Dr. Bost started his talk by reviewing a timeline of the worldwide progression of COVID-19 and how quickly it has become a global pandemic. He said that COVID is related to both SARS and MERS and also, to the common cold. He showed us that over the previous 6 weeks since the first confirmed death from coronavirus in the United States, we have confirmed over 618,000 cases in the U.S. and 15,100 cases and 350 deaths in the State of Texas. New cases do seem to be falling in the U.S. overall. Dr. Bost reviewed the infectious and deadly nature of COVID-19, with statistics showing that it is possibly two times more contagious than the annual flu, but has proven to be over 5 times as deadly. It is unclear how widespread the virus is as the percentage of people who are asymptomatic seems to be very high. Dr. Bost refuted some of the information being distributed on the virus, telling us that it has shown to be able to survive on some surfaces for 1 – 3 days, which is about the same as the flu. It can survive for 1 -3 days, but not in its most infectious form, so catching the virus from contact with a surface is unlikely. It is primarily transmitted (90% of the time) from person-to-person in the form of respiratory droplets, which are released into the air via coughs, sneezes, and other exhales of breath. These droplets can realistically travel a max of 6 -8 feet, so social distancing does work. Dr. Bost talked about masks and their usefulness. He explained that any covering of the mouth and nose will help protect others from our exhalations (so the more people wearing them, the better) but only the N95-rated masks are proven to protect you from breathing in the droplets. Those masks are most needed by caregivers and other first responders.

Dr. Bost spoke about the topic of our preparedness. Could we have been better prepared? Of course we could have, but pandemic preparedness is not a popular topic to spend money on until one happens. Then everyone (individuals, states, countries) began to hoard supplies which interrupted the supply chain and caused other problems. He stated that we definitely need to perform more testing, and he felt that we do need to know why more test kits have not been made available. He said the antibody tests should be out soon and those will help as we try to open things back up. He felt we need to open back up, as over 20 million service workers and 2 million manufacturing workers are currently unemployed. In order for us to do this safely, he recommended using a regional solution, as all parts of the country are different. We will need more testing capability and the ability to perform contact tracing. We cannot just hit a light switch and turn the country back on, but it is a tough balance as the virus kills, but poverty kills also, and we must be cognizant of that. Disease affects a higher percentage of the poor population, so we do not want to increase our percentage of poor. Dr. Bost said we could save 10,000 to 20,000 people yearly if we would quarantine from mid-September to Thanksgiving annually during flu season. But at what cost? He spoke in favor of a staggered return to work where we continue to follow the safety guidelines and make sure we protect the most vulnerable.

Dr. Bost said that preliminary studies show that a vaccine, when developed, could prove to be long-lasting and very effective.