Louder with Crowder - #652 CORONAVIRUS SPECIAL! | Dr. Chris Choi Guests | Louder with Crowder

00:00:00.000 Lotter with Crowder Studios.

00:00:01.000 Protected exclusively by Walther.

00:00:04.000 And Betty! 1.00

00:00:06.000 You're a strange animal, that's what I know You're a strange animal, I got to follow 0.69

00:00:32.000 I'm a strange animal Alright, we have a very special show for everyone out there 0.87

00:00:41.000 today It's a little bit different, and we are going to have some announcements regarding Mug Club.

00:00:45.000 While everyone else is kind of shutting down, slowing down, we've been taking the precautions.

00:00:48.000 We're going to do more to serve you, but I don't want to waste time with that right now.

00:00:52.000 We'll have another video on that.

00:00:53.000 I wanted to bring on a very special guest.

00:00:56.000 Full disclosure, this is why I brought him on.

00:00:57.000 I know him.

00:00:59.000 I love him as my own personal doctor.

00:01:02.000 He's an internist in Las Vegas, Nevada.

00:01:04.000 He's been practicing for 21 years.

00:01:07.000 I want to make it clear.

00:01:08.000 First off, Dr. Choi, thank you for being here.

00:01:10.000 How would you describe what it is that you do?

00:01:13.000 Because when I went and saw you, you did all kinds of different things.

00:01:16.000 And it was very weird to me that you were a doctor who actually listened.

00:01:20.000 Well, what I do is what basically other internal medicine doctors do.

00:01:25.000 I'm a doctor for adult and board certified internal medicine.

00:01:29.000 And so I serve as a primary care doctor for my adult population patients.

00:01:36.000 So with that, I mean, I'm supposed to be a jack-of-all-trades or at least know something about everything.

00:01:42.000 And then specialists are the ones who just delve into one or two fields of the vast medicine fields.

00:01:56.000 Cardiology is only dealing with the heart.

00:01:58.000 I may deal with a little bit of cardiology, but a little bit of kidney and a little bit of everything else.

00:02:03.000 And Dr. Choi, I'm detecting a little bit of an accent.

00:02:07.000 Is that Polish?

00:02:12.000 A lot of people think I'm Chinese, but I'm Korean.

00:02:15.000 I have a small Korean accent.

00:02:17.000 I came to the States when I was 11 or 12, almost 12.

00:02:21.000 So I've been here about over 40 years.

00:02:24.000 Now, good Korea or bad Korea?

00:02:28.000 It's supposed to be good Korea, South Korea.

00:02:30.000 They're the good ones. 1.00

00:02:31.000 Well, you know, ignorant Americans. 0.99

00:02:33.000 So you probably have some unique insight, because right now we're talking about, you know, coronavirus, Wu flu, all this. 0.98

00:02:39.000 It's as much of a cultural and economic, you know, we're seeing a ripple effect as it is just medical.

00:02:45.000 So being from South Korea and obviously a longstanding sort of, I guess, feud, for lack of a better word, with China, do you feel like you have a little bit of a different insight into this?

00:02:57.000 In some ways, in the sense that I still have some family members in Korea, including my brother,

00:03:03.000 who went back after growing up here. So I've been actually talking with my brother, so I have

00:03:09.000 some ideas to what's been going on in South Korea in relation to COVID-19. And I think their

00:03:17.000 relationship with China right now is probably on a good term, at least related to the virus.

00:03:24.000 So the Chinese have actually released a lot of info on the virus to South Korea. And that's 0.95

00:03:33.000 why they were able to make the kits to rapidly test a lot of their population. I'm talking about

00:03:41.000 South Korea. So they got the sequence of the virus from China sometime in

00:03:47.000 First part of January and that's what they used to actually come up with the kids.

00:03:52.000 Now when did we get that in the United States?

00:03:54.000 Do we know when China sent it to us?

00:03:57.000 They may be working with the U.S.

00:03:59.000 FDA to try to get those kits approved so we can use it here.

00:04:05.000 But that's a hearsay.

00:04:06.000 I'm not sure.

00:04:06.000 Right.

00:04:07.000 All right.

00:04:07.000 Well, OK, so we'll go back to that with South Korea and the United States and sort of the CDC.

00:04:10.000 I know you and I have talked about that a little bit.

00:04:12.000 But before we get to that, there's there are kind of two sides here.

00:04:15.000 There's there's pandemonium.

00:04:16.000 There's panic with some people.

00:04:18.000 And then there are some people who think that there's nothing going on at all.

00:04:21.000 We've maintained that, listen, take the proper precautions, but we don't want to cripple the entire economy.

00:04:26.000 There's somewhere in the middle.

00:04:28.000 So for people who may not be in the know, as someone who has had to deal with this yourself, how bad is it, the coronavirus?

00:04:35.000 How should people be viewing this right now?

00:04:38.000 The coronavirus is a virus, much like the flu, but it spreads faster.

00:04:47.000 and the mortality from the coronavirus, the novel virus, is higher than the flu, partly

00:04:53.000 because we don't have any vaccine for it and we don't have any treatments because it's

00:04:57.000 so new. But it is, we do need to take this seriously. I mean, this is a national emergency.

00:05:05.000 We do need to take this seriously, but this is not like a nuclear fallout.

