TV interview (OAN) where Dr. Anne Truong explains the then-new coronavirus: she places it in the coronavirus family (related to common cold, SARS, MERS), states transmission is via respiratory droplets and human-to-human, and discusses prevention measures and early U.S. case counts. She reports receiving a Virginia Department of Health email (Jan 29) listing five confirmed U.S. cases (California, Arizona, Illinois) and no U.S. deaths, and emphasizes greatest risk is to elderly or immunocompromised patients.
Questions this video answers
January 29th (year implied 2020).
Five confirmed cases in the U.S.
California, Arizona, and Illinois.
No—she said there were no deaths in the U.S. as of that email.
Chapters
Here to help us better understand the challenges posed by Coronavirus is Dr. Anne Truong. Doctor, I really appreciate you coming on tonight. So this has been actually a pretty fast moving procedure. I mean, we just heard a couple weeks ago about this outbreak. Initially, every day it seems like there's new numbers of an exponential rate of growth so far. So before we really get into it, can you really tell us what exactly coronavirus is?
Well, coronavirus is actually in the same family as the common cold. So there are seven species of the common cold. So the common cold has, is four of them that we get every fall. Another species of coronavirus is SARS, that was an outbreak in 2002, 2003, and then in 2012, another species of the coronavirus is MERS. MERS, that was in the Middle East. So the coronavirus is actually a new virus of the coronal family that has emerged from China. So it is in the family, it's the same as the common cold. And so what's concerning is that is it. And initially it was thought to be transmitted from animals to human, but now is transmitted from human to human. And the transmission is almost like the same mode as the common cold is through respiratory droplets, like when you cough or sneeze. If you're near somebody that has the coronavirus, you catch it from the sneeze or the cough and it gets transferred to the eyes, the nose and the mouth.
So from my understanding too, that's almost what makes it pretty dangerous is the fact that just as the common cold or the flu can be spread very easily just by simple contact or through even air transmission, that's what kind of makes this so dangerous, is that it is very much so contagious and it is spreading very fast. I mean, we said earlier that the number seems to be exponentially increasing almost by the day. I mean, the numbers coming out of China are pretty staggering. And I just have to say that whatever China admits to, you almost have to admit that it's a little bit worse than what they're kind of putting out there to begin with, of course there is kind of a controlled thing that they're going down. They don't want a state of panic or anything. But I think also acknowledging the point that you just brought up about how contagious it is, how do we prevent it? I mean, we see, for example, people wearing masks. We see them taking different measures. We see the government taking very drastic measures, such as the lockdown in Wuhan. How do you prevent the spread of this contagion?
Well, the first, you have to understand that. You have to understand that, you know, the spread of the flu now is probably more worrisome than the coronavirus. You only get the coronavirus if you're exposed to somebody who has a coronavirus. And we know that it started in Wuhan and from people that travel to there are coming back. So. And then on top of that, as of January 29th, I receive an email from the Virginia Department of health. There's only five confirmed cases in the U.S. right. And none in Virginia. And in U.S. there's only four state California, Arizona, Illinois and. Illinois and Arizona, California. So. And yeah, so there's only five cases and no death. So there's a lot more death in China and I think it's probably due to the severe respiratory disease. So you don't have to worry about the coronavirus. It really. An elderly patient who gets it and who already has an immunocompromised system already have a weak pulmonary status. So if you are young and you're healthy and you're fairly healthy, you get the coronavirus, you most likely you get hospitalized, you get an isolation and you get treatments such as IV and nutrition, you should be fine.
Well, see, that's good to know. You're kind of talking me down a little bit because after seeing what we've seen in the media over the past couple days, I've been walking around with like huge goggles, the mask, everything you can possibly think of. The sanitizer, I'm exaggerating right now, but it is being very much so played up in the media. So I appreciate you coming on tonight and kind of talking us down a little bit and understanding better about this coronavirus. Thank you very much, doctor.
