justice should we be worried about I
don't think this should instill fear in
the American public but as health
officials CDC the Department of Homeland
Security and others we're take this
really very seriously which is the
reason why we do the kinds of screening
that we're talking about and why the
person who did come back from Wuhan
into the state of Washington and Seattle
was immediately able to be identified to
be isolated and to put into isolation
and now is doing really quite well but
still is in isolation
dr. Falchi this is a Gary call bomb what
about the fact that it's traveled so
quickly starts in China and I have a
list here South Korea Japan Thailand
Taiwan Macau Hong Kong United States and
unconformity darn quick is that a big
issue for you well you know the
quickness really relates to the
extraordinary amount of travel that
comes in and out of China so it isn't
that it's a function of the virus itself
if you look at the people who are
infected and are in those other
countries virtually all of them have had
their origin in Wuhan so the cases the
two in Thailand
the one in Japan the one in South Korea
those are individuals that travelled out
and have been in Wuhan so it isn't a
function of the virus it's a function of
in society today in our modern age
travel is so easy and it's so easy to
get around the world that would that
that's really what that reflects nothing
inherent about the virus dr. Fauci
thanks for joining us tonight
people writing sort of scary stories
have likened this to the Spanish flu
epidemic in terms of people dying
relative to the people infected I have
to assume that that is sort of fear
mongering and that in today's world
where we can so quickly react to new
instances of people being sick we have
much better control via police cordoning
off areas and stuff like that I mean I
can't imagine this gets out of control
as some people are suggesting or am I
being too optimistic well it isn't that
you're being too optimistic I think
we need to add a bit perspective of
history this is a coronavirus so we know
what the virus is it generally
coronaviruses caused common colds about
10 to 30% of your upper respiratory
infections every once in a while over
the last 20 years we've had first two
and now the third instance of a corona
virus jumping species from an animal
reservoir infecting humans and getting
serious disease with a relatively high
degree of mortality remember SARS was
very similar it jumped species infected
people there were about a thousand
infections and about 775 deaths we were
able to control it very well by standard
public health measures of identification
isolation and in some cases quarantine
the same thing happened with mares the
Middle East respiratory syndrome which
had about 2,400 individuals and about
800 deaths so the mortality is high the
question is it certainly does not spread
as rapidly and easily as an influenza
spread so I think it's a bit much to be
able to compare this to the 1918 global
pandemic of flu I think it's much more
comparable to compare it possibly to
something like SARS or mares thank you
dr. Fox its Robert wolf how are you just
a quick question if if someone just said
out loud
that their quarantine a city of eight
million people in one of the largest
countries in the world at what point
would it make you really concerned that
we should be concerned well I mean I
don't think that the concern in the
United States should be related to the
actions that were taken by the Chinese I
I can't put myself in their mind and
figure out why you know what the exact
deliberations that made them do that but
I think it was clear that since they
were seeing infections in other parts of
China in Beijing in Shanghai in Quang
dong
they wanted to stop that their decision
to do that was to essentially cut off
travel whether or not that's the right
decision is going to be remained to be
seen doctor foul Qi we have to go I just
have to ask very quickly China has been
known to fiddle with their stats before
do you trust what they are telling us
about this illness from what I can see
right now they really are being much
much more transparent than what happened
with SARS where they really kept back
information for a while it was
embarrassing to them they're really
transparent now they put the sequence of
the virus up on the public database
right away so in that respect
they've been transparent dr. Anthony
Fauci really an honor to have you here
sir thank you very much for coming in
appreciate