Eduardo Gómez Joins BBC's Good Morning Scotland for Coronavirus Interview

The associate professor in Lehigh's College of Health joined Saturday's edition of the radio program.

Story by

Stephen Gross

An illustration reveals ultrastructural morphology exhibited by coronaviruses

An illustration reveals ultrastructural morphology exhibited by coronaviruses. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Saturday’s edition of BBC Radio’s Good Morning Scotland featured Eduardo Gómez, associate professor in Lehigh’s new College of Health.

Gómez joined the program for an eight-minute interview in which Isabel Fraser asked him a range of questions about the current situation of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States.

He began by saying fragmentation is an ongoing issue in response to the coronavirus, but it’s something that has historically been an issue with diseases such as HIV/AIDS. Currently, Gomez said, the main problem in the United States seems to be conflicting views between scientists and President Donald Trump.

Gómez mentioned ongoing problems with COVID-19 testing within the United States and notes scientists have been encouraging the president and the Trump Administration to do more testing. Gomez also acknowledged that Trump has with time become more open to suggestions from the scientific community.

“Recently, Trump and his administration have listened more to the scientists in terms of delaying the opening of the economy,” Gómez said. “So, now ...Trump has gone on record as stating that May 1 [would be a new target date], and possibly further along if we still do not feel comfortable, and that’s certainly different from what he said previously when he was emphasizing the need to open up right away during the Easter period. So there is some suggestion that he is listening more towards the scientific data and the scientists’ recommendations opening up later.”

The full episode can be heard on the BBC’s website with Gómez introduced at the 1:13:35 mark.

Story by

Stephen Gross