Outbreak News Radio

This episode of NEWS TALK with BRANDON & BOB featured insight from Outbreak News Today's Robert Herriman, discussing COVID-19, good vs. bad coronavirus testing, understanding terms like "viral load," thoughts on data, tracking and locking down.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reports that the coronavirus has taken a hold upon Yemen saying "Unfortunately, it is no longer anything but obvious that the virus is circulating widely across the whole of Yemen".

"Five years of fighting had caused Yemen's healthcare system to collapse in large parts... Now COVID-19 has made that collapse complete, with many hospitals closing for fear of the virus", according to Claire HaDuong, MSF Head of Mission in Yemen.

In a clip from the latest episode of NEWS TALK with Brandon & Bob, Bob gives the COVID update on Yemen and the country is essentially collapsing further into poverty and chaos.

The fatality of COVID-19 in Yemen is elevated due to the poor conditions in the struggling nation, malnutrition and lack of resources are just two of the contributors Bob breaks down.

Earlier this week, scientists with The Scripps Research Institute announced the discovery of antibodies in the blood of recovered COVID-19 patients that provide powerful protection against SARS-CoV-2 in small animals.

The study was published this week in the journal, Science.

Here to discuss this research is Elise Landais, PhD. Dr Landais is Principal Scientist with the IAVI Neutralizing Antibody Center at The Scripps Research Institute.

Robert Desowitz, PhD was a scientist, researcher and you may know him best as the author of several very informative and entertaining books like New Guinea Tape Worms and Jewish Grandmothers and Who Brought Pinta to the Santa Maria?

Dr. Desowitz left us on Mar 24, 2008.

Being such a fan of his books made me decide to learn more about his life and work.

Joining me today to talk about Bob Desowitz is Louis Miller, MD. Dr Miller is Chief, Malaria Cell Biology Section at the NIAID, NIH and according to Dr Desowitz's daughter, Duba, "one of her dad's best friends".

In this clip from the NEWS TALK with Brandon & Bob on YouTube, we look at the recent EPA approval of Oxitec's genetically modified Aedes aegypti mosquito for release in the Florida Keys.

What is it and how does it work? What are the criticisms and concerns?

We exam these questions in this short podcast.

On the recent episode of NEWS TALK with Brandon and Bob, I spend a few moments reminding the public about the swimming risks in warm, fresh water and the brain-eating amoeba, Naegleria fowleri.

In this clip from the NEWS TALK with Brandon and Bob show, we discuss a myriad of issues concerning the COVID-19, or coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic like where to get your information, what data is useful and what do we know now that we didn't know before.

Brandon Jones and Robert Herriman give you an update on the news, providing commentary and analysis, always welcoming your feedback and thoughts.

Approximately 2,000 US cases of malaria are diagnosed annually. Without appropriate treatment, about 15 percent become severe. Mortality from untreated severe malaria (particularly cerebral malaria) approaches 100 percent.

On Tuesday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Artesunate for Injection to Amivas, a Maryland company specializing in treatments for rare and neglected tropical diseases.

Joining me today to talk about severe malaria and the newly approved drug is Bryan Smith, MD. Dr. Smith is the Chief Medical Officer at Amivas.

There has been reports of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, infections in both domestic felines and large zoo cats in recent weeks.

While these infections were characterized as human to feline transmission, what do we know about feline to feline or feline to human transmission?

My guest today, University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher, Peter Halfmann, PhD, joins me to discuss the study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

On today's podcast, I had the honor of talking to E.B. Fred Professor of Natural Sciences Emeritus at UW–Madison and author of the book, Robert Koch--A Life in Medicine and Bacteriology, Thomas Brock, PhD about the titan of microbiology, Robert Koch.

In this show, I asked the 93-year-old microbiologist about Koch's life prior to microbiology, his relationship with Louis Pasteur and several of Koch's major contributions to bacteriology from the discovery of the agent of tuberculosis in 1882 to the famous postulates that bear his name.