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March 4, 2020 - Rudy Giuliani
46:08
Coronavirus Preparations and What You Can Do | Rudy Giuliani’s Common Sense Ep. 12
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It's our purpose to bring to bear the principle of common sense and rational discussion to the issues of our day.
America was created at a time of great turmoil, tremendous disagreements, anger, hatred.
There was a book written in 1776 that guided much of the discipline, thinking, and brought to us the discovery of our freedoms.
Of our God-given freedoms.
It was Thomas Paine's Common Sense, written in 1776, one of the first American bestsellers, in which Thomas Paine explained by rational principles the reason why these small colonies felt the necessity to separate from the gigantic Kingdom of England and the King of England.
He explained their inherent desire for liberty, freedom, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and he explained it in ways that were understandable to the people, to all the people, not just to the educated upper class.
Because the desire for freedom is classless.
The desire for freedom adheres in the human mind and in the human soul.
Today we face another time of turmoil, of anger, and very, very serious partisan division.
This is exactly the time we should consult our history.
Look at what we've done best in the past and see if we can't use some of that to help us now.
We understand that they created the greatest country in the history of the world, the greatest democracy, a country that has taken more people out of poverty than any other country on earth.
They weren't perfect men and women, and neither are we.
But a great deal of the reason for America's constant ability to self-improve is because we're able to reason.
We're able to talk.
We're able to analyze.
We are able to apply God-given common sense.
So let's do it.
Welcome to another episode of Rudy Giuliani Common Sense.
you Today we have a very distinguished guest.
He's someone that I served with for eight years in city government, and since then he's done many, many things.
But probably the one most relevant to today's conversation is he now runs the Langone.
NYU Langone Medical Center.
It's Joe Loda.
Just to tell you a little about Joe.
Joe's background is in the financial world, but then when he came to City Hall, He held just about every job, including being the head of the budget, which I always thought was the most difficult job in the city, deputy mayor for economic development, and then of course the first deputy mayor, the deputy mayor for operations.
And in that position, he had experience very relevant to what we're going to talk about today, coronavirus.
He had to handle the outbreak of West Nile virus, the first one ever in the United States, which CDC disputed with us for a while.
For a whole month?
For a whole month, right.
And then, of course, you'll remember September 11, 2001.
Deputy Mayor then.
He was in charge of operations in the city.
He was one of the key people that kept this city together.
Worked day and night.
And one of the things he had to deal with, of the many, many things, was anthrax.
So Joe brings to what he's going to have to deal with now in the hospital, he brings with it a great deal of experience.
And I just wanted to get his perspective on what's going on, how bad this is.
How a great hospital like NYU is going to deal with it.
First thing I thought I would do, Joe, is show everybody a picture of this enemy, which is the coronavirus.
It's almost It's almost like a painting, right?
Like a painting.
But it's a piece of genetic material.
This is the crown, the corona.
And that's why it's called coronavirus.
The Latin word for crown is corona.
And these are the things that go stick into the cells and drive in the virus.
And this is not unusual.
SARS and MIR.
Well, coronaviruses.
They were originally called coronaviruses.
But when you look at this, and that was like 2000 and maybe 2012 or something like that, the numbers here are so much greater.
There we were talking about 8,000, 10,000.
I think Mir was less than 1,000 deaths.
We're already way over that.
What are the most current, you had them a minute ago, what are the most current numbers?
The current numbers, and I'll get them up and you had them as well a second ago, the numbers right now worldwide, there are over 90,000 cases.
that have happened. Over 90,000 cases. Over 90,000 cases or over 3,000
deaths. In this country alone we've had you know today it's the second day of
March and in the United States we have 99 cases and we already have had
six deaths. And we've had a case announced in New York.
We have one case in New York.
We're about to have a second one shortly in New York.
We understand the husband of the first case, he's relatively close to being announced.
So when you look at the numbers with these other viruses, and you look at the numbers are so much smaller, Why is this spreading so fast?
It's already in just about, I'm not going to say every country in the world, but almost every country.
This virus is very, very similar to the common flu, the virus that's part of the common flu.
It's spread through a cough, it's spread through coughing and sneezing, and humans do that, and that's why it's getting passed around so quickly and so easily, as opposed to MERS and SARS, which is not passed around that way.
And you remember West Nile was passed around by being bit by a mosquito.
Right.
Not as frequently as you would have as a human being coughing.
Right.
Which is why the number one recommendation is if you cough, if you sneeze, cover your mouth, you know, in any way you possibly can.
