- Thank you for your patience.
I know so many of you have written me comments on YouTube,
Twitter messages, asking me to make an update
to the coronavirus video that I made two weeks ago,
but I didn't want to rush it.
There's been so much misinformation out there,
there's been limited guidance from the CDC and the WHO
in the last week, so I didn't want to rush it
and release a Wednesday check-up too early.
So we're doing this on a Sunday,
and I asked you to give me questions
that I can answer about the coronavirus.
Let's get started, I'm jumping in
to the most uploaded ones and we're going from there.
This video's being filmed on February 28th, 2020,
it's important for you to know the date,
so that you know the information here is up
to date up until that date.
Ananya Sharma, the WHO released a statement today,
where they have said that the global risk
of the spread of COVID-19 is very high.
How many more such levels does the virus have
to cross to be declared a pandemic?
First of all let's define terms here.
Epidemic means an outbreak of a virus
in a specific region that is losing control.
Pandemic is world wide, meaning it's happening
in multiple countries and it spreads easily.
This very high level, is the highest level they have.
I believe it's from stage one to four,
and the very high classification is stage four.
So essentially we might as well function
as if this coronavirus outbreak is a pandemic.
Because in reality, it's in so many countries,
it's being spread, it's gonna continue to spread,
so we might as well call it what it is, a pandemic.
SNK, should I be worried about flying?
Should I cancel my next trip overseas?
Also, I love you, thanks, bye.
I appreciate the love.
It depends, it depends honestly where you're flying.
We've seen outbreaks now happen in Italy, South Korea,
China, Japan, we obviously need
to be more safe than we usually are when we travel,
meaning we should be more vigilant about washing our hands,
proper hygiene, not touching our faces.
And if we're sick, definitely not going anywhere.
If I had a trip scheduled to one of these countries,
or at least a nearby country, I would not go.
I would try and push my plans,
unless it was absolutely necessary I needed to be there.
It's just an unnecessary risk at this time.
But, it's about weighing the risk versus benefits.
That's what we do with every single medical decision.
Pezprinces, how long does the virus stay on objects?
Someone said six hours, someone said six days.
I don't know who to believe right now.
Well the truth of the matter is, we don't have exact data
as to how long the virus survives on solid surfaces.
What we have done, is we've looked at its cousin viruses,
the previous SARS virus, MERS virus, and they're similar in
that, they're both are innate coronavirus viruses,
and they seem to live on solid surfaces
for only hours at a time.
The main spread of these viruses comes
through respiratory droplets, not surface spread.
Six days sounds too extreme to me,
so if I had to lean one way or another,
six hours is probably more accurate of an estimate.
Yoitskay, besides washing my hands
what else can I do to protect myself?
So it's not just about washing your hands,
but it's also about washing your hands the right way.
You have to use both soap and water.
You need to do it for at least 20 seconds,
sing happy birthday twice over,
that's a good little hack that you can have.
Or you can use an alcohol based hand sanitizer,
but it has to have at least 60% alcohol content
for it to be effective.
Second, don't touch your face, eyes, nose, because
that's how the virus spreads
from your hand into those organs.
We don't want it entering our body,
and that's one way we can protect ourselves.
The third is trying to keep a distance away
from those who are sick.
Now we don't have accurate estimates
how far this virus can spread when you're away
from another person who may be carrying it.
But the more distance you can keep between you
and someone who's sneezing and coughing,
the better you're gonna fare.
Tarek Huggi, have any of the people diagnosed
with coronavirus recovered?
Absolutely.
80% of the cases we've diagnosed
with the coronavirus have been mild cases,
where people absolutely do recover.
DeadlyCurseTV, "Hong Kong detects low level
of COVID-19 virus in patient's dog".
Is there any truth in this?
Look, I read this story, and the WHO did confirm
that there's a dog being held in quarantine,
but it tested it for a low level of the virus,
and the dog wasn't even infected,
meaning it wasn't showing symptoms.
