Keep That Pumpkin Pie to Yourself: A Coronavirus Update Bonus 🦠

LISTEN + SUBSCRIBE HERE

Description

🧼 If you're traveling for the holidays, get some clear, simple tips on how to travel safe 👧 Hear what shelter-in-place looked like for 10-year-old Sasha who quarantined in two countries! (with correspondent Bridget Todd) ⚕️ Learn how vaccines really work (with correspondents Jacob & Olivia Rosencwaig from the Curious Kid Podcast) 🤧 Learn today’s Fun Fact about sneezes and which animal can your sneeze beat in a race 👨‍⚕️ Guess the answer to the Trivia Question of the Day: Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, faced down what ceremonial act?

Links

🤔 Learn more about shots and why vaccines are important: A Kid's Guide to Shots
👀 Watch a video of Dr. Anthony Fauci botching the ceremonial act from today's Trivia Question: YouTube
🎧 Listen to correspondent Bridget Todd's podcast about marginalized voices shaping the internet: There Are No Girls on the Internet
🎧 Listen to correspondents Jacob & Olivia Rosencwaig’s podcast: Curious Kid Podcast
💌 Email us your story ideas, your trivia questions — even your audio recordings — at hello@thetennews.com

Transcript

Bethany Van Delft: [00:00:00] Do you remember what it was like when shelter-in-place first started way back when, when you were a pandemic newbie? How can people traveling during the holidays stay safe? And how do vaccines actually work? I'm Bethany Van Delft, and we'll get into all this and more on today's The Ten News. A special episode where in the time it takes to wash your hands and mask up, we find out what's up with the Coronavirus.

[00:00:28] Okay, let's get into The Ten News.

[00:00:31] Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.

[00:00:38] In a normal year, millions of Americans travel for the Thanksgiving holiday. Families travel by planes, trains, and automobiles to gather, give thanks, and eat till they are stuffed. But the Coronavirus is still a concern. So this is no normal year. Many people are opting to spend [00:01:00] Thanksgiving at home, but for anyone traveling this holiday season, the CDC recommends some important safety precautions.

[00:01:07] These will sound familiar.

[00:01:12] Number one: Wear a mask. Anytime you're in a public space, including airports, train stations, buses, airplanes, trains, and rest stops. Keep your nose and your mouth covered.

[00:01:27] Number two: Practice, social distancing. That means doing your very best to stay at least six feet apart from anyone who doesn't live with you. On planes, trains, and buses it's ideal to have an empty seat between yourself and other passengers if possible.

[00:01:43] Number three: Wash your hands or use hand sanitizer and avoid touching surfaces that lots of other people may have touched like door knobs, elevator buttons. Your elbows come in handy in a lot of situations and keep your hands [00:02:00] off of your own face.

[00:02:02] Keep observing these safety measures when you reach your destination too. And if you or anyone in your family is feeling sick, stay home, get cozy and have all that pumpkin pie to yourself.

[00:02:22] COVID-19 cases have been on the rise in states all across the U.S. So instead of moving forward in the fight against coronavirus, many places are having to go back to tighter restrictions in order to stop the spread. Let's take a look back at where shelter in place started when our correspondent, Bridget Todd spoke with ten-year-old Sasha about her experience quarantining in two different countries.

Bridget Todd: [00:02:48] So Sasha you've really been quarantining for a very long time. What does quarantine look like for you right now?

Sasha: [00:02:55] I'm waking up pretty early now I, around the same [00:03:00] time, about 7:00 AM and I'll go with my mom to walk my dogs up the hill that's near my house. Um, then I'll get ready for online school and I'll probably log on around nine o'clock and then have like, on and off calls all day in between doing work. And in the afternoon, I call with my friends a lot and play like video games or just talk. And it's really fun.

Bridget Todd: [00:03:25] So you said that you get to talk to your friends.

[00:03:28] Has being able to talk through zoom or online, has that changed your, your friendships or have they, has it made them different?

