Midmorning With Aundrea - March 9, 2020 (Part 1)

(Part 1 of 2) With disinfectants and hand sanitizers flying off grocery store shelves due to coronavirus fears, it might be useful to know how to make your own.

WCBI producer Eric Lampkin demonstrates how you can make homemade sanitzers.

And we get a peak at NASA's new rover that will be making its ways to Mars.

See you tomorrow.

As fears over the corona- virus grow, people are frantically buying up supplies, leaving store shelves empty.

Prices are also sky- rocketing online.

Cbs news consumer investigative correspondent anna werner reports from a pharmacy, where products are selling fast.

From coast to coast retail stores are selling out of products like hand sanitizer, disinfectant wipes, and masks.

A california woman posted this video from a costco where she says hundreds of people lined up thursday morning to buy items that were limited.

Leon tarasenko: what are you looking for?

Woman: alcohol.

Leon tarasenko: alcohol?

I'll get it for you.

In new york city, pharmacies are having trouble keeping up with demand.

Leon tarasenko: this is where our hand sanitizer comes.

Soon as it comes, it's off the shelf.

When an order comes in, within an hour it's all gone.

We try to keep it at a limit.

Three to a customer// one new jersey woman says she went to six stores before finding hand sanitizer.

When i went in to pay she said 50 dollars.

And i think that's disgusting and they're taking advantage of people right now éé some say they won't pay the skyhigh prices.

Melvina starks: i think if you just get soap and wash your hand for 20 seconds it'd be fine.

Online, sales of virus protection products have skyrocketed, up 817 percent in the last two months.

This amazon listing offers four boxes of masks - usually about 20 dollars - for over a thousand dollars.

Amazon says it is blocking or removing thousands of offers where it says "& bad actors ar attempting to artificially raise prices on basic need products during a global health crisis &" now states and cities are cracking down.

California's attorney general told businesses that if they violated price gouging laws& you'd better be prepared to pay for your lawbreaking."

And new york city is issuing 500 dollar fines to any stores found price gouging, starting this week... commissioner lorelei salas from new york city's department of consumer and worker protection... this is not a time to make a quick buck on the backs of hard working people.

At this pharmacy the shelf that used to hold the purell hand- sanitizer is empty.

Meanwhile health officials say the best step to take is washing your hands for 20 seconds and please, don't touch your face.

Anna werner, cbs news, new york health officials also say masks are a good idea for people who are already sick, so they don't infect others, but wearing a mask won't stop you from getting the virus.

Kitchen if you want to stock up on hand sanitizer, you can make it yourself.

Our resident gardener and diy expert eric lampkin is here to try this.

This recipe is from the website "th mighty."

Homemade hand sanitizer lampkin is here to try this.

This recipe is from the website "th mighty."

Homemade hand sanitizer 91% or higher isopropyl alcohol aloe vera gel or glycerin essential oils st storage container funnel combine 2/3 cup of 91% or higher alcohol with 1/3 cup of aloe vera gel or glycerin and stir until blended.

Aloe or glycerin helps prevent alcohol from drying out your skin.

Essential oil will cut the smell of the alcohol.

Vodka does not have enough alcohol.

Aloe or glycerin helps prevent alcohol from drying out your skin.

Essential oil will cut the smell of the alcohol.

Vodka does not have enough alcohol.

Intro many people are turning to the pros at area cleaning companies to help battle the bug..

Mississippi hasn't confirmed any cases yet, but folks aren't taking any chances.

They're making sure their workplaces and classrooms are disinfected.

Our stephanie poole spoke with a local cleaning company whose business has skyrocketed since the outbreak.

Coronavirus hasn't come to mississippi yet, but that's not stopping people from preparing for the worst.

Cleaning supply companies, like columbus paper and chemical, are seeing a higher demand for their products.

" it's stirred up pretty good bit of business.

We've sold out of disinfectant and we had to re-order and people come in and want to know what they can do to help keep from catching it."

Tim nolen is the president and owner.

He says the last couple of weeks have been so busy it's kicking his crews into overdrive.

"we've don mississippi state and we've done caledonia schools.

They've all been really concerned especially the elementary schools where the kids are touching everything."

Nolen says on an average day they make 150 supply deliveries.

Now, those numbers have almost doubled.

" we gotten a-lo of calls especially for hand sanitizer, facial masks just any kind of disinfectant.

People are just kind of wanting to prevent flu and they're getting a little scared from the corona virus and they to take care of it before it gets here."

