Americans should brace themselves for an outbreak of the deadly coronavirus to upend their daily lives, health officials warned Tuesday — saying “this might be bad.”
“It’s not so much of a question of if this will happen in this country anymore but a question of when this will happen,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Dr. Nancy Messonnier told reporters.
“We are asking the American public to prepare for the expectation that this might be bad.”
Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, outlined what an epidemic here could mean for schools and businesses.
She said schools should consider plans to divide students into smaller groups, or use “internet-based tele-schooling,” according to CNBC.
“For adults, businesses can replace in-person meetings with video or telephone conferences and increase teleworking options,” Messonnier added.
The CDC on Monday announced there are now 53 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the US, including people evacuated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan and from the Chinese city of Wuhan.
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