Coronavirus Spreads From New York Man to His Family
BALDWIN: New cases of the coronavirus are now being reported in Los Angeles, Seattle, and New York prompting Los Angeles to declare a local emergency. And California is now reporting its first death today. In New York, workers are disinfecting the city's massive subway and train system after a man who commutes from Westchester County. That's just outside of the city, into Manhattan tested positive for the virus. Today we are learning that members of this man's family are also sick. They also have coronavirus bringing the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in New York to six. So let me bring in Dr. Michael Mina, he's an Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Associate Medical Director of Harvard Medical School. And so Dr. Michael Mina, thank you so much for being with me.</s>DR. MICHAEL J. MINA, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF EPIDEMIOLOGY, HARVARD T.H. CHAN OF SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Great to be here. Thanks.</s>BALDWIN: Let's talk about these cases in New York, as we mentioned six now infected in New York. What do you do if you even suspect that you're feeling sick, someone in your family is showing what you perceive to be symptoms, what do you do?</s>MINA: I think right now testing remains fairly limited across the United States, although it's expanding very quickly. And I think the best thing to do at the moment is if you're feeling very mildly ill, I think the best thing is to just stay at home, try to self-quarantine. But if symptoms progress and you start to actually think that you need to see a doctor, then I would suggest doing so, and potentially calling up before hand just give them a heads-up that you are coming.</s>BALDWIN: How about we put this in perspective with the seasonal flu. Right. On the one hand, there are far more cases of the flu than coronavirus by a long shot, but the World Health Organization says coronavirus has a higher mortality rate. Help us understand that.</s>MINA: Yes, so this is -- these numbers are still coming in epidemiologically and we're still trying to figure out just how many people do get exposed to the virus and actually acquire it but don't ever get reported. And until we get a better handle on that it's very difficult to say really what the mortality rate is or what the fraction of people who become infected who get severely ill actually is. And so those are things that we're trying to uncover still, and at the moment, we can just take estimates. The best estimates we have suggest that it's potentially somewhat more transmissible or about the same transmissibility than flu, and potentially a little bit more aggressive than the flu as well.</s>BALDWIN: Dr. Mina, thank you so much for your expertise. Thank you for coming on.</s>MINA: Absolutely.</s>BALDWIN: Coming up next, we will take you live to one of the area's hardest hit by those tornados in Tennessee, the man in these photos who had to be pulled from the rubble of his own home. We'll share his harrowing story.