00:05:10.000 This is not going to last five years, ten years.

00:05:12.000 We don't need to be panicked.

00:05:14.000 We do not need to hoard toilet papers.

00:05:18.000 We don't need to do that.

00:05:19.000 This is going to pass.

00:05:20.000 This is going to pass, but we just need to actually follow the instructions from the CDC and our government and actually do our part.

00:05:29.000 And we can hopefully get through this with a the least amount of mortality.

00:05:36.000 We can only do that if we actually follow the instructions.

00:05:39.000 Right, yeah, and speaking of hoarding toilet paper, I'm the worst person for that,

00:05:43.000 because my dog, Betty, she eats toilet, that's her thing. 1.00

00:05:45.000 She loves toilet paper rolls.

00:05:46.000 I came home yesterday, I'm like, that's Betty, that's my 401k.

00:05:50.000 That's gone completely.

00:05:51.000 She's just choosing the toilet paper and throws it all around. 0.72

00:05:54.000 Well, that's important.

00:05:55.000 But right now, obviously, people are... There's a difference between the blame game and then finding out how this happened so we can avoid it in the future.

00:06:01.000 Because now there's a lot of, you know, sort of Monday morning quarterback.

00:06:03.000 People say, well, we should have known.

00:06:05.000 What do you make of a lot of people right now blaming President Trump and this administration that they haven't handled this properly?

00:06:11.000 That's what they've been trying to claim in the media.

00:06:16.000 You know, hindsight is always 20-20 and whether a bit.

00:06:21.000 What do you think?

00:06:22.000 And what's your take on this?

00:06:23.000 And what's your take on the Biden administration's response to the pandemic?

00:06:24.000 Well, I think the Biden administration is very open about the pandemic.

00:06:25.000 I think they're very open about the pandemic.

00:06:26.000 They're very open about the pandemic.

00:06:27.000 They're very open about the pandemic.

00:06:28.000 And I think they're very open about the pandemic.

00:06:54.000 Right.

00:06:56.000 If this works, then we can really get it under control.

00:06:58.000 So, I mean, that's the key.

00:07:00.000 Right.

00:07:00.000 It's about flattening that curve.

00:07:02.000 And I wanted to ask you, going back, well, first off, you said novel coronavirus.

00:07:06.000 And I think a lot of people don't know this.

00:07:07.000 You know, I have, I clean my wrestling mats, I have a home gym with an industrial cleaner, and it says on there, kills coronavirus.

00:07:16.000 I think some people may be ignorant to that.

00:07:18.000 Like, the coronavirus has been around for a long time.

00:07:21.000 That's why you said novel coronavirus, correct?

00:07:23.000 Can you explain the difference?

00:07:25.000 Well, we've had a coronavirus for a long time, but this is a mutated.

00:07:31.000 It's a different strain, basically.

00:07:33.000 So we've had SARS-CoV-1.

00:07:36.000 We call it SARS-CoV-2.

00:07:37.000 So this is a new strain.

00:07:39.000 It's mutated.

00:07:40.000 Okay.

00:07:41.000 So we've had a coronavirus for a long time.

00:07:43.000 This just happens to be a different strain, and it is more potent than the SARS.

00:07:50.000 And we know that because it has caused more death and the spreading is faster.

00:07:55.000 And it spreads a little easier, a little easier.

00:07:57.000 Wait, more deadly than SARS?

00:07:59.000 We had SARS in the Toronto airport when I was from Canada.

00:08:02.000 The coronavirus is more deadly than that?

00:08:03.000 Because I'd read different mortality rates.

00:08:08.000 Yeah, right now the mortality rate is, they're saying, as high as like 30%.

00:08:12.000 Yeah.

00:08:13.000 So, which is higher, yeah.

00:08:14.000 Okay.

00:08:15.000 And that's predominantly, obviously, people who are elderly and people who have pre-existing conditions.

00:08:21.000 They're the ones who should be most concerned.

00:08:24.000 Exactly.

00:08:25.000 The younger patients really have a good immune system, and we can fight it off.

00:08:32.000 And almost most of the cases of COVID-19, the symptoms are very mild, by and large, most people.

00:08:40.000 They get it, it'll be like flu-like symptoms, and they'll get a little fever, some cough, and then they'll recover.

00:08:50.000 The elderly patients and the people with Immunocompromised states like diabetics or heart disease. 0.53

00:08:57.000 I am supposed to be a little bit of a higher risk now because I had a heart attack the beginning of this year.

00:09:02.000 The people with heart disease or cancer and so on, those folks are much higher risk of dying from it.

00:09:10.000 So I saw some statistics the other day and over the age of 80, mortality is as high as about 15%.

00:09:16.000 Right.

00:09:16.000 And people in their 70s are about 8%.

00:09:21.000 Below that, I mean, the mortality is very low.

00:09:23.000 Right.

00:09:23.000 So, it's predominantly for the elderly folks.

00:09:27.000 So, really, they need to be very careful.

00:09:30.000 Yeah.

00:09:31.000 Let me propose this.

00:09:32.000 This is going to be something where people get really upset.

00:09:34.000 This is just what we've had to handle in the office.

00:09:36.000 Let me explain why I'm saying this here, and you can shoot me down if this is totally out of left field.

