Facebook page, abc 7 newss Facebook Page and put in your question and i will definitely try to get to that, if we can, during our program. Weve already gotten some really good ones and we just want to see more of them coming so we can address that with dr. Patel. Theres so many interesting new medical developments to cover right now. We want to talk about herd immunity with dr. Patel. We also want to talk about reinfection. We want to talk about just how far the droplets from covid19 can travel and whether thats influencing your decision to wear a mask or not. As you know, theres been a lot of back and forth on that. And now that there are a lot of tests, more people doing tests, there are also people getting false negatives and what is the impact of that, as face our overall, you know, immunity and how safe we are as we start to think about reopening. So, with all that in mind, we want to welcome dr. Alok patel. Hey, alok. Thank you. Great to be here to answer all these questions. Thats great. I just rattled them off while you were getting yourself ready, but lets start from this one, because a lot of people have been asking, you know, whether we hear our governor speak or in new york, governor andrew cuomo, it feels like it seems like everyone is suggesting we are peaking in terms of the cases, the hospitalizations. Is that actually the case . Does the medical community feel safe saying we are at about the peak if we contine doing what were doing . I think the medical community does, in fact, feel optimistic about kind of the plateauing or the slowing of cases, but again, were also being realistic, because we know theres a potential for not only another surge of cases, that could happen in the next following weeks but we have to be really careful that there could be rebound transmission, meaning if we were to reopen the economy and get people back out into the work force, we could have more cases kind of pop up. And so, we still leave a little bit of time to make sure we not only have a slowing down of cases, but we see a decline of cases over the course of at let a coupks. That then, what is the ramification for reopening . As you heard yesterday, Governor Newsom said, ask me again in two weeks, but these are the six requirements that were going to use, indicators were going to look at to decide whether were ready to reopen slowly. Realistically, based on everything we know about the spread, the results we have from testing and theres a lot we dont know from testing right now, either what does that timeline look like . Well, like i mentioned, the timeline really needs to show us seeing a slowing of cases over an exteederd ofti. And so we need to be able to see that 14 days. And that, again, thats a conservative estimate. We need to see continuous decline in cases. As we see that, we have to see no staffing or equipment shortages in our hospitals. Remember that flattening the peak model, we want to make sure that the Hospital Systems actually maintain and that we dont have a risk of them being overwhelmed if we had more cases, and while all this is happening, we need to see more availability and testing. And ability to be able to surveillance every active case. We actually need it all in place until we can reopen society. Well, one thing should help, which is the San Francisco partnership with usc f, thats you know, which is going to start doing Contact Tracing on a much larger scale. So, thats good. I want to fold in a question from an instagram viewer. Do you have any updates on the Antibody Test . How does it work . Great question. And, you know, i would love to be able to see a consistent, acraille evwe don have that rig th oy hats cuenyfdapproved, and theres about 90 that are on the market. And so, what the Antibody Test is essentially looking for is an immune response to anyone who may have had covid19 in the past. And so, it doesnt tell you if you have an active infection, it tells you if youve had it in the past and if you might be immune. I say might be immune, because if you get any infection, you get antibodies, but as of right now, we dont know who is immune or how long that immunity lasts. We heard mike pence earlier saying that theyre going to be millions of tests available across the country. Were waiting to see that happen. And this is going to be a really important step because we want to know if we have widespread immunit immunity. If people have seen this before we start to really reopen society. We have to have that serology, or Antibody Tests available. Yeah, that is what we referred to as herd immunity, right . When enough of us have been exposed and right now, we just dont know. So, coco is asking, is everyone going to eventually get covid19 and how atrisk are children . And when she asks, is everyone eventually going to get it . I know were not all going to get sick from it, but are we all eventually going to get it and be exposed and produce antibodies . So, a couple compounded questions in here. I think the first thing we possible a large per shen tcent this population, over time, is going to come in contact with covid19, and thats why there is a lot of talk right now about saying, you know what . Even if we see a slowing of the virus during summer, we have to be prepared for a recurrence this winter. And the following winter. You know, and we have to make sure of that, even if we think that were save, there might be some people who are vulnerable out there and our Health Care System could get overwhelmed again. Now, i want to make sure that people understand what we mean when we say herd immunity. Herd immunity basically states that if enough