Talk Like a Pirate: As country reopens, COVID-19 cases rise
The majority of the United States has “reopened” following the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown. However, since Memorial Day weekend, COVID-19 cases have been on the rise.
“The slope of the curve is definitely going up again … it had flattened for a while,” said Dr. Rachel Roper, associate professor of microbiology and immunology in East Carolina University’s Brody School of Medicine. “You can look at the increase in the hospitalizations. Over the weekend (of June 20–21, 2020), North Carolina had its highest ever hospitalization rates.”
Roper recently sat down for a third interview on the ECU podcast, “Talk Like a Pirate.” Roper specializes in virology, genomics and vaccines. She said some people are confused about “herd immunity,” wanting COVID-19 to go through the United States so that we all become immune.
“That’s true, but we have 330 million people here. If the virus only kills 1% of people who get infected, that could be 3 million deaths in the U.S.,” Roper said. “We don’t want to go that route … we want to get herd immunity through vaccines.”
Roper was part of the team who worked on the SARS coronavirus outbreak in the early 2000s. She now finds herself working on a saliva test for SARS coronavirus 2 COVID-19 with faculty in the ECU School of Dental Medicine and a vaccine in the Brody School of Medicine.
ECU Brody School of Medicine associate professor of microbiology and immunology Dr. Rachel Roper is working on both a saliva test for COVID-19 and a vaccine for the potentially deadly virus. (Photo by Cliff Hollis)
“We (ECU) have a patent where we’ve removed a very highly immuno-suppressive gene,” Roper said. “If we clone those coronavirus genes into that vector … I think we could have a better vaccine than some of them that are being developed.”
Roper first appeared on “Talk Like a Pirate” in January when COVID-19 emerged in China. In the latest podcast, she shared information on what has been learned about the virus over the past five or six months. One thing she stressed is to not take this potentially deadly virus lightly or compare it to the seasonal flu.
“We can get between 5,000 and 60,000 deaths a year from influenza, depending on the year,” Roper said. “But for COVID-19, we’ve already had 120,000 deaths, and that’s with all of this great care and shutting down.”
Roper added that the upcoming flu season will be a challenge since COVID-19 and seasonal flu have similar symptoms.
She urges people to continue wearing a mask, especially when inside businesses and other buildings.
“If you’re on a sidewalk and somebody’s going to pass you … you can always step off the sidewalk so that you maintain the distance,” Roper said. “The other thing you can do is hold your breath when you walk by someone.”
Roper predicted this “new normal” surrounding COVID-19 will be around for the foreseeable future but is confident we will be able to eventually get the upper hand on the virus.
“It may take a few years to get the vaccine optimized. And this happened with polio too,” Roper said. “The vaccination strategy for polio was very complicated, but now we have a regimen to use for the whole world to eradicate the polio virus, but we’ve almost done it … because of the vaccination program … and I think with SARS coronavirus there’s no reason we can’t also do that, but it might take us a few years and some tweaking of the vaccine.”
Talk Like a Pirate
East Carolina University's podcast, Talk Like a Pirate, interviews ECU experts on various topics, including COVID-19, the vaping phenomenon, holiday stressors, politics and more.
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