Coronavirus Conversations: Day 2

Well, hi everyone. Dr. David Perlmutter here, and as I said in the caption, it is a new day. What does it all mean? And that's what we're gonna talk about today. We're gonna talk about where we've come in the past 24 hours. We've seen certainly a lot of new cases of coronavirus. We've seen significant increase in the death rate as well. And certainly a lot more is happening around the world. We heard, you know, what is going on with respect to the United States and closing our borders to Europe, all the things that are happening. And what I want to be available to do today is, of course, talk about or answer questions based on, you know, what you guys send in. I learned yesterday or last night that The post I did, wow, there was 32,000 people that looked at it. So I guess I'm hopeful that this is good information for everybody. So I see that a lot of people are already joining up. What I think would be a good idea for me would be to do these at a specific time each day so we can look forward to it. So why don't we just say for now, and I can't promise this, but we'll say 5 o'clock PM Eastern. What is it right now? It's 5:28. So maybe tomorrow we'll all get together around 5 o'clock and I'd love to hear from everybody. So what do we know? We know that the biggest risk for death with respect to contracting this virus is in individuals with preexisting disease. We know that the rate of death in individuals with existing cardiovascular disease is about 10.5%. Diabetes, it's about 7.5%. Chronic respiratory disease, a lot of questions about that yesterday, and that's about 6.3%. Even hypertension is a risk factor for having— for dying as a consequence of this infection. Having no underlying disease process is actually associated with a 0.9% death rate, certainly a lot lower than the overall death rate. Again, as I talked about yesterday, the Increasing risk of death from in individuals in Italy might well be a consequence of the fact that the Italian population is in fact significantly older than we see in other parts of Europe. It's interesting to see the low death rate in Germany. We've been kind of wondering why that might be, but anyway. Again, you know, the standard explanation has been it has to do with the fact that there are, you know, just the population at large seems to be younger. So let's look at some other statistics. Male versus female. It turns out that the death rate in males is 2.8% and overall in females 1.7%. So women have a reduced risk compared to men. I think the biggest factor to consider is age. If you're 80+, your risk of death if you are infected is reported to be at 14.8%. 60 to 69 years old is 3.6%. 70 to 79 is 8.0%. My age group, again, 60 to 69, is 3.6%. And the reason I bring this up, and the pre-existing illnesses as well, is you're not going to change that. You're certainly not going to change your age, and as mentioned, then we need to do all the things that we can to mitigate our risk since these other risk factors are things that we cannot necessarily change. Death rate for young people, 10 to 19 years of age, is 0.2%. So it's interesting to look at that, and— You know, realize that, you know, there are some very important considerations here as it relates to visiting with older people, etc., having, you know, having contact with older people. The incubation period— how long do you have to have it until it manifests? The typical— it's a wide scale, it's 2 to 14 days. There have been some outliers who have manifested symptoms immediately upon exposure to the virus and one outlier, or perhaps there were more, who didn't manifest symptoms until some 27 days after the supposed infection. That's something to think about, that people may not manifest this infection right off the bat. How long does it take when someone's infected for them to be able to spread the coronavirus? We don't know the answer to that just yet. So again, we have to be putting ourselves in a position to be really quite circumspect in what we do. The mean incubation time is reported to be 3 days in one study and up to 5.2 days in another. People traveling from Wuhan, China actually had a longer incubation period of 6.4 days. 4 days, but what we're seeing now is different strains that may in fact have a more brief incubation period, as it were. So World Health Organization is telling us 2 to 14 days, and that's what they're going with. The big news is that— we'll not talk about March Madness. We have to kind of focus on things I think that are a little bit more important. So What do I think is important to do right now? I think it's good to have food at your home. I think if you need medications, you're normally on medications, you need to get a significant supply of those. We have kept here some Advil, NyQuil, you know, things that you think you might need. Rubber gloves I think are really important. Chlorine bleach, Lysol have been reported to be effective in In terms of sterilizing against the virus. And certainly staying your distance from people. I see a lot of people, newscasters, politicians talking on television, you know, patting each other on the back, and that's probably not what we want to be doing. It does appear as if this virus is spread, what we are told, by respiratory droplets, but it may be airborne. According to some researchers, it may be airborne as well, meaning that people don't necessarily have to cough on you or