Welcome to Sigma Nutrition Radio. You are listening to episode 332 of the podcast. And as ever,

I am your host, Danny Lennon. Today, we're going to be revisiting the topic of COVID-19 and the

SARS-CoV-2 virus that is currently affecting all of us worldwide in some manner. And a few

months ago, we had Rizwan Sohal on the show to discuss where we were in terms of understanding

of the virus itself at the time. And that discussion happened in mid-March. And so here we are

about two months later in the middle of May, where it seems

like a good time to see where things lie based on the data that has been accumulated

over the past couple of months. And given that many countries around the world have been

in strict lockdowns in some form or another for

the past few months, it's probably now a good time to look at some of the social factors involved

here, some of the economic factors involved here, and try and weigh up what the next steps

and this process looks like going forward

in that now that lockdowns have been enforced for a period of time there's been some degree of

suppression of the virus depending on which country we're talking about the tougher and more complex

issues is how do we start opening things back up? At what point do we do that?

How is that done? What are the ramifications? And then also how do we deal with the economic

fallout over the next number of months and years to try and pull back to some degree of

normality? And these are not easy questions to answer. And hopefully we'll

be able to cover some of that into today's discussion. Joining me on the podcast is Professor Sam

Mokonki, who is a medical doctor and researcher based here in Ireland, who specializes in the prevention and control of infectious diseases.

Currently he's assistant professor and head of the Department of International Health and Tropical Medicine at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.

He is also a consultant in general medicine, tropical medicine and infectious diseases at Beaumont

...