S3 E10: 6abc Health Reporter and Registered Nurse Ali Gorman on the Many Unknowns of COVID-19




The True Philadelphia Podcast with Matt O'Donnell
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Summary: Ali Gorman has been our go-to for all things health, medical and wellness for more than 12 years. The South Jersey native's expertise has never been more needed or valued now. The registered nurse started her medical career with the Navy as a Nurse Corps officer. She knows what people on the front lines are dealing with right now. Ali opens up her knowledge bank to offer her thoughts on the whole host of uncertainties about this novel coronavirus. Recorded through Zoom on April 20, 2020 In this podcast: We talk about Ali's background in growing up, education and her career (1:10), why she joined the Navy (2:05), why she became one of the first at Action News to work from home (3:12), how being at home can actually make you do more work (4:20), what her health care worker colleagues are going through on the front lines (5:15), how nursing to her is a not just a profession, it is a "calling" (6:05), what Ali thought and feared back in January, before the United States had its first confirmed COVID-19 case (7:30), the teleconference call she was on with the CDC in mid-February that had a "change in tone" (8:25), if she ever thought she would live to see a full-on, world pandemic (9:50), if Ali worries the country could be "stuck" where we are going back and forth between stay-at-home orders (10:55), her thoughts on some of the conspiracy theories floating around (12:50), if she thinks we'll ever find "patient zero" (13:20), how the virus might have been around much earlier, with more community spread, than we had earlier thought (13:50), why it impacts people in a variety of ways from being asymptomatic to being fatal (14:20), the "cytokine storm" (15:15), why the coronavirus is a truly odd one (16:20), why the virus is so effective when it comes to its fatality rate and its symptoms (17:25), why this pandemic is so different from SARS, MERS, H1N1 and West Nile (18:30), what would have happened if we didn't apply social distancing and stay-at-home orders (19:50), if Ali fears large portions of the public will reach a breaking point and begin violating the distancing requirements (20:40), what she is most hopeful about with a vaccine, with a treatment and with increased testing (22:05), what the picture of the woman diving behind her at home is all about (24:00).