The experts could help assess how the virus is being spread person-to-person and when people are most contagious, since there have been reports of the virus being spread by infected patients showing no symptoms.
Meanwhile, the CDC on Monday defended steps it’s taken to contain the coronavirus, including a ban on recent travelers to China, after Chinese officials accused the Trump administration of fearmongering and not helping contain the outbreak.
„We made an aggressive decision in front of an unprecedented threat that action now had the biggest potential to slow this thing down,“ Nancy Messonnier, the CDC’s Director for the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told reporters. She noted that China had gone as far as locking down Wuhan, a city of 11 million at the epicenter of the outbreak.
The virus has killed 362 people and sickened 17,391, mostly in China, according to the World Health Organization. No new countries reported cases in the past 24 hours.
“What I’ve seen is that in situations like this, science should trump everything else,” Messonnier said. “And that is certainly what we’re hoping, is that scientific expertise of the larger global community will be brought to bear on this really complicated, difficult situation.”
The Trump administration last week dramatically ramped up its response, including plans to evacuate up to 1,000 U.S. residents from the Wuhan region. HHS Secretary Alex Azar declared the outbreak a national public health emergency and the CDC quarantined 195 Americans who were evacuated from Wuhan last Wednesday, the first such action the agency has taken in half a century.
Azar on Sunday told Congress that he may need to use his authority to shift as much as $136 million within the health department to fight the outbreak, an HHS spokesperson confirmed Monday. Azar said he could increase CDC funds by as much as $75 million, said one individual familiar with the notification. Azar also said he could redirect as much as $52 million to the HHS emergency-response office, and up to $8 million to the HHS global affairs office.
Some of the administration’s actions have created friction with Beijing as officials there struggle to respond to a public health crisis and coordinate with other countries.
The Chinese foreign ministry on Monday accused the U.S. of creating an atmosphere of fear, contending it “inappropriately overreacted” by warning Americans not to travel to China and temporarily banning foreigners who traveled to the country.
Messonnier said the response was intended to slow the spread of the virus in the United States. She declined to comment on whether tensions with China were hampering U.S. efforts to study the virus, and said the CDC stands ready to travel to China if it is extended the invitation.
Messonnier also said that a CDC-prepared diagnostic test could be distributed to states by the end of the week, contingent on the FDA granting an emergency use authorization.
The CDC has confirmed 11 coronavirus cases in the United States. including two involving people who were in close proximity to infected people who had recently traveled from Wuhan.
Dan Diamond and David Lim contributed to this report.
Source: politico.com
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