Doctor treating coronavirus patients in LA suburb calls for schools to shut down immediately

A California doctor treating several coronavirus-stricken men who contracted the disease on a ski trip in Northern Italy is speaking out and warning the public to shut down schools immediately and stay in their homes. 

Dr. Sam Fink is a primary care physician treating coronavirus patients in Tarzana, a wealthy Los Angeles suburb just 10 miles from Kim Kardashian’s Calabasas home. 

On Sunday he shared a warning Facebook post saying the disease is like nothing he’s ever seen.

‘I have practiced for over 30 years, and have seen it all, or so I thought. Nothing has worried me like this,’ he wrote. 

One of his patients is being treated at the Tarzana Medical Center, another is being treated elsewhere, and he’s friends with a third, and he’s been shocked to see the impact of the fast-spreading virus. 

‘Essentially, 14 men went on a ski trip to Northern Italy. All have become ill, and all 14 have tested positive for coronavirus. Of the 14, four needed to be hospitalized, and of the four patients, three are very ill as I write this. One had a significant pre-existing medical condition. The other three did not, and are relatively young,’ he explained. 

The group of men traveled to Cortina d’Ampezzo, a small town in the Dolomite Mountains in Northern Italy and returned on February 27. 

‘The news out of Northern Italy today is not good,’ he wrote. 

Fink is urging the public to take measures beyond vigorous hand washing and hand sanitizing and is urging schools to close and locals to avoid big groups. 

‘I recommend to all who read this that you avoid going to large group events such as sporting events, and concerts,’ he said. 

‘I believe that all schools should be closed immediately and classes conducted online, which is relatively simple. I know that so far, children infected with CV have done relatively well, but they might come home and hug Grandpa, who won’t do so well.’ 

‘Avoid contact with others as much as possible. CV in the United States is at a relatively early stage, but it won’t last there for long. Make sure you have any medications you need, as well as supplies, but panicking hurts all of us,’ Fink warned. 

Fink noted that while the US’s cases with coronavirus are just a fraction of what’s going on abroad, it’s only a matter of time till the epidemic grows. 

‘My biggest hope is that I am totally wrong, and that you will all wonder in a few weeks what the hell I was talking about. But I have a pretty good track record, and I think you should take steps now to protect yourselves and your family. There is little cost to taking extra precaution right now, and the earlier, the better.’

His post was shared over 1,000 times.

Some concerned officials are heeding the warnings of medical experts. 

UC Berkely announced Monday it will suspend most in-person classes starting Tuesday. Stanford University also announced it would hold only online classes last week. USC is testing online classes this week. 

Meanwhile Northern California’s largest school district in Sacramento County is closed this week. 

Only a small handful of California schools have closed and some have been temporary closures for cleaning. 

Harkham Hillel Hebrew Academy in Beverly Hills will be closed until at least Thursday. Clifton Middle School in Monrovia was deep-cleaned Thursday after officials became aware that a person who might have the virus had been on campus, as per the Los Angeles Times. 

The Los Angeles County Health Department has confirmed eight cases of coronavirus among a group of travelers who recently returned from northern Italy. 

Sources tell DailyMail.com that the other members of the group, who reside elsewhere, have also fallen ill since returning home. 

Italy has been hard-hit by the coronavirus where more than 9,000 people have tested positive for the diseases, and more than 400 people have died as of Monday evening.

Northern Italy has seen the highest concentration of infection cases and on Monday Italy announced a country-wide lockdown affecting its 60million people.  

In the US there are over 754 cases of coronavirus and 26 deaths. 

In California there are 143 cases and two deaths. 

On Monday a woman in her 60s in Santa Clara County passed away.  Last week, a man in Placer County who had been on the Grand Princess cruise ship died. 

Pam Angel told KCBS-TV that her husband and one of her adult sons are in self-quarantine, but her other son has underlying health issues and is being treated at Providence Tarzana Medical Center. 

‘He can’t talk without coughing. He feels like he has a pallet of bricks on his chest, he’s not eating,’ she said.

Angel says they didn’t realize at the time that there had been an outbreak of coronavirus in Italy.

‘It’s been aired that it was over in Asia and in China, but it wasn’t being aired that it was anywhere else,’ she said.

Angel’s husband and sons live in Tarzana, which is less than 10 miles from Calabasas, which is home to Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, as well as a string of other celebrities, including Drake and Will Smith.

A fourth man, a US citizen and also on the trip, is said to be in a coma in Switzerland, where he now resides.

The rest of the men who were on the trip, who were said to be ‘previously healthy guys in their 40s and 50s’ have all since fallen ill, with one coughing up blood, according to sources.

They live in states across the U.S, including Arizona where two cases have been reported. 

A source told DailyMail.com of the ski trip friends: ‘The man hospitalized at Tarzana was traveling with two other friends and when they they arrived at LAX, the infected person was taken to the hospital.

‘They were all screened, but since his two other friends had no symptoms they were told they could go home.

‘Then days later, they both developed symptoms and have been diagnosed with the virus. They contacted officials and were instructed to self-quarantine at home for two weeks.

‘The fact that they were able to just go home in the first place is really alarming because that means travelers are not being screened properly. Just think of all the other people on that flight. Do they even know they might be infected?’

Celebrities including Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, Will Smith, Drake and Katie Holmes all have homes in the nearby area.

A source told DailyMail.com: ‘There were about 15 friends in the group that went on the ski trip in Northern Italy. They are all sick and one friend is still in Italy. He is American but lives in Switzerland. He is in a coma.

‘The other friends live in different states, including Arizona. One person has been coughing up blood. It’s much worse than what’s being told to the public.

‘[Donald] Trump has been saying it’s mild, well it’s not mild.’ 

Globally, coronavirus has infected almost 115,000 and killed more than 3,000 since it started spreading in China at the end of last year.

On Tuesday, China’s president visited the center of the global virus outbreak Tuesday as Italy began a sweeping nationwide travel ban and people worldwide braced for the possibility of recession.

President Xi Jinping’s trip to the coronavirus’ epicenter of Wuhan – his first since the start of the outbreak – came as parts of his country return to normalcy, and was a sign of the diminishing threat the illness presents in China as it spreads west.

Nowhere was that more evident than Italy, where travel restrictions previously limited to the country’s north were extended everywhere beginning Tuesday, with soldiers and police enforcing bans. Some 9,172 people were infected in Italy and 463 have died and there was a growing sense the numbers would only worsen.

“We’re only at the beginning,” said Dr. Massimo Galli, head of infectious disease at Sacco Hospital in Milan, where people at the city’s main train station were required to sign forms certifying the necessity of their travel.

Outbreaks worsened in France, Spain and Germany, and fear grew in the United States, where more than 750 people are infected and even some top political leaders were quarantined.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.

The World Health Organization says people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while severe cases may last three to six weeks. 

In mainland China, where the outbreak emerged in December, almost three-fourths of its more than 80,000 patients have recovered.