The Daily Show: Ears Edition - ICYMI - Dr. Anthony Fauci on the Coronavirus Threat and Social-Distancing as a Moral Responsibility

Episode Date: March 29, 2020

Immunologist Dr. Anthony Fauci explains what makes COVID-19 so dangerous and sets the record straight about available treatments and how people can avoid catching the virus. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to Comedy Central. When 60 Minutes premiered in September 1968, there was nothing like it. This is 60 Minutes. It's a kind of a magazine for television. Very few have been given access to the treasures in our archives. But that's all about to change. Like none of this stuff gets looked at. That's what's incredible. I'm Seth Done of CBS News. Listen to 60 Minutes, a second look on Apple podcasts starting September 17th. Dr. Fauci, thank you so much for joining us

on the Daily Social Distancing Show. How are you? I'm very well, thank you, you know, very well. You are an infectious diseases expert who has advised six presidents on everything from SARS to Ebola to the HIV epidemic and Zika. What makes coronavirus so different? Well, it's different because, you know, when people used to ask me over the years, what is it that I most worry about with regard to emerging infectious diseases, is a respiratory-borne illness that easily spreads from person to emerging infectious diseases is a respiratory-borne illness that easily spreads from person to person, but that has a high degree of

morbidity and mortality. And unfortunately, that's the worst nightmare you could have, is to have something like that. I mean, there are other diseases. Ebola was frightening, but Ebola gets transmitted only when you're in very close contact with a person who is very, very ill. With this disease, in some respects similar to influenza, but in some respects very different, it spreads very easily. You can even spread it when you're not symptomatic. So it's insidious and treacherous in that you could spread it easily. The other part about it that's really so different from anything that we've ever faced before, is that if you look at the mortality, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, very, thi, very, very, thi, very, thi, thi, thi, thi, very, very, very, thi, thi, thi, thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi, thi, thi, thi, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thii. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi could spread it easily. The other part about it that's really so different from anything that we've ever faced before,

is that if you look at the mortality of seasonal flu, the thing that you and I go through every season, the mortality is about 0.1%. That's a lot, and we get used to that morbidity and mortality. But the mortality of this is about 10 times that. It's at least 1%. So it's a disease that not only is easily spread, but it can be devastating particularly for a certain subset of the population, demographically different. The elderly, those with underlying conditions, heart disease, lung disease, diabetes. It can be very serious for them with a high degree of mortality.

Let's talk a little bit about the information in around Corona that's, I think, getting people confused. I see so many conflicting ideas online. And I guess the horrible byproduct of having social media and the internet is everyone is now an expert and everyone has an opinion. I know this is very basic for you, but just to help everyone be on the same page, how can we catch Corona and what are the areas we should be most concerned about?

So we know about human-to-human transmission. Most people understand that, but I see people online worried about grocery shopping, touching packages that they receive from Amazon. Do people need to wipe them down? When they're in the grocery store, can they touch other things? How long does coronavirus last in the air? For instance, if you walk into an elevator after somebody else, can coronavirus still be there?

What do we need to be on the lookout for as individuals? Okay. There's very degrees of risk, Trevor, that, things that are the most common that you really want to latch onto is that sneezing and coughing, when someone is ill, they've got to get themselves out of circulation because they can spread by droplets and even by what we call aerosol, which means the drop doesn't go down right away. It hangs around for a bit. So you can come into a room, thinking everything is alright, and then you inhale it.

That's likely not the primary way. The primary way is probably droplet, but another way that's very important is handshaking. When people naturally go like that, they cough. And then it's innocent. There's nothing on their hand. They shake your hand or they open a doorknob. And that's the thing. You don't want to be obsessive, compulsive about wiping everything down that you go near. But one of the real bad actors is somebody who just opens a door and then 15 minutes later,

because we know the virus can live on inanimate hard objects like steel or plastic for at least several hours. So that's the thing you've got to be careful of. That's one of the reasons why, if you really want to be careful besides the social distancing of six feet, don't shake anybody's hands. Just lose that for a while. And wash your hands as often as you can because you may be inadvertently touching something. Now your other question, Trevor, that's important, is that I don't think we need to get completely obsessed

about packages that come in, because those types of surfaces, the virus might live there for a very short time, but people say, should I get a package from a grocery store that says made in China? I wouldn't worry about that. That's not the issue. It's more the close things, the hand washing. Let's talk a little bit about what you alluded to earlier, the mortality rates of the disease and how people have misconstrued the numbers. We know that people who are older or people who have underlying respiratory infections have a higher chance of dying from the virus, but I think people have started to believe that that that means thiiiiiii, the the the the their, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, that, that, that, that's, that's, that's, th. th, th. th. th. thi, thi, thi, thi, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is is, is thi, is thi, is thi, is thi, is thi, is thi, is thi, is thi, is thi, is thi, is thi, is thi, is thi, is thi. thi. thiiiiii. thiiiii. thiii. thi. thi. thi. thi. th. But I think people have started to believe that that means young people are immune