So what they think is likely going on, is,
the dog may have come in contact with it's owner's saliva
or respiratory droplets that were found
on the dog's mouth and nose.
It doesn't mean that the dog was actually infected.
At this point I have not seen any evidence showing
that this virus can spread to dogs.
So, no need to panic.
Alex Coriell, should we be keeping younger kids at home?
Should everyone avoid going out?
Well, Alex, first of all I'm not sure
where you are in the world.
In the United States, my recommendation would be
to listen to the CDC and local health authorities.
For example, where I practice right now,
I look at the New Jersey Department of Health
for guidance as far as,
whether or not we should be closing schools,
temporarily having certain students stay home,
but until we get such notices from these agencies,
I think it's best to wait and continue business as normal.
'Cause again, the CDC reiterated that the risk
at this very moment, for those in the U.S. is still low.
Vanny Jievita, they said flue shot is one
of the preventative measures for this virus, is it true doc?
I haven't heard that getting the flu shot
actually helps you fight off this virus
any more effectively than without the flu shot.
However, you should most definitely still get your flu shot,
because the flu is a very serious virus on it's own
that can cause respiratory issues, leading to pneumonia,
and even death in some cases.
So yes, get the flu shot, 'cause the last thing you want is
to catch this novel coronavirus, get a mild case,
but while your immune system is busy fighting that off,
you get the flu on top of it.
Emma Plazas, is there anything you can take
to boost your immune system that actually works?
Emma, I'm so glad you asked this question.
I see countless ads, on Instagram, on the internet,
of people trying to peddle some sort of supplement
that's gonna boost your immune system
and protect you from this virus.
That is absolute poo poo.
There is not such thing as an immune boosting supplement.
Look, if you wanna keep your immune system healthy,
get vaccinated, get seven
to nine hours of sleep consistently, every single night,
eat healthy, exercise, follow proper hygiene,
and that's the best thing you can do for your immune system.
Ignore people trying to make a buck in this situation,
in fact, those who are doing so,
should be ashamed of themselves.
MI GZ, is there a cure for COVID-19,
or something that reduces the chances of getting infected?
Well MI GZ, we're actually working on this two-fold.
First, is the vaccine, we're hoping, hoping,
to get a vaccine next year,
mid to late next year's gonna be the earliest
that we're gonna be able to get a vaccine out,
and this is one of the fastest turn around times
we've ever had for a vaccine.
Now in terms of treating or curing this illness,
we have like 80 clinical trials going on right now,
testing different medications, like anti-virals,
anti-retrovirals, HIV medications, even taking blood plasma
from patients who've recovered,
and have antibodies to this novel coronavirus,
and injecting it into other people.
We're legitimately trying all these different therapies,
in trials, to figure out what works.
Big Smoke, as a doctor yourself, are you worried
on what's gonna become of the COVID-19 virus?
I'm not gonna say I'm worried, I'm gonna say I'm thinking
about the worst possible scenarios,
and trying to get prepared for it.
In fact that's what every major hospital institution
in the United States is doing as well,
and we're doing a good job at that.
We're refreshing our personal protection equipment policies.
We're learning what questions to ask patients.
What is the ideal route for a patient
to come in to the office to get properly tested?
Where should they be in isolation?
We need to make sure we get all that information wrapped up,
every health care provider's aware of that,
so we can give the best possible treatment to our patients.
Random person, how contagious is this coronavirus?
Well, the preliminary research shows
that for every single person
that gets the novel coronavirus,
two to 3 1/2 other individuals will become sick in that,
with it as well.
Which means that it's moderately infectious.
For example, for the flu, the common flu that we see
in the U.S. here, for each person that gets sick,
one other person will get sick.
So you could say that it's two to three times
more infectious than the more traditional flu.
Gabriel Harkins, do you think this virus will mutate
and become worse?
Gabriel, this is a hard question,
it's very difficult to predict.
Some viruses do mutate.
Initial reports for this novel coronavirus is showing
that it does not mutate rapidly.
The current cases have not changed much
from the genetic strains of the initial cases.
