The tedious and time-consuming practice of contact tracing is seen as an essential ingredient for suppressing the coronavirus around the world; but not every country has invested in it. The World Health Organization has praised Germany for its contact tracing practices. The country has about a quarter the deaths of neighboring France, despite a more flexible lockdown. Last weekend it continued its cautious move toward pandemic normalcy by letting restaurants re-open. Naomi Kresge reports on the ...
May 18, 2020•14 min•Season 5Ep. 37
The aviation industry is wrestling with ways to control the coronavirus and get people back to flying. Airports have seen a 90 percent drop in passengers since mid-March. But as states ease lockdown restrictions, more people are expected to fly. Airports today are starting to make changes in the hopes that passengers will be safer as they fly. Justin Bachman reports on what it looks like to fly during a pandemic, and how air travel may change going forward. See omnystudio.com/listener for privac...
May 15, 2020•14 min•Season 5Ep. 36
When Covid-19 hit, Gilead Sciences Inc. had enough of its experimental drug remdesivir ready to test and start manufacturing it at a larger scale. That's because it had started stockpiling not just the drug, but its ingredients, at the first hint there may be a new coronavirus. Robert Langreth reports on why the company was able to act early to prepare for a pandemic when so many businesses and institutions did not. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
May 14, 2020•14 min•Season 5Ep. 35
As Covid-19 infects more and more people, doctors around are learning that the coronavirus doesn’t just attack the lungs. The virus can cause kidney failure; send the body’s immune system into high gear; and lead to a range of clotting-related disorders. Jason Gale reports on how much more we have yet to learn about what the virus does to the body. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
May 13, 2020•11 min•Season 5Ep. 34
After months of sheltering in place, some people have begun looking for ways to get around some of the more onerous social distancing guidelines. That’s especially true as the weather warms up in the U.S. Bloomberg reporter Kristen V. Brown collected listener questions around social distancing etiquette, and brought them to an expert to clear up the confusion. If you have any more quarantine questions, give us a call at 646 324 3490. We may even play your voicemail on a future show. See omnystud...
May 12, 2020•16 min•Season 5Ep. 33
Last week, a five-year-old boy in New York died from Covid-19-related complications. Dozens of other children are becoming sick with a similar cluster of symptoms that mirror a rare condition called Kawasaki disease. The accepted wisdom had been that children could transmit the virus, but not get sick from it. The new illness is throwing that assumption into question. Jason Gale talked to the world’s leading expert on Kawasaki disease to help unpack what is going on. See omnystudio.com/listener ...
May 11, 2020•14 min•Season 5Ep. 32
Last week, researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory released alarming news: At least one variant of the virus that causes Covid-19 had significantly mutated to become more contagious. If true, this would have major implications. A new variant could, for example, hamper efforts to develop a vaccine or mean that people who’ve already had Covid-19 might face a greater risk of getting it again. But critics said the data didn’t support such a big claim. Kristen V. Brown discusses what it rea...
May 08, 2020•13 min•Season 5Ep. 31
Antibody tests are suddenly everywhere. These tests are designed to determine whether someone contracted the virus in the past. They help policy makers understand how the virus spreads, and whether measures to contain the virus are working. Federal regulators relaxed guidelines to make it easier for companies to produce the tests, but this has allowed for a flood of unreliable--and sometimes fraudulent--tests to be offered to consumers. Now, Kristen V. Brown reports, the government is trying to ...
May 07, 2020•11 min•Season 5Ep. 30
Dozens of research teams across the world are racing to deliver a vaccine for the coronavirus. Developing, testing and bringing a vaccine to market is a process that usually takes years, even decades. But that process is being ramped up to warp speed as the virus ravages the globe. A small group of volunteers is already receiving an experimental vaccine. Jason Gale spoke to one of them, and gives us a peek inside the fast-moving world of coronavirus vaccine development. See omnystudio.com/listen...
May 06, 2020•13 min•Season 5Ep. 29
Doctor Richard Besser was the acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2009, when the H1N1 Swine flu pandemic broke out. The physician-turned-epidemiologist now runs the Robert Wood Johnson foundation with a mission to improve health equality. Reporter Riley Griffin spoke to him about what happens to the most vulnerable communities as states begin to relax social distancing rules; and the danger that we'll never have a vaccine. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy ...
