on merchandise along the route. One year, the group dropped more than $40,000 in less than 40 minutes at the luxury jeweler Tiffany & Co. in King of Prussia, according to organizer Jeff Ji.It’s unlikely to happen this year. “We’ve put a hold on the August trip until further notice,” Ji said, because of current travel restrictions and the uncertainty brought on by the coronavirus, which is thought to have emerged at a live-animal market in Wuhan, a city of 11 million in China. “We don’t know if the outbreak will be prolonged or temporary. Our customers cannot set aside time for their vacations.” (Wood, 2/5)

Kaiser Health News: Listen: Which Is The Greater Threat — The Coronavirus Or The Flu?
Kaiser Health News reporter Liz Szabo talked to Connecticut Public Radio about the risks of the novel coronavirus, known as 2019-nCoV, compared with influenza. Although Americans are donning face masks to protect themselves from the coronavirus, experts say that influenza poses a much greater risk. Influenza kills more Americans each year than any other virus. (2/4)