And as the virus makes its way across the nation, how do you tell communities to prepare without creating panic here tonight?

Debra Roberts Uncertain times.

Driving some to extreme measures Austin based Mirror Safety says their military grade gas masks and has Matt suits are in high demand regular people.

We're looking for ways to protect themselves in case this becomes a much bigger threat.

The reality.

We don't need.

Gas masks.

We don't need HAZ mat suits.

Are people going too far to be buying HAZ mat suits and masks in large quantities?

No one's recommending that people buy respirators.

Which of those blue mask that you see certainly has Matt suits. 00:00:56.480 --> 00:01:3.460 That is certainly overboard when you hear public health officials say everything's fine, don't panic. 00:01:3.550 --> 00:01:8.960 I think it runs the risk of being dismissive and actually causing people to panic. 00:01:9.030 --> 00:01:11.580 It's very important to say we don't know.

You have this chronic high level of anxiety over.

Am I going to get infected with Corona virus?

You have people going out trying to stockpile on masks, trying thio, stockpiling food for months.

We just get Dr Food and a lot of that falls and food the end of the line for the 12 paper right here in some parts of the country.

Endless lines and empty shelves.

A new reality.

We're seeing price gouging, things like $100 for a bottle of pure on Amazon Amazon, now vowing to crack down on price gougers blocking seller's accounts.

This is hysteria.

It's only going to make people panic more. 00:01:53.970 --> 00:02:1.150 Controlling the hysteria with sound communication with facts is going to be very important. 00:02:1.730 --> 00:02:13.880 About 83% of people who are infected with Corona virus and symptomatic have mild disease or mild illness, so you could be walking around carrying the virus and not even know it.

Dr.

Sarah Madonna is a pathogens specialist who studies deadly viruses.

How do you think it landed on U.

S soil?

We live in a highly globalized society, so you could have had an individual that has a travel history to one of the EPI centers that has traveled here in the United States.

And that may have started the community transmission.

Scientists now suspect that this Corona virus started to spread in the United States over a month ago, were their missteps in the beginning and trying to diagnose this illness.

Do you think, I think that it's no secret that we were sort of caught flat footed here?

We should have had testing capabilities and infrastructure in place sooner, some experts have said. 00:02:55.850 --> 00:03:3.350 We've probably lost about three weeks in terms of our overall preparedness and surveillance that lead to questions about who is infected. 00:03:7.540 --> 00:03:14.240 If everybody panics and everybody starts pointing fingers, Italians, we won't go to the Italian restaurant.

We won't go to the Chinese restaurant like that is the kind of disruption suffering that could impact many more people that's already happening.

Walks are cold, tables empty.

China Town deserted.

This restaurant owner in New York City's Chinatown says business is down.

About 50% is empty.

People are very concerned.

We understand their feelings, but actually hurting.

That's too.

And yesterday it escalated to this disturbing Facebook video of an Asian man being sprayed with air freshener on a New York City subway.

Police investigating it as a hate crime.

It's normal for some people to be scared. 00:03:56.110 --> 00:04:5.300 It's critically important to be able to respond to a public health crisis based on fact and not fear and evidence and not emotion. 00:04:5.430 --> 00:04:13.700 So various states are, you know, either canceling mass gatherings or doing different things to help reduce the transmission in their particular community.

Just hours ago, the famous South by Southwest festival worth more than $300 million to Austin taxes canceled.

There's a very sad day for me today because we just had to cancel our roads.

Classic Sports and Fitness Festival Arnold Schwarzenegger postponing his hugely popular annual fitness festival.

We want to keep people safe.

We want to keep people healthy, your best advice of people who are just right now fearful.

I would say Let's ramp down that the overall panic, that we're all going to die and that this is going to be the next plague and really focus our attention on our concerns for the very vulnerable among us.

We're all in this together.

Thes outbreaks kind of show us our common humanity, and we really do need to fight them as a species. 00:05:2.190 --> 00:05:5.510 Debra Roberts reporting tonight and so many of your questions coming in. 00:05:5.510 --> 00:05:6.570 One of the main questions. 00:05:6.570 --> 00:05:8.210 When do you get tested for this? 00:05:8.280 --> 00:05:13.730 Which temperature 100.4 to, at the very least, call your doctor and possibly get tested?

And so many other questions coming in tonight about pregnant women?

How can they protect themselves if you get the virus ones?

Can you get it again?

And how many people here in America might have caught this without even knowing?

We'll get to all that coming up?

Hi, everyone.

George Stephanopoulos here.

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