people in a population are immune to a virus, its much harder for the virus to spread or for people to catch it. Now, for coronavirus, were estimating that we need about 60 of the population immune to it, in order to really stop that spread. And the safest way to do that is with a vaccine, where you can establish widespread immunity a lot safer and a lot more efficiently. But we know were at least a year away from doing that, and to tack on the last question, kids right now, we are, again, seeing that theyre faring a little bit better against the disease, but that doesnt, first of all, mean that they cant get severe illness, but we also know that theyre a huge vector to transmit it. They can be contagious even if they have no symptoms. Okay, so, given that, you know, for now, the safest thing, without a vaccine any time soon, is to continue to wear our masks when were out in public, or face covering, i should say. So, to that end, i want to address salvadors question, which is, why not use furnace filter material as face mask inserts, they are rated for viruses. What do you think about that idea . So, in theory, you know, there are some materials out there which can actually filter a lot of particles. Not only the furnace material i believe hes referring to, but even Something Like a vac kuuum cleaner bag. Heres the issue. You have to be able to breathe through that, which is not the easiest thing to do. Even a medical grade mask is difficult to breathe in for a long period of time, especially if you have a heart or lung disease. You have to wear that and it has to have a nice, snug fit around your face. So, when we talk about cloth materials or things people can do at home, you have to remember that its got to be comfortable enough for someone to wear and not constantly be readjusting or moving around. So, just because the materials really good at filtering doesnt mean its the best thing for your face. Right. All right. A paper towel, i think, may actually work better is what ive heard from other doctors. Y you agree . Until it gets wet, and thats an issue. A paper towel dont you love this awkward occasional pauses because were in two different places . But anyway, lets take a quick break on the air. Times of covid. I know, right . Were doing the best we can and i know folks are appreciating that, so, no worries. Were going to take a break on the air, go over to our Pay Attention to your environment. Thanks. Lets go back on air. Were back with our special correspondent, dr. Alok patel. Im going to combine nelsons question and jennifers question. Nelson wants to know, what is the treatment in hospital for people who do have covid19, so, whats the treatment, and jennifer asked, if you go to the hospital, how do they decide who gets hydroxychloroquine . Two great questions. You know, to address the first one, the one thing im hearing from my colleagues who work in icus or lung doctors is, every patient is different. It depends on patients age, how the parents breathing status is doing and if they have any other medical conditions. And so, there isnt necessarily a standard of care, but there are patterns. So, some doctors are saying a lot of patients need oxygen really early, you know, some are just needing Supportive Care and being monitored closely and are able to go home a lot faster, but it really varies. Regarding hydroxychloroquine, great question. Some hospitals across the droxychln e using hydroxychloroquine, however, its under a controlled setting, theyre doing very close monitoring, especially the heart rhythm on all these patients and its under expert guidance. And its usually going to be done in the kind of a Clinical Trial setting. And so, the way they decide it is based on the institution and what theyre currently doing with their patients with that. But there is no general rule right now. Thats what we want to get to. We want to be able to understand in general who can safely get these treatment else, including hydroxychloroquine. Right. Oh, speaking of that, theres a brazilian study that you wanted to bring up, right . I did want to bring it up. You know, in the very beginning, when President Trump said, you know, hydroxychloroquine could be a game changer, everyone was optimistic. Et everyone says, we hope it can be, but we have to study for its safety. A study in brazil was looking at hospitalized patients. They were giving these patients a lower dose and a higher dose of chloroquine, which is another version, and what they saw was the higher dose of chloroquine was associated with heart arrhythmias or irregular heart rhythms and the study was called off after several patients died. So, what this told us is, we have to be careful about who gets these medications, which is why there needs to be more studies and data, so we know what a safe dose is, who should get it and what exactly were dealing with, instead of just kind of wildly distributing this medication and why we say, once again, that nobody should be hording these meds or try to take them at home. It can be deadly. All right, teresa asked a question that i think a lot of people are wondering, can you get a test even if you dont have symptoms . You cant, right . Right now, its very difficult, if not impossible to do that. And teresa, this is a great question, because we want to be able to test people who may not have any symptoms, but may have had contact with somebody. Right now, you might be able to do that through avate company, but we dont have the testing availability generally to do that. Now, in the few dhur, wed love to be able to test everyone with Something Like an Antibody Test, because