Heed threat of the coronavirus

The coronavirus threat in the United States is real.

Already tens of thousands have become sick around the world from the COVID-19 outbreak, with a death toll of more than 2,500. The disease has traveled far beyond the epicenter in China’s Hubei province — it is wreaking havoc in Iran and now Italy. And it is the Italian outbreak that is the most worrisome for those on the East Coast because the major tourist destination hosts school and other trips.

The sick Lindenhurst High School students who recently returned from a trip to Italy appear to have the flu or something similar, but their plight underscores how closely Long Islanders must pay attention. Those who have recently traveled to affected areas should monitor their health.

The urgency is palpable. Global markets have tanked, and disruption has hit business world supply chains.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention outlined pandemic planning and warned of widespread disruption from coronavirus, beyond the few-dozen isolated U.S. cases.

“It’s not so much of a question of if this will happen in this country any more but a question of when this will happen,” Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said Tuesday. The federal government’s plan against an outbreak, however, seems inadequate.

GOP Sen. John Kennedy eviscerated acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf about the coronavirus during a Senate hearing Tuesday. “You’re supposed to keep us safe, and the American people deserve some straight answers on the coronavirus and I’m not getting them from you,” Kennedy said. The senators expressed concern about a lack of respirators and masks.

In New York, samples outside New York City go to the state Department of Health’s Wadsworth Center in Albany, which forwards suspect ones for more testing to the CDC in Atlanta. Disturbingly, the center can’t do the full testing because kits from the CDC came in flawed. The site is waiting on new ones.

The White House is asking for an allocation of $2.5 billion in emergency funds to fight the virus, with about half of that funding shifted from other priorities like the Ebola crisis. This money can’t come soon enough.

Before the current international crisis, the CDC slashed its epidemic work from 49 countries around the world to 10. The administration’s proposed federal budget would cut CDC funding, including millions from a division that works on infectious diseases like coronavirus.

Alarming Americans would be counterproductive, but President Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus seems to downplay the urgency. The situation is more complicated than his tweet, “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA.”

Some Trump supporters, including economic adviser Larry Kudlow, sound even more naive or too committed to a spin rejected by markets.

New Yorkers should heed health professionals. Handwashing is a must, and those who feel sick should stay home. Local governments, schools, businesses and families should have contingency plans for an outbreak.

The seriousness of the coronavirus outbreak should not be a surprise to anyone.

— The editorial board