Selected Podcast
Coronavirus (COVID-19): What You Need to Know
Dr. Amy Jaworek shares an update on the Coronavirus and everything you need to know to stay healthy and safe while reducing the risk of contracting and spreading the virus during the pandemic.
Featuring:
Amy Jaworek, MD
Amelia (Amy) Jaworek is a board-certified Infectious Disease physician at Harrington HealthCare System. She received her medical degree from Tufts University in Boston and completed a residency at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield. Transcription:
Scott Webb: This Harrington Hospital Podcast on COVID-19 was recorded on March 13th, 2020. While the risk for contracting Coronavirus COVID0-19 in Massachusetts is currently low, it's important to remain informed and to take responsible steps to help prevent getting or spreading the disease. I'm joined today by infectious disease specialist, Dr. Amy Jaworek, who will tell us what we need to know about the Coronavirus. This is Healthy Takeout. The podcast from Harrington Hospital. I'm Scott Webb. So DR. Jaworek, the World Health Organization has classified COVID-19 as a pandemic. I am so thankful to have an Infectious Disease Specialist on with me to help us all understand the situation. So let's start with a few basics here. What exactly is a Coronavirus?
Dr. Jaworek: Coronavirus is a virus that is similar to the flu in the way it presents and the way it acts on the host with symptoms of sore throat, runny nose, cough and respiratory symptoms. And it's called a Coronavirus because if you look at it under the microscope, it has little areas around the core top of the virus that looked like a crown has little spikes on it.
Host: Well, that's actually really cool. I didn't, I didn't actually know why. Okay. It comes from the novel. Coronavirus became a Coronavirus and now we're throwing around the term COVID-19. That's the strain. Can you explain what COVID-19 is and how it came to be named?
Dr. Jaworek: COVID-19 is actually a conglomeration of letters that means Coronavirus disease. So COVID slash 19 and 19 refers to 2019 because at first presented in December in Wuhan province of China as acute illness with respiratory symptoms.
Host: Okay. So it's really just a, it's just a kind of a little bit of a shorthand. Okay. So who's most at risk for COVID-19?
Dr. Jaworek: The risk is more pronounced in the older individuals, and particularly mortality goes up after 80 years old, very, very sharply. That's why you see in Italy where there's an older population than some of the countries that, they've had more deaths, as tends to be more severe, involve more lower respiratory symptoms, such as pneumonia. Also individuals with diabetes as Tom Hanks has mentioned that he has and has been diagnosed with a virus, are more at risk and anyone with any type of immune suppression at more risks such as malignancy and others.
Host: And so, it's interesting you mentioned Tom Hanks. I just saw that on social media that he had the Wilson, you know, he took that picture of him with the volleyball. I just thought it was really cool just so sort of Tom Hanks of him to, you know, kind of try to brighten everyone else up while he's going through this. So I think one of the tricky things about this is as you mentioned that the symptoms are similar to the flu or maybe even a little bit of the cold. So when exactly should people be concerned, and what should they do about it if they are concerned? Because I know you don't want everybody rushing into the emergency departments because they're just not, you can't handle that kind of volume. So when should people be concerned and go to the Doctor or go to the emergency department?
Dr. Jaworek: People should be concerned and go to the emergency department at any time, if they have shortness of breath, look blue, have a fever that's going on for more than a couple days and they're not able to eat, not just a fever that they can live with, a fever that really they can't get out of bed because then they could be at risk for other symptoms such as pneumonia. People with smaller symptoms such as, they're still moving around, they're still eating or they have maybe a fever that's maybe even high, but they're sort of able to go about their daily activities, should actually stay home and call their provider's office. They may call at times the emergency room, but generally if they call a provider's office, they may be getting instructions on what to do next as the emergency rooms everywhere across the State do not have yet the testing kit available. They are to have the patients tested, it has to come in generally for inpatients and it takes several days to get the results back. So, if the individuals are thinking that they're going to go to the ER, for example, urgent care and get like a strep throat test, get a virus test for this, COVID virus is not in that scenario isn't present yet. Can't do that yet.
Host: Yeah. And that's good to know that it's just not a situation yet. And again, this is fluid and things are changing, but right now it's not a situation where you can just walk into the emergency department or urgent care and ask for the COVID-19 test. You're going to probably have to have some of the risk factors and be sort of be screened. Right. It's, it's just not a situation yet where we have a test that everyone can take. Right.
