‘The View’ Tries to Ease Coronavirus Panic: “Our Biggest Concern” is the Normal Flu

The world may be panicking about coronavirus, but The View is here to ease some of your concerns. On Friday morning, ABC News Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Jen Ashton sat down with the co-hosts and attempted to clarify some of the “misinformation” surrounding the pandemic. While Ashton said that coronavirus is “highly transmissible,” she also noted that it has a “low mortality or fatality rate,” so healthy individuals should not be concerned about contracting a fatal strand. “Our biggest concern, right now, today, is influenza,” she said. “It’s not coronavirus.”

After days of mounting anxiety about coronavirus The View decided to step in to clear up some of the largest misconceptions about the viral illness. This morning, Ashton joined the panel to provide up-to-date information about coronavirus, known by the technical name of COVID-19, and she attempted to ease viewers’ concerns about the rapidly-spreading disease. “We have some of the smartest doctors, scientists, public health officials working on this. Not just here in this country, but worldwide,” she assured the co-hosts. Ashton added that we still don’t know much about coronavirus, but regardless, it’s still not the most pressing health issue facing Americans. “Our biggest concern to you, to you, to you at home, right now, today, is influenza. It’s not coronavirus,” she said.

Ashton went on to explain that both the regular flu and coronavirus are “respiratory viruses,” they’re in different families and therefore “behave differently” in different people. “Coronavirus isn’t brand new. This strain is new, but it was first identified in the ’60s,” she said. She added that specific figures of how many people have been infected should be taken with “a chunk of salt because you can’t interpret anything in isolation.”

“Right now, according to the CDC, this is a highly transmissible virus with a low mortality or fatality rate,” she said. “And that’s really important right now.

When Joy Behar mentioned that she read something about how coronavirus is “like the Spanish flu, back in the day, which killed 50 million people,” Ashton pushed back. “Things are very different in 2020 than they were in 2018,” she said. “One of the biggest problems with this story is where people get information, and where people get misinformation … If you don’t [read credible sources], it can actually endanger public health.”

The View‘s panel then turned their attention to the face masks that many are using to avoid contracting the virus. Ashton insisted that surgical masks are “not to protect the healthy from something coming in” and will do nothing to protect against coronavirus. “The influenza virus particle, the coronavirus particle are so small, they’ll go right through those,” she said, adding that surgical masks are “single use only” and need to be thrown out if they get wet. “The CDC [is] not recommending surgical masks for the average American person right now at all.”

While it’s normal for people to be scared of coronavirus, Ashton concluded with some figures that should make Americans feel at least a little safer. According to a recent report released by Johns Hopkins, the United States is “ranked number one overall” when it comes to epidemic and pandemic preparedness. “We ranked number one in four out of six categories,” she said. “You do have to pay attention to it, but you also have to put it in perspective.”

Watch Dr. Jen Ashton debunk coronavirus myths on The View in the clips above.

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