Summary
This is the remarkable story of how the UK’s Recovery Trial saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of Covid patients.
It was set up in nine days, after a conversation on the number 18 bus. Within 100 days it had found the first life-saving drug. This trial has united thousands of doctors, the NHS and 40,000 patients, at the scariest moments of their lives, changing the pandemic, and possibly medicine, forever.
We speak to Oxford professors Martin Landray and Peter Horby who devised the Recovery Trial, and to some of the doctors and patients who helped make it happen.
PRESENTER: James Gallagher PRODUCERS: Geraldine Fitzgerald & Beth Eastwood
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, you're about to listen to a BBC podcast, and I'm Ed Gamble, host of another BBC podcast, |
| 0:05.4 | The Traitors Uncloaked. But my show is available only on BBC Sounds, just like Ellis and John's |
| 0:10.6 | Saturday bonus episodes, the Pop Top Ten podcast with Scott Mills and Ryland, and comedy specials |
| 0:16.2 | from the likes of Harriet Kemsley, Susie Ruffel and Rommas Shranger Nathan. However, and maybe I'm biased, it's really all about the traitors uncloked. |
| 0:24.3 | So for a whole bunch of exclusive scoops and podcasts, listen only on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:29.9 | Hello everyone and welcome to a very special Inside Health podcast with me, James Galaher, |
| 0:35.4 | because I have a remarkable and true story to tell you. |
| 0:38.8 | It's a story of hope amid the despair of the pandemic. |
| 0:42.0 | It's the story that united the NHS and 40,000 COVID patients during their scariest moments. |
| 0:49.1 | It's the story of how the UK's recovery trial saved hundreds of thousands of lives around the world. |
| 0:55.6 | A promising new treatment for seriously ill COVID patients. |
| 0:59.5 | Researchers discovered that combining an arthritis drug with a steroid could cut deaths by up to a half. |
| 1:06.0 | The recovery trial was set up in days. |
| 1:08.5 | It's delivered answers on the treatments for COVID. It's unrivaled |
| 1:12.4 | anywhere in the world and truly is one for the history books. It was devised by Oxford professors |
| 1:18.4 | Martin Landry and Peter Holby. One, a master of large-scale clinical trials who felt the weight |
| 1:24.4 | of the world on his shoulders. The other, a preeminent expert in new and emerging infections, |
| 1:29.3 | who'd seen decades of failure in previous outbreaks and pandemics. |
| 1:34.3 | We'll speak to both of them in a minute, |
| 1:36.3 | but first, I need you to hold the idea of randomisation in your mind, |
| 1:40.3 | because you don't give every single potential therapy to everybody. Only some |
| 1:46.4 | people get the drug on the trial and others are treated as normal. That choice is made by random |
... |
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