March 11-15 poll found a third of Americans and almost half of Republicans had taken no precautions against coronavirus; surgeon general says it’s going to get bad this week

As news develops in Kentucky about the coronavirus and its covid-19 disease, this page will be updated.  Official state guidance is at https://kycovid19.ky.gov. 

Monday, March 23, 2020

• A Kaiser Family Foundation poll taken March 11-15, during which social distancing measures were being put into place across the country, found that one in four Americans said they had stayed home instead of going to regular activities and 40 percent had canceled plans to attend large gatherings. Overall, 67 percent said they had taken at least one precaution, far above the  13% in the February poll, but leaving one-third of Americans who had not. Democrats were more likely to have taken a precaution than Republicans: 80% to 53%.
• “I want America to understand this week, it’s going to get bad,” U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams said on NBC’s “Today” show. He warned that the disease is spreading because many are not following guidance to stay at home and practice social distancing, especially young people. “Everyone needs to act as if they have the virus right now. So, test or no test, we need you to understand you could be spreading it to someone else or you could be getting it from someone else. Stay at home,” he said emphatically. He also cautioned that America has higher proportions of younger people getting the disease than some other countries and one hypothesis for that is the larger numbers of young Americans who use electronic cigarettes: “It’s important for young people to know you can get this disease, you can be hospitalized for this disease, you can die from this disease, but most importantly you can spread it to your loved ones.”
• People with diabetes can be more susceptible to — and can become sicker if infected with — any virus, including covid-19, according to a University of Kentucky press release. It includes a list of tips from the Barnstable Brown Diabetes Center and Bluegrass Care Clinic to help people with diabetes stay healthy, including making sure to have enough medication and other supplies at home to last several weeks.  Gov. Andy Beshear has signed an executive order to allow pharmacies to refill prescriptions for up to 30 days to ensure that everyone has access to needed prescriptions.
• Brown-Forman Corp. will donate $1 million to covid-19 response funds to support multiple locations and agencies. The Louisville-based distiller says it has partnered with the Restaurant Workers’ Community Foundation to support its Covid-19 Crisis Relief Fund and will match dollar-for-dollar donations from others up to $100,000. The donation website says “100% of donations will go directly to support restaurant workers in crisis.”  Donations are also being made to the United States Bartenders’ Guild Foundation Emergency Assistance Program and One Louisville: Covid-19 Response Fund.