For the next few months Talk Evidence is going to focus on the new corona virus pandemic.

There is an enormous amount of uncertainty about the disease, what the symptoms are, fatality rate, treatment options, things we shouldn't be doing.

We're going to try to get away from the headlines and talk about what we need to know - to hopefully give you some insight into these issues.

This week:

(3.14) Jeff Aronson from Oxford University explains why remdesivir is a potential therapeutic, but is pessimistic about the quality of the studies being done on it

(13.22) Carl explains why smoking cessation is still a key public health priority under covid-19

(16.30) Helen talks care homes, and interviews Mona Koshkouei, from Oxford University, about the research which shows staff are the main vector of infection.

(27.20) David Spiegelhalter, professor of public understanding of risk, looks at the new data on excess deaths in the UK - and the difficulties with reporting that underlie it. Carl explains how deaths track infections, and why uncertainty there makes it hard to calcuate the case fatality rate (And why that is not a good measure to use in a pandemic)


Reading list.

Compassionate Use of Remdesivir for Patients with Severe Covid-19
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2007016

How can pandemic spreads be contained in care homes?
https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/how-can-pandemic-spreads-be-contained-in-care-homes/

Covid-19: Death rate in England and Wales reaches record high because of covid-19
https://www.bmj.com/node/1024784.full