sneeze on you, that it may be that they could exhale in a closed environment like an automobile, for example, and that could be an issue. That's just something that's been speculated. I'm going to shift over and do my best to answer some questions. I'm hoping we don't have questions today about Things that I answered yesterday. In other words, the relationship between coronavirus and things like 5G. I'd rather we move past that. I'm not going to comment, and let's just go to some of these questions. Okay, let me scroll back to the beginning if I may. And okay, here we go. Thank you. People are reading Brainwashed, finding it helpful. Hi from Australia, and yes, it's here as well. We know that Tom Hanks and his wife are testing positive. And again, Australia, okay. Hi from Pennsylvania. Okay, a lot of people just saying thank you. I hope this information is helpful for everybody. I do my best to learn what I can and share things as I can. You can't change your age, but a 5-day fast can reboot your immune system. That's true. There's a lot of things that are rebooted by a fast. Is this necessarily the time to put your body in a stress like that? I don't know that that's necessarily the right thing to do, so I'm going to take a pass on that. Hi from the Netherlands. Yes, I understand you're involved in this as well. Listening from the beaches of Delaware, probably a great place to be. Keep your distance. Sweden, hello. Coming down with sore throat and a, I guess, cold. From Frank. I'd say, Frank, you want to certainly keep an eye on that. I don't know where you are, but maybe you have the flu. Maybe you have a rhinovirus. Who knows? That's the troubling part, at least here in America, is, as I learned today from a very close person to me who I sent to a clinic, in a Florida city, not Naples but another city, no way of getting a test. And so no way of knowing if it is, as Frank talks about, a sore throat, a cold, influenza, who knows. How can New York City keep high-density schools open but close theaters? Aren't infected students able to go home and infect? Of course they are. I think that from what I understand, New York is closing schools, so You know, we're hearing in several states, Maryland being one of them, I think Washington State another one, that they're banning groups of people getting together over the magic number of 250, as if 240 is magically safe. You know, the truth of the matter is it's not the number of people in the event, it's their concentration. If you had 500 people standing in the middle of a football field spacing themselves apart from each other, I can't imagine that's a big deal. Whereas if you had 10 people in a small room, that might be a big deal. So it's the— I'm emphasizing the importance of what has now been called social distancing. We need to stay away from people because somebody might be a carrier and possibly infectious. So it's not the number of people at the event. When it manifests, what's the treatment like? The treatment is supportive, meaning— Keeping you going as best you can, treating the symptoms, treating the fever. The most dreaded complication is something called DIC, which is disseminated intravascular coagulopathy or coagulation. It simply means that the blood unusually coagulates or clots. You know, that is something that happens with sepsis. It also happens with snake bites from cobras, for example, and that's what seems to be what distinguishes those individuals who are able to survive from those individuals who don't. One of the things, certainly it's not just a thing. Okay, what food should you have in the house? From Aaron Fleming. I'd say things that are non-perishable. I mean, we try to eat as best we can, right? People who follow all the things that we do, but you have to bend the rules now based upon what's available. And it may be that you want to opt for some more energy-dense foods, dare I say, foods that have a lot of calories, fats, for example. Great thing to stock up on would be some nut butters, almond butter, cashew butter, peanut butter. That's not a nut butter, but it is still a really good source of calories. Oils, really good dense source of calories as well. You know, fresh vegetables, great if you can find them now. We think that having some frozen vegetables and canned vegetables, not what we would normally do, but it's certainly what we're doing now so that we have, we have that if need be. Canned foods, canned tuna, canned salmon, a good choice. You can find canned chicken. Protein powders, good idea, whether they are plant-based from pea or from animal-based, like from whey, good idea. Vitamins, really good to keep up with your vitamin program at this point, especially concentrating on vitamin D. I've raised my dosage up to 10,000 IU per day. And let me take a few more questions. After reading your brilliant books, why are you so afraid and don't see this as a hoax? Well, Mark, my opinion, I'm hoping that you'll respect my opinion, you're welcome to yours, My opinion is that it's not a hoax. So we'll move past that. It's in it. Is it inevitable to get it? Hard to say. I mean, this go around, we're told that 40 to 70 percent of people will have this event. Angela Merkel in Germany yesterday said that she expected around two thirds of Germany, 53 million people, to experience this infection. Let's see, supplement recommended? Hard to say. I mean, it depends on how your diet is. Supplements