Coronapod: The race to expand antibody testing
Nature Podcast
podcast@nature.com
4.5 • 893 Ratings
🗓️ 24 April 2020
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Benjamin Thompson, Noah Baker, and Amy Maxmen discuss the role of antibody tests in controlling the pandemic, and how public-health spending could curtail an economic crisis. Also on the show, the open hardware community's efforts to produce medical equipment.
In this episode:
02:08 Betting on antibodies
Antibody tests could play a key role in understanding how the virus has spread through populations, and in ending lockdowns. We discuss concerns over their reliability, how they could be used, and the tantalising possibility of immunity.
News: The researchers taking a gamble with antibody tests for coronavirus
10:25 Economy vs public health, a false dichotomy
Jim Yong Kim, former president of the World Bank, argues that strong investment in public health is crucial to halt the ongoing pandemic and to prevent a global financial crisis. We discuss his work with US governors to massively increase contact tracing, and his thoughts on how researchers can help steer political thinking.
News Q&A: Why the World Bank ex-chief is on a mission to end coronavirus transmission
19:00 One good thing this week
Our hosts talk about staying positive, and pick a few things that have made them smile in the last 7 days, including a tiny addition to the team, a newspaper produced by children in lockdown, and a gardening update.
Six Feet of Separation, the newspaper staffed by kids
22:51 Open hardware
Researchers are stepping up efforts to design and produce ventilators and personal protective equipment for frontline medical staff. We hear how the open hardware movement is aiding these efforts, and the regulations that teams need to consider if their designs are to make it into use.
Technology Feature: Open science takes on the coronavirus pandemic
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to CoronaPod. |
| 0:03.3 | In this show, we're going to bring you nature's take on the latest COVID-19 developments. |
| 0:09.1 | And we'll be speaking to experts around the world about research during the pandemic. |
| 0:15.4 | I really don't know how this plays out. |
| 0:17.4 | We also don't know a ton about this virus. |
| 0:20.0 | So there's so many open questions. I just have a really hard time making predictions because I don't know how the |
| 0:25.2 | outbreak is going to change. Welcome to episode six of Corona Pot. I'm Benjamin Thompson, once |
| 0:35.0 | more in the South London basement. And today, my recording studio is being used for its actual and original purpose as a clothes drying vehicle. So I am surrounded by laundry, but I'm joined once again by Noah Baker and Amy Maxman. Noah and Amy, hi. Hi. Hello. How are we all doing this week? |
| 1:00.4 | I'm doing okay. I have to say the news is, it's bumming me out. The news is bumming me out. |
| 1:05.1 | So today, there's just been some announcements, which I find interesting from the UK government. |
| 1:26.2 | I was just watching another press briefing. And Matt Hancock, our health secretary, has just announced that we are going to be hiring 18,000 people to do contact tracing and extending all of the testing capacity to every essential worker and their families, which they can apply for by tomorrow, I think, which seemed like a big step forward. |
| 1:28.2 | I can't help but wonder whether or not they're doing this to distract from the fact that they haven't managed to get to their 100,000 |
| 1:32.6 | tests a day target that they promised a little while ago. But I'm interested in particular |
| 1:36.6 | that they are saying they're going to really start pushing contact tracing. |
| 1:39.6 | Well, that's excellent news. You know, like a similar here, Massachusetts has launched. They've already put |
| 1:44.8 | $44 million into a budget to hire a thousand contact tracers. Ohio's talking about it, New York |
| 1:51.5 | City, New Jersey. I've seen a few of announcements like this. And the CDC just put out a guidance |
| 1:57.6 | about, you know, what the essentials are for contact tracing. So, |
| 2:01.9 | you know, as you know, I've been hollering about this since like the beginning of the outbreak, |
| 2:06.5 | but it's great that we're catching on. And I think one thing that goes with this sort of |
| 2:11.0 | increase in contact tracing is a particular type of testing that is becoming a bit of a hot |
| 2:16.2 | button topic at the moment. And I know we've |
... |
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