Wash your hands all the time.
Keep washing your hands.
And don't touch, don't touch your face and don't touch your eyes.
Because one of the things you can become infected with is through your eyes.
If your hands have any kind of the virus on it, you can touch your eyes and you can get infected that way, which is why medical workers are wearing shields.
And what about the wearing of masks?
You see people increasingly wearing masks, although there seems to be real doubt as to whether that does any good.
It does no good.
The masks are made for people who are sick to prevent their germs from passing along to someone who is not sick.
And anybody who's not sick wearing a mask, it's just a waste of a mask and the mask should be used for people who really need them.
So the basic—we might as well do that right away.
Joe was an expert at doing this all during West Nile virus and anthrax.
He would go on television, usually two, three times a day, and warn people about what to do, what not to do.
So, the main things are to wash your hands as often as you can.
Wash your hands as often as you can.
For about 30-40 seconds.
Yeah, absolutely.
30-40 seconds.
Wash your hands.
Spend a little bit more time than you normally would.
Always wash your hands.
And actually, even wash your hands when you don't even think you need to.
I think it's really important to continually wash your hands.
There used to be a sign of guilt, you know, like punch this pilot, remember?
I do remember washing hands and some religions that really people want to wash their hands even before they eat.
I encourage people to wash their hands as frequently as possible.
And you remember as an altar boy, you used to wash your hands before?
Lavabo.
Lavabo, that's exactly right.
More Latin.
So, that's really important.
You know, you should eat cooked meat.
You should cook the meat as frequently, you know, as well as you possibly can.
Meaning you shouldn't have, you should order what?
The steak tartare.
Medium or well done?
At least cooked, you know.
But no steak tartare?
In America, it's probably okay.
But in other parts of the world, it is very important.
So you have to watch what you eat.
Yep.
And I think the hardest thing for people will be touching their eyes because you don't think about it.
I mean, we probably touch our eyes 10, 20 times a day.
I sit in meetings.
I'm going to touch my face right now.
And a number of times you see people do this.
Right.
Automatically touching their face.
They're close to their mouth and all of that.
It is problematic.
They don't realize.
So if you feel the necessity to touch your face, go wash your hands first.
Right.
Or, just remember, put your hand somewhere else.
Put a pen in it.
That's a difficult thing to do.
It's a habit.
We are seeing, and you're seeing this at conferences, those conferences that are happening, they're starting to put up signs, you know, avoid shaking hands.
I just had some guests here and I put out my hand and he said, no we're going to fist bump.
There may be something to the Japanese bowing as opposed to shaking hands.
That's going to be the new thing now.
You bow a little bit.
It's hard to put this in perspective because in many ways it's going to affect many, many people.
You can see already that there are going to be a lot of cases.
Something like 45,000 people have already recovered.
Correct, and almost 99% of people will recover.
Right now, a couple of weeks ago, they were saying the mortality rate was 2%.
It's now down to 1.4%, and most medical professionals will tell you it'll probably go below 1% by the time all is said and done.
Most, that means 99% of everybody who gets this will be fine.
And if you look at the number of people who have passed away, they have had comorbidities, they've already had existing illnesses, and they are older.
This is not, this is a unique virus.
It's not affecting young people.
It's not affecting children.
It's when people in middle, you know, in the 30s, 40s are getting it.
Right.
It's not very severe, but for those who smoke, for those who have respiratory problems, for those any kind of lung related issues, it is severe.
The folks out in Washington State and the old folks home, they were, they had some severe medical issues.
and COPD and things like that, that becomes a problem.
Because your immune system is compromised.
Absolutely compromised.
And it's your immune system that fights the virus.
That's exactly right.
And there really is no medicine for this.
There's no medicine for pretty much all viruses.
Right.
And in this case, as of now, there's no vaccine.
And there's work on vaccines.
They're working on vaccines.
They think there'll be a vaccine at least a year from now, maybe longer.
We're working on vaccines right now.
The scientists at NYU, the scientists all over the country are rushing to do certain things both in the academic medical center world as well as in the private sector.
To come up with a vaccine, you know, we've we've created vaccines for polio. We've created vaccines for all
different types of Viruses over time and you know viruses, you know, we've had
viruses for quite a long period of time You know, we were talking earlier. There's been polio
There's a lot a lot of things That people have been frightened of and they don't realize
it's a virus Right.
I'm not sure a lot of people remember that polio was a virus.
That's right.
Or HIV-AIDS virus.
It's absolutely a virus.
