Coronapod: Old treatments and new hopes

Benjamin Thompson, Noah Baker, and Amy Maxmen discuss efforts to develop treatments for COVID-19.

In this episode:

02:00 A push for plasma

In New York, hospitals are preparing to infuse patients with the antibody-rich blood plasma of people who have recovered from COVID-19. This approach has been used during disease outbreaks for over a century and we discuss how it works, and how effective is might be.

We also talk about how drug trials for potential treatments are progressing, how scientists are pulling together, and what COVID-19 outbreaks on cruise ships are telling epidemiologists.

News article: How blood from coronavirus survivors might save lives; News article: What the cruise-ship outbreaks reveal about COVID-19

18:44 Switching focus

In the wake of the outbreak, academics are coming together to meet the challenge of the pandemic. We speak to an immunologist and a bioengineer who have changed their research focus and are putting their expertise into action.

Subscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.