Fighting Coronavirus: Is Social Distancing Enough? | 7

American Innovations

Wondery

Steven Johnson, History, Kids & Family, Education For Kids, Science

4.6 • 4.1K Ratings

🗓️ 5 May 2020

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

If we really want to reopen our economy, we need to do more than just flatten the curve. In the words of Dr. Jim Kim, the former president of the World Bank, we need to “start coming down the mountain.” And to do that, Dr. Kim says there is only one valid solution: “contact tracing,” one of the most low-tech and labor-intensive weapons in our public health arsenal.

On this week’s episode, Steven talks to Dr. Kim about how he convinced Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker to invest in contact tracing when other governors wouldn’t even return his calls, and why contact tracing is the best way to contain the spread of Covid-19.

New episodes of “Fighting Coronavirus” will publish here every Tuesday, or you can listen and subscribe at https://wondery.com/shows/fighting-coronavirus/.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Prime Members, you can listen to American Innovations,
0:03.6	Add Free on Amazon Music, download the app today.
0:07.0	From Wondery, I'm Stephen Johnson, and this is Fighting Coronavirus.
0:30.0	I think it's safe to say we've learned a lot of new terms since the start of this pandemic,
0:46.6	flattening the curve, social distancing, but one term that's being thrown around a lot
0:51.8	these days is contact tracing.
0:53.8	Now, it sounds like something from a science fiction film, but it's a concept that has
0:58.2	been a pillar of public health for decades.
1:02.0	Contact tracing is a process that public health officials use to track down everyone and
1:06.0	infected person has been in contact with so that they can also be tested.
1:11.3	This allows us to get ahead of this spreading virus, warning people who may be carriers,
1:16.1	and quarantining them if they test positive for the virus.
1:19.6	Combined with social distancing and sheltering in place, it's the difference between being
1:23.8	on defense and going on offense against COVID-19.
1:28.3	And there's no better person to talk about contact tracing than our guest today, Dr. Jim
1:33.7	Kim.
1:34.7	He's a physician and anthropologist who led the WHO's response to HIV and AIDS, and then
1:40.6	as the 12th President of the World Bank took on cholera in Haiti, in Ebola, in West Africa.
1:46.6	He's also the co-founder of the wonderful nonprofit Partners in Health, where he led the
1:51.1	fight against drug-resistant tuberculosis in the developing world.
1:55.3	And now he's helping the state of Massachusetts deploy an extensive contact tracing program
2:01.0	and fighting our new common enemy with one of public health's oldest weapons.
	...

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