Our Big Shot

Dr Seema Yasmin and Dr Shelly Batra talk about how we fight diseases as activists and overcoming social and economic challenges using her own experience and what it can teach us for the future as we see an increase in disease outbreaks and challenges in vaccination rates worldwide.  This is an inspiring conversation for listeners worldwide on how to work within communities to impact change and sav...

With the current worldwide political landscape at the forefront of our minds, continued misinformation and divisive rhetoric. We talk to Lee McIntyre about why it is important to have conversations with those that disagree with you - and why he has made it his personal mission. What can those of us who love science and have hope for the future do to bring people on the fence over to spread informa...

Thanks for listening to Our Big Shot. We have some exciting new episodes on the way shortly but in the meantime, we thought you'd like to fill your time with this fantastic episode from our friends at When Science Finds a Way. It's all about vaccination trials and pregnancy and so it should be right up your street.   You can find the rest of the series by searching for When Science Finds a Way whe...

In the final episode of this series, we revisit where we are now. The Covid-19 pandemic forced the world to work together, and this was eye-opening in showing how much can be achieved with co-ordination and collaboration. We examine how we can replicate this without the need for a global crisis with Dr Chikwe Iheweazu Assistant Director General of WHO.  We finish with the story that started Seema'...

In this episode we track the spread of Mpox and ask, how does the pandemic alarm system work? Does the global alarm system work? We have powerful vaccine technologies and we are making incredible strides in understanding pathogens that threaten the health of our populations, but how we move vaccines and resources to people in need is still a major challenge for global health organisations and gove...

Smallpox is a pathogen specific to our species and it has wreaked havoc with human populations over the centuries.  Ultimately it gave rise to what we now think of as immunisation and vaccine technology and is the only disease we have ever eradicated.   In this episode we explore this epic history of the Variola virus with Professor Gareth Williams, hear from Dr Celine Gounder, who sought out and...

African nations have a painful and particular relationship with HIV, they have also been at the forefront of the fight against the disease. In this episode, we explore the battle against HIV from their perspective, how a post-colonial legacy combined with complex societal factors provided fertile ground for the spread of the disease. We then follow how Africa dealt with the spread of HIV through t...

Tuberculosis is often assumed to be a disease of the past, but it kills over 1 million people a year - a higher rate than malaria and HIV combined.  In this episode we visit a forgotten and critical turning point in vaccine development. 'The Black Angels'  were a group of black nurses who faced almost certain death to perform the world's very first clinical trials using the drug that would become...

The 'single shot'  MMR combined vaccine is one of the biggest achievements in childhood infectious disease prevention, directly responsible for saving millions of lives. Fast-forward to the late 1990s, just as communication was becoming increasingly digital - encouraged by lawyers and his own alternative vaccine patent, a fraudulent paper was published by Andrew Wakefield in a highly respected med...

In this episode we look at the fight against polio from 'The March of the Dimes' - a famous episode in the history of mass immunisation in which ordinary Americans were inspired to fundraise for research that would go on to end Polio in the US.  Professor Dora Vargha leads us through a lesser-told chapter of that story, which is the astonishing international cooperation between US and Soviet scien...

In this episode we confront a new reality for vaccines post Covid. On the one hand, the acceleration of science thanks to mRna derived vaccine design - that allowed the Moderna team in the US to respond in just 66 days. On the other, the rapid spread of misinformation and disinformation fuelled by social media.  We hear from Dr Kizzmekia Corbett-Helaire about the early days of Covid-19 and the wor...

New Podcast Announcement. Welcome to Our Big Shot with Dr Seema Yasmin, a podcast series dedicated to understanding the power of vaccines, marking key moments in the science of immunisation. As we reach the 50th anniversary of the Essential Programme on Immunisation, we look at how we best prepare for the next global push in fighting infectious disease and taking Our Big Shot at wiping out disease...