Thank you to Bill Frist, MD for sharing highlights of his conversation with three top Chinese physicians leading the Coronavirus response in China.

I’ll summarize here. However, consider watching the video shared by Dr. Frist on LinkedIn.

Lessons learned;

1. Early control of local transmission depends on rapid diagnosis and hospitalization of those with the disease. Failure to do this results in a spike in local cases.

2. Disciplined social distancing allowed for a peaking of cases in Wuhan within 10 days after first being reported. The number of new cases remained elevated for 6 days, followed by a rapid fall in reported new cases.

3. The most common feature of serious infection appeared to be fever, which was present in 98.6% of pneumonia cases reported in Wuhan. Other common symptoms included fatigue, dry cough, and muscle soreness.

4. Viral load, the measure of the virus present in the blood stream, had a direct impact on the severity of the disease.

5. COVID-19 was confirmed with two positive PCR performed one after the other.

6. Chest x-rays and CT scans were not precise in identifying COVID-19.

7. The main incubation periods, the average time from initial infection to onset of infection, in China was about 6 1/2 days.

8. No anti-viral drug has been proven effective against COVID-19. That said, trials are underway on Lopinavir, Retonavir, Remdisivir.

I encourage you to listen to the entire video on LinkedIn.