[The Guardian] 'We're clearing the decks': a GP on watching the coronavirus pandemic unfold

'We're clearing the decks': a GP on watching the coronavirus pandemic unfold

Despite the growing death toll and the unprecedented speed at which events are moving, the past few weeks feel like just a prelude of what is to come. By Gavin Francis

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On 13 January, a bulletin from Health Protection Scotland was sent to all GP practices in the country describing a “novel Wuhan coronavirus”. I work in a small clinic in central Edinburgh with four doctors, two nurses and six admin staff. It was the first time I’d heard of the virus. “Current reports describe no evidence of significant human to human transmission, including no infections of healthcare workers,” it said reassuringly.

I cast my mind back to the Sars coronavirus of almost two decades ago, and briefly wondered how quickly the spread of this coronavirus would be stopped, as Sars was. A seafood market had been closed and sanitised. The bulletin said that although Wuhan was a city of 19 million people, there were only three flights per week from there to the UK, and the likely impact was “very low”. I shrugged, and carried on with my work.

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