Science Rules! with Bill Nye Stitcher

The world is going to need billions and billions of vaccines. Who will make them, and where will they come from?

A key to staying safe from COVID-19 is contact tracing —  breaking the chain of transmission from person to person. Kelly Driscoll, head of the Community Tracing Collaborative in Massachusetts, explains how contact tracing works and what it can do to block the spread of the virus.

We are definitely not out of the woods yet with COVID-19, but communities across the world have either eased their lockdowns already or are planning to do so within the next few weeks. Michael Osterholm, a professor of public health advising the state of New York on its reopening plan, explains how this pandemic will play out.

This isn’t the first pandemic humanity has faced. From the black death to Spanish flu, from AIDS to Ebola; we’ve been here before. But historian Mark Honigsbaum, author of The Pandemic Century, says that the complacency and hubris of scientific experts keep preventing us from learning from the past.

Researchers are moving at unprecedented speed, but they’re still struggling to understand this pandemic. What does the novel coronavirus do to our bodies? Virologist Dr. Angela Rasmussen answers questions about what happens when we get COVID-19, the role immunity  and how small scientific discoveries will be the key to understanding this disease.  

The hunt to find antiviral drugs has pressed on as we await a vaccine. Remdesivier is the latest treatment that has been touted to help patients suffering from COVID-19. But does this and other antiviral drugs really help cure patients? Scientist Derek Angus helps answer this and understand what role Antiviral drugs play in our community.