Television networks and streaming services continue to respond to the coronavirus crisis with special programming designed to break down recent developments and important issues for viewers.
Here’s the latest:
Launching tonight, April 13, on the “CBS Evening News With Norah O’Donnell” is a weeklong series called “Racing to a Cure” (6:30 p.m., CBS).
This multi-platform project aims to take viewers inside the search for treatments and vaccines.
Through in-depth storytelling, original reporting and interviews with medical experts and patients on the forefront of groundbreaking research, the series will provide the latest news and critical context about the path forward on treatments for COVID-19. Every night this week, O’Donnell and the team of CBS News journalists will explore innovative treatments being developed at an unprecedented rate and report on new approaches being used against the virus.
As scientists feverishly search for a cure, there is tension between the need for therapies now and the worry that some might do more harm than good. Dozens of trials are underway.
In tonight’s “Racing to a Cure” report, CBS News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook gives viewers a first look at a clinical trial at Northwell Health, where doctors are testing the rheumatoid arthritis drug Kevzara to see if it can decrease severe inflammation caused by the virus, which ends up damaging the lungs. LaPook speaks with the first patient involved in the Northwell Health trial of Kevzara, as well as the chief medical officer at Genentech, the company testing a similar anti-inflammatory drug.
The series will also look at two drugs under consideration as possible treatments: Remdesivir, originally designed for Ebola, and Hydroxychloroquine, which is approved to treat malaria.
Later this week, “Racing to a Cure” will feature reporting on an experimental therapy that uses blood plasma from recovered patients to treat the sick. Plus, the series will take a look at what can be learned from a new program in Italy that tests for signs of coronavirus immunity in an effort to reopen the economy.
Additional reporting will be featured on CBSEveningNews.com and on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
RACING TO A CURE: @NorthwellHealth doctors are testing rheumatoid arthritis drug Kevzara on COVID-19 patients in hopes of decreasing inflammation caused by the virus. Tonight, @DrLaPook speaks with the 1st patient involved in the trial.
Our week-long series begins at 6:30p ET. pic.twitter.com/EOcVF4aKje
— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) April 13, 2020
— Also airing tonight is “Coronavirus: Lucha Por La Vida” (10 p.m., Telemundo). Hosted by José Díaz-Balart, Vanessa Hauc and Julio Vaqueiro, the special will cover breaking news and information on the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on the Latino community. Medical experts will also answer viewer-submitted questions.
The program will air live on Telemundo and livestream simultaneously on NoticiasTelemundo.com, the Noticias Telemundo Mobile App, and Noticias Telemundo’s YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.
