We explore the power of the antibody — a protein that our blood cells make when our body encounters a virus.

We explore the power of the antibody — a protein that our blood cells make when our body encounters a virus. Scientists have known for more than 100 years that if you take antibodies from someone who has recovered from a virus and transfer plasma, a blood byproduct, from that person to someone who is sick with that same virus, the patient will usually fare better than someone who doesn’t get this extra help. “Somebody else's army has come to help you fight the war,” said Dr. Terry Gernsheimer,

Today’s episode: Learning as we go.

Today’s episode: Learning as we go. The thing that makes COVID-19 so tricky is its newness. It’s a disease that literally did not exist in humans until a few months ago. There was no handbook for treating it, no established way to screen for it and, as has become painfully clear, no detailed protocols for how doctors should handle the waves of sick patients. That has meant that health workers at virtually every point on the spectrum — from paramedics to primary-care doctors to ICU specialists —

Today’s episode: Confronting Mortality.

Today’s episode: Confronting Mortality. This is not something a lot of us are used to thinking much about. Dreading, sure. Avoiding, you bet. But thinking hard about it, and what it means during a time like this — not easy. In this episode, we connect with people who have gotten intimate with mortality. Robb Miller is the former executive director of End of Life Washington , and he’s also lived with HIV for more than two decades. He talks through what it means to have a good death, and how the

Today's episode: The Virus-Eye View.

Today's episode: The Virus-Eye View. We know, more or less, what the new coronavirus looks like … but what do we look like to it? In today’s episode, we imagine a little movie filmed from the point of view of the virus itself. We follow it as it enters the body, and get the blow-by-blow as it goes about its dastardly business of locking on to a cell, invading it, taking over its machinery and turning it into a virus factory. And we hear about an especially diabolical trick the virus pulls on its

Today’s episode: Saying Goodbye.

Today’s episode: Saying Goodbye. When a person infected with COVID-19 dies, those precious final moments aren’t spent with loved ones at their bedside. They’re spent surrounded by doctors and nurses, dressed head to toe in protective gear. One nurse at a hospital in Issaquah, east of Seattle, wanted to do what she could to connect a mother and daughter one last time. Using FaceTime, Tatyana Huber held her personal cellphone up to Carolann Gann’s face, so her daughter could share her final