Live public coronavirus Q&A on Mark Austin's News Hour
Answering the public's medical questions live on Sky News as the pandemic took hold in the UK.
On the day
On 9 March 2020, a fortnight before the first lockdown, Sky News gave over part of Mark Austin’s News Hour to the medical questions people were actually asking. I answered as an urgent care doctor, alongside an economist brought on for the questions about the markets. Does the virus cause permanent lung damage, what are the risks in pregnancy, is it just a bad flu: these were the anxieties of that first fortnight, before most of us had changed how we lived.
My aim was to reassure without minimising. For the great majority a mild illness, but a real duty to protect the vulnerable and the NHS, and to send people to the sources they could trust rather than the noise. Some of the specifics have dated, this was before the vaccines and before the variants, and the value of the clip now is as a record of how the science was being explained in real time.
What I said
The presenter’s questions, and the viewers’ questions he read out, are paraphrased. My answers are my own words from the recording, lightly edited for reading clarity; every turn has been checked against the recording.
Mark Austin paraphrased, from 0:03
Sky News was taking the public’s medical questions on the coronavirus. The first, from Mark in Wiltshire: does COVID-19 actually cause permanent damage to the lungs, or will an infected person fully recover?
Dr Kishan Rees from the recording, 0:34
It’s a great question, and I think with the wall-to-wall media coverage it’s very easy for this to potentially be blown out of proportion. So it is of course serious in terms of as a disease and the way that it’s spreading around the world, but I would like to reassure patients as much as possible that for the vast majority of people it will be a mild, minor illness and they will recover, and that’ll be fine. Obviously for the more at-risk groups, and the people with pre-existing respiratory diseases or chronic diseases, if they ended up on ITU and ventilated then the chances of recovering back to normal is obviously less. But it’s really worth emphasising that it’s a very small proportion of people. And the most important thing people can do is take steps to protect themselves and others: so that is wash hands, that is good hygiene. As we’re seeing on the London Underground at the moment, behaviours are impeccable: there’s less people, and people are actually washing their hands, not sneezing all over people. So I think that’s really important as well.
Mark Austin paraphrased, from 1:41
Back to the medical side: Hannah, on Twitter, asked him to explain the risks for pregnant women.
Dr Kishan Rees from the recording, 1:49
Sure. So I can completely understand how Hannah, as well as many other pregnant women across the UK, are potentially concerned. What I would suggest is that they should follow the advice of the chief medical officer, Professor Chris Whitty, who you’ll have seen on the news conference that has just happened, that is saying that there is a slightly increased risk for pregnant women, and more personalised health advice will be coming out over the next seven to fourteen days. I’ve seen some criticism of the media in terms of hyping this up and trying to panic people. However I think that’s very unjust and unfair, because if you give no information to people in the social media environment that we live in now, people will just make rubbish up and rumours up, and that is actually more harmful. So my advice to Hannah would be there’s a slightly increased risk, as per what the chief medical officer has come out with today, and everybody should be following him on Twitter and the advice that he issues. But they will be getting personalised advice over the next 7 to 14 days, and should look out on the NHS website, nhs.uk, as well as the World Health Organization website, who.int, which are absolutely vital resources that I’d encourage people to go to. And the one positive thing I think social media companies have done is when you search coronavirus, before you get met with the rubbish in the comment section, you get the opportunity to be directed to the NHS website, which I think is great and a positive step. What I would like to see on NHS websites is video clips from the news, short sound bites that are easy for people to digest and will put them at ease.
Mark Austin paraphrased, from 3:28
The broad advice, he said, was that this is a virus that disproportionately affects elderly people. That had not changed?
Dr Kishan Rees from the recording, 3:36
No, that is still the case, very much so. And elderly people with pre-existing complex diseases do have the potential to get more sick. That’s why we must take it upon all of ourselves to take the steps necessary to prevent the spread as far as possible.
Mark Austin paraphrased, from 4:03
Another question from Twitter: how unwell are confirmed cases? Is it like standard flu, or do they all require significant hospital treatment?
Dr Kishan Rees from the recording, 4:19
So it’s quite a complex question, there’s lots of little bits in that, so we’re trying to unpack it. In terms of how unwell the confirmed cases are: if they’re talking about the people that have sadly died, then they’re people that have had pre-existing medical conditions. In terms of the other confirmed cases, it could affect you or I, and it would affect people across the population in very different ways. In terms of is it standard flu: no, this is a new virus that has come into the world and it is not the same as pre-existing flu, so things like flu vaccines will not be effective in this particular strain. And whilst it’s not going to help yet, because we need time to work on the vaccine, the importance of vaccines cannot be underestimated: vaccines save lives. So the anti-vaxxers on Twitter, and I’m sure I’m going to get a lot of them now, but I think we need to use the media to educate people about public health and risk. And they don’t all require significant hospital treatment. And the really important thing for this question is: the vast majority of people with minor cases of flu-like symptoms should not go to hospital. And that sounds harsh, but the reason is that what we don’t want to do is put undue stress on the health system, because if there is a confirmed case then that health care system will be shut down, deep-cleaned, and people and staff have to go into isolation. So it’s really important for your viewers: if you have minor symptoms, you stay at home, you dial 111 and you follow their advice.
Mark Austin paraphrased, from 6:09
We were riding two horses here, the economy and health. Just the last word.
Dr Kishan Rees from the recording, 6:17
On that point, with the Budget and Rishi Sunak, I think he’s saying that the NHS will get everything that it needs, and I hope it does in terms of resources, because it’s really important. Your viewers will know that I’ve been on for many years talking about how it’s been run down and there’s been problems. One potential thing that should be looked at is we’re getting people having to retire early as a result of the pension tax and the taper. So rather than calling back old consultants that are 60, 70, 80 and long retired, these are people in their 50s that might be retiring. So I implore the Chancellor, if he’s watching, to have a look at that and think about it, and give as much support as possible to people in the NHS on the front line.
Broadcast by Sky News, 9 March 2020; clip from the WatMed Media archive, my own upload. Sky News retains the rights in the broadcast. This page carries my own contributions with the presenter’s and viewers’ questions paraphrased, credits the programme, and I will amend or remove on request.