This Week in Virology

In COVID-19 clinical update #72, Daniel Griffin covers long term symptoms in children, outcomes for MIS-C, recent guidance from the American Academy of Pediatrics, a large well traced outbreak of delta variant, low dose mRNA vaccination generates durable T cell memory and antibodies, protective immunity in recovered patients, assessment of BinaxNOW, no effect of oral azithromycin, post-discharge s...

On this episode, broadening of immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 after mRNA vaccine booster to ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, five-fold underestimation of the number of cases in the US during the first six months of the pandemic, and a monoclonal antibody that broadly neutralizes many different sarbecoviruses. Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello and Amy Rosenfeld Subscribe (free):  iTunes ,  Google Podcasts ,  RSS ,  email...

The Team with Invincible Values discusses whether dogs or cats passively carry SARS-CoV-2 on hair and foot pads, maternal to fetal transfer of antibodies in infected or vaccinated pregnant women, and evidence that retroviruses infected cetaceans before and after they moved into the oceans. Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello , Dickson Despommier , Alan Dove , and Brianne Barker Subscribe (free):  iTunes , ...

In COVID-19 clinical update #71, Daniel Griffin reviews updated school and child care guidance from CDC, transmission in schools, accuracy of lateral flow assays, update to J&J/Janssen vaccine EUA to include GBS, interim immunogenicity of Ad.26.CoV2.s, effectiveness of mRNA vaccines to prevent hospitalization, Bamlanivimab plus Etesevimab for mild or moderate disease, and a meta-analysis of iverme...

TWiV reviews evidence that COVID-19 mRNA vaccination of both uninfected and previously infected persons elicits cross-variant neutralizing antibodies, and directed evolution of a bacterial protein to form a virus-like capsid that specifically packages its encoding mRNA. Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello , Alan Dove , and Brianne Barker Subscribe (free):  iTunes ,  Google Podcasts ,  RSS ,  email Become a...

In COVID-19 clinical update #70, Daniel Griffin discusses efficacy of portable air cleaners, vaccine induced serum neutralizing antibodies against variants, prevention and attenuation of disease with mRNA vaccines, ivermectin to prevent hospitalization, IL-6 antagonists and mortality, and impact of vaccination on long COVID. Hosts:  Daniel Griffin and Vincent Racaniello Subscribe (free):  iTunes ,...

Ron Fouchier explains why increased transmission of SARS-CoV-2-variants has not been demonstrated, and their ability to displace ancestral variants is due to greater fitness, much like influenza virus antigenic variation leads to better fitness and replacement of previously circulating variants. Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello , Kathy Spindler , and Brianne Barker Guest: Ron Fouchier Subscribe (free): ...

TWiV reviews an analysis of animal sales from Wuhan wet markets before the COVID-19 pandemic, control of dengue by release of Wolbachia -infected mosquitoes, and fatal dengue acquired in Florida. Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello , Alan Dove , and Brianne Barker Subscribe (free):  iTunes ,  Google Podcasts ,  RSS ,  email Become a  patron  of TWiV! Links for this episode Animal sales from Wuhan markets b...

In COVID-19 clinical update #69, Daniel Griffin covers effectiveness of mRNA vaccines against the delta variant, depression among public health workers, correlates of protection against asymptomatic and symptomatic infection, BNT162b2 in ChAdOx-1-S primed individuals, prior infection rescues B and T cell responses to variants after vaccination, effect of vaccination on household transmission, germ...

Kristian Andersen and Robert Garry join TWiV to discuss recovery of deleted deep sequencing data from early in the Wuhan SARS-CoV-2 epidemic, and whether they shed light on the early phase of the outbreak. Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello , Kathy Spindler , and Brianne Barker Guests: Kristian Andersen and Robert Garry Subscribe (free):  iTunes ,  Google Podcasts ,  RSS ,  email Become a  patron  of TWiV...

Laurie Garrett, author of The Coming Plague , joins TWiV for a wide-ranging discussion of infectious disease and public health, including emerging infections, the role of wildlife markets in spillovers, and missteps in handling the COVID-19 pandemic. Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello , Kathy Spindler , and Brianne Barker Guest: Laurie Garrett Subscribe (free):  iTunes ,  Google Podcasts ,  RSS ,  email B...

In COVID-19 clinical update #68, Daniel Griffin discusses children acquiring infection at birthday parties, immunogenicity of vaccines in solid organ transplant patients, reinfection rates in recovered patients, lack of efficacy of azithromycin, bacterial and fungal infections in hospitalized patients, effect of monoclonal antibody treatment on clinical outcomes of ambulatory patients, and reducti...

A TWiV trio reveals the 100 million year old history of bornavirus infections hidden as EVEs in vertebrate genomes, and identification of novel bat coronaviruses that provide evolutionary insight into the origins of SARS-CoV-2. Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello , Alan Dove , and Amy Rosenfeld Subscribe (free):  iTunes ,  Google Podcasts ,  RSS ,  email Become a  patron  of TWiV! Links for this episode AS...

