Coronavirus: time to admit that like flu, Covid-19 is here to stay?
- Some experts think it is futile to spend resources on trying to isolate every case of the virus, saying people with mild symptoms should recover at home
- Others say that is tantamount to giving in and admitting it is a permanent problem
There was still a lot they didn’t know about the severity of the virus, Kaiser said, but they needed to help the group return home. “Some things you just have to do,” he said. “You figure it out as you go along.”
In partnership with the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Kaiser and his team held 195 people, among them the American diplomats typically stationed in Wuhan, at Riverside’s March Air Base for two weeks, constantly monitoring them for signs of the virus and keeping them from contact with the surrounding community, all while trying to keep the atmosphere as normal as possible for the evacuees.
There was extensive paperwork for them to fill out and multiple daily temperature checks, but there were also Zumba classes and toys for the children.
When the group was officially cleared to leave the base, they tossed their surgical masks in the air like students on graduation day.
Their stay on March Air Base is part of the largest quarantine effort the US has mounted in 50 years.