Sasha: [00:03:35] Yeah, like some of my friends, I weren't very close with like, they were just friends that like were there in the school day. But since my best friend, wasn't able to connect online, some of my less close friends, I became much closer with. And I talked to them like every day for hours. And it's really nice because I understand my friends a lot more.

[00:03:58] And I feel like after this is all over, [00:04:00] we'll be so much closer.

Bridget Todd: [00:04:01] Oh, I hope so too. So one question that I have for you is that you started quarantining in Italy. And then you came back to your home in the United States and you continued to quarantine there. What's it like to know that you've been quarantining for so much longer than most Americans?

Sasha: [00:04:17] It , in the beginning, it felt a little bit strange because I felt like I was so much more experienced and all of my friends were like freaking out, like what's going to happen. And I wish I could just be like, here's exactly what's going to happen. But it was a bit different being in my home country made me feel a bit more comfortable with the quarantine. Quarantine isn't really a fun time. But even though I was closer to a lot of people that I love, it didn't really change the experience as much.

Bridget Todd: [00:04:49] Yeah. I think it's so hard to just be cooped up like this, you know, and he'd been doing it for longer than I have, so I can only imagine how it feels for you. Um, what would you say has been the [00:05:00] hardest part?

Sasha: [00:05:00] I think the hardest part was when we were in Italy, because we didn't understand really what was happening and looking back, that was like a bit scary because we weren't careful and bad things could have happened. Luckily they didn't because we came back home.

Bridget Todd: [00:05:17] That's good to hear. Do you have any advice for other kids like yourself or adults like me who are getting antsy, they miss their friends. What's your advice for folks like us in the quarantine?

Sasha: [00:05:28] If you can try to connect with people online, because even if it's not the same, you're still talking to them and hearing other people. And if you can like, maybe do a distance, like, hello, like from a car in front of someone's house, or like just don't keep yourself completely isolated because humans are like social people. Like we need to see and hear other voices.

Bridget Todd: [00:05:51] I totally, totally agree. What are you most looking forward to when the quarantine is all over?

Sasha: [00:05:57] Doing group [00:06:00] activities, because I love to act, um, I love to be in school and I like to just be around other people and to also be able to eat at restaurants.

Bridget Todd: [00:06:10] Well, thank you so much for talking to me today and thank you for shedding some light on what this experience has been like for you. And I hope you get to eat at that restaurant very soon.

Sasha: [00:06:21] Thank you so much.

Bethany Van Delft: [00:06:27] Did you know that a sneeze can blow air out of your nose at a speed of a hundred miles per hour. A sneezes faster than a cheetah, yet? Another reason to wear that mask?

[00:06:43] In Tuesday's week episode, we shared an update about a potential new coronavirus vaccine being worked on by the drug company, Pfizer.

News Anchor: [00:06:50] "Breaking news, pharmaceutical giant Pfizer just announced moments ago that it's coronavirus vaccine is 95% effective."

[00:06:58] "Pfizer, just out with [00:07:00] what seems to be the last piece of the puzzle before it can seek emergency use approval for its vaccine, from the FDA."

Bethany Van Delft: [00:07:06] Let's go to friends of The Ten Jacob and Olivia Rozencwaig from the Curious Kid podcast for an explanation of what vaccines actually do

Jacob Rozencwaig: [00:07:24] Right now, scientists across the world are working on creating a vaccine for coronavirus. A vaccine is something usually a shot that gives your body immunity to a disease. If you have immunity that means you are protected from a particular disease. Thanks to vaccines, we no longer have to worry about terrible diseases like smallpox. Scientists have been working for months to make a coronavirus vaccine.

Olivia: [00:07:48] What's taking so long? I want to be able to hang out with my friends like I used to.

Jacob Rozencwaig: [00:07:54] I hear you. There are well over 150 coronavirus vaccines that are being tested right now. And the [00:08:00] hope is that we won't have to wait much longer.