There are lots of viruses and initially there, you know, there's no antibiotic for a virus.
Antibiotics are only for bacteria.
Right.
And so a virus is a, it's an organism that it can kill.
And so, as humans, we just have to be prepared.
And cleanliness is the most important part of it.
Now, whatever happens with this, let's hope it's not as bad as people think, but be ready for it, we're going to lose a lot more people to influenza this year.
The regular common flu, we've already lost a lot of people.
The common flu, year in and year out, it is much worse.
It is rampant.
Nothing concerns me more than the number of people who say their children and themselves they should not get inoculated.
Flu shots are the easiest thing in the world to get.
You can get them in the local drugstore.
Everybody should get a flu shot.
It is the easiest thing in the world to do and it will save your life.
No question.
Through February, 1,210 people died in the United States of influenza.
That's a lot of people.
And it goes that way, it's going to be 12,000, 14,000 by the end of the year, just in the
United States.
Just in the United States.
And the numbers are similar, maybe worse, around the world.
And influenza does have a huge impact on children and infants.
Their immune system cannot deal with the common flu.
This past year, the B flu, which is what...
is most dominant has caused some children this year to become blind.
They'll live but they're blind. I mean it's a horrible disease
and it's unfortunate to see situations where parents think getting a flu shot is a bad thing for their children.
It is absolutely not a bad thing.
Now what are the symptoms that somebody has to look for and how often are those symptoms going to be the flu?
Well, that's the unique part of it.
So, having a cold, a cough, having a fever, having chills, fatigue, but the most important part in coronavirus is going to be having breathing problems, significant breathing problems.
However, there are some people of the coronavirus that have no symptoms at all.
None.
And that's an overwhelming... So the numbers that we were just looking at, there are a lot of people who have the coronavirus that have no symptoms at all.
That's the nature of the virus.
Would they be considered like carriers?
Almost like carriers?
They might not even know they have it?
It is so new.
It's so new.
That's what the scientists are now trying to figure out.
Whether or not Carrier, whether or not we have carriers, whether or not there are supercarriers.
What does that mean, a supercarrier?
A supercarrier is somebody who has absolutely no way of knowing in that no matter where they go, they're infecting people.
They're, you know, they just exude, you know, we've been around people, they tend to perspire a lot, you know, they're just folks that, you know, little droplets.
Oh my goodness.
Right.
So, are you comfortable with the basic history of this now, that it began in Wuhan, China?
I've read everything about how it started, from the bats to that, or did it happen in the sun?
In the seafood market, a whole bunch of people got sick, and then it spread from there.
And that was only at the end of the year, the beginning of the year.
In other words, this has all been going on for about three months.
It actually happened in late—in 2019.
It actually happened in December.
In December.
That's still—December, January, February.
Three months.
And the Chinese kept it quiet for longer than they needed to, which didn't allow— Is that understandable or not?
I mean, at first, do you think it's a local thing?
Or do you think they realized from the beginning this was very dangerous?
Because it's kind of stupid to keep quiet.
You're eventually going to get caught.
This spreads.
Different cultures, different forms of government, different ways of looking at things, the totalitarian nature of the Chinese.
I mean, it's different.
But not stupid people.
Oh, by far not.
So it's one thing to cover up something you can keep covered up.
It's not the first virus that's come out of China either.
No.
In the most recent time.
So they've experienced— Any chance the theory that this was some kind of weaponized— Their theories are all over the place.
The British press have done a phenomenal job on this.
If you look at the Daily Mail, every day there's a story.
About 300 yards away from that marketplace that has been nailed as the ground zero, if you will, there is a medical facility, there's a science lab, and there's always thought that it started there.
Who knows?
Maybe some experimental program?
Sure.
They're saying it's some experimental program.
From my point of view at this point where it started and is you know I I've got at the hospital we have to deal with real live American patients so that's you know I'll let others you know epidemiologists try to figure out where it's coming from whether or not it's a weaponized product or result or not it doesn't matter we've got to figure out how to fix it.
So what does that entail?
By the way, I always thought the same thing when you and I had to deal with West Nile, given the fact that this was something that was from the Middle East, and this was something that had never been in the Western Hemisphere before, and was originally thought to be St.
Louis encephalitis.
Oh, I remember that.
Yeah, right.
That was the original thought and then it became West Nile and stuff.
You know, West Nile, it became a big issue.
It's like, where did this come from and how did it get here?
Well, when it was first identified, the CDC gave us a very hard time with it.
They said it couldn't be West Nile virus.
Never been here before.
