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CNN 10
Antibodies Play Important Role In Fighting Coronavirus; La Nina May Influence U.S. Weather; New Discovery Made Concerning Dead Sea Scrolls. Aired 4-4:10a ET
Aired March 18, 2021 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: Our first topic this Thursday on CNN 10, antibodies, what they are, how they work and what they have to do with
coronavirus. I`m Carl Azuz. Thank you for watching. The American Red Cross is a humanitarian group that helps people in times of emergency or
disaster.
It recently told CNN that in the first week of March, 20 percent of the blood donations it received from people who had not gotten the coronavirus
vaccine showed they still had antibodies to the disease. What does that mean? The short answer is that they`ve probably been infected COVID at some
point whether they had symptoms or not.
The percentage of Red Cross blood donations that had antibodies present has steadily increased since last summer as more people have gotten and
recovered from coronavirus. An advisor to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control says blood donors are not a random sample of the population.
So this 20 percent figure isn`t a strict, scientific study. But it does reflect the disease`s spread in America. For its part, the CDC estimates by
the end of 2020, more than a quarter of the U.S. population had been infected. It`s hard to know exactly because at least 40 percent of people
with COVID may have no symptoms and may not get tested.
Those who have been exposed can develop natural antibodies to protect them against the disease. What`s not known is how long these antibodies work and
if they can keep people from getting different variants or strains of COVID.
This is similar to what doctors say about vaccines. That people who get them are protected against coronavirus but how long and whether this
protects them from new strains. That`s still unknown. In all cases though, our antibodies may play a role.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of the ways our immune system protects us from viruses is through antibodies. Antibodies are proteins in our blood that
attach themselves to parts of viruses. That limit`s the infection and also alerts white blood cells to come in, attack and eliminate the virus.
So in many cases, if the body encounters the same virus again, the immune system has left over antibodies that are taught and remember the previous
infection. These cells can either fight off the deadly virus directly or they can produce more antibodies to help prevent the infection.
Researchers aren`t entirely sure why this process works so well for some viruses but not others. Our immune systems seem to remember some viruses
better than others. A person is generally protected for life after one encounter with viruses like chicken pox or polio.
However, there are some viruses that our immune systems seem to easily forget. Scientists have reported that immunity could be short lived after
encounters with some common seasonal coronaviruses which can cause the common cold.
That could help explain why we can repeatedly get sick with something as simple as a cold even if we think we`ve been exposed to cold viruses
before. We could be getting exposed to new strains as well.
Some viruses like the flu can mutate often which means our old antibodies no longer work against these strains. While most experts do believe that
we`re probably going to have some protection after being infected with the coronavirus, we`re still not sure just how long that protection will be or
how strong.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: 10 Second Trivia. The scientist Dr. Ted Fujita became best known for his research into what? Volcanoes, hurricanes, tornadoes, or earthquakes.
Fujita is the namesake of the enhanced Fujita Scale which characterizes the intensity of tornadoes.
Parts of the American south were under tornado watches or warnings on Wednesday. Roughly 50 million people were in the path of severe storms and
the U.S. Storm Prediction Center, a government agency that`s part of the National Weather Service issued its highest risk level for severe storms
and tornadoes. It hasn`t done that since 2019 when the central U.S. was hit with dozens of twisters.
The worst of Wednesday`s storms appeared to be headed for Mississippi and Alabama last night. What that means is that strong tornadoes that stay on
the ground, potentially causing more destruction were possible. Alabama`s governor issued a state of emergency on Tuesday out of abundance of
caution. CNN 10 contributor Tyler Mauldin explains why more rough weather could be ahead this spring.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TYLER MAULDIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: La Nina can make this year`s tornado season extra feisty Carl. A La Nina is when the ocean temperatures in the east
central Pacific are cooler than normal. It affects the world`s weather patterns by altering the jet stream. In the United States, strong
temperature differences tend to develop between hot, humid air in the south and cooler, drier air to the north.