00:09:42.000 Here in the office, we've made sure that people are basically quarantining themselves outside of the office.

00:09:46.000 And then we come to the office, because we're a small enough company, we can keep track of it, except for some older people, and when I say older, I mean like 58, so they're not really at high, high risk, but we wanted to take precautions, keep them away, and I wanted to do a corona pact where we all licked a popsicle stick so that we could just get it over with, but no one else would sign, apparently my lawyers, that's a liability, so, but here, and looking at that, here's my question, we're talking about quarantining the whole country, what about just quarantining Old people. 1.00

00:10:14.000 Old people and people who are sick because, you know, I'm reading that in the UK they want the herd immunity, where they want it to get to 60% of the population, and obviously that's an asshole thing to do.

00:10:24.000 If you allow that to happen and old people who are at high risk are exposed, but it seems to me that maybe instead of quarantining the whole country, if we quarantined people who are most at risk, let the virus run its course so people are no longer carriers, and then let them out of their cages, that maybe that would be a better approach.

00:10:41.000 This is just a layman, I'm not a doctor.

00:10:43.000 What do you think?

00:10:47.000 No, I'm just kidding.

00:10:51.000 This is a South Korean Yosemite Sam, what is he doing? 0.70

00:10:54.000 Does that come out?

00:10:56.000 No?

00:10:56.000 There's nothing to that?

00:10:58.000 I'm not saying kill them, I'm saying just keep them safe, because otherwise they're going to constantly be exposed to this virus until we get a vaccine, right?

00:11:06.000 For them, it's still obviously less risky, but it's not any less dangerous if they contract it four, five, six months from now.

00:11:13.000 That's the concern, not so much for young people carrying it, so just quarantine, you know, old people, no? 0.96

00:11:22.000 Well, that's an interesting idea.

00:11:23.000 That's an interesting idea.

00:11:25.000 But part of the problem is, we don't know how long it's going to take if we take this approach to get 60% of the general population, young people, to actually get infected and recover from it.

00:11:38.000 Is it going to take six months?

00:11:40.000 Is it going to take three months, six months or a year?

00:11:42.000 Right.

00:11:43.000 So from a logistic standpoint, how do we quarantine somebody for six months or a year, right?

00:11:48.000 That's one thing.

00:11:49.000 And then two, We still have young people who can die from this.

00:11:54.000 Right.

00:11:55.000 And yeah, do we really want to run the risk?

00:11:57.000 I mean, so is it kind of ethical?

00:12:00.000 So we're planning to try to take the approach where we're going to try to minimize the spreading of the virus and let it kind of die off.

00:12:07.000 Well, they're doing that, but there's talk of... The virus.

00:12:09.000 Yeah, yes, the virus.

00:12:10.000 No one thinks that you are... We didn't bring on Dr. Choi Vorkian, okay?

00:12:10.000 Yes, the virus.

00:12:15.000 We understand.

00:12:16.000 Yes, but we're looking right now at trying to stop the spread, and then the talk is, if it doesn't work, full quarantine.

00:12:23.000 And so I'm saying before that, quarantine most at risk, if we're going to go that route.

00:12:27.000 And again, some of this is hearsay, but I mean, that's pretty scary to a lot of us.

00:12:31.000 You know, you probably have some more insight on this.

00:12:33.000 When people point to South Korea as being successful, you and I have spoken about this.

00:12:36.000 It's a very different culture, and the kind of approach in South Korea are not measures that necessarily would be acceptable to Americans or work.

00:12:44.000 Can you tell me a little more about that?

00:12:47.000 Yeah, I mean, remember, Korea is a very small country, and it's a very centralized government.

00:12:53.000 So, I mean, they can mobilize much faster than we can in some ways, and the people are very densely populated.

00:13:01.000 This is why using the masks and so on worked.

00:13:05.000 It was probably necessary for them.

00:13:07.000 Because they're in a crowded place and they're always going to be in contact with somebody.

00:13:12.000 But for us, maybe somewhere like in New York, perhaps that might be an issue.

00:13:19.000 But like in Vegas, where I'm at, the density here is very low.

00:13:26.000 We could actually stay away from each other much easier than people in South Korea. 0.82

00:13:30.000 So we don't really need a mask.

00:13:31.000 We don't really need a mask, at least not right now, because we can't get the virus

00:13:36.000 just standing out here. And it doesn't exist in the air by itself.

00:13:41.000 It has to be transmitted from another person to the next person.

00:13:44.000 See, I think this is important.

00:13:46.000 This is why I wanted to have you on.

00:13:46.000 There are conflicting reports where some places say it is airborne, and then some places say it's only transmitted through contact.

00:13:52.000 So it is only through some kind of contact or, you know, sort of contact by proxy?

00:13:58.000 Well, contact, mainly what we're thinking is that It is by contact.

00:14:03.000 If we shake the hands of another person who has a virus or if we actually touch the surfaces, Soon after somebody who has a virus touches the surface and then we touch our face with it.

00:14:15.000 Right, right, right.

00:14:16.000 Because it enters through our eyes, our nose, our mouth.

00:14:19.000 So it's a respiratory virus.

00:14:22.000 But we can also get it, it can be airborne.

00:14:25.000 It's typically not, it can be airborne or droplet.

