Ben Boudreaux, policy researcher with the RAND Corporation, describes how contact tracing can be used to track the spread of COVID-19 and explains the differences between manual and automated contact tracing.
Get more insights from RAND on the COVID-19 pandemic: https://www.rand.org/latest/covid-19….
WASHINGTON POST (AUG 16, 2020): Researchers in the United States set an audacious goal in January to develop a coronavirus vaccine within 12 to 18 months. This would be a world record. The mumps vaccine is considered to be the fastest to move, in four years, from scientific concept to approval in 1967. The quest for an HIV vaccine continues, 36 years and counting.
Science Editor-in-Chief Holden Thorp joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss his editorial on preventing vaccine hesitancy during the coronavirus pandemic. Even before the current crisis, fear of vaccines had become a global problem, with the World Health Organization naming it as one of the top 10 worldwide health threats in 2019. Now, it seems increasingly possible that many people will refuse to get vaccinated. What can public health officials and researchers do to get ahead of this issue?
Also this week, Sarah talks with Science Senior Correspondent Jon Cohen about his story on Chinese scientist Shi Zhengli, the bat researcher at the center of the COVID-19 origins controversy—and why she thinks President Donald Trump owes her an apology.
Finally, Geert Van der Snickt, a professor in the conservation-restoration department at the University of Antwerp, talks with Sarah about his Science Advances paper on a new process for peering into the past of paintings. His team used a combination of techniques to look beneath an overpainting on the Ghent Altarpiece by Hubert and Jan Van Eyck—a pivotal piece that showed the potential of oil paints and even included an early example of painting from an aerial view.
The Economist updates Covid-19 rates spiking around the world, McDonald’s fast food profits plunge and other top international business and economic news.
This week, lawmakers in Capitol Hill are trying to piece together the next stimulus package as many benefits like unemployment insurance and forgiving evictions expire. Democrats and Republicans both agree that a new bill is necessary but there’s been a lot of back and forth about the specifics. And they’re running out of time.
Guests: Axios’ Alayna Treene, Sam Baker, and Sara Fischer.
Scientists are working at breakneck speed to develop an effective vaccine for the coronavirus. Their ultimate goal: to immunize enough of the world’s population to reach herd immunity. WSJ explains.
Illustration: Jacob Reynolds
Dexamethasone, a steroid that appears promising for COVID-19 patients, has a long and storied history in medicine. We talk with experts about its many uses, and explore how it might save lives in this pandemic. Writer, Reporter, Editor, Narrator: Sara Reardon Animator: Donald Pearsall
NPR News reports on Federal Agents being sent to states to stem violent crime, Covid-19 and the possibilities for ‘natural herd immunity, federal funding for public lands and more.
Boomers Daily 