Hoboken Public Health Professor Tracks, Talks About Coronavirus

HOBOKEN, NJ — As Coronavirus enters a peak in New Jersey and New York, Hoboken resident Dr. Jonathan Metsch, who was president of Jersey City Medical Center from 1989 to 2006, has been tracking stories about the virus on his blog, which he has done since January.

On Jan. 21, Mestch posted, “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday confirmed the first U.S. case of a deadly new coronavirus that has killed six people in China.” This was the beginning of coronavirus tracking on the blog, called Doctor Did You Wash Your Hands?

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After leaving JCMC, Metsch returned to graduate student teaching at Rutgers Newark and Baruch College, CUNY, and started developing case studies on health care challenges (ebola, zika, the opioid crisis, candida auris) and catastrophic events (hurricanes, migrant children family separation and confinement, the Chilean cave rescue).

He also organized and co-chaired the Hoboken Swine Flu Task Force.

Metsch said this week, “The coronavirus pandemic itself exceeds the challenges of all the previous situations combined. In its world-wide trajectory and rapidity. In its medical complexity. In its exceeding the capacity of our health care system. And in its toll in human lives.”

In the six weeks since the first death in America, 32,900 people in the U.S. have passed away who were confirmed to have coronavirus. There is no vaccine or cure as yet.

As of Thursday, there were 3,518 deaths in New Jersey from the virus, and more than 11,000 deaths in New York City.

Metsch answered a few questions from Patch:

<blockquote>Q: How long do you forsee people having to quarantine and stay inside? What about social distancing, when they do come out?

A: It’s hard to say, but Dr. Fauci is the “Walter Cronkite” of pandemics, so we need to listen to his advice and follow it.

Q: You say it exceeds the past challenges, but why — we know it spreads quickly, but what else?

A: Because we still “don’t know what we don’t know about it," and the science, though exceedingly good, hasn’t yet figured out how to get ahead of it. We probably won’t know until there is an effective nationwide testing program.

Q: What do you think of people who, on the internet and elsewhere, say we are overdoing the precautions?

With public health challenges, it’s always better to be overprepared and “second guessed” than underprepared and suffer the consequences.</blockquote>

Metsch said, “Governor Murphy, Governor Cuomo and [Hoboken] Mayor Bhalla have shown focused and determined evidence-based leadership and firm yet empathetic messaging. Their transparency and clarity on lessons learned have become templates that many other states are using.”

Metsch grew up in Queens. He's an adjunct professor, Rutgers School of Public Health, and a clinical professor, environmental medicine and public health, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Read his blog here.

Residents who have questions about coronavirus can call 211 or contact the State of New Jersey's hotline at 1 (800) 222-1222.

Experts say that the new coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, is more lethal and much harder to treat than the flu. Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that include the common cold as well as much more serious diseases. The first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the U.S. was on Jan. 21.

Got a news tip or just want to reach out? Email caren.lissner@patch.com.