The Evidence: How Covid damages the human body
Discovery
BBC
4.3 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 26 June 2021
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A year and a half in, and in many ways Covid-19 is still an enigma. All over the world, doctors and scientists are still struggling to understand exactly how this new virus undermines our defences and then damages, even destroys, our bodies, in so many different ways. And why are some people completely unaffected?
In this edition of The Evidence, Claudia Hammond and her panel of experts chart the remarkable journey to understand this chameleon-like virus, including the long tail of the pandemic, Long Covid. Millions the world over are suffering under the dark shadow of post-Covid, with a multitude of symptoms months after the infection. Some of them, listeners to the programme, share their experiences.
And, the background story of the world famous RECOVERY trial, set up at record speed in the UK (but now international) to test which treatments could save the lives of the sickest Covid patients. So far 10 treatments for Covid have been randomised and tested on thousands of patients and the results have shown that six, including the widely used and promoted hydroxychloroquine, make no difference to chances of surviving a hospital stay. While evidence that the cheap, widely-available steroid, dexamethasone, does work, and has so far saved more than a million lives world-wide.
Joint chief investigator of RECOVERY, Sir Martin Landray, Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at the University of Oxford, admits to Claudia that he’s been asked to include bee pollen and snake venom in the trial, but so far he’s resisted.
Claudia’s expert panel also includes Professor K. Srinath Reddy, cardiologist and epidemiologist and President of the Public Health Institute of India; Dr Sherry Chou, intensivist and neurologist from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine who heads the Global Consortium Study on Neurological Dysfunction in Covid-19 (GCS-NeuroCOVID) and Dr Melissa Heightman, respiratory consultant and Clinical Lead for post-COVID services at University College London Hospitals.
Produced by: Fiona Hill, Hannah Fisher and Maria Simons Studio Engineers: Donald MacDonald and Matilda Macari
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Before you listen to this BBC podcast, I'd like to introduce myself. |
| 0:03.6 | My name's Stevie Middleton and I'm a BBC Commissioner for a load of sport podcasts. |
| 0:08.1 | I'm lucky to do that at the BBC because I get to work with a leading journalist, experienced |
| 0:12.2 | pundits and the biggest sport stars. |
| 0:14.3 | Together we bring you untold stories and fascinating insights straight from the players' |
| 0:18.5 | mouths. |
| 0:19.5 | But the best thing about doing this at the BBC is our unique access to the sport world. |
| 0:24.9 | What that means is that we can bring you podcasts that create a real connection to |
| 0:28.8 | dedicated sports fans across the UK. |
| 0:31.3 | So if you like this podcast, head over to BBC Sounds where you'll find plenty more. |
| 0:35.6 | Hello, I'm Claudia Hammond. |
| 0:37.1 | Welcome to the evidence from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:40.5 | Today we're looking at what we've learned a year and a half in about the myriad ways |
| 0:45.7 | coronavirus can undermine our defenses and damage and even destroy our bodies. |
| 0:51.4 | SARS-CoV-2 has been called a chameleon because of the way it can affect each of us so differently. |
| 0:57.3 | While one person might not even be aware that they've been infected, another ends up needing |
| 1:01.8 | a ventilator and can even die. |
| 1:04.5 | Scientists and clinicians across the globe have been working together, sharing knowledge |
| 1:09.1 | and research as they desperately try to understand against the clock how this virus works. |
| 1:15.0 | And several of those scientists at the forefront of the endeavor to crack Covid join me today. |
| 1:20.6 | From New Delhi in India, a very warm welcome to the eminent cardiologist and epidemiologist. |
| 1:25.8 | Professor Shrinath Reddy, who is president of the Public Health Institute of India. |
... |
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