In the first episode of this trilogy of special podcasts, we asked the basic question, "What is a virus?" then delved into the characteristics of this most infectious of viruses. In this second episode we explore, with our guide, Professor John Potter from New Zealand, exactly what is a pandemic, whether we are actually in a "second wave" as the common parlance of journalists, medical authorities and politicians would have it, and examine the roles of medical experts intertwined with the imperatives our political leaders face as they try to combine, with decidedly mixed results, the best available science with clear, consistent public communications about the actualities of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, what we need to do to combat its predations and where this journey without a clear destination might be taking us, socially, economically and in terms of our public health.In the third episode we shall dissect what happened in the upsurge of corona virus infections in New Zealand after over 100 days of no community transmission of the virus and try to identify the lessons for all of us. And we'll put front and centre the debate around "elimination", which New Zealand adopted as its strategy, and "suppression" which is ostensibly how Australia has approached the pandemic, trying to steer a course between public health and economic survival. And will there be a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2? When? and how effective might it be?RESOURCESProf John Potter Research: https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=35380121900SPRINGER: https://www.springernature.com/gp/researchers/campaigns/coronavirusNEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE: https://www.nejm.org/coronavirusTHE LANCET: https://www.thelancet.com/coronavirus*TRACKERS/DASHBOARDS: https://www.statnews.com/feature/coronavirus/covid-19-tracker/https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6In general but specialist journalism , the science writer at The Atlantic magazine, Ed Yong, has written some excellent articles. Reading his archive helps put the pandemic ia chronological perspective, at least in the United States.https://www.theatlantic.com/author/ed-yong/The magazine has also provided outside its usual paywall a large number of articles on the coronavirus pandemic.*https://www.theatlantic.com/category/what-you-need-know-coronavirus/