The Philip DeFranco Show - 3.27 Dr. Fauci Answers DeFranco's Questions About Coronavirus | COVID-19 Facts With Fauci

Starting point is 00:00:00 It is Friday, March 27th, 2020. My name's Philip DeFranco. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show. And for today's Friday's show, I have something a little bit different and special for you. One of the most trusted people, one of the most trusted experts in this coronavirus pandemic is a guy by the name of Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Starting point is 00:00:16 He's an immunologist who serves as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and is a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. And fantastically, I was able to get a hold of Dr. Fauci for 15 minutes to ask some frequently asked questions from you guys as well. It's just some things that I've been wondering as I've watched the press conferences. And just really quick before we jump into that,

Starting point is 00:00:33 I want to thank in general our sponsors, but also for this video specifically, a thank you to Vessi Footwear, who have recently committed to donating over 30,000 medical masks to organizations that need them most in both the United States and Canada. So your Vessi purchases will actually support our health care workers in the fight against COVID-19, which I'll talk about more later.

Starting point is 00:00:49 But with that said, here is Dr. Fauci. Dr. Fauci, thank you so much for making the time. I'm just going to kind of jump into it. We have some prepared questions, some questions from our audience as well. Yesterday, you said we need to really be prepared for another cycle, right? Why do you think that we're currently, you're currently seeing this as potentially seasonal? Well, I mean, I don't want seasonal to be thinking that, well, it's okay because it's just going to be a plain old seasonal.

Starting point is 00:01:15 When I said another cycle, I was saying, given the robust nature of the transmissibility and the fact that it is global throughout the world, and we're seeing cases now in the Southern Hemisphere, Southern Africa and the Southern Hemisphere, which are entering in their winter, it is conceivable and maybe likely that they're going to have a big surge through what is their winter and our summer. Once you have circulating virus in the world through our summer and as we get into the fall, invariably, it would come back in the fall. So that's the reason why even though we handle it, which we will, well, as we get into the warmer months now, I feel we need to be absolutely prepared for another surge as we get

Starting point is 00:01:58 into next fall and winter. Okay, so that's the next fall, next winter. Now, would we expect this to be the same virus that's hitting everyone now? So let's say, obviously, there's no magic wand. That's been a constant thing said. If a vaccine was developed, do we believe that it would be something that would affect the next waves? I do. I mean, in vaccinology and in medicine, you never know for sure. But there is no indication as we do molecular analysis of the virus as it evolves that this is mutating to the point of having any functional difference. If you compare viruses in China, in Italy, in the rest of Europe, in the United States, that's one of the reasons why. You know, you may have heard we started a vaccine trial

Starting point is 00:02:45 about a week and a half, two weeks ago. It's the fastest we've ever gone from discovering a virus to getting into a trial. Even with that speed, it would take at least a year before we're going to know if this works. So hopefully, if we can able to show an efficacy signal that we may be able to have not only a vaccine late in next season, but also a number of drugs that we're testing on randomized controlled trials. So it's going to be a different ballgame if we get back next season. It's not going to be hit the way we're hit now, because we will be much better prepared. Right. Now, actually, kind of on preparation, yesterday you talked about in China they're

Starting point is 00:03:25 seeing imported cases, that we need to keep that in mind. What would your recommended strategy be for the United States there? Well, in the United States, if we, and it's more than if, it's when, because we will get it under control. When we get this under control, if there's a lot of activity in the rest of the world, which there likely will be, I would be reluctant to just very liberally release the travel restrictions of people coming into the country because you don't want all of your hard work to suppress the outbreak, only to have it reseated. I was on a telephone call just yesterday morning with the WHO, who has like literally 50 people on the phone from different countries. And our Chinese colleagues were there warning us, saying, we finally got our epidemic under control, but we're starting to see reseeding now from other countries that are traveling into China. So we've really got to be careful. We've really got to be careful. Now, when you're saying that we need to be careful,

Starting point is 00:04:29 for you, is it more of an international issue? Or I know that yesterday, you know, there was a conversation of people leaving New York, which is, if we want to use the word hotspot, possibly going to Florida, several other states. Do we see this also as a potential domestic issue, more short term? You know, short term domestic, it's true. I mean, the recommendation that was made, and I was in the task force room when the recommendation was discussed, was that about a million people were leaving New York because New York was suffering so badly. They were going to Florida. They were going out on Long Island to the Hamptons and places where people who can afford that go. And they were bringing the infection. And for that reason, it was said that if you were in New York within the last 14 days, when you reach your