This contrast causes the jet stream to speed up and a faster jet stream spells more severe weather outbreaks. These ingredients are in place for
this year`s tornado season. Though tornadoes can form any time of the year, we see the most tornadoes during meteorological spring which runs from
March through May and is known as tornado season.
Unfortunately, this year`s ingredients are comparable to record setting 2011 season. 2011 was the costliest tornado season ever and deadliest in a
century. It featured more than 2,000 tornadoes, 900 took place during the month of April.
More than 200 were spawned during the deadly April 27th outbreak, the most tornadoes to form on a single day and 2011 also spawned the infamous
Joplin, Missouri tornado that caused $3 billion in damage the most ever by a single tornado. Storm anxiety is very real. Understanding some key terms
and preparing in advance can help ease those fears. Understand the difference between a watch and a warning.
A watch means conditions are favorable for development. You simply need to keep an eye out for the weather to potentially turn bad. A warning means
there`s an imminent emergency and you need to seek shelter immediately. The weather has turned bad.
Go ahead and identify your safe place in case you`re placed under a warning. Download your favorite weather app and double check that your
emergency notifications are turned on so you`re alerted as soon as warning is issued. If you can grab something sturdy to cover yourself while
sheltered, do so. It could prevent injuries if there`s flying debris.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: A new discovery has been made near the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea. This is a large landlocked lake between Israel and Jordan and there
are at least 11 caves in the region where ancient biblical texts called the Dead Sea Scrolls have been found. In 1947, a shepherd boy discovered the
first of these manuscripts by accident. The most recent finding contains fragments from the books of the biblical prophet Zechariah and Nahum.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s the most amazing thing I encountered that I -- I found, I seen in my life.
HADAS GOLD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In these remote caves near the Dead Sea, Israeli researchers found dozens of fragments of a Dead Sea Scroll bearing
biblical text. Written in Greek and dating back nearly 2,000 years, these new pieces of a biblical book have been unearthed for the first time in
over 60 years.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we found is new parts of the puzzle of this rather large manuscript. The manuscript is of a translation into Greek of the 12
minor prophets from the -- from the Bible.
GOLD: Archeologists have been working in these caves and cliffs of the Judean Desert since 2017 to prevent the looting of antiquities.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A survey on this scale was never conducted in the Judean Desert. We surveyed more than 100 kilometers of the cliffs of the Judean
Desert and you can see the results.
GOLD: More historic elements were found. A 6,000-year-old skeleton of a child, rare coins and the complete basket thought to be the biggest and
oldest intact basket in the world.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re looking at a basket which is about 10,500 years old and it`s kind of huge. It -- it contains between 90 to 100 liters and
it`s all intact.
GOLD: Centuries of hot and dry climate means this basket made from plant material may yield new information on how products were stored before
pottery was invented. From just a few millimeters to a thumbnail in size, these fragments may look small but experts say they could provide a huge
insight into the history before and after the time of Jesus. Hadas Gold, CNN, Jerusalem.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: At first this almost looks like an impressionist painting of the beach. The kind of art you`d see in a coastal condominium. But this is a
motion picture of a beach that is frozen. The scene is Ogunquit Beach in southwestern Maine.
The man who recently recorded it said it was 12 degrees Fahrenheit outside at the time, that is not including wind chill. Salt water has to be about
28 degrees to freeze. It has a lower freezing temperature than freshwater. So that gives you a sense of how cold it had to get to turn waves into icy
ridges.
Oh (shore) the video makes "wave" and is really "ice" to look at and you probably wouldn`t get a sunburn with all that "Ice Ice Baby". But no one
ever says, jump on in the water`s freezing and that is a deceptive way to cell "ices" at the beach.
So I`ll hold off until the "surf" and the temperature are both back up. I`m Carl Azuz. Evergreen High School gets today`s shout out. It is located on
the west coast in Vancouver, Washington. Thanks for taking 10 for CNN 10.
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