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Science Friday

COVID-19 Factcheck, Digital Earth Day, City Nature Challenge, Ancient Antarctic Forest. April 17, 2020, Part 2

Science Friday

Science Friday and WNYC Studios

Science, Life Sciences, Wnyc, Natural Sciences, Friday

4.4 • 6.3K Ratings

🗓️ 17 April 2020

⏱️ 47 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Can Coronavirus Reactivate In Patients After Recovery? These days, newsfeeds are overloaded with stories of the coronavirus, but Science Friday continues to explain the science behind COVID-19 headlines. Here, we learn about South Korea reports of 116 patients who recovered from the disease tested positive. Angela Rasmussen, associate research scientist and virologist at the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, breaks down how reactivation works in viruses in diseases such as herpes. Plus, Rasmussen talks about human challenge trials—where participants are given a vaccine and inoculated with a virus—and the debate over the usage of these trials to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. Earth Day Goes Digital Next Wednesday is the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, marking five decades of environmental actions, like community cleanup, planting trees, or marching in the streets.  But this year, coronavirus has led to the cancellation of planned marches and large-scale events. Instead, many people will be participating in a digital Earth Day. Ira talks to Kathleen Rogers, president of the Earth Day Network about what people can do to participate, parallels between climate change and coronavirus, and environmental action in the age of the Trump administration.  Uncovering Antarctica's Rainforest Scientists found 90 million-year-old evidence that Antarctica wasn’t always a snow-covered continent. New ice core research provides evidence that the frozen land was once a temperature rainforest. Marine geologist Johann Klages, an author on the study, discusses what temperature the Earth would need to be to support such an environment in Antarctica, and how that can be used to create more accurate climate models.  Show Off Your Backyard Birds And Bugs Get involved in Citizen Science Month by snapping pictures of nature from your backyard with City Nature Challenge.

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is Science Friday. I'm Ira Plato. Later in the hour, we'll talk about the 50th anniversary

0:05.9

of Earth Day. It's next Wednesday and due to coronavirus. It'll be a digital day of action.

0:12.7

Just to note that we won't be taking your calls during this pre-recorded hour of the show.

0:17.4

First up, as the COVID-19 pandemic progresses, so does the speculation, the glut of data,

0:24.7

articles and studies coming out about the virus. With all the stories coming out on Twitter and

0:30.0

Facebook and social media, it can be hard to sort through the fact from the rumor. So we want to

0:36.2

help you fact-check your feed and sort through the

0:38.9

stories. Last week, there was a story about the risk of runners and bikers spreading the virus.

0:44.1

And this week, a report from South Korea about the reactivation of the virus in COVID-19 patients.

0:51.8

So how do these stories hold up? And what do they really tell us? My next guest is here

0:57.4

to help us sort out the details, Dr. Angela Rasmussen, assistant research scientist, and

1:03.4

virologist at the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health. Dr. Rasmussen, thanks for joining us

1:08.9

again. Thanks for having me back, Ira.

1:11.7

Can we start with the South Korea item where there were 116 patients who reported recovery from COVID-19, but later tested positive?

1:21.6

There's this idea that the virus was reactivated in them.

1:25.4

What could be happening there?

1:27.4

I'm not clear that these so-called reactivations now are that much different than what a

1:33.0

couple weeks ago people were reporting as reinfection. In all of these cases, there have

1:38.2

been these reports that are not supported by data from what I have seen in any case that

1:43.9

suggests that patients who have tested

1:46.2

negative are then testing positive. You know, I certainly can't rule out the possibility that

1:51.8

these patients are actually being reinfected or that the virus is somehow reactivating from

...

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