Our doctors insisted that it was because they had seen it.
They had seen it.
They matched it up with what it looked like and it was exactly there.
By the way, that was great work on the part of local doctors at the hospital in Flushing and the New York City Department of Health.
That would not have happened.
There was a doctor at Flushing Hospital who had two patients who she could not figure out I'm smiling because it brings back a lot of history.
And then she realized, they realized that they had backyards that backed up to each other.
They had two different addresses, but their backyards backed up to each other.
And once she realized that, she then called Marcy Layton, who worked at New York City Department of Health.
And Marcy went out to look at this and then realized— I'm smiling because it brings back a lot of history.
Marcy's still there, by the way.
I guess a point that I want to make is, and I hope— we were a Republican administration in New York City.
We had a Republican governor, a Democratic president, and we had a seamless working relationship during West Nile virus, then once again, of course, during anthrax, but that's understandable.
So there should be no— There should be no politics in this, not discovering it early enough.
These are the kind of variations that take place in biology that you're not going to discover until it happens.
It's just the way Mayor LaGuardia said that there's no Republican or Democratic way to pick up the garbage.
Yeah, there's no Republican or Democratic way to cure somebody.
Look, I can tell you exactly.
That Friday night, it was the Friday of Labor Day weekend.
There are a couple of vivid experiences.
I remember.
It completely interrupted my playing golf that week.
Well, it was Friday, and as you remember, it was 4 o'clock in the afternoon.
No one was in City Hall because it was the beginning of Labor Day weekend.
I remember.
I remember where I was when you called me, but I won't tell you.
Michelle opened the door and said, Commissioner Cohen needs to talk to you.
I said, okay, fine.
He was, as you remember, the health commissioner, and I picked up the phone and I said, Neil, everything okay?
Joe, we have a problem.
And I'll never forget, I said, Neil, come on, it's Friday at four o'clock, what are you talking about?
He went on to describe, he says, you know what encephalitis is?
I think so, it's where your brain, he said, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And with that, my door, as you remember, my door slammed open, and in came the head of the Office of Emergency Management, gear all prepared.
It was Jerry Hauer.
Oh, Jerry Hauer then, okay.
It was Jerry Hauer, and he was all ready to go.
So, trying to get, understanding everything that happened, and eventually going out to Queens.
Saturday morning, when we realized what was going on, because Friday night was still like, we're trying to figure it all out, Jake Mangus was my Chief of Staff at the time, and we put together a list of all the elected officials.
We had been in touch with Claire Shulman, excuse me.
She was the Borough President of Queens.
Borough President of Queens.
Democrat.
uh... local congressman uh... members of the assembly uh...
members of the state senate uh... at the time was uh...
alan hevesi's son uh... we made a list of everybody we needed to call and it's
a it's a it's labor day weekend but we made sure that they were informed
and everything that was going on
it didn't matter we it was a very important thing it it requires everybody
to come together same as with nine eleven nine eleven well nine eleven nine eleven had the
the force reducing patriotism and and and
uh... but these things you can't you can't have to develop it
and i was happy i was happy to see that governor cuomo
and the cdc are working together Hopefully, whether it's a Republican governor or Democratic governor, it's the same working relationship.
Because you need that help.
And the governor praised the selection of Vice President Pence because he said, look, this task force does not necessarily need a health care expert.
It needs someone to garner all the resources of the government.
No, it needs somebody who's a governor who knows how to do it.
Put the pieces together.
Tell me what you're doing.
So if I come into the hospital and I have flu-like symptoms, which is probably the best We have people coming into the hospital who feel bad or feel sick to their stomach because they just went to a Chinese restaurant and they believe they have coronavirus.
into the hospital who feel bad or feel sick to their stomach because they just went to
a Chinese restaurant and they believe they have coronavirus.
I think everybody in New York checked into the hospital at least once to see if they
had anthrax.
Right.
But, so then what happens?
So I come in and I say, I have flu-like symptoms, I have coronavirus.
Check first off to see if you have a fever.
Okay, I do.
And if you have a fever, what your breathing problem is going to be.
To administer the test, now the state has given the city the ability to administer the test that's going to happen.
That hasn't started yet?
I want to ask you about that a little later.
So what is the test?
The state is doing the test.
The state is doing the test.
The city is in the...
I'll explain what they're doing in a second.
And now the state is working academic medical centers, so NYU and Columbia Presbyterian
and Mount Sinai.
So what is the test?
Is it a blood test?
No, it's a swab deep in your nose.
A swab, okay.