even if you dont have symptoms and you may have had covid19 in the past, you theoretically should have antibolds against it. And so, thats where you want to get to in the future. We have to be able to determine, you know, how widespread this disease is now and who may have had it in the past. All right, well, based on the way things are going right now, marcy wants to know how probable will youth sports resume this summer or year . How probable it is, is what i guess shes saying, and based on what Governor Newsom said yesterday, im going to guess not that probable, right . Certainly not by summer. What do you think . You know, i think we can hope for the best, but plan for this to not happen. You have to think about youth sports not only depends on the sport, obviously, but kids are going to be in close proximity to one another. Theres also going to be parents and coaches and theres going to be potential for people to get too close and respread this. Now, again, when we talk about reopening society, theres going to be a strategic reopening. And so we very well may, in the middle or end of summer look at specific businesses and services and decide, you know what, this could reopen with the physical distancing parameters still in place, if that makes any sense. And so, its possible certain activities, we may be able to kind of reopen within these guidelines, but i wouldnt expect people to have full bleachers and full Little League games going by 4th of july. Its going to be case by case, looking at the particulars of that event report sport and its going to base, you know, also on how were doing in terms of cases by that point, so yeah. Okay, no firm answers. But were going to take a break on air and continue our questions im alex trebek here to tell you about the Colonial Penn program. 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Wash your hands, be careful with the packaging and even if you absolutely have a doubt, its not going to survive that long on food anyway, if its canned food or something, put it aside. Wait 24 to 72 hours, it should be dead. Can anything over the counter prevent this . So, things over the counter are going to be able to disinfect your hands or, you know, your surfaces, but there is nothing out there thats going to boost your immune system or prevent covid19 or even treat it. Do not listen to any of those ads you see on social media. A lot of people are trying to profit right now off the fact that people are scared and want an answer. We dont have treatments available just yet. Do what youre doing, stay home and use those hygiene guidelines. Is it necessary to use clean cleaners on groceries and packages you pick up in stores in case the virus is on it . I would. You know, if you get if you are getting deliveries or packages and you have any concern, you know, its totally fine to wipe down the surfaces, your shopping cart, whatever it may be. Or you can always remove the item outside of your place, then take it and then wash your hands. Remember, as long as youre washing the contact point between a surface or contaminated place and your eyes, nose or mouth, you should be safe. Will we be social distancing until 2022 . People saw that headline and it was rightfully scary. Now, that model that told us that we might be socially distancing until 2022 is based on how other coronaviruses in the past have spread. And the fact that we could see this virus pop up again this winter. Now, we need to make sure that were prepared for a resurgence, so, we need to make sure or hospital capacities are ready and that we have some type of physical distancing in our expectation, but it basically just kind of puts a little bit of more pressure on the fact that we need treatments. We need a vaccine. And weapon ne need to be realis. David asks, do i need to disinfect my shoes after walking in my neighborhood . So, its not likely that the virus would be sitting alive on a concrete surface for days on end. If you do have a concern about it, i would wipe your shoes down or leave your shoes outside the house, preferably not want to shut your shoes anywhere where you may be touching and then subsequently touching something else. Rememb remember, it can hop around surfaces. I understand the questions, but just think about the last contact point is between the virus and your eyes, nose or mouth. As long as you are breaking that, you should be okay. Bull when i come from the hospital, my shoes sit outside our apartment. Excellent. Great tips, thank you so much, dr. Alok patel. Well continue this conversation with dr. Patel on our livestreams right now and take a break on air and when we come back onair, youre going Metastatic Breast Cancer is relentless, but im relentless too. Because every day matters. And having more of them is possible with verzenio, the only one of its kind proven to help you live significantly longer when taken with fulvestrant, regardless of menopausal status. And its the only one of its kind you can take every day. Verzenio fulvestrant is approved for women with hr , her2 Metastatic Breast Cancer whose disease has progressed after hormonal treatment. Diarrhea is common, may be severe, or cause dehydration or infection. At first sign of diarrhea, call your doctor, start an antidiarrheal, and drink fluids. Before taking verzenio, tell your doctor if you have fever, chills, or other signs of infection. Verzenio may cause low white blood cell counts, which may cause serious infection that can lead to death. Lifethreatening inflammation of the lungs can occur. Talk to your doctor if you have new or worsening trouble breathing, cough, or chest