[Blitzer:] Worldwide deaths from the coronavirus now climbed to over 1, 000. They've passed the total fatalities from the SARS virus that surface nearly two decades ago. Let's bring in our Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Sanjay, the fact that there are now more fatalities than SARS, what does this tell what does that tell us about where this virus is heading?
[Sanjay Gupta, Cnn Chief Medical Correspondent:] Yes. I mean, this is obviously disappointing news but not entirely surprising as we've been watching these numbers grow, certainly over the last few weeks. I think what it tells us is that, this is a it's a far more transmissible, easy to spread virus as compared to SARS. The number of deaths are have increased as well, but the number of cases have increased far more than the number of deaths have as compared to SARS. So what you have is, you can a take a look at the numbers there, 40,000 plus infections and I think it's close to a thousands deaths now. But it's really the ratio of those two numbers that you should pay attention to, deaths to infections. On the left was SARS. It's closer to 10%. With this, it's closer to 2%, 2.5%. And one thing, Wolf, and I know you've heard this as well, but researchers in Hong Kong are saying, look, there could be tens of thousands more than even these 40,000 people who are infected. And that might sound disappointing. But the reality is, if those other people who are infected are not showing any symptoms or only minimal symptoms, that would bring down the fatality ratio even. More, so there's possibly some good in there.
[Blitzer:] Do we know that's airborne, this coronavirus? In other words that you could get it through the air or you have to touch someone, you have to shake someone's hand. It's obviously much more dangerous if it's airborne.
[Gupta:] When public health people talk about something being airborne, they usually referring to it being able to suspend in the air, travel longer distances in the air. And researchers in China are a little conflicted on this. Right now, the wisdom is that it can spread via respiratory droplets. But that's a virus inside a droplet that is in the air just for a little bit. That can be, you know, that can be breathed in by somebody else, or those droplets get on surfaces and you touch them. The idea that it would be suspended in the air and if I had it, for example, left the room, someone else came into the room sometime later, they could still get it. That doesn't seem to be the case. But, Wolf, we are dealing with a novel virus and, you know, just worth stating again. This is a virus that humans have never seen before, so we're learning about this in real time as the days go on.
[Blitzer:] President Trump today predicted that warm weather this spring would soon help kill off this virus. Is he right?
[Gupta:] Well, it's interesting when you think about these types of viruses and the way that they circulate. I want to show you a map, I think, and look at where these cases are around the world. They're mostly right now in the Northern Hemisphere, save Australia down there at the bottom, which the cases came in via travel from China. And the reason is that the Northern Hemisphere is colder right now, people tend to stay indoors. And that clustering of people is one of the ways that these outbreaks can worsen, more people can get infected that way. We do see with lots of viruses, cold viruses, other viruses, that as the weather gets warmer, people are more likely to be outside. That it's not that the virus gets weaker, it's just that the likelihood of spread becomes diminished. So it's possible that that's with the warmer weather, because of these reasons, we may see a slowdown of the cases. We saw that with SARS, Wolf, it was in 2002 November very similar time frame as with this new coronavirus. In November of 2002, we saw those cases of SARS start, and it was around March, as the weather started to get warmer, that we started to see the numbers come down. So it's possible this does the same thing. But again, a novel virus means it's hard to predict.
[Blitzer:] Yes. The experts still don't know a lot about this virus but they're learning a lot, I suspect right now.
[Gupta:] Yes.
[Blitzer:] Dr. Sanjay Gupta as usual, we rely on you. Thank you so much for your information. Coming up. Will election officials in New Hampshire avoid the vote counting chaos that plague the Democrats in Iowa? Stay with us, we're getting new information. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.