and cannot get sick from coronavirus. What are people not understanding from the numbers? Trevor, they're not understanding two things that are important. A, even though you are young, you are not absolutely invulnerable, for sure, because we're seeing cases. Most of them have some underlying disease, but several don't, who are young people, 30s, 40s, who are getting sick, getting into the hospital, requiring intensive care. Still, the overwhelming proportion, the elderly with underlying disease.

But every once in a while, you're going to get a young person. So if you think you're completely invulnable, you're incorrect. Second issue that's important, that even though you may not get seriously ill, you can get infected with relatively few symptoms, either asymptomatic or mild, relatively trivial symptoms, but then you can infect another person who would then infect a vulnerable person who would then die. I mean, it's a typical example. I'm young, I'm healthy, but you go home, you infect grandma, grandpa and your sick uncle.

So you have a responsibility not only to protect yourself, but you almost have a societal, moral responsibility to protect other people. In talking about the virus, it feels like understandably everyone is trying to find an answer. Everybody is trying to find their own solution. Unfortunately, that has bred. You know, it's created a breeding ground for misinformation. For instance, cures that people are touting online, you know, concoctions of different medications, etc. We read about malaria drugs and chloroquine or whatever it is.. It is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it, it is, it, it, it, it is, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it is thiii. It feels, thi. It feels thi. It feels thiiiiiiiiiiiiiia, thia, thia, thia, thia, it feels thia, it feels, it feels, it feels, you know, concoctions of different medications, etc.

We read about malaria drugs and chloroquine or whatever it is. What is the biggest warning you would give to the general public about trying to self-medicate or is there any cure that people actually have discovered? What, as a leading health expert, what do you say about this issue? So right now, today, as we speak, there is no proven, safe, and effective, direct therapy for coronavirus disease, for sure. There are a number of clinical trials that are trying to, by randomized control trials,

get a definitive answer as to what works and what does work, not work, what's safe. Superimposed upon that, there are drugs that are already approved for other things, like hydroxychlorquin for malaria and for certain autoimmune diseases. That there have been anecdotal stories. By anecdotal, I mean, people kind of think they work, but they haven't really proven they work. That's really gotten out there on the internet,

so people are very enthusiastic, since generally these drugs appear to be safe, and they are, but they do have some toxicities. So a lot of people want a drug, even though it's not proven, just in case it might help them. You've got to be careful about that for a couple of reasons. You don't want to take that drug off the market for the people who really need it who have the diseases that's used for. And on the other hand, there may be some toxicity. That's the reason why we're pushing to try and get as many good clinical trials as possible to prove if for everybody. Got it. I have four questions because I know we're going to run out of time,

but I just want to let you know. I have four questions that I think are really important. Number one, we hear about this clock 15 days where things will be reassessed, 15 days where people might go back, 15 days, every country, 21 days. There seems to be? And is there a certain amount of time that people can be away from each other where coronavirus goes away? And the follow-up in that same question is, does the clock start if people are not completely

quarantined during that period? Yeah, the virus is the clock. So people say, may arbitrabley, well, in two weeks, we're going to be okay. It depends on the kinetics of the outbreak. Right now, take New York City. They are getting hit really hard, and the kinetics of the outbreak is going there. You can't predict when it'll make that turn around and start coming down. In general, if you look historically at countries

that have been through the whole cycle, in China, it was about eight weeks or so before it went way up and then way down. In Korea, the same thing. So if you look at each individual country, and being a big country as we are here in the United States, we're almost like a lot of little countries, like New York in itself can be considered a country., right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right.. to to be. to be. to be. to be. to be. to be to be to be a ca. to be a ca, the ca, the ca, thi. to be a ca, to be a ci. thi. to be a to be a to be a to be thi, the whole the whole the whole the whole the whole, the whole, the whole, the whole, the whole the whole the whole the whole the whole. the whole, the whole. the whole, the whole. And the whole. And the whole. And the whole. And the whole. And to be a ca, to be a ca, to be a ca, to be a ca, to be a ci. to be a ci. to be a ci. to be a cunecunitucunitucunitucunitucala, to bea, to bea, toea, thiole.cala. of little countries like New York in itself can be considered a country, California to be

