Until and unless the world finds a vaccine that is scalable and effective, the covid-19 pandemic will continue to spread widely, as is evident from the growing number of infections globally. What makes covid-19 and the novel coronavirus all the more complicated is the fact that there is still so much that is not known about the disease and the pathogen behind it.
An infected person can exhibit a variety of symptoms or remain asymptomatic and yet infect someone else as a carrier. A lot also remains to be understood about how covid-19 affects the human body—for it seems the damage can be substantial, even possibly permanent.
Fortunately, there is a wealth of covid-19-related resources in the public domain, among them podcasts. Most of these are based on sound scientific evidence and are backed by scientists and researchers who have studied the pandemic closely. Here is a look at some interesting podcasts on covid-19.
World vs Virus
This is a weekly podcast from the World Economic Forum that helps answer some key questions about covid-19. There are more than 15 episodes in the series as of now and each one looks at how the pandemic has affected different sections of the social fabric—everything from the pandemic’s economic fallout to its devastation in some of the biggest cities and countries. One of the latest episodes looks at how air pollution and poor air quality can make the situation worse in some regions.
This Podcast Will Kill You—Covid-19 series
Hosted by disease ecologists and epidemiologists Erin Welsh and Erin Allmann Updyke, the podcast tackles a different infectious disease—its history and biology—in each episode. Welsh and Updyke, who call themselves the Erins, have focused on covid-19 through an “anatomy of a pandemic” series where they look at everything from its virology to the latest developments in potential vaccines and the pandemic’s effect on mental health. Don’t go by the podcast’s name. It is absolutely safe to listen.
The Lancet Voice
A fortnightly podcast from the Lancet family of journals, the Lancet Voice has been covering the pandemic regularly, with a focus on how the disease can affect those with co-morbidities, in detailed episodes. These instalments often feature editors from the different Lancet journals in conversation with other medical subject matter experts. For example, one of the most recent episodes explores the damaging effect covid-19 has had on the progress that had been made in child malnutrition.
BMJ’s coronavirus (covid-19) playlist
This playlist includes a curated selection of podcasts relating to covid-19 across BMJ and its other selected journals. There are specific episodes on covid-19 in every podcast series: the Heart podcast, the BMJ Best Practice podcast and the British Journal of Sports Medicine podcast, among others. If you are looking to understand the effects of covid-19 from the point of view of different fields of medicine, then this playlist should interest you.
These podcasts, playlists are available across multiple streaming platforms such as Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, Stitcher, Spotify and Google Podcasts.