Starting point is 00:05:14 destination, you have got to essentially sequester yourself in place for a total of 14 days. And that's what the recommendation is right now to prevent the hotspot of New York being spread to the hotspot of other parts of the country. A few questions from our audience, just so you know the different tone change. This one from Morgan. I'm in the high risk category and I'm already hearing about hospitals lacking supplies and beds for those who need treatment. In the event I get sick and do not have access to care, is there anything I can do for myself at home that would increase my chance of making it through? Yeah, well, the general rule is if you get sick, get a fever and think you might have

Starting point is 00:05:54 coronavirus disease, you want to go home. Then you want to contact the physician and get instructions as to what you should do. Let them evaluate you over the phone, perhaps say, we're going to get you tested. He may not say that. He may say, if you're stable, you're doing well, stay home, just ride it out. Or they may get you tested. Or if it looks like you're not doing well, definitely get you to a facility where you could be taken care of. But the first move is not to walk into an emergency room because that's how you infect other people. Should we be avoiding food delivery service right now? Obviously, more people are staying home, even with no contact options. Someone

Starting point is 00:06:34 made the food, someone packaged it. The answer is no, with care. So when you get anything delivered, could be food, somebody touching a doorknob, wash your hands, literally in an obsessive compulsive way, just wash your hands as much as you can, you know, rub down doorknobs with Clorox or alcohol. But I like the idea about pickup food or home delivery, because it takes you out of the environment of a restaurant. It would be worse to be in a crowded restaurant than to have a single person who you ask to wash their hands deliver a package to you or you go to a restaurant and pick it up. I did that myself last night. I mean, one of my favorite restaurants in my neighborhood in Washington, D.C., I just am very sorry I don't go to it because I'm doing social distancing.

Starting point is 00:07:29 So I ordered what I like, went, put my credit card down, wiped it off with the wipe, put it in my pocket and took the bag and went home. It worked perfectly. Do we have a clear picture as far as the full extent of possible damage COVID-19 can do to lungs? I know there's been a big focus on the fatality rate, the differences there, but what about people that get sick? Do you recover? Do we have an idea about lung damage? Good question. I mean, as you know, the data mostly from China and other places, about 80 plus percent of the people who get infected spontaneously recover without any medical intervention. About 15 percent do badly in the sense of requiring sometimes intensive hospital care. Among those, most of them are individuals who are either elderly, who have an underlying condition, heart disease, lung disease, diabetes, etc.

Starting point is 00:08:29 What we have not yet done, someone is doing it, but the data aren't out yet, is that when someone recovers, they're on a respirator, they have pulmonary infiltrates, they get out of the hospital, and they're doing well, is to follow up what the pulmonary function is. Have they knocked out a considerable amount of pulmonary function? What's the ejection fraction of their heart, which is a parameter of the function of the ability of your heart to pump blood around? We don't know that yet, but we're going to get that information because somebody's collecting it. I believe you've answered this before, but it was one of the most requested. Are you able to contract the virus more than once? And even after you believe that you recovered, how long would you remain a potential carrier? Okay, so the answer to the first question is that if this virus acts

Starting point is 00:09:10 like every other virus we know, which we have no reason to believe it will not, that once you are infected and you clear the infection successfully and you're well, you will be protected against subsequent exposure to the same virus. We haven't definitively proven that by any re-challenging of people, but it just makes virological sense, since that's what we see with virtually any other virus. How long you're infected depends on how long you're shedding virus. I mean, I might get infected when I get sick and get better and feel well, but still be shedding virus. And that's the reason why before you can be certain, you should have two negative swabs 24 hours apart to know that you're okay to go.

