Presidents and pandemics

Unexpected Elements

BBC

Science

4.4 • 570 Ratings

🗓️ 26 April 2020

⏱️ 78 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

President Trump has repeated unfounded claims that scientists created Covid-19 in a lab. Rigorous scrutiny of the genetics of the virus reveals no evidence for such a claim.

And Brazil’s President Bolsonaro is at odds with his own health advisors – splitting public opinion and action over lockdown measures needed to control the virus.

We also look at why Covid -19 seems to be associated with so many different symptoms, from diarrheal infections to complicating kidney disease, to heart attacks

And some potentially good news from HIV research, a new target to stop that virus in its tracks, which might also be useful in the fight against other viruses.

If you're an exercise fan, you'll know that sweating is how our bodies keep us cool, but how much water we lose and which bits of us get wettest depend on a whole host of factors.

Jamaican listener Andre wants to know why he sweats in a heart-shape when he hits the gym, and we find out how everything from the clothes he wears to the moves he's doing explain his unusual perspiration patterns.

In Kenya we meet a woman whose permanently clammy hands cause her to drop her mobile phone, and sweaty feet start to stink when she spends too long in shoes.

Hyperhidrosis is a condition affecting millions of people worldwide but an expert explains some of the treatments for this mysterious condition.

Image: President Trump (rhs) with Brazilian President Bolsonaro (lhs). (Photo by Alex Wong / Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Oh, hello. You have chosen a BBC podcast, but before you listen to it, we thought you might
0:04.7	like our podcast too. You might. You might. It is called Sightracked with me, Nick Grimshaw.
0:09.2	And me, Annie Mack. And we talk about the week in music. All the news, all the cultural
0:14.0	happenings in the UK and beyond. And great guests. And it's on BBC Sounds. Yes, where you can
0:19.7	also enjoy lots of playlists, music mixes and
0:22.6	live radio. Everything from my six music breakfast show to Radio 3 Unwind. But obviously start
0:29.2	with our podcast, sidetrack. Obviously. Obviously. So if you like music, listen on BBC Sounds.
0:34.2	This is The Science Hour from the BBC World Service with me, Roland P's.
0:39.2	And you know, the team here know no limits in their efforts to keep you informed.
0:45.0	I just want you to know that I'm doing my fair couch to 5K run.
0:52.8	And I hate it so much.
0:57.3	Marnie Chesserton has been working up a sweat on your behalf in order to investigate the
1:03.1	science of sweat. Hear her findings on crowd science in half an hour. Before that on science
1:09.4	and action, we're looking at the increasingly toxic fractures
1:12.7	opening up between politics and health, exposed as coronavirus spreads and spreads.
1:18.6	This is a political effort to cast blame on a country, and in this case in a lab. It's politicisation of science that's going to
1:29.8	hold up public health and it's going to kill people. That's really, really unfortunate and sad.
1:35.6	Politics and pandemics don't mix. There has been this trolling going on. Has any of it come to you?
1:42.4	Are you being affected by this politicisation?
1:46.0	Oh yeah. I mean, we're being attacked daily on the internet for our work. And it's misinformation.
1:53.7	It's very effective. People believe these ideas. There are well, you know, well-produced documentaries
1:59.3	based on this misinformation.
	...

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