Where We Stand on the Pandemic

The Daily

The New York Times

Daily News, News

4.4 • 102.8K Ratings

🗓️ 25 August 2020

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the U.S., emergency-use authorization has been granted for convalescent plasma, the efficacy of which is yet to be robustly tested. For some, this echoes the situation with hydroxychloroquine and the government’s subsequent U-turn on its rollout. Meanwhile, America’s infection rate appears to be flattening out — but at tens of thousands of cases per day. This stands in stark contrast to China, where daily cases are under 40. Overseas, a Hong Kong resident has been reinfected with the virus, the first recorded instance of a second bout. And Russia and China have begun distributing vaccines, sidestepping Phase 3 safety trials to the incredulity of immunologists and vaccine executives. We check back in with Donald G. McNeil Jr. on the coronavirus and the impact of these developments. Guest: Donald G. McNeil Jr., a science and health reporter for The New York Times For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily Background reading: A 33-year-old man in Hong Kong was infected with the coronavirus for a second time. It is unclear how often people might become reinfected, and how soon after the first bout.Despite flattening, America’s infection rate remains one of the highest in the world.The F.D.A. has permitted the expansion of convalescent plasma treatment after pressure from President Trump.Russia has approved a coronavirus vaccine and is set to begin mass vaccinations in the fall. China has reportedly been giving experimental vaccines to high-risk groups since July.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	From The New York Times, I'm Michael Abarro. This is The Daily.
0:10.0	Today, my colleague, Donald G. McNeil, Jr.
0:15.0	on four new developments in the treatment and understanding of the coronavirus.
0:22.0	It's Tuesday, August 25.
0:30.0	We wanted to check back in with you because the summer is drawing you a close.
0:34.0	There have been a few major developments in the pandemic that we wanted to better understand by talking to you, our resident expert on the coronavirus.
0:43.0	The first development involves a new treatment in the US. So tell us about that.
0:49.0	Thank you very much. It's good to see you all.
0:53.0	So just in time for the Republican Convention, the Food and Drug Administration director on the podium with his boss at the head of HHS and his boss, the president of the United States.
1:06.0	Today, I'm pleased to make a truly historic announcement in our battle against the China virus that will save countless lives.
1:15.0	Gave emergency youth authorization, a powerful term emergency use authorization for a treatment known as Convalescent Plasma to a therapy called Convalescent Plasma.
1:27.0	Because you have to really stepped up and especially over the last few days in getting this done. The results have been incredible.
1:34.0	And I think you'll see the results even go up very substantially. So we appreciate it.
1:39.0	And Donald, what is Convalescent Plasma?
1:42.0	Convalescent Plasma is the serum from blood that's taken from people who were convalescent who were recovering from having had COVID.
1:51.0	You draw out about a pint of their blood, you spin it down to take off the red blood cells and white blood cells.
1:56.0	And then you keep the serum that contains a lot of things, including the antibodies.
2:01.0	I probably shouldn't admit this, but I used to sell plasma when I was in college.
2:07.0	Wait, I'm sorry, who's plasma did you sell?
2:09.0	Mine. Huh. Yeah, $5 for the first donation a week, $15 for the second. I paid my rent for part of the time in college that way.
2:18.0	And I assume, although I never asked back then, that they wanted it for the clotting factors for hemophilia, actually.
2:25.0	And just to be clear, who were you selling it to, presumably not like somebody off the street?
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The New York Times, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The New York Times and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.