A previous version of this article stated that the name of the virus is COVID-19, it is SARS-CoV-2. COVID-19 is the name of the disease.
The novel coronavirus outbreak, recently named COVID-19 by the World Health Organization (WHO), is a new respiratory disease that has been in the media spotlight for the past few weeks. The outbreak was the cause for The New School’s decision to suspend all non-essential travel to China.
The virus, which originated in Wuhan, initially infected thousands of people across China and has since spread further into other parts of the world. There are cases throughout Asia as well as some in Europe, Oceania and North America.
As of Feb. 21, officials reported that the death toll from COVID-19 reached 2,239 in China, with only eight outside of China, and around 75,569 confirmed infections in China alone, according to a report from The WHO. In comparison, in the United States there are a total of 13 confirmed cases. There are no cases identified in New York, but in Massachusetts there is one confirmed case.
The outbreak of COVID-19, along with travel suspensions to China, have sparked fear and anxiety in people worldwide and drove many people in both China and the US to buy face masks, surgical face masks, and even construction masks. “I think what people are seeing on the internet, what people are seeing on social media, what people are seeing on the news, is making people very frightened, very scared,” said Doctor Davida Smyth, an associate professor of biology at The New School.
Facemasks: Do They Work?
The use of face masks is a measure adopted by many in China and in the US to protect themselves from transmission of the virus. The practice of wearing masks in Asia and Southasia stems from a desire for protection from pollution. The Asian American Journalist Association (AAJA) said “face masks have been commonly used in East Asian countries, including for protection from pollution. This practice has crossed over into immigrant Asian American populations in the United States and the masks are now more prevalent as a result of the outbreak.”
While wearing these facemasks is a cultural custom, they are not proper forms of prevention against the virus.
Even at The New School the initial shock of the news of the outbreak drove students to wear masks to protect themselves.
Elle Jo, a Korean-American sophomore studying communication design at Parsons recalled that when she first heard the news of the outbreak she thought that she should try and protect herself with a mask and hand sanitizer. “I wore a mask for maybe three days, and then I realized the mask won’t really prevent the disease. If you have the disease it will prevent you from spreading it. I still have a mask with me, but I don’t wear it,” said Jo.
The surge in face mask purchases, regardless of their effectiveness or one’s proximity to COVID-19, has caused many people around the world to purchase them. Jo said that in her hometown in New Jersey both the CVS and Walgreens were sold out of disposable face masks and when she looked online they were sold out as well. As of Feb. 22, Masks have been restocked on websites like Amazon, but should still not be the sole prevention method.
The spread of myths about the disease and crowded cities are pervasive. Smyth, the New School biology professor’s mother emailed her from Ireland asking if she could help her family get the right type of face masks for protection. Smyth explained to her mother that using a common surgical mask is not necessarily a good way to prevent the contraction of the virus. Washing your hands properly is the best prevention method.
The face mask shortage has not only affected everyday citizens but also affected people who use them every day: surgeons. Vincent Racaniello, professor of virology at Columbia University school of medicine, recalled that he heard from a colleague who works at a hospital in South Carolina that the hospital could not order surgical face masks because they were out of stock. “That’s crazy because they need them for surgery,” said Racaniello.
Eileen Chen, a fashion design major in her third year at Parsons, is from Ottawa, Canada but her extended family is in China. Her mother has been worried about what she might come into contact with in the crowded subways of New York. Chen said that “A lot of what she [her mom] hears is through the media, so I’m not exactly sure how factual everything is.”
“The growth of the outbreak simply means that a lot of people are infected and passing it on. Probably initially there were a lot more people that were infected than [originally] thought,” said Racaniello.
The Details: What Exactly is A Virus?
Racaniello studies viruses and how they replicate and cause disease and also hosts a weekly podcast called “This Week in Virology” in which he and colleagues discuss not only recent updates on SARS-CoV-2 but on other viruses.
Since the COVID-19 was first identified in Wuhan, China on Jan. 7, the outbreak has caused the CDC and U.S. State Department to issue warnings and restrictions against travel to China, the World Health Organization declared a “public health emergency of international concern,” and airline companies, such as Delta, United, and American airlines have suspended all flights to and from China until the spring.
Transmission of the COVID-19 outbreak is similar to what has been seen in the SARS and MERS virus outbreaks as they all originated from animals and are transmitted by respiratory aerosols, droplets, according to Professor Racaniello. Respiratory aerosols are generated by humans when speaking, breathing, coughing, or sneezing and if infected, one can transmit the virus to another human in those number of ways.
In technical terms, a virus is a pathogen that infects the healthy cells of an organism. It contains genetic material that infiltrates the host cell and uses it to make more viruses, further infecting the host which can lead to the infection of others.
“[The droplets] float through the air and the bigger droplets that you make, blast about a meter or so into the air. So if you’re within a meter of someone and you’re coughing or sneezing or even talking, and they’ll inhale it, and it [the virus] will begin to replicate in their respiratory tract,” Racaniello explained.
Racaniello said that he was not sure if it was worth it to wear a mask in New York City because, he pointed out, there are no confirmed cases in New York City. “Bottom line is, it could help to wear a mask, but not if it’s worn improperly. And in fact, if people want to wear it I think that’s fine. I think there’s enough evidence to say that they are effective,” said Racaniello, “They’re not going to stop 100% of the transmissions. I think hand-washing is a big one because studies have shown that a lot of transmission is by contaminated hands.”
The Effect on New School Students
If The New School’s travel suspension continues after the semester ends, then Alex Zhou, a sophomore at The New School studying illustration at Parsons, would not be able to go home. Zhou is an international student from Tianjin, a city in northern China. Luckily, Zhou was not planning on going back home anytime during the semester, so the suspension on travel won’t affect him greatly unless it continues throughout the year.
However, Zhou’s family is still in China, and his mother is a nurse. He said that his mother is getting prepared to relocate from Tianjin to Wuhan in order to help care for those who are sick at the epicenter of the outbreak.
One consequence of the virus is that people who identify as Asian, more specifically Chinese, are facing anti-Chinese sentiments. “As humanity, we shouldn’t be racist to each other. When people have a problem [infection] we need to treat them the right way,” Zhou said.
“I just wish everybody can be kind to each other, because right now it seems like it has become a racist problem not a wellness problem,” he continued.
Jo wanted to emphasize the respect towards people regardless of appearance. “I just hope people are respectful towards everyone, and whether people decide to wear masks or not that they wouldn’t be harrassed and people wouldn’t assume that they have the virus,” said Jo.
The Real Danger: The Flu
While COVID-19 has captured the attention of so many around the world, a much more common disease has continued to go unnoticed by the media spotlight: the flu.
“The flu has a much higher number of deaths associated with it in this past season, more people are dying from the flu than are dying from coronavirus,” Smyth said.
According to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), from Oct 1. 2019 to Feb. 1, 2020, there have been up to 30,000 deaths as a result of the flu, while, as of Feb. 21, 2020, there have been 2,239 deaths due to COVID-19.
The WHO has recently declared COVID-19 as a global health emergency, and while COVID-19 mostly infecting people in Asia, there are cases of infection in The United States so it is important to stay updated via the CDC and WHO websites.
Contributed Reporting By Francesca Story