So they swab your nose.
They swab your nose.
Send it to the lab.
Send it to the lab.
And they're about three to four hours.
That's quick.
It's relatively quick.
It's relatively quick.
However, when you need to send it down to Atlanta to CDC, it takes hours if not days.
That's the problem.
I think CDC made an agreement with the governor.
Right.
Wadsworth.
They'll do it now in Wadsworth, which is outside of Albany.
But that's still a bit of a... Right.
So you get it there.
So it takes a day now.
Does it have to get there physically?
There's no way to transmit this by internet?
It has to get there physically.
So now they have to send down an assay to examine it.
That's in the process.
There's some equipment that needs to be purchased, and it's being purchased right now.
We think by Thursday or Friday of this week, you'll be able, as the governor said today, they'll be able, probably in the city, to probably be able to do a thousand a day.
In the city.
In the city.
So they won't have to be moved up to one thing.
They won't have to be moved.
But it'll go to one central hospital or place in the city.
Actually, you should be able to do it at the public health on First Avenue and at the various hospitals.
So you get the sample.
You're about a mile away from there, right?
Literally across the street.
And you get it back.
A couple hours.
Because I remember When we had the anthrax problem, we ran out of laboratories.
The laboratories got backed up by two and three weeks.
And that could potentially happen here.
And you had the terrible problem of somebody thinking they had anthrax, not knowing whether they had anthrax.
You probably had to, as a precaution, treat them for anthrax, but they didn't have anthrax.
So, here's the most important thing that I can tell you to do.
If you think you have the flu, if you think you have coronavirus, don't come to the emergency room.
Call your doctor or every hospital in New York, every major hospital in New York has the ability to do digital health care.
You can call a doctor and on your iPhone or on your iPad, you can actually talk to a doctor and the doctor can see you and you can talk back and forth and that doctor will tell you what to do.
And if that doctor thinks you need to have a test, he will tell you where to go and what to do, make an appointment, how to get there, So that if you really have coronavirus, you don't want to go into a waiting room with 30 other people because you'll infect 30 other people.
Or take the subway there, take a bus there, take a cab there.
Or take the subway, take a bus there, get into an Uber and infect the Uber driver.
That's going to be the natural—at least of New Yorkers, that's going to be the natural.
I would think all over the country, the impulse would be to go to the emergency room.
That impulse is the real one, and that's the one that we need to change.
We need to change it, be able to talk to a doctor remotely, and we live in a digital age.
One thing that's going to happen from this entire coronavirus is to be able to use our digital products even differently.
And you can actually, if you've not used telehealth as one of the terms that they use, it is fascinating to use telehealth.
That's really very helpful.
It can be.
It can actually be very helpful.
That's a good practical suggestion.
So now we're going to take just a short break, and we're going to be back with Joe and go into the rest of this.
And this has been very, very helpful, Joe.
Thank you.
For those of you who know me, in addition to law and politics, I'm passionate about the Yankees, baseball, football, all sports to watch, golf to play, history to read, opera, classical music to listen to and watch.
And cigars to relax and socialize.
And I have definite opinions on the best cigars for the right time and the right place.
And you'll hear about that too.
But the revolution in cigars took place in the 1990s.
Most cigars then were machine made with foreign ingredients.
Now it's just the opposite.
Most are hetero-mono man-made.
All organic, natural, and premium.
The revolution was led by one man, and one man alone, Marvin Shankin and Cigar Aficionado Magazine.
Marvin had been rating wines quite successfully for Wine Spectator Magazine, and he brought the rating system to cigars.
The first cigars rated in the 90s were gone in a flash.
Even now, the first thing I do when I get my magazine is, I go right to the ratings page.
There it is.
Hmm, 93.
91.
Oh yeah, I'll go for that one.
Then there'll be 94.
92.
Problem is, you gotta get there fast, because they go fast.
This revolutionized the cigar industry.
And quality rose to the top.
Then there's the Cigar of the Year.
Try to get them as fast as possible, because they've gone pretty quick.
This magazine revolutionized the industry.
And I'll tell you what.
This month is Cigar of the Year.
Cigar of the Year.
What are these for?
Cigar of the Year.
You better get this magazine quick, because these cigars are gonna be gone very, very quickly.
Go to the link on our website and order it, and you'll be able to get down to your cigar store and get to smoke a few of these, and you'll let me know which ones you like better, because we can have a really good conversation about it.
Sometimes I do agree with Marvin, and when I don't, I let my opinion be known, and Marvin usually says, Stick to the law.
