Can we trust the hype over steroids as a coronavirus treatment?
You might have seen the headlines over the past day or two about the drug dexamethasone, which claims to be a major breakthrough in the coronavirus pandemic. The drug is a cheap and widely used steroid, and reduced death rates by about a third among the most severely ill COVID-19 patients in hospital. But news of the drug's success in trials came not from a peer-reviewed scientific paper, but instead via press release and snippets on Twitter. So how much can we trust the results? On today's show: * What is dexamethasone and why is it being touted as a coronavirus treatment? * Beijing has been battling with a fresh outbreak of the new coronavirus. What’s going on?