[00:08:02] There is a really good reason why vaccines take a long time to make, in order to understand what's taking so long, it helps to understand how vaccines work. The human body is amazing. And one thing that makes it so amazing is the immune system. The immune system protects you from all types of diseases, including viruses like COVID-19. The problem with COVID-19 is that it is such a harmful virus, .It is often able to overwhelm the immune system, especially in older people and people who already have certain other diseases. That's where vaccines come in. When you get a vaccine, you were actually fooling your immune system into thinking it's been exposed to something harmful like a virus or bacteria.

[00:08:39] The name used to describe something harmful that tries to attack your immune system is a pathogen. In order to defeat the pathogen, the body makes things called antibodies that are designed to destroy the nasty pathogen. But here's the cool part. You haven't really been exposed to the pathogen yet. You just got the vaccine that will prepare your body if you do get infected. Cool. To [00:09:00] sum it all up, getting a vaccine, trains your body to fight off a pathogen like Coronavirus by preparing your immune system to fight the pathogen in the future, if you become exposed. So getting the coronavirus vaccine would be kind of like giving your body the coronavirus playbook.

[00:09:14] So it knows what to do if you actually get coronavirus in the future. It kind of reminds me of that one time I was playing basketball and my coach told me that there was a player on the other team that likes to do a crossover dribble to the right, and then drive to the basket for a layup. It was a really nice move.

[00:09:31] But thanks to the heads-up from my coach, I was able to shut it down. We may to have to wait a bit for the coronavirus vaccine to become available because scientists need to come up with a way to introduce the coronavirus pathogen to our immune systems, then test the vaccine and animals, then the test it in a few humans to make sure to safe and to evaluate the perfect dose. Then test it in the larger number of humans to see how it impacts different people and make sure it's effective. And then [00:10:00] once it's approved, hundreds of millions of doses need to be made, but once it's made, you should consult with your doctor about getting the coronavirus vaccine so that if one day you become exposed to the coronavirus, you can shut it down.

Bethany Van Delft: [00:10:15] We are so ready to shut this virus down. To learn more from Jacob and Olivia, check out their Curious Kid podcast.

[00:10:26] It's time for your trivia question of the day!

[00:10:31] Dr. Anthony Fauci, Head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases comically botched, what ceremonial act over the summer? A) ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange, B) cutting the ribbon at the opening of a new medical school building, or C) throwing out the first pitch at a major league baseball game?

[00:10:55] Did you guess it? The answer is [00:11:00] C! Dr. Fauci's wild pitch at the Washington Nationals opening game went viral. He reportedly joked that because he played shortstop as a kid he thought he was supposed to throw to first base. Glad to know the country's top doctor has a sense of humor too.

[00:11:25] And time is up.

[00:11:27] That's the end of The Ten for today, but you can catch new episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The Ten News is coproduction of Small, But Mighty Media in collaboration with Next Chapter Podcasts and distributed by iHeartRadio. The Ten News writing team is led by Editorial Director, Tracy Crooks with contributions from Stephen Tompkins, Bridget Todd, Jacob Rozencwaig, and Tracy Leeds Kaplan.

[00:11:51] The creative producer is Jenner Pascua. Marketing is led by Jacob Bronstein with social media and web support by Steven Tompkins [00:12:00] and Adam Pharr. Editing and sound design by Pete Musto under the production direction of Jeremiah Tittle. Our Executive Producers are Donald Albright and show creator Tracy Leeds Kaplan.

[00:12:11] If you have questions about the show, a story idea, or a fun fact, you want to share, email us at hello@thetennews.com. And don't forget to subscribe, rate and review The Ten News on Apple podcasts, iHeartRadio, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your podcasts. I'm Bethany Van Delft and thanks for listening to The Ten News.

[00:12:33] Now go practice you're pitching. You want to be ready if the MLB needs you right?