Also, along with rated cigars, there are articles on politics, sports, interesting profiles.
And Marvin also has Wine Spectator, Spirit Advocate.
If you like wine, if you like scotch, if you like bourbon, if you like rye, if you like vodka, if you like gin, they're the magazines for you.
And you know what?
Subscribe to Cigar Aficionado right now through the link on our website.
Welcome back.
And we're here with Joe Loda, who is discussing with us this terrible situation we have with coronavirus and giving us some very, very good practical advice.
The last one being, don't go to the emergency room.
Don't necessarily go.
You know, modern health care now is about telehealth.
You can actually talk to a professional and see them using your iPhone or iPad or any smart phone device.
Talk to a doctor.
It's allowable now.
And you can, you know, the doctor will give you advice as to what to do.
And if they determine you should come in, then you come in.
Right.
Otherwise, you're going to have people potentially with symptoms, riding subways, going on buses, walking the streets, going in stores.
The best thing to do if you have these symptoms is stay put.
But let me do a little advertising.
I mean, a hospital and medical facility uses the telehealth.
You can literally, you know, I've seen people use it when they've seen a burn on their hand and they'll actually put their hand up to the phone and look at it.
Next thing you know, the doctor has ordered a salve to go on and they go to the CVS and pick it up.
Or any drug store, not necessarily that one.
So, what's the prognostication here?
What are we going to see happen?
I mean, the numbers right now are growing so fast that by the time this is on, they're probably going to be doubled.
My hope is, numbers are going to go up, but my hope is the American people are going to understand that with, you know, it's like the flu, you can get it, it's not going to kill you, but just need to take the proper precautions.
And if you are prone to respiratory illnesses and if you're immune, if you have a compromised immune system, you've got to take extra precautions.
And if you do get it and if you do have it, you need to be prepared to be isolated for up to 14 days.
Which means you have to stay in your home, you have to stay in your apartment.
And in New York, it's easy because you can get anything delivered to your apartment.
But if you live in suburbia or outside, you have to make arrangements to do that.
You have to have food delivered.
Is there any medicine you can take?
To ease the symptoms or make things a little bit more comfortable for yourself.
Aspirin, Tylenol, Acetamphetamine, things like that.
Drink water, drink a lot of water.
No cure.
There is no specific prescription that a doctor can write out.
So I have this little chart, which again probably will be dated by tomorrow, but this little chart shows what happened with the other pandemics or epidemics, Ebola, SARS, MERS.
They were nowhere near these numbers.
I mean, in the case of MERS, there were only 2,494 cases and 858 deaths.
But it was a 34% fatality rate.
And with SARS, there were only 8,000 cases, 774 deaths.
34% fatality rate.
And with SARS, there were only 8,000 cases, 774 deaths.
I mean, we're 10 times SARS already in terms of the number of cases.
Right.
Ten times.
Ten times.
And it's going to grow.
Remember, because it's similar to the common flu.
The way it transfers from human to human.
It's not from an animal to a human.
It's not from a mosquito to a human.
It's human to human and it's through coughing and through the particles that come up when we cough.
And they only, the most that were affected were 29 countries with SARS.
We're already in 68 countries or more.
But the only hopeful news out of this is all of those were almost double digit or more than double digit fatality rates.
When you look at how far it's traveled and why it's traveled, we talked about this a little bit earlier, China did not really tell the world what was going on.
When you look at how far it's traveled and why it's traveled,
I mean, we talked about this a little bit earlier, China did not really tell the world what was going on.
People continued to travel.
There's a lot of business that's done in China, especially in the Wuhan area.
A lot of manufacturing has been there.
A lot of people travel there.
A lot of people travel back.
Relatively close to Beijing.
Relatively close.
And, of course, you've got other parts of the world.
Japan is in... People might think it's not Beijing, so it's...
China's got a lot of people everywhere.
And then you've got situations like in Korea.
city and almost the size of metropolitan areas.
It's a lot of people.
There's no place in China without a lot of people.
I know, I was going to say.
China's got a lot of people everywhere.
But and then you've got, you know, situations like in Korea.
I mean, there's a lot of business that goes on, but what happened in Korea that made it
just explode was, as I understand it, there was one of those unification church weddings
where some of the 20,000 folks, 20,000 couples, 40,000 people all together were married in
a mass wedding where there was hugging and kissing, etc.
And then all of a sudden this mass infection is going on.
Is there anything to indicate that One piece of good news that we have is that the cases in China, for now several weeks, they keep going down.
