Coronavirus and business travel Biopharma EHS

Hello everybody and welcome back to another Episode of the BioPharma EH&S Podcast, my name is Dean Calhoun of Affygility Solutions and this is the podcast dedicated to discussing critical environmental, health and safety issues facing the biopharma industry, helping you take your environmental, health and safety programs to the next level.
Well, it’s Wednesday, January 29th, 2020, and I’m excited to be back today recording today. We have full show for today and a lot of great things to talk about, so let’s go ahead and get started.
As always I like to mention what are we going to discuss in today’s podcast. In today’s podcast, we’re going to talk about the following topics.
First, I’ll briefly cover what we talked about last time in episode number 26 and then we will cover our main topic for today – which is an interview with Mark Cunningham-Hill where we will discuss the coronavirus and precautions that business travelers should take and other precautions in general when traveling on business internationally. Then finally, after the interview, we will discuss events and happenings of interest to the EH&S professional’s in the biopharma industry.
In our last episode, episode 26, we had an interview with Dave Eherts. Dave is the Vice President of Global EH&S for Allergan, and back in October, 2019 Dave was honored by the National Association for Environmental Management with NAEM’s Lifetime Achievement Award. It was a great interview and lasted about 25 minutes, so if that is something that interests you I suggest you go back to episode 26 and listen to the whole interview.
Alright, so without further delay, let’s get started with our main interview. With me on the line is Dr. Mark Cunningham-Hill, President of Worldwide Health Consulting, LLC. Mark has 30 years of global experience leading large multinational’s responses to pandemics such as avian flu, SARS, MERS and Zika.
 The last time we had Mark on the podcast was back in May of 2017, so I will let Mark add some additional details.
Dean
We have heard a lot on the news recently about this new coronavirus from Wuhan, China. From what you know, what is the latest situation? Mark:
I will run through key facts # cases, deaths, countries – p2p spread etc Key actions taken by China, other countries and businesses so far Warning about false stories on social media … it IS NOT a deliberate plot by the pharmaceutical companies to sell more vaccines!  Dean:
I gather MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) , SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) and this new virus are all coronaviruses – how similar are they? Mark:
I will cover similarities, differences and inferences we can make from the previous SARS and MERS Source of disease  - bats, camels and wild food markets… Dean:
I have seen reference to the R0 number for this new virus what does it mean Mark
The R naught is the basic reproduction number ……….. give explanation and range for SARS and measles Dean:
How is the virus spread and how can you protect yourself from getting the disease? Mark:
…………witchcraft 😊 ……… ? a symptomless transmission Talk through prevention Dean:
Are there any vaccines or antivirals that work? Mark
Talk about no vaccines but with genetic code (for test) and virus isolated work starting on developing a vaccine … but ……………… Dean:
Coronavirus and precautions business travelers should take? Mark:
Talk about following company CDC travel guidance Hand washing Avoiding sick people etc…. ………… Letting people know where you are … Dean you are off to Nepal in March and you came across a great resource – do you want to tell the listeners about this resource Dean:
STEP Program Mark what other resources are out there? Mark
CDC and other travel websites Corporate travel companies such as ISOS and Travax Dr Google …. With caveats! Dean:
What do you think will happen over the next