The potential of the virus arriving in the magnolia state is also affecting how nolen's team is doing things áiná the office as well.

" with some of th phone calls it'll make you a little nervous because you don't think about it until people start talking about it.

It's gotten a little worse with everybody calling and asking for those sanitizers.

It makes you think about it a little more.

We've are cleaning everything all the time.

We have germ- x at every corner on every desk."

Butt sots " we have tons o customers that come through and we sure don't want to start spreading here at it's been considered one of the healthiest lifestyles in the world -- and now reseachers have identified ámoreá benefits of the so- called "mediterranea diet" mandy gaither has more.

It's a plant-based diet rich in fruits, veggies, grains, nuts and seeds -- and a new study published in the medical journal b- m-j found that eating the mediterranean diet for just one year -- altered the microbiome of older men and women in ways that improved brain function and could lead to a longer life.

The study found the diet can inhibit production of inflammatory chemicals that can lead to loss of cognitive function -- and prevent the development of chronic diseases such as diabetes and cancer -- the study analyzed the gut microbiome of more than 600 europeans between 65 and 79 years of age -- before putting more than half of them on a special mediterrean-based diet for a year.

The rest of the participants studied were asked to continue to eat as they always did for the same 12 months.

After the year was over -- those who followed the mediterranean diet saw positives changes in their digestive system.

The study also found there was a growth of beneficial bacteria linked to improved memory and brain function.

For today's health minute, i'm mandy gaither.

The diet is also recognized for healthy weight loss, and for strengthening bones, improving brain health and for warding off dementia and depression.

Nasa last week announced the winner of a student contest to name the next rover to blast off to mars.

Among the nine finalists on the list: endurance, tenacity, promise and courage.

The rover is set to lift off from cape canaveral as early as july.

Mark strassmann went to jet propulsion laboratory in california, where the new rover was built.

Ken williford // deputy project scientist, time: :35- :38, :42-:45 mi aung // mars helicopter project manager, time: 1:43-1:47, 2:20- 2:24 script: landing nat sots the last rover to land on mars - eight years ago - was aptly named: curiosity.

Touchdown!

Still roaming mars today - curiosity's finding's piqued scientists to dig deeper.

Their belief was confirmed: eons ago, our planetary neighbor ácould haveá supported life.

Rewind 3.5 billion years ago, mars, we believe, was much more earth- like.

// there was much more water, apparently.

We can tell that fairly clearly from the geology on mars.

There was water flowing around, rivers and lakes and so forth.

The big question is how earth-like was it?

This is called the spacecraft assembly facility... it's the question ken williford's team will try to answer.

He's the deputy project scientist for nasa's ánewá rover mission.

Our job // like curiosity, was this environment habitable?

// we'll do that, but then we'll go further and we'll say was there life there?

There's a fundamental difference between there could have been life and there was life.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

It's a big, big jump there.

If mars hides evidence of past life, williford's team hopes to find it preserved here - in an ancient river delta at a place called jezero crater.

Robot arm moving, drilling the rover will drill into rock to gather more than 20 samples that may hold evidence of past microbial life.

But to find out& two more missions will be need to bring those samples back to earth.

And that could take ten years.

There's gonna be a frustrating delayed gratification with all of this.

Certainly delayed gratification.

Yeah.

It's hard for everybody.

This latest rover also carries some gee-whiz gadgetry -- as engineer mi aung showed us.

You're getting an extraordinary opportunity to see the mars helicopter.

It weighs just under four pounds...the first mini-helicopter set to fly on another planet.

Helicopter taking off it carries two cameras.

And its flying range is more than a half- mile.

If it sounds like just another drone, you try calculating the interplanetary aeronautics required to fly in an atmosphere 100 times thinner than earth's.

Which would be more valuable?

The pictures that it takes or proving that it can fly?

// my very, very personal bias: proving that it flies.

// because that's gonna give us the solid foundation to build the-- our ultimate dream, which is a much larger aerial vehicles at mars.

But to ken williford, most important is the prospect of discovering ancient signs of life on this now- seemingly-dead planet.

If you find evidence of // micro-life of any kind in mars' distant past, how much of a game- changer would that be?

It's a total game- changer.

// massive implications, in my view.

// i would say every human being in the history of human beings who is capable of the thought has had a thought something like "what am doing here?

Where did i come from?

What's my place in the universe?

Strassmann outcue: questions now asked about mars on the only known planet with life... for now.

Mark strassmann, pasadena, california.