There's a downward trend.
Does that mean that the incubator that started this will produce less?
Or has it spread enough now that that doesn't really matter?
I think it's spread enough and I think everybody's taking precautions.
And we're now in March and most viruses slow down in warmer weather.
I'm hoping for the warmer weather as fast as possible.
Most medical professionals all believe that viruses really chill out or slow down in warmer weather.
That's why we don't have the flu in the summer here.
It's down in the southern hemisphere at that point.
I mean Australia and other places will have to worry about it.
At that point, the coronavirus, but I think you'll see a slowdown when that happens.
Does this come back next year, then, if that's the case?
I mean, is it— I mean, some of the others wore themselves out.
I don't know of any virus that's worn themselves out other than polio because we found a vaccine.
MERS is still going on.
SARS is still going on.
They are.
Oh, absolutely.
But in small numbers.
Very small numbers.
And why is that?
Why would it be small?
How could it get down to small numbers?
People develop immunities to it?
People develop immunities to it.
People become aware of it.
We don't know yet whether or not... There have been some medical articles lately about reinfection of coronavirus.
So we don't know.
You know, the whole theory is, you know, you get a shot, You create an antibody.
We don't know yet if that is possible with this, with COVID-19, which is the name they've given us.
Coronavirus.
Not all viruses have that.
Shingles, for example, is a virus.
Right.
And shingles can reoccur, even though, you know, some people believe you get it once, like mumps, you get it once, you never get it again.
In this particular case, we don't know yet.
Well, this takes me back to our days when we were in City Hall and we were helping to warn people about West Nile virus, about anthrax, about 9-11, and Joe was the best at it.
And you can see he's still very good at it.
So we're very, very lucky to have you in the medical system here in New York.
And I thought, right before we end, Because when I called you up about this, I said, what's the main thing that should be done?
And you said more information should be given to people about what to look for, symptoms, and then what to do.
It can't be repeated often enough, which we used to do two or three times a day, if you remember.
You often were the guy to do it.
Quite honestly, you know, it's really important for our elected officials, all of our leaders, to talk about what the symptoms are.
And what it means and what to do.
I mean, it's really important.
We as humans have all kinds of anxiety.
Remember when we sprayed the city and people thought we were going to make them impotent?
I do remember that.
I do remember that.
I remember a lot of things.
A couple of communities got really upset.
They thought we were doing it to try to hold down the charge.
Their birth rates, and I understand that.
And then the people that were afraid of the chemical, the real danger.
The danger was if you put your nose in the hose.
We put out a lot of warnings ahead of time.
I think you warned people not to do that one time.
We kept warning everybody.
Just do not put your nose in the hose.
We did it at night so most people were asleep and so we would spray.
And more importantly, remember the problem was ponding, puddles.
Uh, making sure that people got rid of the puddles.
Ah, the second year, the second year, we attacked those, uh, the larvae.
The larvae, right, that's exactly right.
Remember, we attacked, we started in April, or no, actually in March.
Mosquitoes were the enemy, let's get rid of the bugs.
We were blowing away, uh, still water.
Right, exactly, exactly right.
So, I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna, go ahead, every time.
Every time I see these ponds growing in different parts of the city, I think of the same thing.
Fix that pothole, that thing's gonna become infested.
But don't, don't you think that because, uh, our, doctors
because we were the beneficiaries if they told us because they found West Nile virus so quickly
and even insisted on it against the advice of CDC don't you think that thing was held down dramatically
it was held down but I've got to tell you it was the first to happen in Queens
if you followed it every year no matter where I was somewhere in the country
when USA Today was still around it used to be you know outside of government traveling for business
I would get USA Today and inevitably at some point they would put a map
to show where West Nile was Every state in the continental United States, all 48 states, at one point had a case of West Nile.
I was always amazed that it spread all the way across the country.
And just before I came on the show with you, I actually looked.
It's gone all the way up to Alaska and it's gone down through Central America and South America.
But in small, containable, not a pandemic.
Oh, it's not a pandemic, but it has spread.
For something that has never been here before.
Yeah, viruses are powerful.
So we're just going to review, because I have this little chart here that I got from the CDC.
We're going to review the key points, which is what to look for.
Fever, cough, sore throat, I forgot about that.
Right.
And the key one you say that's a differentiator is difficulty breathing.
Right.
But anybody who has any of these things is going to automatically assume they have it.
And you say the best thing to do Call the doctor.
Call the doctor instead of getting on public transportation.
Don't get into a crowded place.