said to a country. So it's unpredictable about when you can say this cycle. It's usually measured in several weeks. Sometimes when you're into the cycle you may only be two to three weeks away before it starts to turn around. Right. Okay, so then to that point, that's then my second of the four questions. Second question is, is New York City really harder hit, or is New York's testing making the numbers spike up, and is this something that we're going to see start trending throughout America? Well, a couple of goodthe city, the crowding of the city,

the fact that you get the beginning of your outbreak when you get influx from other countries, China was the index country that came in. New York is a travel hub of the country, so clearly we had a lot of cases come in. By the time they realized what they were dealing with, they had already gotten a sucker punch and they really were playing catch up. They. they. they. they. they. they. they they they they they they they they they they the the the the the the the the th. the th. th. th. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi their thi thi thi their thi. thi. thi. their their their their their their their their their the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. the. theea. thea. thea. thea thea thea. thea thea thea. thea. thea. thea. thea. the what they were dealing with, they had already gotten a sucker punch, and they really were playing catch-up. They didn't do anything wrong. They're not very different except that they're a big, robust city, and because of that, they're getting hit hard.

Okay, and then the second last question is, with regards to reinfection and immunity. We talk about people who have it and are asymptomatic. We talk about people who are recovering and we're starting to see those numbers grow around the world. Do we know yet if getting Corona and surviving Corona means that you're now immune to the disease or is there a chance of reinfection? We don't know that for 100% certain because we haven't done the study to see re-challenges whether they've been protected. But I feel really confident that if this virus acts like every other virus that we know, once

you get infected, get better, clear the virus, that you'll have immunity that will protect you against reinfection. So it's never 100%, but I'd be willing to bet anything that people who recover are really protected against reinfection. Okay, and then our final question, and thank you so much for your time. I really hope everyone understands how important it is to listen to you. Final question with regards to the government, the CDC, the NIH, and all of the units working together. Right now, it feels like there is a push and pull, a tug of war between states and to and to and toe, and toe, and the the toe, and toe, and the the the toe, and their, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, toe, and, toe, toe, and, and, and, and, toe, to bea, to, to, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a. And, I. And, I. And, Ia.a.a. the tha. tha.a.a.a. toa.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a. toa. to. war between states and the federal government, etc.

For Americans who are out there watching this, what is the plan and what do you think needs to happen for the whole unit of the United States to fight the coronavirus, you know, implementing different checks and balances along the way to make sure that everyone fights it and the numbers go down? Well, that's a very good question. Things are implemented at the state and local level. That's the way this country works so well. The federal government is a facilitator, it's a supplier, it's a supporter.

And that's the way things should be going. And that's what we're starting to see now, as we are catching up on things that weren't done so well in the beginning. We now have many, many more tests. The private industry is getting involved. The government's not making the test, the private industry is. The ventilators that are needed coming out of the stockpile, yet companies are starting to make more. So it really is a marriage between the federal government as the facilitator and supporter of where the real action is,

is at the state and local level. Thank you so much, Dr. Fauci. You've been amazing. I could talk to you for an hour on this, but I know everyone wants your time. Good luck with what you're doing, and I hope we're doing our part to make your job a little little bit easier. Thank you. You are very much, and I appreciate the thapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapap opportunity the opportunity the opportunity the opportunity the opportunity the opportunity the opportunity the opportunity the opportunity the opportunity the opportunity the opportunity the opportunity the opportunity the opportunity the opportunity the opportunity the opportunity the opportunity the opportunity the opportunity the opportunity the opportunity the opportunity the opportunity the opportunity the opportunity to speak to speak to speak the opportunity to to the opportunity the opportunity to the opportunity to the opportunity the opportunity the opportunity the opportunity the opportunity the opportunity the opportunity the opportunity the opportunity the opportunity the opportunity the opportunity the opportunity the opportunity the opportunity the opportunity the opportunity the opportunity the opportunity the opportunity the opportunity the opportunity the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the to speak to speak the opportunity to speak with you. Stay safe and wash your hands because of that fake cough you did. Yeah. Yeah.

Take care. The Daily Show with Cover Noa, Ears Edition. Watch the Daily Show weeknights at 11, 10 Central on Comedy Central and the Comedy Central app. Watch full episodes and videos at the Daily Show. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And subscribe to the Daily Show on YouTube for exclusive content and more. When 60 Minutes premiered in September 1968, there was nothing like it.

This is 60 Minutes. It's a kind of a magazine for television. Very few have been given access to the treasures in our archives. But that's all about to change. Like none of this stuff gets looked at. That's what's incredible. I'm Seth Done of CBS News. Listen to 60 Minutes, a second look on Apple podcasts starting September 17.