It's tough for the healthcare workers
It's still early in the outbreak.
We often focus on infection and death rates to get a sense of the economic impact but the social impact on healthcare workers is tragic. These are people who certainly are watching people fighting for their lives with a looming sense that they will be the ones in the hospital bed in a week or two. Along with that, they're thinking about the risks of bringing the virus home to their families.
And while many people are recovering from coronavirus, it's an awful experience for many. Bloomberg today spoke with a healthy 21-year-old who survived it.
"I suffered from a high fever and pains that tortured every part of my body... I was coughing like I was going to die," he said.
The numbers of healthcare workers infected will surely rise. They're true heroes and I hope global officials and companies can find enough protective equipment to spare them. If not, the epidemic surely gets worse and there will be no one to care for the patients.
While markets have brushed off coronavirus, many public health experts have not. Today the WSJ has a report that is eye-opening:
"I think it is likely we'll see a global pandemic," said Marc Lipsitch, a professor of epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. "If a pandemic happens, 40% to 70% of people world-wide are likely to be infected in the coming year. What proportion of those will be symptomatic, I can't give a good number."
