'We don't know much about it, and therefore we're all concerned to make certain it doesn't evolve into something even worse,' Columbia University's Ian Lipkin said.
The coronavirus is "not nearly as challenging for us as influenza" when seen strictly by the number of deaths, Lipkin said."We don't know much about its transmissibility. We don't necessarily have accurate diagnostic tests. And we don't really know where the outbreak is going to go," Lipkin said on CNBC's "The coronavirus emerged in Wuhan about a month ago and has since spread from about 300 people as of Jan. 21 to more than 40,000.
Coronaviruses typically infect animals, but strains can sometimes evolve and spread to humans. Symptoms in humans can include fever, sore throat and shortness of breath., world health officials say. The illness also is able to spread before symptoms materialize. Health officials estimate about 20% of patients become severely sick, leading to pneumonia and respiratory failure.But the figure is "speculative" because more antibody tests need to be conducted "so we can figure out who might have been infected but not manifested signs of disease," he said.
Asked whether he thought the Chinese government was being transparent about the disease, Lipkin said he thought it was doing an adequate job of disseminating the information it has.Lipkin said he plans to return to China within the next month, while some of his staff plan to go there next week.
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