HALIFAX —
One of Nova Scotia’s leading experts on viruses says it’s important that information about coronavirus come from authoritative and reliable sources.
With the global spread of COVID-19, information about the virus is also spreading rapidly, Halifax microbiologist Dr. Todd Hatchette told CTV News. Much of it is helpful and important, but some of it is misleading or dead wrong and potentially even dangerous, he says.
“It’s becoming a pandemic of fear because of the unknowns and social media is not helping,” says Hatchette, who is the service chief in the division of microbiology at Dalhousie University’s Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine.
Hatchette says one of the things that has been learned about COVID-19, or novel coronavirus, is that it can be transmitted human-to-human and by droplets — via sneezing and coughing.
The coronavirus is one of the cold viruses, but Hatchette says health officials are not sure exactly how bad it is, but it needs to be taken seriously.
“It’s probably more than just a bad flu in terms of mortality,” Hatchette says.
For the full interview with CTV Anchor Steve Murphy, watch the video clip above.
