logo
episode-header-image
Jun 2022
26m 25s

Poor Covid immunity after Omicron

Bbc World Service
About this episode

New research reveals a poor immunity boost after infection with the Omicron variant. Might this explain why getting Covid again has been more common with this wave? BBC News health reporter, Smitha Mundasad unpicks the data. And the first World Health Organisation mental health report in two decades calls for change. Dévora Kestel, Director of WHO’s Mental Health and Substance Use Department joins Claudia Hammond to discuss the findings. Plus Professor Russell Foster on why looking after our body clocks can help with a good night's sleep.

Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright

(Picture: Covid-19 Omicron illustration. Photo credit: Sakchai Vongsasiripat/Getty Images.)

Up next
Jun 10
How reading fiction impacts our mental health
How does reading shape our mind and spirit? Why do novels make us feel more human? In front of a live audience at the Hay Festival of Literature & Arts in Wales in the UK, Claudia Hammond looks at the science of what reading does to the mind and explores the profound impact it ca ... Show More
26m 29s
Jun 3
Health at the football World Cup
From heat exhaustion to dengue fever - monitoring public health risks at the biggest tournament in football history. With millions of fans travelling to the USA, Canada and Mexico for the men’s football World Cup, Claudia Hammond speaks to Professor Rebecca Katz from Georgetown U ... Show More
26m 29s
May 27
Seafarer welfare in the Strait of Hormuz
Three months into the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz, we find out about the 20,000 sailors trapped on board with dwindling resources and minimal health provision. We hear from Mohamed Arrachedi, Network Co-ordinator for the Arab World and Iran for the International Transport Wo ... Show More
26m 26s
Recommended Episodes
Jun 2021
The Evidence: How Covid damages the human body
A year and a half in, and in many ways Covid-19 is still an enigma. All over the world, doctors and scientists are still struggling to understand exactly how this new virus undermines our defences and then damages, even destroys, our bodies, in so many different ways. And why are ... Show More
49m 58s
Mar 2024
How nightmares link to real-life fears, and new research tackling post-cardiac arrest PTSD
If you've been cured of a phobia, say of spiders, and finally made your peace with the hairy-legged beasties in real life - why might you then start having vivid nightmares about them? Following an email plea for an explanation of this mystery Claudia Hammond enlists Dr Lampros P ... Show More
31 m
Apr 2021
An Immunologist Challenges the Status Quo
Immunologist Akiko Iwasaki has gained a huge online following during the pandemic for tweeting out explainers of the latest Covid-19 research, as well as calling out sexism in science. CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta talks with Professor Iwasaki about treating ... Show More
12m 28s
Dec 2023
The impact of bad news, compassion fatigue, and the psychology of whistleblowing
Increasing numbers of people are avoiding the news, and a recent update to Ipsos’s Global Trends 2023 report has found that the current state of the world is causing people to focus on their own lives, rather than broader, global problems. Mike Clemence, associate director of tre ... Show More
27m 59s
Feb 2024
Why recovering from long Covid is a lot like training for the Olympics
BBC health journalist Laura Foster can’t get the first days of the pandemic out of her head; the stunned silence of the newsroom as the first lockdown was announced, the chaos and noise at the supermarket and the empty streets of London.But even though she was a reporter covering ... Show More
28m 32s
Sep 2020
A Conversation With a Covid-19 Vaccine Scientist
What does it feel like working on something that could save the world? CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta speaks with Hanneke Schuitemaker, PhD, the Global Head of Vaccine Discovery and Translational Medicine at Janssen Pharmaceutica. She reflects on her work leadin ... Show More
15m 53s
Aug 2021
The Benefit of Natural Immunity to Covid
Dr. Ian Lustbader, Clinical Professor of Medicine at NYU Langone, explains why people who recovered from Covid appear to have a lower risk of contracting the delta variant than those who got the Pfizer shot. Matt Baker, Chief Strategy Officer at Dell, discusses earnings results a ... Show More
35m 47s
Nov 2020
The Mystery of the Viral Dose
Why does Covid-19 make some people so much sicker than others? Risk factors and pre-existing conditions are part of it, but could there still be another factor? CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta talks to infectious disease expert Dr. Monica Gandhi about the possibl ... Show More
12m 36s
Oct 2021
The Evidence: When misinformation kills
A maelstrom of misinformation and its sinister cousin, disinformation, have been swirling all around us about Covid-19. The rumours and conspiracy theories have raced around the globe as fast as the virus itself.Untruths, half-truths, misunderstandings and deliberate mischief-mak ... Show More
50m 35s