Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), who is currently in self-isolation after he interacted with someone with coronavirus, commended the mitigation advice that Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) posted Saturday morning on Twitter.
“To everyone in NYC but ESPECIALLY healthy people & people under 40 (bc from what I’m observing that’s who needs to hear this again,” said Ocasio-Cortez. “PLEASE stop crowding bars, restaurants, and public spaces right now. Eat your meals at home. If you are healthy, you could be spreading COVID.”
To everyone in NYC but ESPECIALLY healthy people & people under 40 (bc from what I’m observing that’s who needs to hear this again):
PLEASE stop crowding bars, restaurants, and public spaces right now. Eat your meals at home.
If you are healthy, you could be spreading COVID.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 14, 2020
In a response message, Cruz commended AOC’s tweet, and emphasized the importance of taking precautions to stop the spread of coronavirus: “Good advice — not just for NYC, but everywhere. If you can stay home, stay home. And wash your hands.”
Good advice — not just for NYC, but everywhere.
If you can stay home, stay home.
And wash your hands. https://t.co/WOcTclI7Ki
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) March 14, 2020
U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams chimed in on Cruz’s response to the Democratic congresswoman, saying that it shows the importance of coming together to address the health crisis directly.
“Two people who don’t agree on much, coming together to promote health and safety,” said Adams. “I love our country and know we can do this. Now is the time to spend as much of our energy as possible helping people understand how to protect themselves and each other.”
I ❤️ this 👇🏽
Two people who don’t agree on much, coming together to promote health and safety.
I love our country and know we can do this. Now is the time to spend as much of our energy as possible helping people understand how to protect themselves and each other! https://t.co/sCJGhjmRF7
— U.S. Surgeon General (@Surgeon_General) March 14, 2020
Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R-GA), who is currently in the coronavirus’ European epicenter of Italy, published an op-ed in Newsweek on Friday encouraging Americans to take precautions against the coronavirus, and advised that Italy’s decision to effectively quarantine itself entirely was not an over-reaction.
The hardest-hit region around Milan has had to improvise as its health system has been deeply stressed by the sheer number of patients. In Milan and Brescia, field hospitals have been set up in the fairgrounds as the local hospitals have been drowned in patients.
Because the demand for respirators and intensive care has been beyond any previous planning, doctors have been forced into the kind of triage thinking developed for intense battlefield casualty situations. There are reports that emergency room doctors are allotting respirators to those with higher life expectancy due to the limited equipment in the hardest hit areas of the province. If you are older or have other illnesses, you may simply not be eligible for treatment.
According to The Independent, Italian doctors have begun seeing more patients under the age of 50 requiring hospitalization.
“People are arriving who got ill six or seven days ago and treated themselves at home – and then their condition became more and more critical,” said Dr. Luca Lorini, the head of anesthesia at a hospital in northern Italy, reports the news agency.
As of Saturday evening, Italy had a total of 21,157 diagnosed cases of coronavirus, approximately 3,500 of which were diagnosed in the last 24 hours alone, reports the Associated Press.
According to The New York Times, the United States has had 2,443 people diagnosed with coronavirus across 49 states, and the number is only expected to grow.