Name: Covid: One year on - 6 Minute English
Uploaded: 2021-02-25T18:56:15.000Z
Duration: 6 min 17 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm Neil.

In this programme we're talking about something the whole world

Sadly, Covid-19 has been responsible for more than

What's believed to have started in the city of Wuhan in China

went on to become a pandemic – a disease

that affects many people around the world.

Unsurprisingly, we've discussed this a lot on 6 Minute English

but over a year on since the first outbreak, it's good to take stock –

or look back over the situation and see what we have learnt -

and find out how our knowledge has changed.

In 1918/1919 another major virus known as Spanish flu,

Do you know approximately, how many people were infected by it?

Well, I know it was bad, so I'm going for the awful number

OK, I'll reveal the right answer later on.

Now, back to the current coronavirus pandemic.

It was only at the end of December 2019 when

reports of a new flu-like infection first came out of China.

Within weeks, millions of people were in lockdown as the

Took hold means it became stronger and was difficult to stop.

We all had to change the way we lived to stop it spreading.

But while we played our part by washing our hands,

some people were busy working for a solution to

You're talking about the scientists, Georgina.

Their response was immediate and it's something

the BBC World Service programme Science in Action

At the beginning of the outbreak, Jenny Rohn,

a virologist from University College London,

spoke to the programme about her concerns

Seasonal flu is a huge killer and you've probably seen the numbers,

it makes the Wuhan virus look a bit wimpy,

that's simply because of the sheer number of people that

And if the Wuhan virus started spreading like that

and going all over the world, you would see a lot of people dead.

So we know flu is a virus that can spread easily and can affect

This is why, at the time, comparing it with the new coronavirus

made Covid look 'wimpy' – that's a word to describe something

or someone that's feeble - not very strong.

Yes, Jenny called the great or significant numbers of people affected

The fear at the time was if coronavirus spread like flu,

Well, we all know what happened next – it did spread.

But, working behind the scenes, scientists developed

tests we could use to see if we were infected.

But the main challenge was to develop a vaccine

that could stop us becoming infected altogether.

This work started straight away and Dr Peter Dazak,

Zoologist and President of EcoHealth Alliance,

told the Science in Action programme that this initial response in

China helped with the development of a vaccine…

Despite what everyone says, you know, they had a system

maybe not on the first actual case of Covid,

but certainly within a couple of months of the first case,

And then from that point, to actually getting a full genome,

genetic sequence of the virus, was very quick –

and getting that published and publically available –

and then rapidly developing diagnostic tests and vaccines now –

So China had a scientific system which kicked in –

Within a few months of the first coronavirus outbreak,

experts began to work out the full genome of the virus –

that's the full amount of genetic information of something.

This genetic information was made publically available

and helped towards the development of various vaccines

which is hopefully our way out of this pandemic.

The science is amazing and is explained in more detail in the

But now let's get back to our quiz question.

how many people were infected by Spanish flu back in 1918/1919?

An incredible 500 million people around the world were

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Covid: One year on - 6 Minute English

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