And possibly hurt other people.
I'll use the word that they use in cancer.
You go into a crowded place, and if you are positive, you're going to infect everybody.
You're going to metastasize this problem.
Don't do that.
And now the advice about avoiding it.
It says here, avoid contact with sick people, animal markets.
Wash hands often, with soap and water, for at least 20 seconds.
If you feel sick, seek medical care right away, instead of walking around.
Don't travel while you're sick.
Cover your mouth when you cough.
And as I said at the beginning, probably the hardest of all, because I did it three times, I noticed, during this broadcast, don't touch your eyes or mouth.
Because people are so used to doing it.
And I think if we do these things... And don't get a mask.
You don't need to wear a surgical mask.
You don't need to do that.
People could be doing it for drama, too, though.
Right.
Well, actually, you know, you can go on to Etsy and those places.
They'll make one for you with your name on it and stuff like that.
It's silly.
It's absolutely silly.
And the hospital.
Is it ready for it?
Hospitals in New York are ready for it.
Is your hospital as ready for it as you used to have the city ready for everything?
We are ready for it.
We've been prepping the head of emergency management.
Langone NYU Medical Center.
Right.
One of our great hospitals.
Ken's name is in the second place, but it's NYU Langone.
If you know Ken, you put his name in the first place.
So I'd never forget Ken.
I did that on purpose.
Well, I have to tell you, Joe, it's been really, really interesting.
I think it's a real public service, because not only do you explain things, you explain them in a way that people can access.
Invite me back sometime.
We'll talk about rats in the good old days.
Joe was the rat king.
Rat czar.
I'm sorry, the rat czar, and he had a big rat.
Right near his office.
This man probably has killed more rats than anyone in America.
But Joe, I hate to disillusion you.
They're still there in big numbers.
Those guys have been around a long time.
I remember telling our least favorite newspaper, the New York Times, that becoming the rat czar, I know exactly what Sisyphus felt like.
So no winning battle at all.
But I have to tell you, David Letterman.
People woke me up.
I was asleep.
He was very serious about his job as a red car.
He was very serious about everything.
You went on, what was it, David Letterman.
People woke me up. I was asleep.
You were on David Letterman, and you announced that.
Oh, that we're going to get rid of the red car?
Guys, I went to get my MBA with.
You announced my name and then I was the rat czar.
It's like, why?
I didn't call you czar, though, did I?
Oh, yeah.
I'm the one who gave you the name czar?
Oh, yes.
Oh, my God.
I'm sorry, Chuck.
No, that's okay.
I didn't mean to do that.
I've always been against the idea of... It's a term of endearment.
I've always been against czars because of what happened to the last czar.
Hey, that's okay.
Right?
I mean, it didn't make it.
That's all right.
The other thing is, just like Western Island, what brings it up is Rats are not indigenous to the United States.
They were brought here on boats.
In other words, are they illegal?
Were they illegal?
That's right.
They are.
They're Norwegian rat.
They came over on a wooden boat.
Look at that.
Look at that.
That's amazing.
And they're everywhere.
They're everywhere.
Well, I have to tell you that your hospital is in good hands, and the city of New York is in good hands.
We've got the best medical people in the world.
I think the people in the city can be confident, and I think people throughout the country can.
It seems to me that the federal government is doing what it should be doing, quickly, and it looks to me like the state and local governments are all... understand this is too big for any kind of silly bureaucratic or political... As you know, it's up to state and local governments.
They're the troops on the ground.
They've got to be in the lead.
If I could use an illustration, when people would ask me about Katrina, and contrast it with September 11th, I said September 11 was a situation in which the city government ran together with the state government.
In fact, we ran it together for two months.
Uniform.
We had staff meetings two and three times a day and ran seamlessly with the federal government.
Katrina, we had the mayor fighting with the governor, fighting with the president.
And that was the difference.
He had a mayor that fled and went to another state.
He went to Houston, the mayor of New Orleans.
Yeah, I remember. He also stayed on a boat a couple of times.
Anyway, it was a different...
Well, in any event, we don't have that now.
We have good coordination and some very good advice from Joe Lotus.
So thanks a lot, Joe.
Thanks, Mayor.
Appreciate it.
Oh, wait, wait.
Oh, fist bump.
Right.
OK.
Thank you, Joe.
We'll be back with you with our next episode.
And until then, thank you very much.
And listen to Joe Loder's advice.
He has some very, very good advice.
And just don't touch the eyes and the mouth, which is the one I'm going to have to work on.
OK.
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