May 05, 2020•16 min•Season 5Ep. 28
Health-care workers are under threat from more than just the coronavirus itself: The mental health effects of the work are grave. Doctors and nurses fighting Covid-19 are watching patients die at rates rarely seen in civilian medicine; and they’re delivering the news to family members who aren’t allowed inside the hospital for fear of spreading the disease. Hospitals are trying to treat the minds and hearts of the healers by offering counseling, crisis hotlines and therapy dogs. Emma Court discu...
May 04, 2020•11 min•Season 5Ep. 27
Scientists are facing unparalleled pressure to provide information about the coronavirus as quickly as possible. And when every day brings forth new data, what was clear one day may be confusing the next. Guidance has shifted rapidly about the benefits of wearing masks, how the virus spreads, and even the efficacy of promising new drugs like Remdesivir. Science doesn't usually move this fast. Michelle Fay Cortez and Robert Langreth report on what happens when the slow and steady process of resea...
May 01, 2020•17 min•Season 5Ep. 27
As Covid-19 spreads, doctors are learning more about why some patients get very sick, and why others only get mildly ill. Some of the people most at risk for severe illness have underlying conditions that affect their lungs. Older people are also at a higher risk. But certain factors, when combined with age, create a powder keg for the effects of the disease. Both smoking and obesity are conditions that can lead to fatal results in Covid-19 patients. Bloomberg Senior Editor Jason Gale explains h...
Apr 30, 2020•13 min•Season 5Ep. 26
As states grapple with the question of when it will be safe to reopen businesses and relax social distancing, there's increasing urgency to better understand who's immune to Covid-19. Does having the virus and recovering mean you can't get it again, or at least that you can’t be reinfected for some time? No one yet has good answers to these questions. Kristen V. Brown looked into what we do, and don't, know about the science of coronavirus immunity. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy inform...
Apr 29, 2020•12 min•Season 5Ep. 25
The Trump administration announced a plan yesterday to ramp up coronavirus testing. But even as it announces this new push, the Federal government has pushed much of the responsibility for testing to states. Experts say the lack of Federal leadership has led to a free-for-all, where states compete to get their hands on tests, and few states are left in a good position to reopen. Emma Court and John Tozzi report on the difficult logistics required to mount a meaningful testing operation. See omny...
Apr 28, 2020•15 min•Season 5Ep. 24
Iceland has become one of the best places in the world to study Covid-19. That’s because the country is an island nation with only one real port of entry and a small population. It also introduced widespread testing as soon as the virus arrived in March. Bloomberg reporter Kristen V. Brown traveled to Reykjavik, the capital, just as the global scale of the pandemic was starting to become clear. She reports that the rest of the world is learning from Iceland about how the virus moves through a po...
Apr 27, 2020•15 min•Season 5Ep. 23
Ventilators have become prized in hospitals across the U.S. and beyond because they are desperately needed to treat very ill Covid-19 patients. But they are also feared for the damage they can inflict, and for the slim odds of survival they offer. Michelle Fay Cortez and Olivia Carville report that it's not yet clear what the long-term consequences ventilators have for those lucky enough to recover after having been on one. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Apr 24, 2020•14 min•Season 5Ep. 22
Millions in Wuhan, China, the city where the novel coronavirus first emerged, are trying to figure out what life looks like in the bustling industrial city after the worst pandemic in a century. Bloomberg’s Beijing bureau chief Sharon Chen went to Wuhan recently to explore life after lockdown. She found a world that still feels far from normal, and a population that’s keenly aware of both the threat of disease, and the watchful eye of China’s surveillance state. See omnystudio.com/listener for p...