In COVID-19 clinical update #67, Daniel Griffin reviews antibodies to the virus early in the US, serology testing of blood donations, MIS-C in children under 21, myocarditis in competitive athletes, ER visits for suspected suicide attempts, delta variant in Scotland, Novavax vaccine phase 3 results, vaccine coverage in pregnant women, early monoclonal administration reduces hospitalization and mor...

On this episode of TWiV, Novavax COVID-19 vaccine demonstrates 90% overall efficacy, preventing an antigenically disruptive change during growth of influenza virus vaccine in chicken eggs, and MIS-C is driven by loss of the gut mucosal barrier. Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello , Kathy Spindler, and Brianne Barker Click arrow to play Download  TWiV 769 (68 MB .mp3, 114 min) Subscribe (free):  iTunes ,  G...

TWiV describes how human behavior, not increased transmissibility, led to increased spread of a SARS-CoV-2 variant throughout Europe in summer 2020, and nanobodies from camelid mice and llamas that efficiently neutralize variants of concern. Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello , Dickson Despommier , Alan Dove , and Brianne Barker Subscribe (free):  iTunes ,  Google Podcasts ,  RSS ,  email Become a  patron...

In COVID-19 clinical update #66, Daniel Griffin covers treatment guidelines from IDSA, hospitalization of adolescents, estimating epidemiological dynamics from viral load distributions, incidence of infection according to baseline antibody status, assessment of reinfection in Italy, need for vaccination in previously infected individuals, assessment of protection against reinfection, antimicrobial...

David joins TWiV to relate how his near-death experience with Castleman's disease motivated him to found the Center for Cytokine Storm Treatment & Laboratory and the CORONA project to identify and track all treatments reported for COVID-19 in an open-source data repository. Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello , Kathy Spindler , and Brianne Barker Guest: David Fajgenbaum Subscribe (free):  iTunes ,  Google...

TWiV reviews the new nomenclature for SARS-CoV-2 variants, effectiveness of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine against variants, modified Moderna vaccine against variants, impact of COVID-19 interventions on influenza in China and the US, and binding of RaTG13 spike protein to ACE2 of multiple species. Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello , Dickson Despommier , Alan Dove , Rich Condit , and Brianne Barker Subscribe (f...

In COVID-19 clinical update #65, Daniel Griffin summarizes effects of non-pharmaceutical interventions, updated summer camp guidance from CDC, serology testing not recommended by FDA, antigen tests during a music event, inhibition of vaccine immunogenicity by methotrexate, phase 3 trial results for colchicine, and small airway disease as a post-acute sequelae. Hosts:  Daniel Griffin and Vincent Ra...

TWiV explains how cap-snatching, the priming of viral mRNA synthesis with fragments of host mRNAs, can lead to the synthesis of novel viral proteins. Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello , Rich Condit , and Kathy Spindler Subscribe (free):  iTunes ,  Google Podcasts ,  RSS ,  email Become a  patron  of TWiV! Links for this episode Cap-snatching makes new ORFs (Cell) Cap-snatching leads to novel proteins (Ce...

Robert Garry joins TWiV to explain how the molecular biology of SARS-CoV-2 shows that it came from Nature and not a lab, including the receptor binding domain, the furin cleavage site, and the two lineages circulating in Wuhan wildlife markets. Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello , Dickson Despommier , Alan Dove , Rich Condit , and Brianne Barker Guest: Robert Garry Subscribe (free):  iTunes ,  Google Podc...

In COVID-19 clinical update #64, Daniel Griffin covers new guidance from NY on day camps, mitigation and infection rates in schools, testing to sustain in person instruction, Moderna mRNA vaccine highly effective in adolescents, longer storage of Pfizer vaccine, FDA EUA for sotrovimab, and persistent illness in UK children. Hosts:  Daniel Griffin and Vincent Racaniello Subscribe (free):  iTunes , ...

Peter Daszak, Thea Kølsen Fischer, and Marion Koopmans, members of the WHO team investigating the origins of SARS-CoV-2 join TWiV to explain the work done by the committee during phase one, their conclusions, and the extent of work that remains to be done in phase two. Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello , Rich Condit , and Kathy Spindler Guests: Peter Daszak , Thea Kølsen Fischer , and Marion Koopmans Sub...

TWiV examines spillovers of porcine and canine coronaviruses into humans in Haiti and Malaysia, and how antigenic evolution of measles virus is constrained by multiple co-dominant epitopes on the viral glycoproteins. Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello , Dickson Despommier , Alan Dove , Rich Condit , and Amy Rosenfeld Subscribe (free):  iTunes ,  Google Podcasts ,  RSS ,  email Become a  patron  of TWiV! L...