Dr. Jaworek: Exactly. Exactly.
Host: Okay. So I'm seeing a lot on social media and people sort of making fun of it a little bit. Like, Oh, now we're going to wash our hands, right? Like shouldn't we all have already been washing our hands? But why more than ever Doctor, is it important that people wash their hands and take care of themselves?
Dr. Jaworek: Washing hands is one of the most basic, cheapest, safest old fashioned ways that you can really protect yourself. It really does work. It does work and it should be more important now because we feel that this virus may not just be present in the air when persons are coughing, but it may be present on surfaces. It may be present on individual's hands. When you shake, you have very high incidence of transferring this as you cut your face. If they've mentioned also several times an hour probably. And you can catch it very easily from surfaces and hands. So washing hands is most important. Also 70%, at least 70% alcohol rub is also another means of stopping spread.
Host: And, as you, as you probably heard and seeing in the news and social media, there seems to be a bit of panic out there and I don't know if it's misinformation or what's at the root of this, but people are stocking up on toilet paper and water and all of these things kind of unrelated, you know, to COVID-19. So, you know, washing your hands, right, 20 seconds, warm water or if you can't wash your hands, then using hand sanitizers. These are all things that I've been telling both of my children who are still in school. So will the warmer weather generally across the country, is that going to help, in addition to all the other measures of encouraging people to stay home and to take care of themselves? Will the warmer weather help in this situation?
Dr. Jaworek: I hope so. This isn't, as you mentioned early in the interview, a novel virus, so we don't really know what will happen with this particular virus, but many of the Coronaviruses have stopped coming around once the weather improved, the SARS virus was circulating, then boom, all of a sudden it stopped. So I hope that, is our hope that when people are getting outdoors more, not in crowded situations or large groups, they are telling us to avoid groups of more than 20, that will help prevent the spread and it'll either die out or the fresh air will be not as hospitable for the virus in general. I hope.
Host: I hope so too. And as you say that we're right now working on making the test available to more people, but obviously there are folks working on the vaccine as well, but I've heard that it could take as long as a year. Why does it take so long for vaccines, for things like this?
Dr. Jaworek: Well, there's so many steps. There's regulatory steps and they will put it, push it through quickly on that part if it's life saving vaccine. But they do need to make sure at first that it's safe and it's been tested. And there's no harm to the vaccine at first. And so we don't want to vaccinate the general population when they could have severe harm from vaccines, as not all vaccines are easy to take. And there has to be a certain number of people who take the vaccine and see what their side effects are and have this written up. So that's why it sort of takes longer. It takes many months to get regulatory approval to that reason.
Host: Yeah. So, in addition to it being a novel Coronavirus, in other words, still a lot of things unknown about it. Then in order to have a vaccine, even if they expedite things, they still have to go through testing and, you know, regulatory procedures. So it just, it takes a while. Let's talk specifically about what's going on at Harrington there, the hotlines, websites, all of that. What are you folks doing to help people through this time?
Dr. Jaworek: What we're trying to do is make everything, as you had mentioned earlier, accessible and current on social media. So we're putting out daily or every other day updates as soon there's anything new that's posted. There's also going to be a hotline that will be hopefully up and running very soon, or people can, can call and get a recorded message and then hopefully also speak with a live person about their specific illnesses. This'll help people know when to seek care since as we know, this is a new type of virus, when to actually present, when the kit test kits are available, how to go about that. You know, that it will help them not have to go into situations where they can become infected and affect others. If they can answer a lot of their questions on the phone first, without going to the crowded ER.
Host: That's great. So people can sort of, in a way kind of screen themselves, and find out if they are at a high enough risk to, you know, to make the trip into the ER. So lastly, Doctor, just appreciate your time today and your expertise. Anything else we need people to know, during this time? The words like pandemic can be scary. And the last thing we want, we don't want people to panic, but we do need them to be diligent. Right?
Dr. Jaworek: Exactly. Be aware, but not afraid.
Host: That's a great way to put it. I'm going to put that on a tee shirt. Be aware, but not afraid. I love that. Dr. Jaworek, thanks so much for your time today. We may end up having you back on. This is a, you know, kind of a fluid and changing situation and when we have somebody with your expertise, it's really great to have you on. So thanks so much. For more information, please visit Harringtonhospital.org/coronavirus and remember your health and safety are our top priorities. And if you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels and be sure to check out the entire podcast library for topics of interest to you. I'm Scott Webb. And we'll talk again next time.
