Some good characterization, and an interesting angle to simply have the initial interview be the main scene.
One thing I would point out, though, is that if literally the only thing someone tells you about the new virus is that it is a coronavirus, "common cold" is a great guess. Coronaviruses (mostly 229E, NL63, OC43, and NKU1 ) cause about 20% of colds, and the majority of coronaviruses cause colds. SARS is a particular strain of coronavirus that hit in 2002, caused about 800 deaths, and hasn't been seen since 2004.
It would actually be downright silly of him to guess it's like SARS with no information other than "Corona virus!" since any random coronavirus is far more likely to be a non-deadly cold-causing variety. In general, people don't jump to rare specifics vs. general likelihood. (It's like if someone asked you to guess a neighbor's favorite pet, you'd likely guess dogs or cats. But you probably wouldn't guess Abyssinian or Rottweiler without further clues.)
It's an easy fix, just have a character mention that this particular strain leads to sudden respiratory attacks/people have died before he suggests what it is like. Then the character has something to narrow it down and move his guess from what is common to what fits the profile. [Although there wouldn't be any reason for him to pick SARS over MERS without further clues.) Otherwise, you are asking the reader to use meta-information they know about Covid-19 vs. what the character would know about it.
