Face to Face with the Coronavirus

Dr. Ran Nir-Paz, a highly respected infectious disease expert at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, has travelled to Japan many times, but the trip he took last month was unlike any other. Hundreds of people — aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship — including four Israelis — contracted the coronavirus known as COVID-19. The Israeli government needed someone to help and so they called the 54-year-old doctor.

Dr. Nir-Paz jumped at the chance. “It’s really a fascinating thing to study a new disease,” he said. “For an infectious disease physician, I obviously love infectious diseases and I love both the pathogens and the people. So, when you get to know a new infectious disease, it’s kind of a challenge just to get to know it, to understand what’s going on.”
He got to see it up close and personal. He flew to Japan on February 18 and spent several days checking on the Israeli patients. Since he had potentially been exposed to the virus, upon his return to Israel he quarantined himself inside his home for two weeks.

Under quarantine at his home in Jerusalem, he’s reading and catching up on a backlog of emails and other work. With no patients he can tend to and with free time on his hands, it turned out to be an opportune time to have a long conversation with the doctor about the coronavirus.

What insights can he offer about the outbreak? Does he think it will get worse before it gets better? Are certain demographics like the elderly or pregnant women more susceptible to the disease? How is Hadassah Hospital responding to the crisis? And what practical actions can we take in our own daily life to help us stay safe? Plus, how does this epidemic compare to outbreaks of the past — like SARS and Swine Flu? “As an infectious disease physician, you’re being taught that you will see something once a decade which is big,” he told us. “So, obviously, this is the one in a decade thing. The question is if this is the once a decade or once in a century.”

What makes this mutation particularly pernicious is that it can be so mild at times that people may not even realise they have the virus. “Such people are being called the ‘super spreaders,'” Dr. Nir-Paz explained. “When they feel very healthy and interact with a lot of people and spread the virus.”

Click here to listen to this very enlightening podcast with Dr. Ran Nir-Paz