{"id":11533,"date":"2020-04-23T17:53:26","date_gmt":"2020-04-23T17:53:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=11533"},"modified":"2020-04-23T17:53:27","modified_gmt":"2020-04-23T17:53:27","slug":"texas-health-expert-coronavirus-pandemic-involves-five-phases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=11533","title":{"rendered":"Texas health expert: coronavirus pandemic involves five phases"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/gr-69870-1-1.gif\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-11534\"\/><figcaption><strong><em>The \u201cstay at home\u201d order remains in effect in Texas through April 30, although the governor is expected to announce plans later this week to reopen the state\u2019s economy. <\/em><\/strong>Photo: Engin_Akyurt\/PIxabay<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>By ROZ BROWN<br><\/strong>Texas News Service<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 If you\u2019re having trouble getting your head around what part of the coronavirus pandemic we\u2019re in, a Texas public-health expert says it can be broken into five phases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gerald Parker directs the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/bush.tamu.edu\/scowcroft\/programs\/about\/\">Bush School\u2019s biosecurity and pandemic public policy program<\/a>&nbsp;at Texas A&amp;M. He said we\u2019ve transitioned from the first phase of containment to mitigation \u2013 or slowing the spread of COVID-19 \u2013 what he calls phase two. Next comes phase three, a second stage of containment while a vaccine is readied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said until a vaccine is ready, he is optimistic therapeutics can help those who become severely ill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe have to be much more aggressive,\u201d Parker said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to have to provide our public-health authorities with new resources, more human resources. And we\u2019re going to have to provide our public-health authorities with new technologies as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Parker said he expects a vaccine to be available in 15-18 months, but cautions that health officials cannot shortcut safety in its development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In his view, phase four involves another stage of containment once a vaccine is developed. And the fifth stage would involve preparations for the next pandemic at a national security level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Parker said we need to think about COVID-19 in the long term, because the virus is not likely to go away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re going to have to potentially deal with the reality that we may have seasonal upticks in COVID-19 in the future,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I think that we can get that to a place that we can manage it if we have a vaccine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Parker said he believes the country should be reopened by employing what he calls \u201csurgically-implemented\u201d mitigation measures. He said the lockdown cannot continue indefinitely because of its impact on the economy as well as the physical and mental health of the larger society.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By ROZ BROWNTexas News Service AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 If you\u2019re having trouble getting your head around what part of the coronavirus pandemic we\u2019re in, a Texas public-health expert says it can be broken into five phases. Gerald Parker directs the&nbsp;Bush School\u2019s biosecurity and pandemic public policy program&nbsp;at Texas A&amp;M. He said we\u2019ve transitioned from the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":11534,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11533"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11535,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11533\/revisions\/11535"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}