COLUMBUS, Ohio- Every Wednesday, Dr. Iahn Gonsenhauser from OSU's Wexner Medical Center will be answering viewer questions.

QUESTION: You hear that the warmth of spring and especially summer will weaken the virus. Is this true, and how? Conversely, would a cold snap kill the virus on the surface of things?

ANSWER: "There's reason to believe based on past data from other coronaviruses, as well as the flu and other viruses, that warm weather, spring, and summer, does reduce the number of cases that we see, but given that this is new, there's no way to know that until we go through it. As far as cold weather killing a virus on surfaces, we don't have a lot of great data that would suggest that."

QUESTION: How does rainfall affect the virus? Is it likely to wash the virus away, or does it have any impact at all?

ANSWER: "There's really no evidence that I've seen that an increase in rainfall would have any impact on virus load or virus transmissions."

QUESTION: "Could you please explain the progression of symptoms? What can we expect the first week of symptoms as opposed to the second week? How many weeks can symptoms last, and if we are sick, when can we feel like we are out of the woods for going to the hospital?

ANSWER: "Typically for most people, they're going to experience a mild viral illness, something like a regular cold, maybe with some more aches and pains, similar to the flu. That's lasting 3-5 days, and then they're starting to feel better. If you start to have symptoms that last longer than that and you start to have an increased difficulty breathing, that's when we really get concerned. If your fever is unremitting or doesn't get any better with Tylenol, that's another time we would get concerned. If that's lasting more than 3-4 or 3-5 days, then I would get on the phone with your primary care physician and try and get an opinion. What we see when this is really concerning is when this progresses into what's called Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome, which is kind of the worst thing that can happen in this. It happens very rarely, but what you would see is really an increased difficulty with breathing."

QUESTION: "How will respirators increase survival rates in COVID-19 cases? Are they more effective with this disease? What percentage of COVID-19 patients on respirators survive?"

ANSWER: "So respirator... we talk about different masks in different ways, and one of the things we talk about is a respirator mask, and that's the N95 mask we've heard about. That's the special mask that filters particulates out of the air and allows you to breath safely for something that is an airborne transmitter. Some people use respirator and ventilator, a piece of equipment that supports a critical care patient, that supports their breathing. Some people refer to that as a respirator, but really that is what we call a ventilator. A ventilator is a machine that helps you breathe when you are very, very sick."

If you have anything you would like for Dr. Gonsenhauser to answer, be sure to send us your question. 

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You can catch Dr. Gonsenhauser's answers every Wednesday,​ beginning at 6 a.m. You can also follow him on social media @DrGTheMD.

Wexner Medical Center is continuing to update their blog with helpful articles.