pain. Serious liver problems can happen. Symptoms include tiredness, appetite loss, stomach pain, and bleeding or bruising. Blood clots that can lead to death have occurred. Tell your doctor if you have pain or swelling in your arms or legs, shortness of breath, chest pain and rapid breathing or heart rate, or if you are pregnant or nursing. Every day matters. And i want more of them. Ask your doctor about everyday verzenio. Dinner, but then the next day, ill say youre my friend again, right . All right, were coming back on. After deliberation, dr. Patel is reinvited to dinner. All right. If you are hearing dr. Patel asking me to join him for dinner when this is all over as friends and colleagues, thats because you missed our very fun and engaging livestream conversation that we always have when were in commercial break. Dr. Patel, thank you so very much for all that great information and, yes, lets get the gang together and do dinner when we are all able to do so safely. Take it easy. In due time. Thank you. Stay safe. You too. Right now, you are really going to love this story. Im very excited about it. Were going to talk with our next guest, he is a Police Officer afford a real hero. Hes recovered from covid19. Now hes hoping his blood can help others. Joining us today, officer steve vega. How are you doing . Officer vega . Hey, officer vega, can you hear us . Ah, yes, i think i can hear you. Yay. Yes. Happy to hear you and see you looking so well because i know you had just actually, i can barely hear you. Okay. Im going to try it, lets give it a shot, because i want folks to hear your story. You just recovered from the coronavirus, walk me through it. When did you realize you were sick . Ah, i realized i was sick roughly march 5th. And how did you know . What was happening to you . Symptoms . Ah, march 5th, i was displaying some basic symptoms and they were coming and going and then, like a week later, the symptom s came back and they wee persistent, they werent going away, to the point, many doctor wanted to see me and get an evaluation. So, you went in and got a test and found out you were covid19 positive . Were you hospitalized . What meds did you take . No, the test i went and got was a chest xray and i had the beginning stages of pneumonia. Two days later, i had the covid test and three days later i tested positive. Oh. Can you tell me how bad it got and if you were worried if you were going to make it . Yes, once i heard the positive results, extremely worried, concerned, up know, not knowing whats going to happen to me, am i going to be hospitalized, am i put on a ventilator . Whats going to happen next to me, based on what was happening here in the states. A lot of concern and worry and on top of the illness, you pain when i was coughing, fever, swligt feviv slight fever, chills, aches, et cetera. Now, when did you start Getting Better . Im sorry . I can see you are better now, back at work, which is great to see. I know its been touch. But now that you are better, you want to help others. I understand you are enrolled in a stanford trishlgs you are going to use your blood and your antibodies, right, to help others . Can you explain whats going to happen there . Yeah, once i got to the point of feeling better, back to work, i knew i recovered from this. Basically all on my own, with the will to fight and fight through this. And i started doing some research because i started hearing about things on tv about testing and antibolds, santibd donations, plasma, et cetera. So, i researched it and found out that the American Red Cross and the Stanford Blood Center were looking for patients that recovered and i thought i was a strong candidate. Reached out to the Stanford Blood Center, finally got ahold of them, gave them my dell tails and they were highly interested in my plasma and wanting me to come in and provide. And i understand you are one of the first to sign onto this. Can i just ask you, why did you do it . Is it the same heart that motivated you to become a Police Officer . Thats part, its kind of two parts, yeah, thats part of me, why im in the job im in. I just love helping people, working with kids, et cetera. But thats just me in general. If i can give something back, knowing whats going on the in Society Today with this disease, you know, people are sick, people are dying and i was like, well, you know, i got through this on my own. They want my plasma and this could be helpful and im going to do this and hopefully it helps. Yep. And i have to say able to save a life or make somebody better as a result of me. Thank you, officer steve vega, much respect to you. So glad youve recovered and thank you for being on the front lines protecting us and helping us. And i want to thank you all for joining us today for our show, getting answers. Well be back here tomorrow at tonight, the coronavirus here in the u. S. Nearly 2,600 deaths, americas deadliest 24 hours yet. Tonight, whats next for america. When and how will this country reopen . What President Trump revealed just moments ago. In new york tonight, even as we see a flattening of the curve, the number of deaths. More than 700 in 24 hours. Were inside a new york city hospital. The reality, even as we reach the peak. Governor cuomo now ordering everyone in the state to now cover your face in public. And saying testing is whats desperately needed to get americans back to work. Massachusetts death toll spiking tonight. The governor saying, we are in the surge. Hundreds of americans lining up before dawn for testing in this country. With hopes of reassurance as they prepare to return to some sort of normalcy