John Oliver explains the coronavirus, apportions blame, offers practical advice

John Oliver on coronavirus
(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/Last Week Tonight)

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) wasn't wrong last week that the new COVID-19 coronavirus would hit the U.S., John Oliver said on Sunday's extremely topical Last Week Tonight. There are now several dozen confirmed cases and two deaths in the U.S., "the stock market taken it's biggest one-week dive since 2008, and many Americans have questions about how to stay safe."

Oliver started with "the very basics" about COVID-19, the new strain of coronavirus. "Symptoms include fever, cough, and shortness of breath, and preliminary estimates are that is has around a 2 percent mortality rate," which would be about 20 times higher than the seasonal flu. "The good news is that around 80 percent of those who get this virus have mild symptoms," he said, but "the bad news is that means they are more likely to spread it without even realizing. That is one of the things that makes this so dangerous, and why, even though its mortality rate is much lower than that of SARS or MERS, this virus has already killed three times as many people." One estimate is that up to 70 percent of humanity will become infected with the virus in the next year.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.