Talk Evidence covid-19 update - Confused symptoms, fatality rate uncertainty, Iceland’s testing
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome back to Talk Evidence. Well, we're in lockdown. We're recording this at home, totally remotely.
What symptoms are commonly associated with COVID-19?
We're in three different cities. So if this sounds a little different, that's why. Before we get into the evidence, I just wanted to say that obviously in this crisis, we're going to be focusing very much more on COVID-19 across all of the podcasts that we do, not just Talk Evidence. So for the next few months, we'll be mostly talking about that. As the evidence is quickly changing, we're also going to be doing some extra talk evidences, trying to keep you up to date with that changing picture. So this is the point, if you've not subscribed to do that, we're on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever else you get your podcasts from, and we'll try and keep you abreast of everything that we know. So now that's over, it's time to introduce ourselves.
What is the current research on antiviral treatments for COVID-19?
I'm Duncan Jarvis, Multimedia Editor for the BMJ. And as always, I'm joined by Helen and Carl. Helen, can I get you to introduce yourself?
I'm Helen MacDonald, UK Research Editor for the BMJ. And I'm coming to you from Bath today, where it's very sunny.
And Carl, how about you?
Hi, it's Carl Hennigan here.
What concerns does John Ioannidis raise about COVID-19 data quality?
I'm not quite sure what my role is anymore. I'm in my hut in the garden in Oxford. It's a COVID hut. You might hear some birds in the background if you listen very carefully. And I am also editor-in-chief of BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine.
Great. And I'm, as everyone's saying this, recording from Brighton and I'm looking outside and there are some seagulls circling. So if you can hear that in the background, that's why.
So, Carl, you've been doing an awful lot around COVID-19 at the moment. It's been a busy time for you. What have you been up to?
Well, one of the things is when it started to emerge, and particularly the guidance changed not only in the UK, around the world, we started to realise that there were a significant number of questions
How is Iceland conducting population-level COVID-19 testing?
that were coming at us all at once for contextualised evidence about things like face masks, to drugs, to what about steroids, what about treatment of pneumonia in community hospitals. And what we did is put together our team at the centre, but a huge number of people who've joined us to start producing rapid evidence reviews, trying to answer some of the questions that can help clinicians on the ground, particularly in this first few weeks, facilitate decision-making. Because what's really important here is that actually everybody doesn't panic. And there are issues here which are having to made up on the hoof, like how do you examine somebody when you've only got a few minutes because they're overwhelmed?
How do you minimally examine people without actually touching the patient? So there are loads of things you need to do differently. And we're trying to help produce some of the evidence to help them decisions.
Great.
What is the significance of asymptomatic COVID-19 cases?
Well, we're going to get into some of that in a second, but, you know, as always, we do a start and a stop in Talk Evidence, and we've got a couple of them now. So, for a start, we are going to be talking about symptoms. Now, I've had something. I've had some sort of cough, maybe a very slight temperature, but this is the time of year that we're all getting respiratory infections anyway, so... Who knows if it's COVID. Helen, have you got any clarity for me there?
Well, this is exactly what I've been thinking about this week and what I've been hearing lots of my clinical colleagues talking about. And I think it is time to start thinking more broadly about the symptoms of COVID-19. So a lot of the public information has been very centred on fever and cough or dry cough and breathing problems because those have been the things that have been triggering self-isolation here in the UK.
How does the case fatality rate for COVID-19 vary across populations?
But in our previous podcast, we mentioned that there were various case series starting to come out describing symptoms um that people have had and some of those have got quite big now to about a thousand people or so so i think it is time to start looking at the spectrum of um symptoms that people have because i think out in the public people might be kind of falsely reassured by only having a runny nose or or um
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:07–0:15
2
What symptoms are commonly associated with COVID-19?
0:15–1:05
3
What is the current research on antiviral treatments for COVID-19?
1:05–1:28
4
What concerns does John Ioannidis raise about COVID-19 data quality?
1:28–2:22
5
How is Iceland conducting population-level COVID-19 testing?
2:22–3:16
6
What is the significance of asymptomatic COVID-19 cases?
3:16–4:16
7
How does the case fatality rate for COVID-19 vary across populations?
4:16–5:32
8
What challenges do researchers face in estimating COVID-19's lethality?
5:32–39:54
Speakers
5 identifiedMore from Talk Evidence
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