00:14:28.000 So if somebody coughs at us and then we can actually inhale that and we can get the virus infection.

00:14:35.000 Oh, okay.

00:14:38.000 A person who has a virus has to be in close proximity and cough.

00:14:43.000 Okay.

00:14:43.000 And then we can actually cough up the virus and then we can actually inhale that.

00:14:47.000 So if that's airborne, that's pretty temporary.

00:14:50.000 It would actually have to be like you're talking about, you know, basically a fine mist.

00:14:54.000 In other words, it's not necessarily airborne just because someone was breathing there 20 minutes ago.

00:15:01.000 No.

00:15:02.000 And it does become airborne.

00:15:04.000 It does become airborne in the cases where, like in the hospital, if somebody has the virus and if you use nebulizers or if you're suctioning the airway, that can actually make it airborne.

00:15:18.000 But it doesn't last very long.

00:15:20.000 I mean, it's not going to be in the air for a long time.

00:15:23.000 It's going to die off.

00:15:25.000 So you have to come in contact with somebody for a significant amount of time.

00:15:31.000 In order to actually inhale and get the virus.

00:15:35.000 No.

00:15:35.000 What about you being a doctor?

00:15:37.000 Do you wear- I notice you're not wearing- you don't look like Bane right now.

00:15:40.000 I notice that you're just yourself.

00:15:42.000 Do you wear a mask right now all the time when people come in?

00:15:45.000 Or a respirator?

00:15:48.000 No.

00:15:49.000 Absolutely not.

00:15:50.000 No.

00:15:51.000 Okay, well you seem pretty bold with that.

00:15:53.000 I would be scared.

00:15:54.000 Why not?

00:15:58.000 Why not?

00:15:58.000 Well, at least in Nevada right now, even in the hospitals, we're not routinely putting on masks.

00:16:06.000 We've actually locked down the hospital, so there are no visitors coming in.

00:16:11.000 And then even the staff, everybody is screened with questions to see if they have fever or symptoms.

00:16:20.000 And if they're dealing with a patient, remember, I'm sitting here and I'm not being exposed to anybody right now.

00:16:30.000 There's absolutely no reason for me to wear the mask.

00:16:32.000 It is not going to accomplish anything because there is no coronavirus in the air right now.

00:16:38.000 Right.

00:16:38.000 It's only if I'm in the close vicinity with a patient who actually has symptoms or who actually has an infection.

00:16:46.000 So if I'm actually treating a patient who has symptoms of potential coronavirus,

00:16:51.000 then I will actually put my N95 mask on.

00:16:54.000 I'll put my gown and gloves on.

00:16:56.000 Okay.

00:16:56.000 But otherwise, I'm not putting any personal protective gears or PPEs, equipments.

00:17:04.000 Right.

00:17:04.000 And what kind of... That is the CDC recommendation.

00:17:07.000 CDC recommendation is that the general public does not need to wear the mask, at least not yet.

00:17:13.000 And The healthcare workers, we do need to wear it if we're dealing with patients with COVID-19 or suspected patients.

00:17:21.000 Right.

00:17:22.000 But it seems, I've also read that really the reason they're telling people not to wear these masks is more so because of the shortage.

00:17:27.000 That there's still, if you have them, that it's not a bad idea to wear them.

00:17:32.000 But specifically, if you have the virus, that you should wear the mask yourself.

00:17:36.000 And then if you don't, and you're around people who do, that's where you want the N95 respirator.

00:17:44.000 Correct.

00:17:44.000 Correct. Okay, all right. All right. That wasn't much of a question in there. That was that was my fault as an

00:17:49.000 interviewer Not yours as a doctor. You can diagnose me as a prick 0.97

00:17:52.000 We'll talk about that later You just need to be safe and protect yourself which hey, dr.

00:18:00.000 Choi, are you protected online? Do you protect yourself online?

00:18:04.000 Because the good news is ExpressVPN anonymizes everything that you do

00:18:10.000 They encrypt 100% of your data.

00:18:11.000 They were voted the number one VPN on the market by RadarWire and The Verge, and they haven't had any break-ins, like data breaches, like other VPNs out there.

00:18:22.000 And people watching right now can go to expressvpn.com slash Crowder to get an extra three months free.

00:18:28.000 So Dr. Choi, if you're not part of it online, that's expressvpn.com slash Crowder

00:18:32.000 for an extra three months free.

00:18:34.000 And you can use it on all your devices so that people don't know what you're looking up.

00:18:36.000 You know that you're South Korean, you're mistrust of the Chinese government.

00:18:39.000 They could be keeping a watchful eye on you.

00:18:42.000 They're none the wiser if you use ExpressVPN.

00:18:45.000 Let me ask you again about South Korea.

00:18:47.000 Do you think that also, I mean, we're kind of joking about this, but their somewhat mistrust of China, having worked with them for such a long time, helped them get ahead of the curve because they were skeptical in looking at the information presented to them, whereas here, we'll get into it, the CDC in China has been a nightmare as far as the false info.

00:19:05.000 How do you see the future of the Korean economy? What are the key trends that will be seen in the

00:19:25.000 coming months?

00:19:35.000 And what are the key trends that will be seen in the coming months?

00:20:01.000 Massively quarantining everybody.

00:20:04.000 So effectively, the South Korean government doxxed its citizens, and that might be something that Americans aren't super comfortable with, right?

