At the moment, there is no vaccine
and no treatment for COVID-19.
I'm Dr. Leana Wen.
I'm an emergency physician and public health professor
at George Washington University in Washington, DC.
Yes, it is.
There are many ways
that we should not even be comparing COVID-19 to the flu.
Unlike the flu, COVID-19 is new.
That means that no one has immunity to it,
so it could spread very quickly.
There is no vaccine and no treatment.
COVID-19 has a higher fatality rate than the flu.
The flu has a fatality rate of about .1%.
COVID-19 fatality rate is 1 to 3%,
which is 10 to 30 times higher than the flu.
This does not appear to be a pathogen
that's transmitted through the fecal-oral route,
meaning that if somebody is preparing your food,
and they're sick,
it's unlikely that you will get sick yourself.
But, it can be transmitted through hard surfaces,
also called fomites.
So, hard, nonporous surfaces, like a tabletop,
countertop, elevator button, a doorknob,
the virus could live on those surfaces
for hours to days.
Soft, porous surfaces, like hair or fabric,
it could live on those surfaces for a lesser period of time.
This is why, though, we recommend
for everyone to be wiping down surfaces frequently,
but, most importantly, to wash your hands
because it's not practical to avoid touching everything,
but it is practical to touch, use your hands,
and then wash your hands before you then touch your face.
COVID-19 is transmitted through respiratory droplets.
That's different from diseases that are airborne,
like tuberculosis.
But, that said, there is new information
and new research being done about this everyday,
and it's important that you keep up-to-date
with the information
through the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention website at CDC.gov
or the World Health Organization website.
In theory, yes, viruses can mutate.
COVID-19 is part of a family of viruses
called the coronaviruses,
and other coronaviruses have a lower potential for mutation
than influenza and some other viruses.
So, this is something that remains to be seen,
but research is being done everyday on this novel virus.
At the moment, there is no vaccine
and no treatment for COVID-19.
COVID-19 is a virus, and there are antiviral medications -
no, not antibacterials because antibacterials kill bacteria,
antivirals kill viruses.
One hopes that there will be both a vaccine
and treatment developed for COVID-19,
although we do not have that yet.
People can and do recover from COVID-19.
Again, 80% of patients have mild symptoms
and do not need hospital care,
and these patients will recover
with what we call symptomatic treatment,
which is rest, fluids, over-the-counter medications,
and people will recover without incident.
About 15% require some type of hospital care
or more intensive care,
and then 5% require very acute care services,
including being in an ICU or being on a respirator.
I am concerned about those who are elderly,
those who have underlying medical conditions
because they are more likely to have severe symptoms
and end up in hospitals.
And I'm very concerned about what happens when
many patients get ill at once
because that could overwhelm our health care system.
However, we are not powerless against this virus.
There is something that each of us can do today
in order to reduce our own risk of getting the virus
and transmitting it to others.
We will get through this,
just as we've gotten through many other illnesses
and pandemics and outbreaks before.