Scott Webb: This Harrington Hospital Podcast on COVID-19 was recorded on March 13th, 2020. While the risk for contracting Coronavirus COVID0-19 in Massachusetts is currently low, it's important to remain informed and to take responsible steps to help prevent getting or spreading the disease. I'm joined today by infectious disease specialist, Dr. Amy Jaworek, who will tell us what we need to know about the Coronavirus. This is Healthy Takeout. The podcast from Harrington Hospital. I'm Scott Webb. So DR. Jaworek, the World Health Organization has classified COVID-19 as a pandemic. I am so thankful to have an Infectious Disease Specialist on with me to help us all understand the situation. So let's start with a few basics here. What exactly is a Coronavirus?
Dr. Jaworek: Coronavirus is a virus that is similar to the flu in the way it presents and the way it acts on the host with symptoms of sore throat, runny nose, cough and respiratory symptoms. And it's called a Coronavirus because if you look at it under the microscope, it has little areas around the core top of the virus that looked like a crown has little spikes on it.
Host: Well, that's actually really cool. I didn't, I didn't actually know why. Okay. It comes from the novel. Coronavirus became a Coronavirus and now we're throwing around the term COVID-19. That's the strain. Can you explain what COVID-19 is and how it came to be named?
Dr. Jaworek: COVID-19 is actually a conglomeration of letters that means Coronavirus disease. So COVID slash 19 and 19 refers to 2019 because at first presented in December in Wuhan province of China as acute illness with respiratory symptoms.
Host: Okay. So it's really just a, it's just a kind of a little bit of a shorthand. Okay. So who's most at risk for COVID-19?
Dr. Jaworek: The risk is more pronounced in the older individuals, and particularly mortality goes up after 80 years old, very, very sharply. That's why you see in Italy where there's an older population than some of the countries that, they've had more deaths, as tends to be more severe, involve more lower respiratory symptoms, such as pneumonia. Also individuals with diabetes as Tom Hanks has mentioned that he has and has been diagnosed with a virus, are more at risk and anyone with any type of immune suppression at more risks such as malignancy and others.
Host: And so, it's interesting you mentioned Tom Hanks. I just saw that on social media that he had the Wilson, you know, he took that picture of him with the volleyball. I just thought it was really cool just so sort of Tom Hanks of him to, you know, kind of try to brighten everyone else up while he's going through this. So I think one of the tricky things about this is as you mentioned that the symptoms are similar to the flu or maybe even a little bit of the cold. So when exactly should people be concerned, and what should they do about it if they are concerned? Because I know you don't want everybody rushing into the emergency departments because they're just not, you can't handle that kind of volume. So when should people be concerned and go to the Doctor or go to the emergency department?
Dr. Jaworek: People should be concerned and go to the emergency department at any time, if they have shortness of breath, look blue, have a fever that's going on for more than a couple days and they're not able to eat, not just a fever that they can live with, a fever that really they can't get out of bed because then they could be at risk for other symptoms such as pneumonia. People with smaller symptoms such as, they're still moving around, they're still eating or they have maybe a fever that's maybe even high, but they're sort of able to go about their daily activities, should actually stay home and call their provider's office. They may call at times the emergency room, but generally if they call a provider's office, they may be getting instructions on what to do next as the emergency rooms everywhere across the State do not have yet the testing kit available. They are to have the patients tested, it has to come in generally for inpatients and it takes several days to get the results back. So, if the individuals are thinking that they're going to go to the ER, for example, urgent care and get like a strep throat test, get a virus test for this, COVID virus is not in that scenario isn't present yet. Can't do that yet.
Host: Yeah. And that's good to know that it's just not a situation yet. And again, this is fluid and things are changing, but right now it's not a situation where you can just walk into the emergency department or urgent care and ask for the COVID-19 test. You're going to probably have to have some of the risk factors and be sort of be screened. Right. It's, it's just not a situation yet where we have a test that everyone can take. Right.
Dr. Jaworek: Exactly. Exactly.
