Ep. 29: Breathe In, Breathe Out

In late 2019, a mysterious respiratory illness began spreading through Wuhan, China. Within months, it had a name — COVID-19 — and within months after that, it had the entire world in its grip.

In this episode of Medicine, Mystery, Mayhem & Murder, Crystal walks Andrea through the full story of COVID-19, from the long history of coronaviruses and how scientists had been watching this viral family for decades, to the emergence of a novel pathogen that no one was prepared for. They explore what the virus does to the body, why it hit some people harder than others, and what we now know about long COVID, the lingering and often debilitating condition that millions of survivors are still living with today.

Along the way, they touch on how the pandemic unfolded on a global scale and the complicated, often fractured response that followed.

Join Andrea and Crystal as they unpack one of the most defining medical events of our lifetime and what it revealed about science, systems, and the human body under pressure.