By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
A doctor with Mosaic Life Care in St. Joseph believes China will be successful in cutting off a major city from the rest of the world in an effort to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
The city of Wuhan, China is being isolated in wake of the virus which has been spreading wildly there.
Dr. Junping Yang, who works in Endocrinology at Mosaic, studied medicine in Wuhan and lived there for nine years before moving to the United States in the late 80s to study at Harvard.
Yang says it might not be as difficult to isolate a city of 11 million than you might think.
“If they close the road, close the train, and airport, I think it’s quite effective in a sense,” Yang tells reporters. “But I sent some advice to my friends and family to tell them not to go to a public place. If you don’t have to go to it, just stay at home.”
Yang has traveled the Wuhan since leaving. He says some of his medical school classmates are on the front lines in the fight against the virus.
There have been more than 20,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus, nearly all in China, where more than 400 deaths have been confirmed. Eleven cases have been confirmed in the United States.
Yang says he understands people question the veracity of news being distributed by the communist government in China.
“I think it is reasonable to have that concern,” Yang says. “But it is getting harder now, because of the Internet, the social media. So, there’s more information that can get out. So, it is harder for the government to control (the news).”
The United States has declared a public health emergency and barred foreign national from entering the country within two weeks of visiting China, unless they have immediate family who are United States citizens or permanent residents.
The State Department is warning Americans against all travel to China, even as it helps U.S. citizens evacuate China.