Coronavirus Hot Zone: Research and Responses in the U.S. Epicenter
Scientific American contributing editor W. Wayt Gibbs reports from the U.S. epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak: Kirkland, Wash. In this installment of our ongoing series, he talks with researchers about the efforts to create vaccines and treatments and the challenges the outbreak poses to cancer patients and others who are immunocompromised.
Welcome to the second in our series of coronavirus episodes of Scientific American’s Science Talk, posted on March 14, 2020. I’m Steve Mirsky.
And as in our first episode, I’ll be throwing it over to W. Wayt Gibbs. He's a contributing editor for Scientific American based in Seattle. He also works as a scientific editor.
For the edition, Gibbs spoke with a pediatric infectious disease expert about work on new vaccines and drugs for COVID-19 and the role that children play in disease transmission. Gibbs also talked with the head of infection control for one of the country’s largest networks of cancer centers about the special steps being taken to protect cancer patients and others whose immune systems aren’t functioning at full strength and who suddenly find themselves at increased risk. First Gibbs brings us up to date on life in the hot zone these last few days.
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