Starting point is 00:09:58 And regarding, you know, people having it, people not having it, there's been more and more talk over the past 48 hours of the, I believe it's called the convalescent serum treatment that the FDA has expedited. Do you know, can you kind of expand on how and why or even what that is? Okay. So if I get infected and I clear the virus, my body clears the virus by making a protein called an antibody. That antibody is protective against my getting infected again. And it's also the mechanism that suppressed the virus in my body. So what we do is that we withdraw from a person who's recovered. Their serum is called convalescent serum. And we either infuse it into someone else to protect them or to treat them, or we concentrate the specific component of that serum called immunoglobulin, and we give it to a person as immune globulin. The other way is a much more sophisticated way where you take some of the cells from a person that's making the antibody,

Starting point is 00:11:06 you clone it and you produce copious amounts of this antibody and passively infuse it. That's called monoclonal antibodies. Are there any questions that Dr. Fauci wishes were being asked more in general? No, I mean, I think it's less of a question to realize, to get people to know that it is really effective when you listen to the guidelines of physical separation. You know, the 15-day guidelines that came out of the White House that the president put out. Namely, no more than 10 people in a crowd. Telework when you can. Stay at a bar. Stay at a restaurant. I mean, even though you love sporting events and places, just stay out of them. Try to physically separate yourself. Wash your hands very, very frequently and carefully. And if you are or have the responsibility for an elderly person or someone with an underlying condition, get them out of society, put them in a place where they

Starting point is 00:12:05 can comfortably self isolate, you don't want to socially isolate them, you know, you want to talk to them, you want to, you know, convey things by telephone by YouTube or whatever, but physically separate yourself from them. Definitely. And Dr. Fauci, kind of just the last question, because, you know, we only see you for that that kind of 60 minutes to two hours a day. What is a day for you look like when it's not you talking to me and I guess Steph Curry and other people today? Well, you know, it's very intense. I mean, the last couple of months I've been getting about four hours sleep a night, maybe sometimes less. You know, you get up in the morning, five o'clock, you do the morning shows, either, you know, the radio or TV shows.

Starting point is 00:12:48 I come into the NIH because I do have a day job besides this and, you know, work with my team about developing a vaccine, you know, developing drugs, doing the kinds of things we need to do. Then I go down to the White House and I spend the rest of the afternoon at the White House. We have a task force meeting, lasts about an hour and a half. We do that with the vice president. When we finish that, every day we go into people to be aware of it. Then I spend the next few hours reading up on things so that I can keep up what's going on, not only in the United States, but the rest of the world. So it's kind of an intense day, which turns into intense weeks. Right. Well, thank you so much for your time. I know that you're slammed today. I really, really appreciate this. My pleasure. Always good to be with you. Take care.

Starting point is 00:13:44 And that was our chat slash interview. Obviously, Dr. I really, really appreciate this. My pleasure, always good to be with you. Take care. And that was our chat slash interview. Obviously Dr. Fauci, very busy. I was so thankful that he even had 15 minutes to give us. And hey, if you liked the video, gave you some insight, let us know, hit the like button, maybe share it with someone else that doesn't know everything that they should probably know. Finally, I wanna give another big thank you

Starting point is 00:14:00 to Vessi Footwear for sponsoring this video. Our friends at Vessi have already donated over 1,000 pairs of their sneakers to Canadian healthcare professionals fighting on the front lines of COVID-19. And today they're announcing an exciting new initiative to donate the profits from every sale to provide protective gear

Starting point is 00:14:13 to resource-constrained healthcare organizations in both the US and Canada. Already committing to donating over 30,000 medical masks. And that's not all. For a limited time, Vessi is introducing a choose what you pay model in order to drive even larger donations of personal protective equipment

Starting point is 00:14:26 for our brave healthcare professionals. Also, I kind of got ahead of myself. If you don't know, Vessi's are incredibly comfortable in 100% waterproof and weatherproof shoes, making them the perfect everyday shoe. My favorites are definitely the men's everyday and midnight black. So don't wait, head on over to VessiFootwear.com

Starting point is 00:14:39 slash DeFranco today and choose what you pay for a limited time. Your contributions support Vessi's efforts to protect our healthcare heroes in these uncertain times. And really, I love when you see brands stepping up like this. But with that said, thank you for watching this video. And also, of course, as always, my name's Philip DeFranco.

Starting point is 00:14:53 You've just been filled in. I love yo faces and I'll see you next time.

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The Philip DeFranco Show - 3.27 Dr. Fauci Answers DeFranco's Questions About Coronavirus | COVID-19 Facts With Fauci

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