‘Three threats at once’: California urges caution amid spread of RSV, COVID, flu and SARS
California Governor Gavin Newsom on Tuesday issued an urgent public health warning to avoid three severe respiratory diseases at once: influenza, the new coronavirus (2019-nCoV) and the influenza-like-illness (ILI).
“The most dangerous part of any flu season is the influenza virus itself,” Newsom wrote in the State of Health, a series of public service announcements sent to registered Calaffer’s (California Health Care Foundation) email list. “It’s easy to avoid – no one is dying of influenza. However, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t cause illness, and it does, in addition to the coronavirus.”
Newsom’s warning came as a California CDC official said “the risk of the new coronavirus infection is much higher than previously thought.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s warning that flu, coronavirus and the ILI, which includes flu-like symptoms, are all “three threats” at once came hours after the California Public Health Department reported that a flu pandemic is “likely” in California.
“The virus has shown up in different forms in different places,” the California Department of Public Health said in a press release Tuesday night. “Flu is a respiratory illness, but the specific coronavirus has shown that it can be spread to humans from animals and can spread person-to-person.”
“That means it can spread between people who are in close contact with one another,” the release continued. “That’s why it’s so important for people to understand the difference between flu and a coronavirus, and how to protect themselves against both.”
That virus, the California CDC said on Tuesday, is “still a lot less deadly than SARS, and a lot more deadly than middle-