That being said, if a virus mutates, it does not always mean
that the virus mutates and becomes worse.
Sometimes a virus can mutate and actually eliminate itself.
So we need to keep abreast of the situation
and see what's changing, what we need to do about it,
and trust only quality sources like the CDC and WHO.
Jonnavelle Vidal, is it true
that the coronavirus can be treated by the HIV medication.
Well, Jonnavelle, that's a great question,
'cause there are clinical trials ongoing
to see if the HIV medication works.
So far we do not have results for those studies,
I am waiting, as soon as I find out the results
of some of them, I will keep you updated.
Nimrit Gill, Dr. Mike, what is the real name
of the coronavirus, and what does it mean?
Now I sort of confused you guys, on the previous video.
The disease that this novel coronavirus causes
is called COVID-19, now it's called COVID-19,
it's okay to say COVID-19 virus, right,
cause there's a virus
that causes COVID-19, it's the disease.
Just like the HIV virus causes AIDS.
The virus itself, this novel coronavirus, has the name,
SARS-COV-2, so the SARS-COV-2 virus, is like HIV.
COVID-19 is like AIDS.
So COVID-19 is the disease SARS-COV-2 is the virus.
Xmxjade, if you already had the coronavirus,
are you immune to it?
This is actually a great question,
and something we're putting more resources
into learning about.
We have seen some individuals who were infected
with this novel coronavirus get reinfected at a later point.
Generally speaking, when an individual gets a virus,
what happens, the body creates antibodies
to fight off this virus, called IgM, after that,
the body signals the release of IgG antibodies,
which are known as memory antibodies.
Now for each illness, the body has a different timeframe
of how long they keep around these IgG antibodies.
For example, if you get chicken pox,
usually that's a one time illness,
because your body builds lifelong immunity.
Other illnesses, like the flu, it's not lifelong,
especially 'cause the virus mutates each season.
For measles, if you get your measles vaccinations,
that's considered lifelong immunity.
We don't know how long the immunity lasts
when you get infected with the coronavirus, but it should be
that for at least a certain period of time,
that you do have some immunity to it.
Kolton Schwartz, are people in the U.S.
at the possibility of it spreading like it is in China?
The possibility certainly is there, in fact,
my recent television appearances,
the anchors have been asking me the same question.
What's the deal with community spread?
Because there was a single case in California,
where we had an individual who tested positive
for the coronavirus, without exposure to someone
from an area where the coronavirus is present,
or someone actively sick.
In those situations we label that community spread.
In this situation research is still ongoing,
to figure out how that person was sick,
so we're not labeling it community spread just yet,
we're suspecting that it's community spread.
I'll give you an example, if a patient comes into my office
with the influenza virus, and I diagnose them
with the influenza virus, I don't go and do an investigation
of how they got it.
I just say hey, you got it from the community,
so we label it community spread.
If community spread starts happening,
meaning that there's patients that are coughing
and sneezing walking around
and they're not being quarantined,
and put into isolation properly,
that can cause a huge uptick in cases.
Something else that could be going on,
which we're just learning about,
is that there's some patients
that are having asymptomatic spread of this virus.
Meaning that they're not showing symptoms,
the virus is in an incubation stage,
which we're saying lasts anywhere from two to 14 days,
huge range, at which time where,
they could possibly spread the virus,
but not show any symptoms.
That could be problematic on one hand, but also positive
on another, meaning that there's a lot
of cases we haven't diagnosed yet,
which will lower the lethality rate of the virus,
making it less dangerous.
So we have to figure it out, we have to wait,
and we have to not rush to look at numbers every single day.
Those numbers will change,
those numbers will grow one day, shrink another.
Let's look at averages, let's look at guidance
from trustworthy sources, like the CDC, and WHO,
and go from there.
Check out my video of me playing Plague Inc.
Now you may laugh, why am I recommending a game
where you're infecting the world,
but it actually teaches you a lot of lessons
about how viruses like this spread.
Definitely give it a click and stay happy and healthy.
(upbeat music)