Apr 23, 2020•12 min•Season 5Ep. 21
The pandemic is putting care on hold for a lot of people with other serious health conditions, like cancer. Doctors are delaying procedures and surgeries in order to save resources like hospital beds and ventilators for Covid-19 patients, and prevent the infection from spreading. Emma Court reports on the difficult choices doctors are forced to make, and the danger that we're creating another health care crisis. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Apr 22, 2020•13 min•Season 5Ep. 20
The shortages of protective masks that keep healthcare workers safe from Covid-19 are well documented by now. To meet the need, U.S. hospitals have taken the extreme step of turning directly to Chinese manufacturers. Reporter Riley Griffin reports that the demand has helped spur a Wild West scenario, where Profiteering middlemen ratchet up prices. Buyers must sometimes go to extraordinary lengths to try to ensure quality. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Apr 21, 2020•15 min•Season 5Ep. 19
Before COVID-19 started spreading around the U.S., the country was already attempting to deal with another health crisis: opioid dependency. Although opioid-treatment programs are considered essential public facilities and are allowed to stay open during statewide stay-at-home orders, experts are worried the coronavirus could exacerbate the opioid epidemic, possibly leading to more overdoses. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Apr 20, 2020•11 min•Season 5Ep. 19
There’s a sliver of hope for people very ill with Covid-19. It’s a bold new treatment that involves taking the blood plasma of people who have recovered from the disease, and injecting it into people who are very sick. The secret is in the antibodies: a protein that is produced when someone’s immune system has fought the virus. But using antibodies to treat the sick is more complicated than just transferring them from one person to another. Jason Gale reports on what researchers are doing to sif...
Apr 17, 2020•11 min•Season 5Ep. 18
As data about the health outcomes of the new coronavirus come in, it's clear that black people are dying at disproportionate rates to their percentage of the population. But a new report shows it’s not just black Americans’ health that will suffer. The virus will likely have a devastating effect on their jobs and future earnings. Donald Moore talked to researchers about the economic and physical traps the virus is setting for the demographic. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Apr 16, 2020•9 min•Season 5Ep. 17
Losing the ability to smell is one of the strangest clues that someone may have COVID-19. Experts around the world are still trying to understand why this symptom pops up, and what it means for patients. Some are calling on people who have lost their sense of smell to get tested and isolate themselves, even if they have no other symptoms. Jason Gale reports that the symptom could be an early warning sign--and screening for it could help contain the virus.6 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy...
Apr 15, 2020•12 min•Season 5Ep. 16
Two of the worlds biggest companies, Apple and Amazon, rely on a supply chain that is spread all across the world, in many countries that have been hardest hit by the coronavirus. The tech giants employ hundreds of thousands of people so their fate, in many ways, is the fate of the global economy. Brad Stone, Bloomberg's head of global technology coverage, reports. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Apr 14, 2020•12 min•Season 5Ep. 15
Historically, the U.S. Centers for Disease control and Prevention has been the agency in charge of predicting, and containing outbreaks of disease. But as Covid 19 ravaged the country, the agency took a backseat to the White House. Michelle Fay Cortez and John Tozzi discuss how the agency has handled the pandemic response, its early missteps, and how its role is likely to change in the future. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Apr 13, 2020•14 min•Season 5Ep. 14
On a special episode of Prognosis Daily, we’re taking a close look at how the novel coronavirus lived before it entered humans and who it lived in. Bats. They’re almost certainly the source of this pandemic, but these flying mammals may also hold the clues to stopping the next one. Bloomberg senior editor Jason Gale explores how research into bats led to the discovery of what could be the precursor of the novel coronavirus. This vital research is also laying the groundwork for potential treatmen...
Apr 10, 2020•22 min•Season 5Ep. 13
Scientists are desperate for a way to detect the novel coronavirus in communities as early as possible. So far, those efforts have focused on widespread testing of people. But a group of Dutch researchers may have discovered a way to tell where the virus is spreading, right beneath their feet. Jason Gale looks at the people hunting for early-warning signs in sewage. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Apr 09, 2020•11 min•Season 5Ep. 12
The effects of the outbreak are putting unprecedented stress on thousands of people. But the difficulty of obtaining mental health services while under lockdown threatens to break a treatment network that was already strained to the breaking point. Cynthia Koons explains how companies are trying to meet that demand and how the crisis may change the way we receive mental health care. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Apr 08, 2020•12 min•Season 5Ep. 11
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently changed their guidelines on whether healthy people should wear masks, suggesting that people cover their faces to help slow transmission of the novel coronavirus. The evolving view on face masks is just one more example of how quickly our understanding of the virus is changing. It also makes it hard for the public to know what information to take seriously. James Paton reports on what masks really do, why some still warn against their ...
Apr 07, 2020•11 min•Season 5Ep. 10