are supplemental to your diet. I do think vitamin D is a good idea. I think that probably prebiotic fiber, a good idea to keep your gut bacteria in check, and of course you've probably been taking probiotics. Is there a way we can explain this to the kids where it won't freak them out? I am an educator and I'm trying to Post something on my blog to help parents. That's what I'm doing, and I think it's being realistic that we have an important issue on our hands. And beyond that, understanding that, you know, our kids have not ever really been challenged with something of this severity. So bringing them into the fold is a good thing. Gently, because they need to be practicing all the things that we as adults know are important behavioral changes at this time. Kids need to know to keep their hands away from their faces, to not share drinks, share food, certainly silverware. Hand sanitizers are a good idea, and they need to learn about social distancing. So these things are actually very important. So, Melody Johnson, that was a very good question. Thank you. Thank you for asking it. Thank you for reading that book. Hi from Puerto Rico. Can people be infected more than once? Great question. Very good question, and we don't know the answer to that yet. One researcher indicated that it was possibly something that could happen, but that it was likely the second infection may not be as severe as the first. But what we know is even the first infection can be protracted, can be weeks and weeks of, you know, of being down. So let me see if there's anything else from the World Health Organization that I wanted to, wanted to bring up. And the World Health Organization said a very long incubation period could reflect a double exposure, meaning— and that's an answer to the question I've just asked— meaning people could have had it And then got exposed again and then developed it, or maybe they didn't get it the first time around, or they got the second time around, or they got it the first time around and it was mild. World Health Organization is not considering changing recommendations regarding incubation periods as yet. They— the average we are told is 5.2 days, so That's with a 95% confidence interval and somewhere between 4.1 to 7 days is what they're quoting. So there you go. So let's look at some case statistics and some graphs again from the World Health Organization. The total— I'm— this is one thing I've always told you not to do, but In light of where we are right now, my wife says she loves me, and there you go. That's important. I am taking text messages. I am taking your questions as well. There you go. We're doing personal. What are you doing personally to keep safe? All the things I've mentioned to you. I think moving forward, food is a good thing to have. Your medications as well. Daily new cases as of yesterday. looked like they were coming in around 7,500. Growth factor, in other words, the rate of new cases has ticked up substantially. Total cases outside of China has increased. Total cases outside of China to, looks like around 48,000. And the daily new cases outside of China have come up quite a bit. Most of that we are seeing is happening in Italy. For reasons that are interesting and as yet not, not necessarily understood. The active cases did take a dip around early March, which was great, and I think that reflected some improvements in the situation in China. The active cases have now tipped up significantly as of yesterday, as of March 10th, as the coronavirus takes hold In you know certainly other places in the world. Let me look at one more graph. Yeah, watching this one actually very closely that other countries now represent about 40% of cases. And you know this thing started in China. They rather 50. Yeah, about 39.9% of cases. The balance of them, of course, as mentioned, are in China. Been watching that. I've been watching this number because just a few days ago it was down to 20%. Other countries. Having this virus, now it's up to close to 40. So China is seemingly backing down, and the efforts seemingly, though draconian though they seem, seem to be working. And and it's the reason that I'm making the same kinds of recommendations. I don't know that necessarily we're going to see as stringent a programs. Imposed upon us, and therefore we may want to do this ourselves. Okay, what do I think about ashwagandha? I'm not sure that this is the time for ashwagandha. It's certainly not going to hurt, but I can't indicate that it's going to be necessarily something that would be helpful as it relates to this particular infection. I'll take a few, a few more questions. And then I will reconnect with everybody, we're going to say at 5 PM tomorrow. So let everybody know. I'm hoping you find this very balanced and I do my best. What can I say? Please no Lysol or bleach. Those toxic chemicals only weaken our immune systems. Yes, I agree with that, that they might be toxic, etc., but we need to be super aggressive. If you're, you know, if you need to sterilize your countertops with a Lysol spray, I think it's a good idea to wear gloves, for example, but I think we have to, you know, people ask, what can you do? And that's what we're doing. Maybe it's something you choose not to do. All good. Hello, Slovenia. Patient with MS on immunosuppressant drugs. Never should— what should I do without pushing the panic button? We're not going to push the panic