Expert not concerned by coronavirus
6 February 2020, 16:32 | Updated: 6 February 2020, 16:41
Dr. Jeremy Rossman, lecturer of Virology at the University of Kent believes people in the UK are more at risk from the common flu than they are of coronavirus.
Dr. Rossman told Shelagh that the chances of catching coronavirus in the UK right now are "incredibly small".
The hysteria around the outbreak have hit the UK in the past few weeks and Dr. Rossman was speaking to Shelagh about how the public shouldn't be worried.
Aware of how the public are currently concerned about the virus, Dr. Jeremy pointed out that concern around coronavirus is helping the public become more aware about preventing infections.
"It's a great case to be practicing good hygiene" stated the University of Kent Lecturer, after Shelagh expressed concern at how people treat those who have the common flu while the rate of coronavirus infection is rising in China.
The conversation came in the wake of the report that three people in the UK have now been infected with coronavirus.
Shelagh wanted to find out from Dr. Rossman why there is global concern about coronavirus if people in the UK shouldn't be worried by the disease.
"We don't understand a lot about it" he pointed out. The fact that the virus has spread without health officials having time to react sufficiently has been a cause for most of the hysteria around coronavirus, rather than its fatality rate.
Dr. Rossman made sure to not completely rule out the danger of the affliction. He made sure to stress that coronavirus has "a higher fatality rate than flu does and it has a higher degree of very severe illness than flu does".
Although right now in the UK there is no serious national panic about the virus, Dr. Jeremy believes the public awareness is helping significantly to stop the spread.
