‘It is miserable’: Doctor who consulted on the movie ‘Contagion’ reveals he has coronavirus
- Dr. W. Ian Lipkin revealed his coronavirus diagnosis on Fox Business while discussing the impact of the virus on society
- Lipkin pushed back against President Trump’s Easter deadline to reopen the U.S.
- Lipkin wants the U.S. to continue practicing social distancing to slow the spread
- Lipkin worked as a chief scientific consultant on the 2011 film Contagion
- The film is about doctors and health professionals who track a highly contagious lethal virus as it travels from Hong Kong to the U.S.
- In early March, Contagion moved from being Warner Bros’ 270th most popular to its second most popular
- Coronavirus symptoms: what are they and should you see a doctor?
A chief scientific consultant for the 2011 pandemic movie ‘Contagion’ has announced he has contracted coronavirus.
Dr. W. Ian Lipkin, the director of Columbia University’s Center for Infection and Immunity, went on the Fox Business Network on Tuesday to discuss the coronavirus pandemic and he revealed his own diagnosis.
He said on Lou Dobbs Tonight: ‘I would just like to say, on this show tonight, that this has become very personal to me too because I have COVID as of yesterday. It is miserable, it is miserable.’
He added: ‘If it can hit me, it can hit anybody. That’s the message I want to convey.’
Dr. W. Ian Lipkin announced his coronavirus diagnosis during an interview on Tuesday on the Fox Business Network
Lipkin pushed back against the idea of rushing people back into public too soon, opting for a more cautious approach to reintegration.
Lipkin worked as the lead medical advisor for the Contagion, a film where doctors and medical researchers scramble to track a highly contagious, lethal virus as it moves from Hong Kong to the United States.
As coronavirus began to spread through the U.S. in early March, the movie’s popularity soared. Contagion shot up from Warner Bros’ 270 most watched film to the company’s second.
In his interview, during which he coughed several times, Lipkin expressed the effectiveness of social distancing in tamping down the impact of coronavirus.
‘With respect to what we were talking about in terms of Easter, we really don’t know when we’re going to get this under control,’ Lipkin said.
The 2011 movie ‘Contagion’ is about doctors and medical researchers who scramble to contain a lethal virus that quickly spreads around the globe
‘What New York, Chicago and Washington have done has been very, very helpful and I would like to see that implemented broadly across the United States.’
President Donald Trump has said he wants the country ‘open by Easter’ to stimulate the country’s sagging economy and get things back to normal.
During a Tuesday townhall on Fox News, Trump said: ‘We lose thousands and thousands of people a year to the flu. We don’t turn the country off.’
Lipkin warns against opening the country back up and instead wants the U.S. to take a more conservative approach to fighting coronavirus.
‘It’s extraordinarily important that we harmonize whatever restrictions we have across the country because we have porous borders between states, between cities, and unless we’re consistent, we’re not going to get ahead of this thing,’ Lipkin said.
‘The very best tool we have is isolation and confinement. We need to protect ourselves.’