Yong Poovorawan

"In six months, it's impossible to produce a vaccine against the (COVID-19) coronavirus. It takes a year to develop a vaccine. As for Thailand, we have no staff, no people who are experts in this field. But we expect that China will be able to develop a vaccine within one year. The best we can do is to treat patients based on their symptoms and diagnosis, and develop examination methods which are rapid and accurate."

"Take a look at the death toll now (as of 5 February 2020 due to the COVID-19 outbreak), there are almost no children. A nine-month-old baby is the youngest known patient, and the baby's still alive. The youngest patients who died are about 30 years old. Most of them have congenital diseases, such as brain disorders, heart diseases, lung diseases, diabetes or cancer. There are patients who are over 80 years old. At first, more than half of them were over 80 years old. Many cases are 89. If you ask me, some 89-year-old people happen to fall and die. So, don't panic about the number of fatalities. A majority of them have congenital diseases, pneumonia or influenza. Their depth of breathing is lower than normal, and there's a possibility that they want to eliminate excess phlegm. This can pose a life-threatening risk. Most fatalities are not young people. There's not much difference from the common influenza. If people who are 89 or 90 years old have influenza, that's not good."