00:20:11.000 Correct.

00:20:12.000 So in other words, when people say, look at South Korea and the failure, and this was a question I was getting to, well, why did it take this much longer?

00:20:18.000 People are saying we're more inefficient here in the United States.

00:20:21.000 I think the answer to the question is, to all Americans out there watching, are you comfortable with the government tracking you, using GPS, and releasing that data to the public?

00:20:29.000 Because that's how South Korea got ahead of it. 0.95

00:20:33.000 Oh, look, you're a busy man.

00:20:34.000 Is that what you're doing?

00:20:34.000 You're on your phone.

00:20:36.000 Have I bored you this much, Dr. Choi?

00:20:38.000 I get that I'm just a basic Caucasian here, but come on. 0.97

00:20:43.000 You're the most boring person I know.

00:20:48.000 Well, plus it's a much, much bigger country, and we're much bigger. 0.97

00:20:50.000 You're not funny at all.

00:20:52.000 No, but that, so that is the answer.

00:20:54.000 They literally were tracking and then releasing that information to the public to have that,

00:20:59.000 those kinds of results here, which would be harder because it's much bigger.

00:21:01.000 The United States government would have to do that with its citizens.

00:21:04.000 Well, plus it's a much, much bigger country and we're much bigger.

00:21:10.000 This is a geographically we're much bigger and we're also very diverse population.

00:21:16.000 So it just doesn't, it's not going to apply.

00:21:19.000 What they've done over there, it just doesn't apply here.

00:21:22.000 Let me ask you this.

00:21:23.000 You were talking about, you know, when we were talking about people sort of blaming Donald Trump and you said, well, no, really, the CDC doesn't have a whole lot to do with President Trump.

00:21:30.000 The CDC also wanted to, correct me if I'm wrong, go into China and offer help a while ago and were denied.

00:21:36.000 Correct.

00:21:37.000 That was the information I had.

00:21:39.000 It's close to society, China, right?

00:21:41.000 Right.

00:21:42.000 They probably just don't want to accept help from a Western country.

00:21:47.000 Right.

00:21:49.000 And what we've been told in the media is that President Trump told the CDC not to prepare.

00:21:55.000 Is that true?

00:21:55.000 Is there any truth to that?

00:21:58.000 I don't know.

00:21:59.000 I mean, I don't understand why anybody would tell the CDC not to prepare.

00:22:03.000 That's, uh, right.

00:22:05.000 Yeah.

00:22:05.000 Well, that'd be awfully unusual.

00:22:07.000 Yes, it would be awfully unusual.

00:22:08.000 And typically speaking, the CDC doesn't really have a whole lot to do, um, directly with the president in that capacity.

00:22:13.000 I know they mentioned the pandemic task force, uh, or team and, uh, the guy who was there said, no, that's actually not true.

00:22:19.000 We weren't disbanded at all.

00:22:20.000 We were, we were streamlined.

00:22:22.000 Um, and this is, I guess, a question is somebody who works in medicine, right?

00:22:25.000 And we've seen this with psychology, psychiatry, uh, A lot of Americans, and we see it now with the media,

00:22:29.000 a lot of Americans don't necessarily have the greatest amount of faith in their institutions.

00:22:33.000 We've seen, for example, the FBI and the DOJ, they can be politicized.

00:22:38.000 Is that also possible with agencies like the CDC, because we see, or the World Health Organization?

00:22:44.000 Do sometimes these different organizations have different political agendas

00:22:47.000 where it makes it hard to sift fact from fiction?

00:22:50.000 I'm sure every organization, whatever field it is, they're in, probably does have some,

00:22:58.000 they can be influenced to an extent by politics, I'm sure.

00:23:04.000 I'm sure that's just the way it is.

00:23:07.000 Right.

00:23:08.000 But I would imagine an organization like CDC would be much more driven by scientific data and for the public good.

00:23:19.000 Yeah.

00:23:19.000 And CDC has been sending... I do get a regular update from CDC.

00:23:25.000 on a regular basis about the COVID-19 and what we're supposed to do.

00:23:29.000 So, I mean, it's not like they haven't done anything.

00:23:32.000 They have been doing things.

00:23:34.000 Initially, we didn't have all the proper information from China.

00:23:39.000 And so we thought this wasn't a huge deal.

00:23:43.000 And then later on, we thought, ooh, it's spreading in South Korea and Italy and Europe.

00:23:49.000 And we started getting more concerned.

00:23:51.000 But we still didn't have a lot of cases here.

00:23:53.000 And as far as we know, really no death until I believe beginning of recently.

00:23:59.000 And that's when I always said, okay, it's actually spreading here too.

00:24:04.000 And that's when we start getting much more concerned.

00:24:06.000 Right.

00:24:07.000 And so I think this is important to note.

00:24:08.000 A lot of people think that the United States is unique.

00:24:10.000 We are unique in a way that you've sort of drawn attention to.

00:24:13.000 We're large.

00:24:14.000 We're very diverse compared to a lot of other countries.

00:24:17.000 But we're not unique in that up until more recently, globally, this wasn't seen as a big concern based on the information that we were getting from China.

00:24:26.000 Everyone was kind of in that boat until not too long ago.

