See this
NPR story: “
New Coronavirus Detected In Patients At Malaysian Hospital; The Source May Be Dogs.”
What is important is not so much this one story but what it illustrates, which is that more new viruses are very possible. They evolve every day and the “great leap” is when a human gets the new virus and it can be transmitted between humans.
So, when you hear people talking about the “once in a hundred-year pandemic” this is not necessarily true. In the linked story above, the cases involved were found in Sarawak, Malaysia, a place I expect many of us have never heard of before.
Perhaps improved testing will help with detection and early intervention in the future, but I’m not too hopeful on that front. There are just too many out-of-the-way places in the world where a virus can get a foothold and start to spread before medical authorities are alerted. It starts in Sarawak and ends up in Kansas City, Mo., before you know it.
Eric Holdeman is a nationally known emergency manager. He has worked in emergency management at the federal, state and local government levels. Today he serves as the Director, Center for Regional Disaster Resilience (CRDR), which is part of the Pacific Northwest Economic Region (PNWER). The focus for his work there is engaging the public and private sectors to work collaboratively on issues of common interest, regionally and cross jurisdictionally.
