Dr. Anthony Fauci, member of the coronavirus task force, was on CNN New Day to talk about how community spread is here.
"Obviously, Americans wake up every morning. They have new concerns. There are currently 89 cases. So how much of that are you seeing this morning?"" Alysin Camerota said.
"Well, we're seeing the beginning of community spread, which you know is concerning. When you have community spread, you don't know the real source," he said.
"The idea and the concept and the implementation of contact tracing much more difficult. So, you know, unfortunately this is something that we expected. Whenever you have a respiratory disease that's easily transmissible, you're going to get community spread and it's going to become difficult to pinpoint the source of each and every infection. and that's exactly what we're seeing in Washington state, and now in several other states throughout the country. It's going to make our job much more challenging."
He explained there is no direct antiviral drug for the coronavirus.
"So it isn't as if you have a specific therapy. What you do is, you give supportive therapy to people. The vast majority of people, about 80% will do well without any specific intervention. Obviously it's an illness. They generally and almost always recover.
"But then there's a percentage, 15% to 20% who get advanced disease, requiring in cases sometimes intensive care therapy. Which is involving helping people with breathing, with oxygen, and even intubation at times. So there is no specific treatment that anyone knows about. it's the underlying supportive care for these people."