Host: Okay. So I'm seeing a lot on social media and people sort of making fun of it a little bit. Like, Oh, now we're going to wash our hands, right? Like shouldn't we all have already been washing our hands? But why more than ever Doctor, is it important that people wash their hands and take care of themselves?
Dr. Jaworek: Washing hands is one of the most basic, cheapest, safest old fashioned ways that you can really protect yourself. It really does work. It does work and it should be more important now because we feel that this virus may not just be present in the air when persons are coughing, but it may be present on surfaces. It may be present on individual's hands. When you shake, you have very high incidence of transferring this as you cut your face. If they've mentioned also several times an hour probably. And you can catch it very easily from surfaces and hands. So washing hands is most important. Also 70%, at least 70% alcohol rub is also another means of stopping spread.
Host: And, as you, as you probably heard and seeing in the news and social media, there seems to be a bit of panic out there and I don't know if it's misinformation or what's at the root of this, but people are stocking up on toilet paper and water and all of these things kind of unrelated, you know, to COVID-19. So, you know, washing your hands, right, 20 seconds, warm water or if you can't wash your hands, then using hand sanitizers. These are all things that I've been telling both of my children who are still in school. So will the warmer weather generally across the country, is that going to help, in addition to all the other measures of encouraging people to stay home and to take care of themselves? Will the warmer weather help in this situation?
Dr. Jaworek: I hope so. This isn't, as you mentioned early in the interview, a novel virus, so we don't really know what will happen with this particular virus, but many of the Coronaviruses have stopped coming around once the weather improved, the SARS virus was circulating, then boom, all of a sudden it stopped. So I hope that, is our hope that when people are getting outdoors more, not in crowded situations or large groups, they are telling us to avoid groups of more than 20, that will help prevent the spread and it'll either die out or the fresh air will be not as hospitable for the virus in general. I hope.
Host: I hope so too. And as you say that we're right now working on making the test available to more people, but obviously there are folks working on the vaccine as well, but I've heard that it could take as long as a year. Why does it take so long for vaccines, for things like this?
Dr. Jaworek: Well, there's so many steps. There's regulatory steps and they will put it, push it through quickly on that part if it's life saving vaccine. But they do need to make sure at first that it's safe and it's been tested. And there's no harm to the vaccine at first. And so we don't want to vaccinate the general population when they could have severe harm from vaccines, as not all vaccines are easy to take. And there has to be a certain number of people who take the vaccine and see what their side effects are and have this written up. So that's why it sort of takes longer. It takes many months to get regulatory approval to that reason.
Host: Yeah. So, in addition to it being a novel Coronavirus, in other words, still a lot of things unknown about it. Then in order to have a vaccine, even if they expedite things, they still have to go through testing and, you know, regulatory procedures. So it just, it takes a while. Let's talk specifically about what's going on at Harrington there, the hotlines, websites, all of that. What are you folks doing to help people through this time?
Dr. Jaworek: What we're trying to do is make everything, as you had mentioned earlier, accessible and current on social media. So we're putting out daily or every other day updates as soon there's anything new that's posted. There's also going to be a hotline that will be hopefully up and running very soon, or people can, can call and get a recorded message and then hopefully also speak with a live person about their specific illnesses. This'll help people know when to seek care since as we know, this is a new type of virus, when to actually present, when the kit test kits are available, how to go about that. You know, that it will help them not have to go into situations where they can become infected and affect others. If they can answer a lot of their questions on the phone first, without going to the crowded ER.
Host: That's great. So people can sort of, in a way kind of screen themselves, and find out if they are at a high enough risk to, you know, to make the trip into the ER. So lastly, Doctor, just appreciate your time today and your expertise. Anything else we need people to know, during this time? The words like pandemic can be scary. And the last thing we want, we don't want people to panic, but we do need them to be diligent. Right?
Dr. Jaworek: Exactly. Be aware, but not afraid.
Host: That's a great way to put it. I'm going to put that on a tee shirt. Be aware, but not afraid. I love that. Dr. Jaworek, thanks so much for your time today. We may end up having you back on. This is a, you know, kind of a fluid and changing situation and when we have somebody with your expertise, it's really great to have you on. So thanks so much. For more information, please visit Harringtonhospital.org/coronavirus and remember your health and safety are our top priorities. And if you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels and be sure to check out the entire podcast library for topics of interest to you. I'm Scott Webb. And we'll talk again next time.