The dormant viruses in all of us may help explain long COVID
Short Wave

The dormant viruses in all of us may help explain long COVID

B2Upper-intermediateOctober 23, 202614 min
  • Health

Virtually every human on Earth has a slew of different types of dormant viruses in our bodies. They are remnants of past infections and are—generally—harmless. Unless they wake up, which can be triggered by extreme stress or something that severely compromises the immune system. But now, through a unique study on the immune systems of astronauts, scientists are considering broadening their ideas about what can wake up our dormant viruses…and learning what all this has to do with long COVID. If you liked this episode, check out our episodes on a universal flu vaccine and what sc...

Play episode

Opens the player: the full transcript, every word clickable, with translation and flashcards.

Try it: tap any word

Real sentences from the start of this episode. Every word is marked with its level.

Sentence 11 of 12 · 0:36

Don't worry, it's not as scary as it sounds,

living inside of you right now.

Hear this sentence

Tap a word to see its meaning in your language.

Do you know these words?

8 harder words from this episode. Tap one to see what it means, then mark it.

  • C10:36
  • B22:14
  • C14:30
  • B27:21
  • C18:41
  • B210:47
  • B213:18
  • C116:29

Mark a few words and we'll tell you how this episode fits your level.

Is this episode right for you?

B2

B2 · Upper-intermediate

Comfortable if you already follow TV news

A1 27%A2 38%B1 23%B2 8%C1 4%
  • 88% of the words are B1 or easier.
  • 170 words a minute: natural, fairly fast speech.
  • 70 harder words (B2 and up) in the whole episode.

Transcript

The opening of the episode. The whole transcript is in the player.

0:00

This election season, let the NPR Politics podcast save your time and your sanity. We'll help you understand key races, which polls you can safely ignore, and what might happen if power shifts in Congress. Our short daily episodes come out every afternoon, so you can spend less time scrolling through each chaotic news cycle.

0:17

Make NPR Politics your hub for midterm election coverage. Follow our podcast on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. You're listening to Shortwave from NPR. Hey you, yeah, you.

0:32

Listen, I've got news. Don't worry, it's not as scary as it sounds, but you probably have a dormant virus living inside of you right now.

That was the opening. The rest of the episode (14 min) is in the player: every word clickable, with translation, saved words and flashcards.

Continue in the player

Automatically generated from the audio. May contain errors. Audio belongs to its publisher and is played from their feed. Rights holders can request removal — copyright & takedown policy