last-minute notice to our program.

Can you -- Walk us through this, please.

-Well, first, I'll say one thing.

As a surgeon, I have learned in my career,

if you tell people the truth that's gonna hurt a little bit,

they get prepared...

So, there's a lot of good news out there,

but some of the information that we're getting is a little scary.

So I'll give you both sides. -Okay.

-And then I think people can act.

But the big message here is we can do this.

We've mobilized as a nation before.

We can, without any question, buy ourselves the time we need

for the public health system to get better,

for ERs to catch up to get enough ventilators,

for the government to figure out what they're going to do.

But only if the people who can hear my voice right now act,

are we gonna buy ourselves the time?

Because this pandemic is spreading so rapidly

that a lot of our leaders are of the belief

that we're gonna have most of the population of this country

infected within a year.

-Hmm. -Now, that's a problem.

But it's also a problem because we don't have the resources

to take care of half the people in the country.

So by slowing down transmission,

we completely change what the future can be.

-So we have to slow down the transmission.

That's our goal right now. What is coronavirus?

-So, there was a bat virus, we believe,

that got married to a virus

that's more comfortable in humans,

and those two viruses had kids,

and they sort of pieced it together,

and one of those kids had the ability

to infect us in ways we never imagined possible.

It probably happened around that wet market in Wuhan

that everyone talks about, but now this new virus

is something we've never seen before.

So no one actually recognized it.

Our immune system can't fight it off.

So we don't have any firewalls to protect us.

Thankfully, it doesn't seem to affect young people at all.

Most of your viewership, folks under the age of 60,

are gonna do just great with this thing.

There hasn't been a death in a kid under the age of 10.

-Oh, okay. -So fantastic.

It doesn't seem to hurt pregnant women quite as badly.

So that's all good news.

The bad news is that folks who are older --

Once you get past 60, if you have other illnesses,

hypertension, cardiovascular disease, diabetes,

lung problems, so if you smoke --

If you're smoking or vaping, please stop.

This is a good excuse.

-How can people not panic about this?

-Well, you don't panic for two reasons.

One, you help other people, which always works.

Do folks a favor,

and it takes a little bit of the pressure off you.

But if you actually know the facts --

What you fear the most is what you don't understand.

-You know what I did see that I really enjoyed?

I follow you on Instagram. @Dr-Oz.

You put up this what's called a survival protocol.

Check this out. This is really interesting.

If you want to, go to his Instagram, Dr. Oz's Instagram.

Or where else do you have this? On your website?

-It's at droz.com. It's -- We got stuff on YouTube.

But let me just explain something real quick.

I wanted people to have extra steps.

If there are things you can do,

you'll be perseverating in your mind,

ruminating about what's going on.

So there are lifestyle things you gotta do

like sleep and exercise.

There are things you gotta do in terms of hygiene.

When you wash your hands,

most people don't wash their hands right.

Show me how you wash your hands.

[ Laughter ]

That's terrible! -Right. Like that. Like this.

-No. I'm gonna show you how a surgeon washes their hands.

-Cool. -Because what --

You're washing the back of your wrists, right?

-Yeah. -That's not important.

It's your fingers that touch your face.

So, after you get the soap on your hands,

you do the Turkish twist.

You go like this. Rub the fingers in there.

-Okay. -Right?

And then you gotta do the Tony thumb, right?

Rub the fingers, the thumbs. Opposing digits.

Seriously. We learned this in medical school.

-I know. I just don't want to end up a meme.

-Okay. [ Laughter ]

And then grease the palm. Grease the palm.

-Yeah. -All right. Both sides.

That's 20 seconds.

Wash your hands, use the paper towel

to turn off the sink and to get the door open and exit.

-Really? -But if you do that,

that one issue by itself halves the chance

of you getting the coronavirus, we believe.

Just washing your hands. -Just washing your hands.

That's it. 'Cause I just -- This is good to know.

This is good stuff to know. And exercise?

-Exercise counts. You got to eat the right foods.

And you do have to stock up

because here's what's going to happen.

Let me paint the picture for you here.

So, everyone's traveling around.

They've been in public events over the last couple days,

so they may have already gotten the coronavirus.

So if you start to feel a high fever or a lot of lethargy,

tiredness with that. -Okay.

-If you have a dry cough -- or some people get diarrhea --

then there's a reasonable chance you got coronavirus.

So please don't go rushing off to the emergency room.

You'll completely overwhelm the system.

Just call your doc if you're worried.

-Stay home. -Stay home, though.

Just socially separate yourself from everybody else.

Social distancing is the entire solution here.

If we can just accomplish that one goal,

then we'll be over the top on this baby, because then we'll

be able to slow down the progression of this.

And I'm so optimistic about the treatments we're figuring out.

The work-around immunizations is progressing nicely.

It's all good news there, but you got to buy us time.

People watching right now can do that.

No one else can do it for you.

-Thank you so much for coming on.

You're a gentleman. Thank you. Dr. Oz, everybody.