Will coronavirus spread in the US? It's not 'if' but 'when,' CDC says.

This is a transmission electron microscope image showing the new coronavirus emerging from the surface of human cells.
This is a transmission electron microscope image showing the new coronavirus emerging from the surface of human cells. (Image credit: NIAID-RML)

It's not a matter of "if" but "when" the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, will spread in the United States, officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a news conference today (Feb. 25).

In the past week, there have been reports of increased community spread of the virus in other countries, including South Korea, Iran, Italy, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Japan. 

That has "certainly raised our level of concern and raised our level of expectation that we are going to have community spread here" in the U.S., Dr. Nancy Messonnier, the director of CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said in the briefing. 

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From other countries, it's clear that once community spread began, the virus "moved quite rapidly," she added. "We want to make sure that the American public is prepared" for spread in the U.S., she said.

"Local communities will need to make decisions," Messonnier said. "Now's the time for businesses, hospitals, community schools and everyday people to begin preparing."

But there is also still no vaccine to prevent infection by SARS-CoV-2, nor is there a treatment. So when the virus does begin to spread in the United States, we still don't know what that will look like, Messonnier said. She reiterated that while she hopes the infection will not be severe in the U.S., officials are preparing for this scenario.

Originally published on Live Science. 

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Yasemin Saplakoglu
Staff Writer

Yasemin is a staff writer at Live Science, covering health, neuroscience and biology. Her work has appeared in Scientific American, Science and the San Jose Mercury News. She has a bachelor's degree in biomedical engineering from the University of Connecticut and a graduate certificate in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz.