The Coronavirus Outbreak

Here are pandemic highlights for the week

About a year ago, SARS-CoV-2 (which wasn’t called that yet) was just beginning to emerge in a cluster of cases inside China. We know what has happened since then, but it bears repeating: there have been 69 million cases and more than 1.5 million deaths globally as of December 10, 2020, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.

And as the virus raced around the world, science has also raced to understand how it actually works, biologically. Today on the Science Talk podcast, a virologist who has been part of that massive effort joins us.

Britt Glaunsinger is a professor in the department of molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She has been studying viruses for 25 years, with a particular focus, before December 2019, on the herpesvirus. Over the past 12 months, her lab has been focusing on strategies the virus uses to suppress the body's innate immune system.

Stephen Hahn describes how the agency will evaluate vaccines for emergency authorization

The answer turns out to be complicated

It uses words and photos to remind you of where you’ve been and whom you’ve seen

The incoming U.S. president must help skeptics see benefits in masks and persuade Congress to spend more money on testing and protective gear

Apps and human tracers both have pros and cons. To be effective, they have to work together

Here are pandemic highlights for the week

In the U.S., health workers come first. But for other groups, scientists and policy makers are weighing a mix of disease risks, logistics and ethics

Financial incentives can be a factor in pandemic policy decisions—albeit frequently at a subconscious and unintentional level

The rise in depression and anxiety is even worse than expected, especially among young adults

COVID-19 is straining African food security but also presents an opportunity for change