Science is changing regarding Covid-19: Here’s what we know right now
EL PASO, Texas -- El Paso is in the middle of a surge of Covid-19 infections.
ABC-7 anchor Stephanie Valle spoke to virologist Dr. German Rosas Acosta, who said the science is constantly changing -- which is normal because this is a new virus -- but he gave a look at what we know about the virus, as well as the antibody tests and how to protect ourselves.
GRA: You see an increase in cases and hospitalizations and then over time, you see an increase in deaths. The mutation that has been reported, the so-called D 16 mutation, it has been indicated that it is making the virus more infectious, so easier to transmit.
SV: Something that I've been noticing in different articles is that this isn't a respiratory virus. Yes, you can breathe it in, but that it's vascular and that's why we're seeing so many symptoms throughout the body, not just the lungs.
GRA: It has the ability to trigger small clots in the blood stream and a lot of the affects that we are seeing from the disease are due to that. Little clots -- one of those clots leads to the formation of a larger clot, and then you have a stroke or a heart attack, and people who were previously healthy, who shouldn't have those problems at this time -- and this was demonstrated in New York, that all of a sudden they were having strokes. People in their 30s. They had five cases in less than a week when typically at a normal time they would only see one in a whole year. Strokes in that age group so this is the affects that this virus is having in the circulatory system causing those clots and one of the side effects of the infection is amputations.
SV: With that (antibody) test, I understand that there was inefficiencies in that test in that it was detecting that you were exposed to any coronavirus. Can you talk about that?
GRA: All of the tests that are currently approved only tell you yes or no that you have antibodies. But they don't tell you two things: how many antibodies you have and whether the antibodies you have have neutralizing activity against the virus. We can't equal having antibodies against the virus to being protected against the virus. ... I think the best solution to all of this is having a vaccine that offers a good level of protection for at least a year.
SV: So, hand washing, distancing, masks, and if we get a vaccine --
GRA: If you wear a mask consistently, that number is going to go down dramatically. Which means the new number of infections that come will decrease dramatically. If you consider the fact that the simple wearing of a mask can have that effect, I think that becomes obvious that it is a very small sacrifice to bring down this nightmare that we are seeing, right?
