Is coronavirus 'worse' than flu?

Beyond Today

BBC

News

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 12 March 2020

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The world is in the midst of a pandemic. For most people, symptoms of the virus are mild, they might develop a cough and a fever before getting better. This has led many people to compare the new coronavirus to seasonal influenza. But, for a minority of those affected, particularly older people and those with underlying heart or lung conditions, the new coronavirus can cause severe difficulty breathing, and in about 1% of cases, death. Infectious diseases expert, Dr Nathalie MacDermott tells Matthew Price how seasonal flu compares to pandemics past and present, why Trump’s travel ban won’t work and the lessons she’s learned from the front line of Ebola. We also speak to a British man in isolation in Wuhan, China about his experience of the virus. Presenter: Matthew Price Produced by Rory Galloway and Lucy Hancock Mixed by Emma Crowe Edited by Philly Beaumont

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.
0:04.6	Hello, I'm Matthew Price.
0:08.3	This is Beyond Today from BBC Radio 4, where we ask one big question about one big story.
0:14.0	Today is coronavirus worse than flu. Good afternoon everybody and thank you very much for coming. I've just
0:38.4	chaired a meeting of the government's emergency committee including
0:41.8	ministers from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
0:45.6	And it's clear that coronavirus COVID-19 continues and will continue to spread across the world and our country over the next few months.
0:56.0	We've done what can be...
0:58.0	So a few minutes before we recorded this, the Prime Minister kind of answered our question. I've got to be clear we
1:04.4	all want to be clear this is the worst public health crisis for a generation. Some people
1:10.4	compare it to seasonal flu.
1:13.7	Alas, that is not right.
1:16.3	Owing to the lack of immunity,
1:20.0	this disease is more dangerous.
1:22.4	And it's going to spread further and I must level with you,
1:27.1	level with the British public, more families, many more families are going to lose loved ones before their time.
1:39.0	But why?
1:40.8	We're going to work through that in this episode. If you're not freaking out to yourself,
1:46.0	you probably know somebody who is. The numbers are changing all the time, but at the time
1:50.8	that we're recording this podcast, we now have two more people who've died after
1:55.4	testing positive for coronavirus.
1:57.8	So the total number of deaths in the UK is now 10.
	...

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