button, everybody. We are going to work through things day by day and make appropriate decisions based upon reconnecting to the prefrontal cortex and not acting on the amygdala, the fear, etc. So don't push the panic button. Betsy, you with your MS and immunosuppressive medication need to be more diligent than the next person. You need to be super careful about who comes to your home. I would say that might be good to consider sterilizing or just using a wipe if you're receiving any packages that are delivered to you. Wipe down the outside. Hopefully the package was packed by a robot. Might have been packed by somebody's hands. Might let those things just sit for a day or two. Mail, for example. I don't rush out and greet the mailman anymore. I've known him for a long time. I keep inviting him to play ping pong. But when the mail comes, I'm leaving it in the box overnight and then the next day Being careful what I handle and how I handle it. It's just the way I do. So, okay, again, lots of questions about colloidal silver. I don't have an answer for that. I know that was asked yesterday. I don't see any good research indicating it's helpful. I will say that yesterday there was some discussion about intravenous vitamin C. And I did find the study that is being conducted on the treatment of the coronavirus with intravenous vitamin C. The dosage is, I think, 12 grams of IV, intravenous vitamin C, given twice a day for 12 days. And the results of the study, to my knowledge, have not been published yet, but there were a whole litany of ideas as to why intravenous vitamin C, which is relatively safe, may be a good approach because of some of the manifestations of what this virus can do in your system. It's certainly nothing to do at home, that's for sure. That would be something administered by a healthcare practitioner. Wow, I am getting a lot of questions. Clorox wipes and Lysol wipes will kill it? Yes, that's What I'm understanding as well. So, can a person be a non-symptomatic carrier and not know it? Well, yes, apparently that is a possibility. It's what we discussed earlier according to the World Health Organization that you may have been infected and not known it and then be able to transmit that. That's still up in the air. Don't have any real We don't have really good data on that yet. Tucker, rather Sandy, talking about vitamins again. I think vitamin D would be number one on my list, and it is, what can I say? Ginger to my water, great. 29 deaths in the USA, influenza hits 60,000 to 90,000 a year. Why the panic with such low numbers? Well, it's a great question, David, and let me see if I can answer that because I've been asked that question many times. What you're saying is true, that right now the number of deaths in America is relatively low in comparison to the influenza killing 60,000 to 90,000 a year, killing 400,000 to 600,000 people globally each year. But the issue here is, let's say this has the same infectivity as the influenza virus, and it looks like the That might well be the case. In other words, that it spreads just as rapidly as the influenza, or as readily as the influenza virus. Okay, that means that probably the same number of people who get the flu every year will get the coronavirus. The coronavirus is 20 times more deadly than the influenza virus. That is, that is why people are concerned about this. If this were influenza? It happens every year. Some people think a flu shot's a good idea, others decide not to get them. But we don't have an immunization program for this coronavirus right now, and it is 20 times more lethal than influenza and seems to be very aggressive as it relates to, as we opened with in our discussion today, individuals with underlying medical conditions, individuals who are older, And certainly older individuals with underlying medical conditions have a great risk. So I'm just going to say, look at these questions. Oh my glory. Good, they've been using IV Vitamin C at cancer clinics in Mexico for years and some here in the US. True, as many of you know, we would use Vitamin C intravenously in our practice as well. Again, I'm not claiming it's effective against coronavirus. Who knows? Okay, is bleach okay to use? I think bleach is a good idea to use. Depends, of course, on how it is used. So yes. Okay, so David. Okay, let me just look at a couple more questions, and I think those. Yeah, so the things that say kill 99% of bacteria, I think it's a good point, uh, Lor— uh, Laureen, that you're making. Uh, this isn't a bacteria, so, um, we don't know when we see a product that says kills bacteria, will that be effective against the virus? But we know that soap is a powerful antibacterial and soap is a good, uh, in terms of washing your hands as it relates to coronavirus, um, along with bleach, along with Lysol on surfaces. I'm certainly not recommending that you wash your hands in Lysol or soap. I mean, or Clorox for that matter. But it's again about sterilizing surfaces. We know that it can last on surfaces. How long? Great question. Rhetorical question, obviously. We're hearing typically around 3 hours on non-porous surfaces. Perhaps that's a different number on porous surfaces, but I've heard That it possibly could last longer. So that said, don't know. All right, gang, I hope this was helpful, and I'm going to check back with everybody, hopefully if I'm able, tomorrow at 5 PM Eastern. And I'll talk to y'all later. Bye for now.