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Hello and welcome to Women of Balls, where I, Katie Balls, speak to today's trailblazers.

My guest today is the leading expert in the field of

infectious diseases. She has worked on research in the fight against malaria, HIV, influenza, and

bacterial meningitis. She has also found time to write novels. As professor of theoretical

epidemiology at the University of Oxford, she recently made headlines

for her research on coronavirus. A study she led into the infection rate of the virus across the

country suggested in March that coronavirus could have infected as much as half of the UK's population.

At the time, it appeared to be at odds with research from Imperial College.

She has since suggested that coronavirus could be gradually on the way out.

My guest today is Professor Sinatra Gupta.

Thank you very much for joining me today.

Now, clearly, coronavirus is dominating everything at the moment in terms of the news, and we are going to get onto that.

But just to begin, what we like to do on this podcast is to talk about your early life and what you were doing before, your current field of expertise.

So you were born in Calcutta, but you spent your childhood in various parts of the world.

Would you describe yours as a happy childhood?

Oh yes, it was a delightful childhood.

I had the benefit of a very loving mother and also a very loving father.

...