00:24:29.000 The World Health Organization declared a pandemic on, I believe, the 12th, March 12th.

00:24:35.000 11th or 12th.

00:24:37.000 So, you know, that's when we really started getting concerned.

00:24:43.000 And the schools were shutting down.

00:24:46.000 And Nevada is basically kind of locked down at this point.

00:24:52.000 All the non-essential businesses have closed as of yesterday.

00:24:58.000 and all the casinos have closed.

00:25:00.000 So only the essential businesses have stayed open, such as medical practices and the gas stations

00:25:07.000 and the food places where they, like the supermarkets.

00:25:12.000 Right.

00:25:13.000 And so on. 0.93

00:25:14.000 What about weed and hookers in Nevada? 1.00

00:25:16.000 Are they still in business?

00:25:17.000 Is that considered essential?

00:25:18.000 Business is booming, man.

00:25:19.000 Still going.

00:25:21.000 I guess that's been around since the humanity.

00:25:23.000 Since the beginning of history.

00:25:26.000 Yeah, but it's not taxed everywhere, so I don't know if they're open.

00:25:29.000 You know, you have drive-thru dispensaries there in Nevada.

00:25:32.000 I think that sort of answers my next question, then, because it matters to get to the root cause of Why did people not think this was... And honestly, like you said, this isn't the kind of pandemic that is going to kill 20% of the population like people have misreported initially, but the reason that people didn't take it as seriously as maybe it has ended up being is because of the information we were having.

00:25:54.000 You know, according to Dr. Leong, who was actually the epidemiologist who dealt with the SARS in Hong Kong, he said that with this COVID-19, What are some of the challenges facing the U.S. and China?

00:26:15.000 What are some of the challenges facing the U.S. and China?

00:27:02.000 Right.

00:27:02.000 And I don't think we're going to have that because we are already taking measures.

00:27:05.000 We're taking measures.

00:27:06.000 So I seriously doubt we're going to have anything close to that.

00:27:10.000 So we don't need to be panicked.

00:27:13.000 We don't need to be panicked.

00:27:14.000 Right.

00:27:15.000 The best thing we could do is simple measures such as washing our hands very frequently and don't touch our nose.

00:27:26.000 Don't touch our face without washing.

00:27:28.000 Right.

00:27:29.000 And wash our cell phones frequently throughout the day.

00:27:32.000 And if we're out, try not to touch public places, and just try not to go out, if we can, for a while, until we get this under control.

00:27:40.000 Right.

00:27:41.000 But I really doubt we're going to have 60% of the U.S.

00:27:44.000 population infected.

00:27:45.000 I really doubt we're going to have 40% of those dying.

00:27:49.000 We're just probably not going to see that because we're jumping on this.

00:27:51.000 No, no, of course not.

00:27:52.000 But that does sound like, from what you're saying, that means that playing a good old game of head and shoulders, knees and toes, eyes, ears, mouth and nose is out.

00:28:00.000 That should be...

00:28:01.000 None of that.

00:28:04.000 Dang.

00:28:04.000 Yeah, I know.

00:28:05.000 You're a killer at that game. 0.90

00:28:07.000 It's not even a game, I thought it was a limerick.

00:28:10.000 As a practitioner, how urgent is it for you to get the testing kits?

00:28:14.000 Because that seems to be the focus of the media right now.

00:28:16.000 We don't have enough testing.

00:28:18.000 Sounds to me like maybe you're saying that's not as necessary as taking these precautions and these measures, or have you been disappointed in the lack of testing kits available?

00:28:27.000 Why don't we have testing kits?

00:28:28.000 It sounds like we've sort of answered it by the root cause of not having the right information, but as a practitioner, what's your point of view on that?

00:28:36.000 I do have some testing kits now.

00:28:39.000 Okay.

00:28:39.000 I do have some testing kits.

00:28:40.000 Initially, we were rationed about five last week, but we now actually have probably about 20, 30 of them.

00:28:47.000 Oh wow, that's a big increase.

00:28:49.000 I mean, I don't think a lot of people... Dr. Choi, don't skim past that.

00:28:52.000 Don't play coy.

00:28:53.000 Most people think that there are no testing kits available.

00:28:55.000 That's a four or five fold increase.

00:28:57.000 No, no, no.

00:28:58.000 There are testing kits.

00:28:59.000 There are testing kits.

00:29:01.000 And the hospitals are testing, and so we're going to have of the year.

00:29:24.000 We can't be touching our faces.

00:29:24.000 I get it.

00:29:26.000 I understand this, Dr. Choi.

00:29:28.000 I get it.

00:29:29.000 I didn't know you were a pediatrician, but this is sort of like a taco truck, but for coronavirus testing kits.

00:29:40.000 Correct.

00:29:40.000 They're actually going to implement mobile units apparently.

00:29:47.000 Do you know why you went from 5 to 30?

00:29:49.000 Is a big part of that because they've been recruiting sort of private laboratories now to to assist in creating more testing kits?

00:29:56.000 So the big private labs like the Quest LabCorp, they have the capability of doing the tests and Now they've had approval from the, I think, FDA or CDC, clearance to use more of the regular swabs to test.

00:29:56.000 Correct.

00:30:18.000 Okay.

00:30:18.000 So that's why now we have more kits.

00:30:21.000 Now, why was that not approved before?

