Infectious Disease Specialist Dr Ali Hassoun Discusses The Coronavirus Pandemic

Infectious Disease Specialist Dr Ali Hassoun Discusses The Coronavirus Pandemic

>> najahe sherman: we are back with dr. ali hassoun, infectious disease specialist at huntsville hospital.

>> dan shaffer: huntsville hospitalzationed increased across the country but decreased in madison county.

What could be causing that?

>> dr. hassoun: yeah, and, you know, these are the last few days we've seen reduced hospitalization.

You know, part of it, it could be related, you know, we've seen sudsing 95 can't spike after the 4th of july, you know, holidays where take about two weeks to see that affect, and now we might be you returning to our normal level of admission and numbers.

It's going to take time to tell exactly.

You know, we've always been talking about and preaching about physical distancing and masking.

Can that have some affect?

Is the community following a little bit better?

We're going to really need to wait and see.

This is going to take probably, you know, two to four weeks at least to know how we're looking at this.

I'm hoping it's good news, i must say.

>> najahe sherman: we know that you play a role in managing remdesivir at huntsville hospital.

As coronavirus cases continue to rise, do we have enough to continue to meet demand?

>> dr. hassoun: so at the moment yes, we do, that we've been using it on regular basis for those patient who needs it.

You know, it's really a matter of time we're going to see if the numbers goes up, is this going to affect us.

I can tell you, i have other colleagues in other state, for example, in georgia and they're telling me they're running out of remdesivir because of increasing cases, for example, in certain areas.

So we're going to need to see how this is going to go with our cases.

We again are trying to stick stick to certain protocol and adhere to certain criteria to use the remdesivir so we can use it at the best to -- the ones who really needs it as much as we can.

>> dan shaffer: i've heard a lot of positive updates on vaccine development.

Pfizer just stuck a $2 billion deal with the government.

They say they'll have 100 million doses by the end of the year.

What do you think is a realistic time line?

>> dr. hassoun: yeah, i think still probably, if we're very optimistic, it will be the end of the year.

You know, there are several companies now have published or talked about their phase 1/phase 2 trials.

And some of them are really promising.

I think the concept of the corona vaccine has been shown it might be helpful, but really what we need to get is these vaccine going to prevent the infection or reduce the infection.

And i can tell you at the moment we don't have that answer.

We're going to need to wait for a clinical trials to get an idea and this is going to take time.

It's going to take two to three months to get an idea of this.

So i'm saying very hospital mystic, if we really get something, probably by the end of the year.

Otherwise it will be next year.

>> najahe sherman: dr. hassoun, there have been certain reports that a person's blood type plays a part in both their likelihood of getting the coronavirus and the symptoms they get.

What is your perspective on that >> dr. hassoun: i see that that was published in the "new england journal of medicine."

This is one talk about blood type a is more prone to severe infection versus blood type o.

You know, i always say it's only one report.

We really, to confirm these information, you need multiple data to prove that.

Locally we've been looking at that and watching it closely, and i can tell you we haven't seen that difference between all these different blood types.

So locally we haven't seen that.

>> dan shaffer: so i seem to remember health experts saying when the hotter months came along this virus was going to kind of go away.

What happened to that?

>> dr. hassoun: well, it was a wish, i think.

You know, there was some data talking about the higher temperatures it can reduce the activity of the virus.

But look at it, dan.

I mean, obviously, there's really not much reduced the activity.

It's all over.

It's widespread.

So unfortunately not.

The hot weather is not having any affect on the transmission currently.

>> najahe sherman: any final message to our community tonight >> dr. hassoun: you know, i always really encourage our community and everybody who's involved to, you know, take care of the public health, to think about we'll be able to do it together, we need to follow these simple guideline of prevention because we don't have yet treatment that's a magic bullet.

We don't have vaccination.

So prevention is the best way.

And by prevention, we always talk about the physical distance , the masking, the hand hygiene, you know, if you're sick staying at home.

If you're exposed, quarantine.

And believe me, these works.

These really works.

But question need to go with it -- we need to go with it where we adhere to it very well.

If we do it we can really succeed.

>> dan shaffer: where do you see us going from here?

Until we get a vaccine?

>> dr. hassoun: yeah, i mean, again, i hope the community will follow these because apart from if we lock down and try restart and we've talked about that before, if there's no intention to do that, then we really need to do the other part of preventions.

And we really -- i mean, it's not that difficult.

We're going to need to rethink about it because, you know, there's increased death rate, there's increased hospitalization, and notwithstanding, it's -- imagine , it's simple things we can prevent all that this or reduce it as much as we can.

>> dan shaffer: dr. ali hassoun, infectious disease specialist at huntsville hospital.

>> najahe