Curiosity Daily Podcast: COVID-19 Myths and FAQs with Dr. Amesh Adalja, Epidemiologist

Epidemiologist Amesh Adalja answers frequently asked questions about COVID-19 in this special bonus episode. Dr. Adalja is a Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security, and will help you understand what we know and what we don’t know as of this week.

March 18, 2020

Episode Show Notes:

In this episode, Dr. Amesh Amalja answers these frequently asked questions about COVID-19:

  • What do we know for sure in terms of transmissibility, symptoms, severity of symptoms, mortality rate, incubation period — or is our understanding about everything evolving?
  • What do we know about risk factors for specific comorbidities?
  • Why comparisons to the seasonal flu are fair to make?
  • If the virus isn’t as risky to children, then why are we closing schools?
  • What is going to be accomplished by discouraging or limiting large groups of people getting together?
  • Are you at a higher risk for more severe symptoms if you have had exposures to multiple different people who are carrying the virus?
  • Why don’t we just expose young and healthy people to the virus to build up immunity?
  • How much safer are we if everyone practices hand hygiene and social distancing?
  • Any other coronavirus myths worth discussing?
  • How long will it take for us to see the full impact of the pandemic and how will we reassess the extent of the damage in the future?
  • Will this virus die off in the summer?
  • What are the best medical sources to follow for coronavirus updates?

Additional resources recommended by Dr. Amesh Adalja, an expert in emergency medicine and infectious diseases such as coronavirus disease 2019:

Subscribe to Curiosity Daily to learn something new every day with Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer. You can also listen to our podcast as part of your Alexa Flash Briefing; Amazon smart speakers users, click/tap “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing

Next Up

Curiosity Daily: Asteroid-eating Fungi, Psychedelic…Maybe, Printing Organs

Today, you’ll learn about mushrooms that can eat asteroids to make space soil, how our thoughts affect us as we microdose psychedelics, and efforts to 3D print organs like kidneys and lungs!

Curiosity Daily Podcast: Hacking Device, Designer Seaweed, Accent Exposure

We discuss the latest in phone hacking technology, how aquaculture may be able to help the global food crisis, and how engaging with people who speak in a foreign accent may help us retain language.

Curiosity Daily Podcast: Murdering Murder Hornets, ADHD & Hoarding, Pain Pill Ills

Learn about how Japanese honey bees protect themselves from murder hornets, how a new link has been discovered between ADHD and hoarding disorder, and how your over-the-counter pain meds, might actually be making your pain worse!

Curiosity Daily Podcast:The Myth of Man Flu, Arctic Lakes, Buzzing Bats

Let’s talk about whether “man flu” is fact or fiction, how the Arctic lakes just threw a curveball at our climate change projections, and the genius new way bats are tricking their predators.

Curiosity Daily Podcast: Space Slingshot, Ancient Modern Pants, Lifesaving Silence

Hear about a slingshot launching payloads into space, the impressively modern-looking world’s oldest pants, and how moth wings are able to absorb sound to avoid detection from bats.

Curiosity Daily Podcast: Reverse Aging, Cooperation Increase, Time & Covid

Today we explore a potential scientific fountain of youth, how cooperation among strangers has, contrary to popular belief, actually increased in recent years, and how the pandemic has caused the perception of time distortion.

Curiosity Daily Podcast: Magic Addiction Fix, Parkinson’s Detection, Wind Turbines

Today we talk about how psilocybin from magic mushrooms can help those struggling with alcohol addiction, a new device that can detect Parkinson’s disease from breathing patterns, and how we can recycle wind turbines.

Curiosity Daily Podcast: VR & Transcendence, Stonehenge Calendar, Pregnant With Covid

We discuss how VR is as effective as psychedelics at helping people reach transcendence, whether Stonehenge may have been an ancient calendar, and how COVID-19 has affected women in late pregnancy.

Curiosity Daily: Fry Flying, Gas Giants at Home, Entangled Atoms

Today we are discussing new sustainable fuels for airplanes, creating other worldly heat at home, and a new record for quantum entanglement.

Curiosity Daily Podcast: Bee Venom Kills Cancer, Giant Manatees, Monkey Masturbation

Our stories today discuss how bee venom can potentially help fight cancer, the history of manatees, and recent discoveries in how monkeys use tools.