10 Things We Learned From Infectious Disease Expert Michael Osterholm On Joe Rogan Experience

As ever, Joe Rogan has his fingers firmly on the pulse of the average joe and he's more than aware that most people aren't exactly sure whether to laugh off the recent global outbreak of the Coronavirus or be genuinely worried about the consequences of the virus.

So, in an attempt to further educate himself and his viewers on the important global topic, Rogan invited internationally recognized expert in infectious disease epidemiology Michael Osterholm onto The Joe Rogan Experience.

Osterholm broke down exactly what we are dealing with in terms of the Coronavirus, informed people what they can do to protect themselves, what we could have done to prevent or slow down the spread and what the plan is going forward with the virus.

Rogan is known for his entertaining yet informative sit-downs with experts in different fields and with the current focus of the entire globe being squarely on this pandemic, now more than ever people need to understand what is actually happening and what information they should (or should not) be listening to.

It's not all doom and gloom, however, and steps are being taken to combat the virus, but it's a challenging road ahead and one that we are only taking our first few steps down.

Right out of the gate, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy Michael Osterholm spoke of the fact that the Coronavirus was only just beginning. Meaning that all of the deaths, symptoms etc. are only in their early stages. Osterholm predicts that this is going to unfold for months to come and that people don't quite understand that this isn't going to go away over night.

He stated that the Coronavirus is acting like an Influenza virus due to the fact that it is transmitting easily through the air and he claims that data is showing that you become infectious before you even become sick. Basically that means that you could be carrying the virus and passing it on to others without even knowing.

In terms of people batting off the virus as less dangerous than the flu, Osterholm estimated from the data he has that this virus could be 10-15x worse than the worst seasonal flu. By 'worse' Osterholm clarified that fatalities and illness would be that much worse.

Conservatively estimating, Michael went on to suggest that the U.S. could require 48 million hospitalisations, with 96 million cases occurring and potentially 480,000 deaths due to the outbreak in the next 3-7 months.

Those numbers are quite staggering and that's just the U.S.

In short, Osterholm summarised that this is not a virus to take lightly.