Well I've invited some of the leading experts
in the medical world to help dispel the myths
and bring the facts to the surface
so we can remain informed and above all, safe.
Now, it may look a bit awkward on stage this morning
because I have separated our chairs six feet apart
which is what has been recommended as social distancing.
One of the things that is highly recommended
as one of the things that we can do
to help control the transmission of this disease
so I've put it together this way
as a really good example of exactly what that means
and how it may feel in your life.
Joining me now is Dr. Patrick Johnson
and Professor Paula Cannon.
Now, Dr. Johnson is a renowned neurosurgeon
and director of the Spine Practice
at Cedars Sinai Medical Center here in Los Angeles
and Paula is a distinguished professor
of molecular microbiology and immunology at USC.
So welcome to both of you.
I really appreciate you being here.
This is a deadlier virus percentage wise
and in terms of being able to transmit or correct, or not?
Tell us what the truth is.
So you know, the truth is we don't really know yet.
It's still so new, we don't know how to frame it
in terms of how bad it is.
We still don't know how many people are getting infected
and showing absolutely no symptoms.
So what exactly is coronavirus?
I mean, define it for people
so they understand what it is medically
we're talking about.
Coronavirus is an organism like the flu.
It's very similar to influenza in a lot of ways.
It's spread in different ways.
It's not a bacteria.
There's no cure for it.
There's not an antibiotic that you can get for it.
The coronaviruses have been around
and discovered decades ago
but this is a new outbreak
and it's having an effect on people that it didn't before.
So this isn't a new virus.
It's a different form of a virus
that's been around a long time.
Okay. What causes it to do what it's done now?
Why now?
Why in Wuhan did this all of a sudden become a thing?
The coronaviruses,
there's a whole family of them out there
and most of the time they hang out in animals,
especially bats for some reason.
But very occasionally and this happens with flu
as well as this new coronavirus,
the virus we say jumps species
and so that could have happened one time.
A bat virus or some other animal
got into one unlucky person.
Normally, that doesn't happen
but when that virus got into it's first human host,
it then spread to other people.
Is this something that people do need to take serious?
Am I overreacting by not having an audience here?
Are basketball games overreacting
by playing without spectators?
Is this an overreaction or is this something
that we just need to sacrifice and make the changes?
I don't believe this is an overreaction.
I think that we have to take it seriously
because we don't know a lot of answers.
Right now, a lot of the universities are saying
"No more campus, we're gonna do this all online."
Is that reasonable and should our secondary,
elementary and secondary schools
be going online and not having their children
in classrooms right now?
If we can do something that may help,
we should do it.
With elementary schools,
that's a harder call.
I think it makes sense if there starts to be an outbreak
in a specific area, say in Los Angeles,
to have for at least a limited period of time,
close down some schools,
see if we can get things back under control as well
because schools, absolutely could spread it.
I'd rather err with an overabundance of caution
than to fail to react when you should.
