Peter Hotez:

Well, thanks for having me on.

Unfortunately, because this is a new virus agent, there's more we don't know than we do know. We think it's highly likely that this virus is transmitted by what we call droplet contact. By that, somebody sneezes or coughs and releases micro -droplets into the air that either land on surfaces that people will touch with their hands and bring to their face, or the droplets will directly contact to the face, and they will rub that into their mucous membranes of their eyes and nose.

That's probably a highly likely mode of transmission that we see with other respiratory viruses.

Is it also airborne? So many people are surprised to learn that most respiratory viruses are not airborne, by that, being on small particles in the air that can travel for several feet or meters. It turns out that not many viruses do that. We know measles does it. That's one of the reasons why it's so highly contagious, why chicken pox virus does it, why that's so contagious.

We think there's a possibility this may also be true of this coronavirus, in part because so many people are getting infected so quickly. It has a very high what we call reproductive number of up to four. That means up to four people get infected if a single individual has it.