00:30:22.000 What's the difference between the regular swabs and the other swabs?

00:30:26.000 Well, I think they just didn't know if it was going to work.

00:30:28.000 So they probably had to test it.

00:30:30.000 Okay.

00:30:32.000 It seems like there's a lot of red tape there.

00:30:35.000 And it seems like this is a good thing, though, that at this point, had we relied only on the federal government, we wouldn't be able to get as many kits this quickly.

00:30:41.000 So having private laboratories working in, you know, sort of in tandem with them, seems like, I mean, you went from 5 to 30.

00:30:48.000 That's a huge bump.

00:30:51.000 Yes.

00:30:51.000 Correct.

00:30:52.000 Okay.

00:30:52.000 So that's good.

00:30:53.000 So there's a silver lining there.

00:30:54.000 And I do, you know, I want to ask you about your health, but speaking of which, I see that you're drinking coffee, but I don't think you're drinking the right coffee.

00:31:00.000 We're going to send you some with Black Rifle Coffee.

00:31:02.000 You know, they're veteran owned, and they fresh roast it, ship it to your door.

00:31:06.000 They're huge. 0.97

00:31:07.000 They have the balls to sponsor this show. 0.97

00:31:08.000 And they're offering a discount right now. 0.98

00:31:08.000 They do. 0.98

00:31:10.000 People go to BlackRifleCoffee.com slash Crowder.

00:31:12.000 Use the promo code Crowder.

00:31:13.000 They get 20% off their first purchase.

00:31:15.000 I'm a big coffee snob, Dr. Choi, and I don't like what I'm hearing about what you're drinking there at the office.

00:31:20.000 That, to me, is more concerning than corona.

00:31:22.000 It's not cool.

00:31:25.000 Sorry.

00:31:26.000 Yeah, bad coffee will kill, right?

00:31:27.000 Yes.

00:31:28.000 Well, there's mold.

00:31:30.000 There's mitotoxins.

00:31:31.000 I read Dave Asprey.

00:31:31.000 I know.

00:31:32.000 I know what I'm talking about.

00:31:33.000 Are you a medium roast or a dark roast guy?

00:31:37.000 Duck roast.

00:31:38.000 Dark roast.

00:31:38.000 It sounded like you said duck roast.

00:31:40.000 Duck roast.

00:31:42.000 Okay.

00:31:42.000 Yeah, my accent.

00:31:42.000 All right.

00:31:44.000 So you've been in the United States for how long?

00:31:49.000 Forty-two years?

00:31:50.000 That explains it. The accent only goes away at 44. 44 years.

00:31:55.000 You're just under the cutoff.

00:31:57.000 One more year.

00:31:58.000 When that happens, let my French-Canadian mom know, because she still hasn't figured that out either. 0.53

00:32:04.000 But Dr. Choi, you mentioned sort of nonchalantly that you had a heart attack.

00:32:09.000 Um...

00:32:10.000 That was a big surprise to me when you told me that, and I think it's a big surprise to people watching.

00:32:14.000 I mean, you're a trim guy.

00:32:15.000 I've always known you to stay healthy, and you eat pretty well, and you certainly have helped me.

00:32:21.000 How did that happen?

00:32:22.000 A relatively young, fit, healthy guy have a heart attack?

00:32:25.000 Well, doctor, heal thyself, I guess.

00:32:32.000 I had high cholesterol, and I thought I could control it with a diet and exercise, which I've been doing.

00:32:38.000 And obviously not, that's one.

00:32:39.000 And then two, my job is very stressful.

00:32:42.000 And then three, there's a family history of early onset heart disease, and I kind of ignored that, I guess.

00:32:50.000 So a combination of all of those probably led to the early heart attack.

00:32:56.000 And do you think you maybe ignored it because you felt so good and you were kind of fit and spry?

00:33:00.000 You felt like, oh, I'll be fine.

00:33:03.000 Correct, because I've been eating healthy and I've been exercising with a trainer for a long time, many years.

00:33:09.000 And you know, I run on the treadmill, I don't have chest pains, and I'm okay.

00:33:13.000 So I thought I was okay.

00:33:16.000 Obviously not.

00:33:16.000 You know what?

00:33:17.000 That brings me to an interesting point, and I think it may also relate to this, you know, the COVID-19.

00:33:21.000 But how important are genetics in health?

00:33:27.000 I think often we overlook that.

00:33:29.000 Well, first, let's start with that.

00:33:30.000 Genetics.

00:33:31.000 How important is that?

00:33:31.000 Because that seems to be the sort of new frontier with health.

00:33:33.000 Genetic testing.

00:33:34.000 Now they're even talking about gene doping, which I don't understand, but... I mean, genetic testing is It is important.

00:33:41.000 That's kind of the direction a lot of the new technology is going to, to try to figure out which medication actually works better for this particular individual based on their genetic disposition.

00:33:53.000 We've been doing a study on that for quite some time and there are companies out there who are testing to see which medication I should be giving each individual because there are maybe 10 different medications for one condition.

00:34:09.000 And they may not be all equally effective for a particular individual.

00:34:15.000 Or some of those medications may cause more side effects on a particular individual.

00:34:23.000 And we are actually trying to figure out how to test, do genetic testing to apply to that.

