ALEX GRENINGER: So coronavirus
is a group of viruses.
A family of viruses.
They have the big RNA viruses.
They have actually some
of the biggest RNA genomes
of any virus.
They promptly cause
respiratory disease in humans.
Right now, all
diagnostic testing
is being sent to the
state public health labs
and being coordinated through
local public health authorities
and also--
and being sent to the CDC.
So right now, we don't
perform clinical testing
because that's supposed to
be done by the public health
authorities.
But in the case that there
is more transmission,
we have to be ready
for that because it
does take a little bit of
time to get these things up
and running.
Our clinical virology
lab is one of the best
clinical virology labs
in the US and the world
for diagnostic testing.
And so for us,
we're actually very
good at this in terms of
bringing on a new [? qPCR ?]
test.
We can ramp this up
relatively quickly,
they said, in sort of
weeks to about a month.
And so we're ready for
these things all the time.
We had to do this with Zika.
We had to do this
for Enterovirus D68.
We've had to do
this with 2009 H1N1.
We're kind of hustling.
We're doing it as fast as we
can to have that up and ready.
And then we will closely
monitor all the genomics
and work that's coming
out to make sure
that the primary designs and
how we make our assay will work.
The virus isn't evolving in a
way that would complicate that.
The other thing, it's
perfectly OK to wear a mask.
It actually
significantly reduces
respiratory virus transmission.
And then the other one is just
sort of respiratory hygiene,
washing your hands all the time
and coughing into your sleeve.
And if you're sick, stay home.
Don't go out and circulate
and spread the germs around.
