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EPIDEMIC with Dr. Celine Gounder

S1E21 / Are Antibodies the Holy Grail? / Kaitlyn Sadtler & Matt Memoli

EPIDEMIC with Dr. Celine Gounder

KFF Health News and Just Human Productions

Science, #Coronavirus, Health & Fitness, #Smallpox, Documentary, #Covid19, #Sarscov2, #Eradication, Life Sciences, Society & Culture, #Covid, Medicine

4.61K Ratings

🗓️ 19 May 2020

⏱️ 25 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

“A lot of people don't realize this, but there are other cold-inducing coronaviruses that give us the common cold that we've all had in our lives, and some of those coronaviruses can give you antibodies that would give a positive test on some SARS-CoV-2, COVID tests.” – Dr. Matt Memoli In this episode, co-hosts Dr. Celine Gounder and Ron Klain discuss the science of the immune response and the role antibodies can play in how the immune system responds to an infection. They talk with Kaitlyn Sadtler, PhD, an investigator at the National Institutes of Health, and Dr. Matt Memoli, director of the Lab of Infectious Diseases Clinical Studies Unit at the National Institutes of Health, about how the body builds immunity to future infections, as well as how scientists determine how long such immunity will last. Does someone who has experienced a COVID-19 infection acquire lasting immunity to the virus? Matt and Kaitlyn also discuss their own research and how it can help better determine the spread of coronavirus infection in the United States, as well as better understand whether the presence of antibodies confers immunity against future COVID-19 infections. This podcast was created by Just Human Productions. We're powered and distributed by Simplecast. We're supported, in part, by listeners like you. #SARSCoV2 #COVID19 #COVID #coronavirus

Transcript

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0:00.0

I'm Dr. Saline Gounder and I'm Ron Klein. And I'm Ron Klain. And this is epidemic.

0:18.0

Today is Tuesday, May 19th.

0:24.0

I have to ask on behalf of a, I think a globe how are you feeling Tom Hanks we are just fine dandy that's actor Tom Hanks on a recent episode of

0:29.6

the NPR Podcast wait wait wait don't tell me

0:31.7

Hanks and his wife, actress Rita Wilson, contracted COVID in early March.

0:37.0

We had all of the flu-like symptoms.

0:40.0

My wife, Rita, was a little worse off than me.

0:42.0

She had a very high temperature and... My wife Rita was a little worse off than me.

0:42.6

She had a very high temperature and we were isolated so that we would not give it to anyone else.

0:49.8

Right.

0:50.8

Hanks and Wilson made a full recovery, and ever since they've asked the same question.

0:55.4

Now that you've had it, aren't you supposedly like immune, your superheroes, you can walk amongst us and

1:00.5

be immune, or is that just nonsense?

1:03.1

It would be nice, wouldn't it?

1:04.7

If battling a COVID infection made you immune to re-infection.

1:08.8

Hanks and another 1.4 million fellow Americans

1:12.1

would indeed be modern superheroes. In recent weeks,

1:15.0

weeks, thousands of people have taken antibody tests.

1:19.0

If the tests detect COVID antibodies in their bloodstream they can accurately say they

1:25.3

had COVID and they beat it even if they never had symptoms. But can they say

1:30.6

they're now immune.

1:32.6

Not quite.

...

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