Shielding; Pandemic Lexicon; Southampton Hospital; Doctor rejects NHS Superhero Tag
Inside Health
BBC
4.4 • 575 Ratings
🗓️ 26 May 2020
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Tanya has rheumatoid arthritis, a compromised immune system and heart problems. Getting the virus is a risk she cannot take and this is the tenth week that she's been isolating at home with her husband and teenage daughter. But how long will this last and will she have to self isolate in her own home away from her family for the foreseeable future, if her daughter goes back to school? Tanya talks to Claudia about the impact of the pandemic on her life and says why those in the shielding group must not be forgotten.
The arrival of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in the human population has popularised vocabulary that was previously the preserve of scientists and medics. In just a matter of weeks, phrases like the R Number, Herd Immunity, Case Fatality Rate and All Cause Mortality have become part of everyday language. A new pandemic lexicon has emerged. Inside Health regular Dr Margaret McCartney and Professor Carl Heneghan, Director of the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine at the University of Oxford, discuss the meanings of these very precise descriptions and reveal their personal bugbears, the misuse of such terms.
And in her final visit for this series to University Hospital Southampton, Inside Health's Erika Wright, talks again to Trevor Smith, Divisional Director for Medicine, about the enormous challenges ahead as the hospital adapts to living with Covid-19. And she talks about the Banksy art work currently hanging at the hospital which reveals a Super Nurse displacing the traditional comic book superheroes, Batman and Spiderman.
Healthcare workers have been lionised as heroes, putting themselves on the front line, risking their own lives, to save others. It's a sentiment which troubles some. Dr Michael FitzPatrick, a gastroenterologist in Oxford and Co-chair of the Royal College of Physicians Trainees Committee, describes why heroes are almost entirely the wrong comparators for healthcare workers.
Producer: Fiona Hill
Clips used in programme:
Batman theme by Danny Elfman (composer) from Batman (1989) Copyright Warner Bros. Avengers Theme by Alan Sivestri (composer) from The Avengers copyright Disney Clip from Infinity War , Joe Russo, Anthony Russo (Directors) Copyright Disney Clip from Justice League by Zac Snyder and Joss Whedon (Directors) Copyright Warner Bros Clip from Iron Man by Jon Favreau (director) copyright Disney Clip from Avengers Endgame by Joe Russo, Anthony Russo (directors). Copyright Disney
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 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. |
| 0:30.8 | BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts. |
| 0:34.5 | Hi there, this is Claudia Hammond. |
| 0:36.4 | Welcome to Inside Health, The virus from BBC Radio 4, |
| 0:39.9 | recorded on May the 26th, 2020. Hope you're OK. This is the last in this series, which means the |
| 0:46.0 | last visit to Southampton General Hospital. Inside Health, Sarah Clarite has been to the car park |
| 0:51.2 | every Monday to stand two metres away from different staff. |
| 0:54.9 | And now they've got a whole new kind of hospital to plan, haven't they? |
| 0:57.5 | Yes, so like many others, they are feeling exhausted and really, you know, |
| 1:01.8 | after this big adrenaline rush of dealing with the pandemic, they're now basically |
| 1:05.3 | confronting the reality of having to coexist with a deadly virus. |
| 1:09.1 | Well, more from Erica later. |
| 1:10.8 | And NHS workers are frequently described as heroes, |
| 1:14.1 | putting their lives at risk while showing immense kindness to people who are very ill indeed. |
| 1:19.2 | But there are some in healthcare who feel uncomfortable with the label. |
| 1:23.4 | Before all that, it was March the 16th when people over the age of 70 |
| 1:27.3 | or with certain medical conditions were told |
| 1:29.5 | they would need to take extra measures to protect themselves from the virus for the next 12 weeks. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.

