Читать книгу FIGHT BACK - Chauncey W. Crandall - Страница 8

The first cluster of cases caused by coronavirus 19 was announced by China on December 31, and less than a month later, a thirty-five-year-old man in Snohomish County, Washington, became the first COVID-19 case to be confirmed in the United States.

At the very same time, coronavirus 19, the virus that causes the disease COVID-19, was spreading rapidly through Asia, and then Europe, and eventually to all corners of the globe. The outbreak was so massive that on March 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) proclaimed it to be a pandemic, one of those rare diseases whose scale is so enormous that it sweeps across all international borders, affecting the whole world.

By the time we awakened on April 12, Easter Sunday, most of America had self-isolated to try to halt the spread of COVID-19; almost all of our churches and synagogues were closed, our hotels empty, and our cafés and restaurants shuttered. Nursing homes were barred to visitors to attempt to stem the tragic outbreaks there; most of our parks, beaches, and playgrounds were barricaded, and where massive outbreaks had occurred, convention centers and stadiums had been transformed into field hospitals.

By the end of April, just one hundred days since that first U.S. case was confirmed, our streets were still empty; even bustling thoroughfares like New York’s Fifth Avenue. Las Vegas was a ghost town, its casinos closed, its shows canceled, and its famous strip deserted.

What happened was something that almost none of us had ever seen in our lifetimes or could have ever imagined; the United States of America had been shut down, closed to business because of a microscopic, invisible, viral pathogen.

As this book goes to press, America is emerging from lockdown, but even as this is happening, there are fears of a second wave of the disease expected to come in the fall and possibly beyond that as well. Remember, until we have a vaccine, COVID-19 remains an invisible enemy, a ticking time bomb!

Note: As we went to press, the information in this book was as current as possible, but scientists are working at breakneck speed to find answers and new treatments for COVID-19, so new information is constantly emerging. For updates, please go to the Newsmax Coronavirus Resource Page link: https://www.newsmax.com/coronavirus.