The Dangerous Hiccup

These days, even a hiccup, a runny nose, or a cough can be a cause for concern. People

begin to wonder if any of these are the precursor to the CODVID-19 overrunning their

immune system. Norman Lear, in a TV interview, said he came up with the idea of the popular TV

sit-com All in the Family by thinking about his own family in Brooklyn when he was young.

“They lived on the edge of their nerves and the top of their lungs.”

Today, the virus is turning a lot of people into members of Norman Lear’s family.

Trepidation over stepping into an elevator, not because the elevator’s brakes might fail,

but because of a lurking glob of CODVID-19 on a button or railing or floating in the air from

the last occupant. Now, people bring napkins to the elevator, use the napkin to push buttons, then stand in the center of the car careful not to touch anything, and even lift up a sweatshirt or t-shirt to cover their mouths. Who knows what works.

A guy is walking through the park and sees another guy, well-dress, normal looking, sitting on

the bench waving his arms. The guy walking past stops. “Why’re you waving your hands?” he asks.

“To keep the elephants away,” the guy on the bench answers.

“Elephants?” says the other guy. “They’re no elephants in the park.”

“See,” says the guy on the bench. “It works.”

These days we see a lot of guys on the bench waving their arms. Malaria pills with bleach. Monolaurin. Vitamin concoctions. Many things that keep the elephants away, until they don’t.

One of the top officials in charge of fighting the coronavirus pandemic is Dr. Bruce Aylward, a senior adviser to the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO). “We’re still seeing the virus going up very, very rapidly, even in hard-hit places like Italy, for example. These countries still have months of this challenge in front of them.” He says that the pandemic is just reaching Africa, and expects an “exponential growth.”

“But the big question, of course, is what’s going to happen when this really starts to take off in those low-income countries where they don’t have as much medical capacity such as in Africa.

It’s one of those things that you don’t want to imagine because the numbers could be so grave. The population distribution could help. Is the humidity and the temperature going to help make a difference? I would hope so, but look at the situation in Singapore, that’s a hot, humid country. So the situation in these countries could be very difficult.”

Still, Aylward is optimistic. “We should be emerging from a bad wave of this disease across a large swathe of the planet.” “And then,” he asks, “A lot of that is going to depend on what we as countries, as societies, do. If we do the testing of every single case, rapid isolation of the cases, you should be able to keep cases down low. If you simply rely on the big shut down measures without finding every case, then every time you take the brakes off, it could come back in waves. So that future frankly, may be determined by us and our response as much as the virus.”

And the big question right now is “Are countries going to use this time during these shutdown periods optimally?” Because if you just shut it down your societies, your economies and hope for the best… This is guerrilla warfare against a virus, the virus is just going to sit you out, it’ll just circulate quietly among households and then you’re going to let them all go again and phoom there’s no reason it shouldn’t take off again unless you’re ready for it.” He said that young people are too cavalier about the virus. “Ten percent of the people who are in [intensive care units] in Italy are in their 20s, 30s or 40s. These are young, healthy people with no co-morbidities, no other diseases.
We don’t understand why some young healthy people progress to severe disease and even die and others don’t. We don’t have clear predictors.”
When asked what should a country's first priority be after a lockdown, he said, “Test, test, test, test, test. Not test, test, test, test, test everyone, but test the suspects, test the suspects, test the suspects. Then, effectively isolate the confirmed cases. The third piece is the quarantine piece.”
Now we come to Israel. The USA we know has been far behind the testing curve. But Israel has started testing. And because of the results of the tests, the number of those infected has been rising steadily. Israel now has nearly 1,700 cases, 31 in serious condition, three deaths. Dr. Ron (not his real name), an Israeli physician who worked as a small hospital on Israel’s coast was recently transferred to a large hospital in the center of the country. The small hospital “Became a corona hospital,” he said. “Now I don’t even have a chair in my latest position.” He said, “The quarantine is giving us time to get the equipment to test people. That’s the goal now.”
Drive-in testing centers have opened up in Tel Aviv and Haifa, although Dr. Ron said he wasn’t sure you could just drive in without being sent for the test. If you have a cough or sniffles, don’t think you need a test, he said. The normal, everyday viruses are still around. Not every hiccup is a coronavirus case. Until it is.