Covid-19 vaccine testing in Germany

This week on The Sound Kitchen, you'll hear the answer to the question about the German biotech company and their Covid-19 vaccine. There's a mini-history lesson on Joan of Arc, “Ollia's Happy Moment”, great music, and of course, the new quiz question. Just click on the “Audio” arrow above and enjoy!

Hello everyone! Welcome back to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, once again published every Saturday. A hearty “thank you!” to all of you who so kindly continued to watch The “Quarantine” Kitchen videos on Facebook during confinement. Now you'll hear The Sound Kitchen as you have always known it, with the quiz, the winners and all the other ingredients you're accustomed to: your letters and essays, “On This Day”, quirky facts and news, interviews, and great music … so be sure and listen every week. And once again, thanks for continuing to be a part of The Sound Kitchen !

For the time being, Paris Live, our afternoon news broadcast, is still off-the-air. We will let you know as soon as we can safely bring it back to you. Thank you all for your patience, and for your support of the English service during this difficult time.

RFI's Planète Radio announced the winners of the 2020 ePOP short video competition and Adita Prithika Subrahmanyan, the president of the RFI Agnichiragu Phoenix Club in Tamilnadu, India is the laureate in the Club RFI category for her video “Cultivation between factories”. Adita won a week-long series of masterclasses in Paris with RFI and fellow ePOPers, a 1000€ grant to design and run a local ePOP Camp workshop in her community, and five ePOP video shooting kits.

You can watch Adita's prize-winning video here, and of course, on the RFI English, The Sound Kitchen, the RFI English Clubs, and the RFI Listeners Club Facebook pages. Planète Radio will post the runners up in each category every Friday.

Prithwiraj Purkayastha, the president of the RFI Listeners Club of Jorhat in Assam, India, won fourth place in the Club RFI category for his video “Solution for greener cities”. I'll be sure and let you know when his video is posted.

The Grand Prize winner is Hadama Diakité from Bamako, Mali, for his video “The economy of waste” (Adita also placed 11^th in this category). The Young Female Producer award went to Olivia Christine Jeanne from Alakamisy, Madagascar for “The value of trees”. The Emergency Science prize went to Damarus Tshinyam, from Kipepe, Democratic Republic of Congo, for his video “Helping Fishing”.

Initiated in 2017 by RFI Planète Radio and the French Development Research Institute (IRD), ePOP is an innovative project which aims to mobilize an international network of engaged and responsible youth. Coming from multiple countries, the young people produce short videos showing the reactions and the questions of people in their communities – especially the older generation - whose lives have been negatively affected by climate and environmental changes. The videos are then diffused on the ePOP site and social media platforms, notably Facebook. To find solutions for the problems brought forward in the videos, ePOP works with an international community of researchers at the IRD, a top development organization whose decisions are based on their contact with the public.

More than 130 videos were received this year from nearly 25 countries on five continents.

The selection of the winners was made by a jury of audiovisual, media, and environmental professionals.

Congratulations Adita! Congratulations Prithwiraj! And thanks to all of you who entered the contest.

Send me your music requests! I'll make programs of your favorite music when I can't be in the kitchen to cook up something new for you … write to me at  [email protected]

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RFI Clubs: Be sure to always include Audrey Iattoni ([email protected]) and Chrystelle Nammour ([email protected]) from our Listener Relations department on all your RFI Club correspondence. Remember to copy me ([email protected]) when you write them so that I know what is going on, too. N.B. You do not need to send them your quiz answers! Email overload!

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There's a new Facebook page for members of the general RFI Listeners Club. Just click on the link and fill out the questionnaire, and you can connect with your fellow Club members around the world. Be sure you include your RFI Listeners Club membership number (most of them begin with an A, followed by a number) in the questionnaire, or I will have to click “Decline”, which I don't like to do!

To join the RFI Listeners Club, just write to me at [email protected] and tell me you want to join, and I'll send you a membership number. It's that easy. When you win a Sound Kitchen quiz as an RFI Listeners Club member, you receive a premium prize.

This week's quiz: On 25 April, I asked you a question about an article you read on our website that week, “Human trials begin in worldwide race to develop Covid-19 vaccine”.

In that article, you learned the name of a German biotech company that has developed a Covid-19 vaccine and was approved to start clinical trials at the end of April. I had two questions for you: what is the name of the company, and how many people are involved in the clinical trial, the testing phase?

The answer is: BioNtech is the name of the German biotech company; the study – which is ongoing – involves 200 healthy volunteers from 18 to 55 years old.  I talked to BioNtech this week to find out what's going on - BioNtech's spokeswoman told me they hope to be able to release results from the trial in June or July.

BioNtech has partnered with the US pharma giant Pfizer, and clinical trials on the vaccine have just begun in the US. The trials there are on 360 healthy volunteers from 18 to 55 years old, but they don't yet know when the results of that trial will be made public. 

Thinking is, if it works, if the results are promising, a vaccine could be ready by as early as September.  But remember: there are no certainties, no one really knows anything at all right now – but we can hope, while we're keeping safe, of course!

The winners are: RFI Listeners Club members Ralf Urbanczyk from Eisleben, Germany and M Ganesan from Goa, India. There are three members of official, independent RFI Clubs on the list of lucky winners this week, and two are from India: Asif Ahemmed from the RFI International DX Radio Listeners Club in Murshidabad, and S B Sharma from the RFI Listeners Club in Jharkhand. Finally, there's Saiful Islam, who serves as the Sports Secretary for the Online RFI DX Club in Rajshahi, Bangladesh.    

Congratulations winners!
Here's the music you heard on this week's program: ““The Frogg Galliard” by John Dowland, performed by Paul O'Dette; “Joan of Arc” by Leonard Cohen, sung by Judy Collins; the theme song from the film Marie Curie, composed by Krzysztof A Janczak and performed by Dawid Rudnicki and the Airis Quartet; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “Mambo Diablo” by Tito Puente, performed by Puente and his Latin Jazz Ensemble, and “Hyper-ballad”, written and performed by Björk.  

Do you have a musical request? Send it to [email protected]

This week's question ... You'll have to listen to the show to participate. You have until 29 June to enter this week's quiz; the winners will be announced on the 4 July podcast. When you enter, be sure you send your postal address in with your answer, and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

Send your answers to:
[email protected]
or
Susan Owensby
RFI – The Sound Kitchen
80, rue Camille Desmoulins
92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux
France
or
By text … You can also send your quiz answers to The Sound Kitchen mobile phone. Dial your country's international access code, or “ + ”, then 33 6 31 12 96 82. Don't forget to include your mailing address in your text – and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

To find out how you can win a special Sound Kitchen prize, click here

To find out how you can become a member of the RFI Listeners Club, or to form your own official RFI Club, click here