Cambridge Conversations: responding to the medical challenges of COVID-19

As the COVID-19 pandemic confronts the world, Cambridge experts are leading research into diagnosis and treatment of the virus itself, and examining the resulting challenges to our society — our economy, politics and educational system among many others.

This Cambridge Conversations webinar, which took place on Friday 17 April 2020, featured Professor Ken Smith and Dr Nick Matheson, with facilitator Dr Chris Smith of the Naked Scientists. Together, they discuss the latest scientific information as an antidote to the speculation and misinformation rampant on social media.

The Cambridge Conversations webinars, available to attend by all Cambridge Alumni, provide an opportunity to listen, connect and engage with current Cambridge thinking, wherever you are.

For more information visit: https://www.alumni.cam.ac.uk/events/cambridge-conversations-events-in-2020

QUESTIONS:

20:31: How can we start to better understand how immunity is evolving in populations?

20:35: What is the prospect of the virus mutating?

22:29: How is virus and treatment information shared in the medical community across countries? Is intellectual property protection a barrier or incentive to rapid development of treatment of COVID-19?

24:05: Do asymptomatic carriers shed live virus indefinitely or does their immune system kill it off quickly?

25:39: What's the current understanding on immunity following infection? Are there verified cases of re-infection, as have been reported in the media?

26:55: Should we be looking at reducing lockdown at different rates for different age groups and health conditions?

29:26: What may account for the poorer outcomes among non-white populations in the UK?

30:23: What line of the potential treatments under investigation so far represent our best hope in combating the virus?

33:20: There was a research paper from Oxford a couple of weeks ago suggesting the routine use of antipyretics, and especially paracetamol, might be unhelpful in treating COVID as it reduces the body's natural immune response. Is there any evidence that suppressing fever results in longer recovery times and more risk of complications?

34:36: For past epidemics, early treatments used serum from recovered individuals or animals. Is this being used now in the UK in serious cases, as is reported in Germany and the US

35:47: Keeping in mind the 1.3Billion population in India, whether you think that the decision of early lockdown by the Indian Government was the right thing to do? 2. For a cure, is convalescent plasma therapy the only reasonable solution in the short term?

38:45: Looking beyond to the next 12 to 18 months. What are the risks of (A) an effective vaccine not being viable for this virus, and (B) the first vaccines that are developed not being sufficient in the long term in relation to the virus mutating or multiple strains existing that may be difficult to vaccinate against?

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