Singapore identified this early on and stopped the spread of infection nearly immediately, by mandating (of hospital staff) washing of hands with soap and water, not so-called "sanitizers", before and after each contact with a person or thing that could potentially be infected. By doing that they dropped the infection rate of their hospital staff to a statistical zero and almost immediately thereafter the outbreak there was under control. They still get a case here and there, but the simple fact is that despite the screams of horror about community spread, the facts are that it isn't that easy for social transmission of this bug to take place, except through super-spreading events.
If it was, then the mitigating factors would have had an immediate and dramatic impact, and they have not. Further, Singapore couldn't have stopped transmission to health care workers (if it was airborne primarily and they were just wearing masks) by mandating strict hand hygiene standards, but they did.
We have repeatedly seen this pattern -- where you have a case here and there, a few people show up in the hospital and then the sudden exponential explosion in that locality occurs after failing to follow the predicted geometric progression for weeks -- and it happens in city after city. "Social distancing" doesn't stop or reverse it, and neither do "stay at home" orders, even when backed up with the threat of fines or worse. New York is a leading example of this. Their Rnaught (spread rate) is just not changing after the lockdowns and social distancing. This means the primary vector is the hospitals themselves. That is exactly why Dr. Zuban Damania emphasized very directly, that hospital staff must was their hands religiously. (he knows foro experience this is not occurring). If this was mostly airborne transmission, then the lockdowns would have had dramatic effects in every single country, and R naught would have dropped below 2.7 in the clusters where it has gotten a foothold. It hasn't - data series after data series is showing Rnaught is staying up around 2.7 to 3.0 during lockdowns after after several weeks. Its maybe dropping about a .5 of a point. This is still significantly above the spread of the common flu which is just below 1.0. This has been why WHO and CDC has since day 1 not been advocating masks. They may relent now, bc lockdowns aren't slowing, but the masks will only give everyone a very false sense of security.
The 3 primary things Singapore did per Dr. Z: (Zuban Damania)
1) Doctors and all staff in hospitals washed hands with soap and water (not just sanitizers) between every patient visit. And other staff regularly sanitized all surfaces.
2) Maintained social distancing WITHIN the hospitals, meaning eliminating all doctor to doctor or inhouse staff meetings, AND, social distancing within all waiting areas, limiting number of people within them.
3) Tracked down all people who had contact with infected individuals, and tested all these people as quickly as possible, and quarantined all of them who had contact with the infected patient. Testing was very key, and he noted we aren't doing it enough, or properly to the right targeted segments. He admitted this was very hard but doable. Temperature taking was another element, requiring hospital staff to do this twice per day. Before and after shifts.
The above is a paraphrase of Dr. Z's informative videos, and that of Karl Denninger, who while not a doctor, has been very prescient calling a lot of what's been happening since mid January and has been pretty much spot on.
Note that Dr.Z also said, Wuhan's doctors also figured this out, and this is how they got things under control, which occurred AFTER they had urgently brought in thousands of doctors from around China, since Wuhan was a total disaster and doctors and nurses were getting infected at such a high rate they didn't have enough staff to carry on, back in late January and February. All the information out there has been very mixed, very overwhelming, but when you zero in on the right people who are showing consistency, using evidence, and there is real common sense stuff that can't be disputed, and multiple of these people who don't know each other are providing layers of corroboration, the story becomes rather clear as to what is effective, and what is not. It appears to me further, that the changes will need to happen at a 'grass roots' level within these hospitals through the efforts of people like Dr. Z, and other clinicians on the front lines, sharing their stories with their brethren in the health community across the country. I'm not seeing evidence that people like Dr. Fauci, or even Dr. Birx are communicating these solutions, and if they are they certainly aren't saying this publicly to the American people. Maybe they are all afraid, hospitals would get a really bad rap from this. Personally, I have been in the hospitals way too many times over past years, due to family and relatives needing to go in, and once myself for MRSA about 12 years ago, and I can attest, I never once saw any of these people, go to the sinks that are in each room and ICU, wash their hands, before engaging with the patients, and then wash them again before leaving. The only person I have ever seen do this, is my primary care physician. Scares the heck out of me when I see dry sinks, no soap dispensers nearby, and no handtowels in any room of hospitals that I have had the unfortunate experience of being in way too many times. How many people as patients even think about this ? Do you assume these professionals wash their hands do it elsewhere ? Then try observing them moving from room to room, or bed to bed when in a larger area with only curtains between patients. Nitrile Gloves being on arent the answer either. You also have to wash after you remove them.
