Hello from the Heartland. My name is Jenna, and this is Smarter News, news when it matters and why it

matters. Our Smarter series features unique people who help us think and live smarter.

We constantly hear about COVID-19 as an invisible enemy.

So how can you gather the insight we need to fight an enemy that until recently we never heard about or even seen?

You turn to someone like our next guest, Dr. Michael Lynn, a doctor two times over.

He has a medical degree from

UCLA and a PhD from Harvard Medical School. He now is the principal investigator for Lynn Labs

at Stanford University's School of Medicine. Just plainly speaking, Dr. Lynn's specialty

includes examining things up close, like viruses, on the molecular

level. And that's how he's able to provide what I would describe as a forensic analysis of

COVID-19. He profiled the virus in a PowerPoint presentation entitled How to Fight the Coronavirus

SARS-CoV-2 and its disease, COVID-19. Let's start there. COVID-19 is the

disease. The virus that causes it is actually SARS-COV-2. But we're all just sort of using

COVID-19 casually. Dr. Lynn says we should think about this new coronavirus as the movie sequel to the virus that

causes SARS.

This sequel has some major similarities to the first.

In fact, it's 96% identical, but it also has some key differences.

And that's where we started our conversation.

Music some key differences. And that's where we started our conversation. Because there is a 96% similarity to the original SARS virus, what do you think the average

layperson should know about what that means for them

and how they should live accordingly to protect themselves in their family? Right. So, you know,

there are positive things from knowing that the viruses are similar. So those positive things are,

...