Getting past the coronavirus pandemic that has disrupted all walks of life will come sooner rather than later, according to Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-TN).
During an interview with Huntsville, AL radio’s WVNN on Monday, DesJarlais, who has also worked as a family-practice physician, was optimistic about returning to a sense of normalcy and the prospects of a vaccine in the near-term.
“This is a new strain of coronavirus,” he said. “We’ve dealt with other coronaviruses and severe acute respiratory-type viruses in the past. This one is odd that people can be asymptomatic and carry it and spread it, and never know that. So that makes it a little tricky. And in this case, young people seem to be spared. As with most flu viruses or anything else, the people that are the most susceptible are the ones who elderly or already have comorbid conditions such as COPD, heart disease, different lung diseases, and they tend to succumb whenever they get a flu or this type of virus. But it does behave a little strange in that it takes a long time to get over, and the symptoms from the time you get sick to the time you get sick and die can be two, three weeks.”
“So, that’s what makes it hard to track and why it’s so important that we test and get an idea of who’s infected where,” DesJarlais continued. “That will help guide what kinds of lockdowns the social separation that we need to continue for the next, I’m guessing, several weeks. And I would like to think we’ll see some normalcy as we get into mid-May and approach June. It’s different. Certainly, things like Ebola are more frightening to me than corona, and I do believe we’ll have a vaccine for this. I do believe we have some things to treat it. But it is getting so much attention. I’m fairly confident by the time we get into flu season next year, they’ll probably have a way to keep this from occurring again.”
The Tennessee Republican indicated there was some merit in having a global response. He also spoke highly of President Donald Trump and his coronavirus task force, adding that he believed things would open up.
“The death toll worldwide, and the number of cases still pales by comparison to some other viruses that we’ve had to deal with,” he said. “But again, I don’t ever remember a world response like this — certainly you and I weren’t around in 1918, 100 years ago, when the Spanish flu infected a third of the world’s population. We don’t know how far this would have gone had we not done this worldwide. Again, you do the best you can with the information you have, and it seemed to be a pretty deadly virus early on that could have spread far and wide, and certainly had an impact.”
“Hopefully, we’re doing the right thing,” DesJarlais added. “I’m impressed with the President and his team, and what they’ve done, and how they’re trying to salvage the economy. You know, I do think things will open up, and brighter times are not far away.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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