Original version

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

Unexpected Elements

Factual: Science & Nature

Factual: Science & Nature: Science & Technology

The news you know, the science you don’t.

The news you know, the science you don’t. Unexpected Elements looks beyond everyday narratives to discover a goldmine of scientific stories and connections from around the globe. From Afronauts, to why we argue, to a deep dive on animal lifespans: see the world in a new way.

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service News Internet

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service East Asia

Unexpected Elements: Covid-19 Therapy Controversy

Discussion & Talk

New York lab tests serum from recovered covid-19 patients for possible therapy.

29/08/2020 GMT

Covid-19 Therapy Controversy

BBC World Service - Unexpected Elements, Covid-19 Therapy Controversy

Is convalescent plasma really a ‘tremendous’ treatment for Covid-19?

The Trump administration has approved convalescent plasma therapy as a standard treatment for Covid-19 in the United States.  Was the decision based on the best evidence?

This week Science in Action examines the evidence around the Trump Administration’s emergency use authorisation of convalescent plasma therapy for the treatment of Covid-19.  Donald Trump described its US-wide roll-out as ‘historic’ but the majority of scientists and doctors disagree, questioning the scientific basis for the government’s decision. Roland Pease talks to Mayo Clinic’s Michael Joyner, the leader of the convalescent plasma therapy study on which the action was based.  The Mayo Clinic trial involved a large number of patients but none of them were compared to Covid-19 patients who were not treated with convalescent plasma.   Trials that incorporate that comparison are the only way to properly assess the therapy’s effectiveness.   Roland talks to Martin Landray of the University of Oxford who is testing convalescent plasma therapy in the UK’s Recovery randomised control trial,  and to medical ethicist Alison Bateman-House of the New York University Grossman School of Medicine.

We also talk to nanotechnologist Marc Miskin about the million-strong army of microscopic robots he’s creating in his lab at the University of Pennsylvania.

The idea of creating underwater habitats has captured the imagination of writers, thinkers and scientists for decades. However, despite numerous grand visions, these dreams of aquatic metropolises have not yet come to fruition. Crowdscience listener and scuba enthusiast Jack wonders whether - given improved technology and the growing environmental pressures facing humans on land - it is time to reconsider the ocean as an alternative permanent living space for humans. Marnie Chesterton dons her flippers for Crowdscience in search of the oceanographers and architects who have dedicated their lives to designing vessels, labs and underwater habitats. She explores whether oceanic cities remain a sci-fi dream or a realistic solution to some of our modern challenges. Can the oceans’ largely unexplored resources be harnessed to support living underwater?

(Main image:  New York lab tests serum from recovered covid-19 patients for possible therapy.   Credit: Misha Friedman / Getty Images)

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Unexpected Elements

Covid-19 Therapy Controversy

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

About BBC World Service