Coronavirus In North Alabama:In-Depth with Dr. Ali Hassoun

Dan Shaffer speaks with Dr. Ali Hassoun about ongoing Coronavirus concerns.

Part One.

Shops and nail salons.

>> dan shaffer: thanks, sydney.

Every night at 6:00 we're taking you deep entire the impact of the coronavirus.

Tonight i'm joined by dr. ali hassoun an infectious disease specialist at huntsville hospital.

Thanks for being with us again, doctor.

>> dr. hassoun: thank you.

>> dan shaffer: as we just heard, local restaurants don't expect their customers to pick back up.

Are we in a place, do you think, to do something like tennessee, have limited opening of restaurants and other close contact businesses?

>> dr. hassoun: you know, my thought about this probably if we maintain our rate and see decline in our rates and next few weeks is going to be possible.

The issue with restaurant where you're going to be having crowding, you're going to need to maintain that physical distancing and then they've come up, are you really going to put face masks for everyone, are they going to wear gloves and stuff.

So logistics can be difficult.

I'm hoping in three, four weeks, as we try to keep up with our, you know, essentials of physical distance and hand hygiene, with time, i think probably it's possible.

But we need to pay attention to these essentials.

>> dan shaffer: when it comes to reopening a dine-in restaurant, run over the safety procedures again.

How it can be done safely.

>> dr. hassoun: it's really going to be depending on the rate of infection and the area.

And if we really are trying to open up, it's going to be important, the safety of whoever works in that place, to be screened for any symptoms and signs every day.

And then customers-wise, there's going to need to be to start with some distance between the customers -- between customer and who works there, also pay attention to the hygiene and reduce exposure.

So if we can try to do that, it's a possibility.

It's in a covid world.

It's not any more as we used to until we get our rates significantly lower and we can get back to the normal hopefully.

>> dan shaffer: we've been reporting today the trump administration rejected the cdc's guidelines for reopening the country.

They said some of the restrictions went too far.

They were too stringent.

Administration officials said guidance in rural tennessee shouldn't be the same guidance for urban new york city.

There seems to be some truth in that.

As a medical professional, what do you think of the white house rejecting the cdc's recommendations?

>> dr. hassoun: so you know, part of it is true.

You cannot treat each county or city the same because, again, we really go by the prevalence of infection.

But i can tell you, when issue comes up, sometimes is we don't know the prevalence because we're not doing testing as well.

So that's very important because what's popping up now in rural areas of the country there are cases, not counted, or we don't know about it.

So what to do about that is actually getting more testing available so we'll know what that prevalence and by knowing that, we might be able to say this part able to open up with less restrictions in compared to another one.

You know, the puzzle is we don't know the prevalence in each place.

And that's why we really, we need more testing widely available dance so i'm going to put you way out on a really thin limb.

Do you think we're ready to reopen?

>> dr. hassoun: and you know i've talked about that before.

I think we open a little bit early than supposed to be.

I hoped and mid may.

After that, so we can see more reduction in cases.

We are already in phase one of reopening.

And again, i'll go back, we already open, we are trying to get back to normal.

With people forget about, it's not yet the time to do, for example, gathering, big gathering, or birthday parties and pool parties and stuff.

We are not ready for that.

We need to keep the minimal gathering, the physical distances for a few more weeks so we hopefully can get back to normal as much as we can.

>> dan shaffer: national models that everybody quotes, especially ones that hold a great deal of sway and influence like the institute for health metrics and evaluation.

They're showing these national and state numbers skyrocketing lately.

Just this week, in fact, number projected deaths doubled nationwide, over 134,000, number of deaths escalating here in alabama as well.

It went from a projection of less than 300 in alabama to over 2300 overnight.

Is it because of more testing or is there a backlog of testing that's come up?

>> dr. hassoun: i think it's two factors.

One there's going to be more testing and more exposure as well possibility.

And the more number of testing with positive patient, the more likelihood some of these are going to be admitted to the hospital and fortunately some of them will die from this.

So it's testing but it's also more exposure as well.

Where we're going to see increase in these patients.

>> dan shaffer: what do you think of these models?

Should we be relying so heavily on them?

They seem to be wrong, honest to gosh.

They just seem to be wrong.

>> dr. hassoun: i i agree with you.

We really cannot depend on just math to calculate what's the possibilities.

Because in each area there's differences in the way of how people behave, what they do, you know, how much infection in new york is different how much infection in huntsville area.

So to apply these models the same for each area, it will be wrong.

You cannot do that.

>> dan shaffer: recently associated press story says how much kr coronavirus will hurt rl america.

What do you think about some areas of north alabama, smaller city, decatur, g gunnersville and floor rens.

>> dr. hassoun: in the beginning, huntsville health system have multiple hospitals and that region, there's been approach to try to tackle this from the beginning.

There's actually outreach mobile clinic to try to test in some of the areas where you think it's more vulnerable.

So it's been thought about, to try to reach out and prevent widespread a transmission and try to tackle these and track the earlier infection to reduce these chances.

>> dan shaffer: a lot of these rural communities, they're at a greater risk.

They tend to work in jobs that don't do social distancing.

You can't process chickens from home, for example.

That kind of thing.

And they seem to have a more comorbidities.

They have -- they're overweight, diabetes, some of these numbers are higher than in urban areas.

>> dr. hassoun: but see then, that's why we're saying if we can find earlier infection and track and trace them and quarantine them, we probably will b.

Able to reduce the transmission, reduce the infection rate in these areas.

And i think it's possible.

It's a matter all of us as a community, if we see anybody sick, get them to see their doctor.

Get tested.

Look for it.

And by doing it, we really going to be able to cut down on cases.

>> dan shaffer: all right.

Thanks, dr. hassoun.

Stay with us, when we come back we'll look at what it might take to achieve herd immunity and how testing could expand, when we return.