CNN-There is one area in which experts hope the virus will still behave like influenza, however, by tapering off in spring.
"This is a respiratory virus and they always give us trouble during cold weather, for obvious reasons," Nelson Michael, a leading US military medical researcher, said of the novel coronavirus last week. "We're all inside, the windows are closed, etcetera, so we typically call that the influenza or the flu season."
Influenza thrives in cold and dry conditions, which is why winter is flu season for much of the northern hemisphere. Behavioral differences in winter can also have an effect. Michael predicted the coronavirus may behave like the flu and give us "less trouble as the weather warms up," but, he cautioned, it could come back when the weather gets cold again.
What Trump actually said:
Trump, Feb. 10: Now, the virus that we’re talking about having to do — you know, a lot of people think that goes away in April with the heat — as the heat comes in. Typically, that will go away in April...so we're hopeful.
we're hopeful