00:34:31.000 But we're still not there, in my opinion.

00:34:35.000 It's getting, you know, it's getting more accurate.

00:34:37.000 And my second question is, because you said you have a stressful job, how much of an impact does, a lot of people think about diet and exercise, how much of a physical impact, because stress isn't seen as a physical thing, right?

00:34:47.000 You get in the gym, you get in the treadmill, people go, okay, I'm physically moving, or I'm physically moving this way to bench press, or I'm physically putting this food in my mouth.

00:34:54.000 Stress is sort of conceptual for a lot of people.

00:34:57.000 How much of a physical impact does stress actually have on one's health?

00:35:02.000 Because of stress we know that it will decrease the immune system.

00:35:08.000 Stress will decrease the immune system.

00:35:11.000 So obviously if your immune system is lower then you're more likely to catch the virus.

00:35:17.000 Not just coronavirus, but any other virus, right?

00:35:20.000 Right, yeah.

00:35:21.000 Any other infections.

00:35:22.000 Yeah, but this podcast will be titled about coronas because that's what sells.

00:35:25.000 So, that's what we're talking about.

00:35:28.000 Who cares about the old normal flu?

00:35:32.000 So, that's something that's known right in the medical field.

00:35:33.000 I mean, that's a physical observation.

00:35:35.000 Stress lowers immunity that can be quantified.

00:35:39.000 Yes.

00:35:40.000 And I guess what other, in closing here, what other tips would you give if you had to tell, we get it, wash your hands, social distancing, but is there anything else that you think maybe some people can take as extra steps or they're missing, either whether it's lowering stress, whether are there any supplements or anything that you think might be not, we're not saying any of this is a cure, but is there anything that you would also advise on top as supplementary measures for people to take precautions?

00:36:04.000 There are some, there are some, data or suggestion that the zinc may help.

00:36:12.000 There are some studies that were done where the zinc has shown to slow down the replication of the RNA from the virus, intracellular replication.

00:36:23.000 So the zinc potentially may help, but there is no absolute data that says it does for the COVID-19.

00:36:31.000 But generally speaking, it may help.

00:36:33.000 So it's not going to hurt to take some zinc supplement.

00:36:37.000 Okay.

00:36:37.000 And there was some initial data that some anti-retroviral medication, HIV medications, were used with some success in treating the patients, but that's in the hospital.

00:36:49.000 Right.

00:36:50.000 Or anti-malarial medications such as Plaquemine, which is a hydroxychloroquine.

00:36:57.000 They've also used that in South Korea and in China to treat the severe cases.

00:37:03.000 Well I just read about that today and that's relatively new.

00:37:06.000 How does that work?

00:37:07.000 Like you're saying this anti-malaria medication because it seems like there's a lot of promise there and it's a little weird to me that they've been using it for a while overseas and it hasn't really been discussed until this current 24-hour news cycle.

00:37:20.000 There's some mechanism apparently the chloroquine or the hydroxychloroquine may assisting the transport of the zinc from extracellular to

00:37:29.000 intracellular where it is needed to stop the replication of the virus

00:37:35.000 But that might be the mechanism. I'm to be honest with you.

00:37:39.000 I'm not exactly sure right but But that's that may be the mechanism, but they have been

00:37:45.000 using it to some degree of success Correct

00:37:49.000 Wow.

00:37:50.000 At least the report from South Korea and China.

00:37:53.000 Well, I trust the report more from South Korea than China.

00:37:55.000 If it was only coming from China, I'd be like, I don't know. 0.99

00:37:58.000 South Korea, you know, guys make good phones.

00:38:02.000 I've never had Korean food that I didn't like.

00:38:07.000 You know, the Samsung Galaxy 7 exploding in people's faces.

00:38:10.000 You have to admit, that's one for you guys.

00:38:12.000 That was a little bit of a mess up.

00:38:12.000 But aside from that, We've had a pretty good relationship with them.

00:38:16.000 Alright, well, thank you so much, Doctor.

00:38:18.000 I know that you are a busy man, and you have a lot of patients to get to, so please, do take all precautions that you can to stay safe.

00:38:24.000 I know, I'm saying this.

00:38:25.000 You're the doctor.

00:38:27.000 And, you know, if there's anything that happens that's new that you think the public should really know about, please do let me know, or let them know, because people are desperate for information out there right now, and they're looking for non-politically charged sources to give us the straight story.

00:38:41.000 And I think that's very hard to come by right now, unfortunately.

00:38:45.000 Yes.

00:38:45.000 Well, thank you very much.

00:38:47.000 Sometimes he's a man of few words, and then sometimes he's a man of intense mockery.

00:38:50.000 Did you notice that?

00:38:51.000 He finds the words when he's mocking me.

00:38:53.000 For everyone watching right now, we really appreciate you taking the time, and we'll have some big announcements here coming from Mug Club and the kind of content that we'll be doing for everyone out there.

00:39:03.000 When everyone else is stepping back, I think we're going to be stepping up and Trying to make it worth your while, because we know that a lot of you are lonely out there, and we want to help with that as much as we can.

00:39:12.000 Thank you so much, Dr. Choi.

Louder with Crowder - March 20, 2020

#652 CORONAVIRUS SPECIAL! | Dr. Chris Choi Guests | Louder with Crowder

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