Katherine joins TWiV to discuss her career in science writing, from not liking science at all, to a PhD in microbiology and immunology, and writing for Nova, the NY Times, and The Atlantic, and how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted her craft.

Host: Vincent Racaniello, Kathy Spindler, and Brianne Barker

Guest: Katherine Wu

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Weekly Picks 1:23:12

Brianne- Maropeng caves and Finding Homo naledi
Kathy – Being Mary Tyler Moore
VincentGoogle Isn’t Grad School

Listener Picks

JohnA new study found people are terrible at sitting alone with their thoughts.
AlanWhat if all viruses vanished?

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

In his weekly clinical update, Dr. Griffin discusses autochthonous leprosy in the United States, a systematic review to identify novel clinical characteristics of Mpox virus infection and therapeutic and preventive strategies to combat the virus, two-year duration of immunity of inactivated poliovirus vaccine, evaluation of novel oral polio vaccine type 2 SIA impact in a large outbreak of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus in Nigeria, performance of rapid antigen tests to detect symptomatic and asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 Infection, effectiveness of the COVID-19 bivalent vaccine, oral Nirmatrelvir and Ritonavir for COVID-19 in vaccinated, non-hospitalized adults ages 18-50 years, genome-wide association study of long COVID, vaccination ameliorates cellular inflammatory responses in SARS-CoV-2 breakthrough infections, and high incidence of autonomic dysfunction and postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome in patients with long-COVID.

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  • Autochthonous leprosy in the United States (NEJM) 2:28
  • Systematic review to identify novel clinical characteristics of Monkeypox (Archives of Virology) 5:38
  • Two-year duration of immunity of inactivated poliovirus vaccine (JID) 8:18
  • Evaluation of novel oral polio vaccine type 2 SIA impact in a outbreak of vaccine-derived poliovirus in Nigeria (IDSA) 9:45
  • Performance of rapid antigen tests to detect symptomatic and asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2  (AIM) 11:17
  • Effectiveness of the COVID-19 bivalent vaccine (OFID) 14:51
  • Oral Nirmatrelvir and Ritonavir for COVID-19 in vaccinated, non-hospitalized adults (CID) 18:14
  • Genome-wide association study of long COVID (medRxiv) 23:36
  • Vaccination ameliorates cellular inflammatory responses in SARS-CoV-2 breakthrough infections (JID) 26:21
  • High incidence of autonomic dysfunction and postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome in patients with long-COVID (AJM) 27:56
  • Contribute to our FIMRC fundraiser at PWB 28:42
  • Letters read on TWiV 1022 31:38
  • Dr. Griffin’s COVID treatment summary (pdf)
  • Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your questions for Dr. Griffin to [email protected]

From ASV 2023 in Athens, Georgia, Vincent, Kathy and Brianne speak with Trevord Bedford about his career, the development of Nextstrain.org for real-time tracking of pathogen evolution, and evolution of SARS-CoV-2 from January 2020 through Omicron.

Host: Vincent Racaniello, Kathy Spindler, and Brianne Barker

Guest: Trevor Bedford

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Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

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In his weekly clinical update, Dr. Griffin discusses guidance on measles during the summer travel season, the Infectious Diseases Society of America guidelines on the diagnosis of COVID-19: antigen testing, SARS-CoV-2 variants and age-dependent infection rates among household and nonhousehold contacts, effect of COVID-19 vaccination on household transmission of SARS-COV-2 in the Omicron era, incidence of myopericarditis after mRNA COVID-19 vaccination, intrinsic and effective severity of COVID-19 cases infected with the ancestral strain and Omicron BA.2 variant in Hong Kong, safety, immunogenicity and protection of heterologous boost with an aerosolized Ad5-nCoV after two-dose inactivated COVID-19 vaccines in adults, awake prone positioning for non-intubated patients with COVID-19-related acute hypoxic respiratory failure, melatonin effects on sleep quality of COVID-19 patients, female reproductive health impacts of Long COVID and associated illnesses including ME/CFS, POTS, and connective tissue disorders, and incident autoimmune diseases in association with SARS-CoV-2 infection.

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Download TWiV 1020 (24 MB .mp3, 39 min)

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Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your questions for Dr. Griffin to [email protected]

From ASM Microbe in Houston, Texas, Vincent speaks with Eddie Holmes about the evidence that SARS-CoV-2 spilled over into humans in the Huanan Market in Wuhan, absence of evidence for other origins, and his work on the virosphere.

Host: Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Eddie Holmes

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Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

In his weekly clinical update, Dr. Griffin discusses the CDC vaccine advisory group recommending the newly approved RSV vaccines, association of culturable-virus detection and household transmission of SARS-CoV-2, prevention of COVID-19 following a single intramuscular administration of Adintrevimab, real-world effectiveness of Nirmatrelvir/Ritonavir on COVID-19, and COVID-19 convalescent plasma outpatient therapy to prevent outpatient hospitalization.

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Download TWiV 1018 (24 MB .mp3, 39 min)

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Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your questions for Dr. Griffin to [email protected]

Vincent travels to the University of Pennsylvania to meet up with Susan, Rick, Gigi and David to discuss the origin of SARS-CoV-2, how the FBI might have reached its conclusion on the matter, and public and political perception of scientific risk.

Host: Vincent Racaniello

Guests: Susan Weiss, Rick Bushman, Gigi Gronvall, and David Joanson

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Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

In his weekly clinical update, Dr. Griffin discusses surveillance to track progress toward poliomyelitis eradication, genetic stabilization of attenuated oral vaccines against poliovirus types 1 and 3, evaluation of Oseltamivir used to prevent hospitalization in outpatients with Influenza, viral emissions into the air and environment after SARS-CoV-2 human challenge, has COVID-19 threatened routine childhood vaccination, successful treatment of persistent symptomatic COVID-19 infection with extended duration Nirmatrelvir/Ritonavir, anemia as a risk factor for disease progression in patients admitted for COVID-19, impact of fatigue as the primary determinant of functional limitations among patients with post-COVID-19 syndrome, post-COVID condition in patients with inflammatory rheumatic diseases, outpatient treatment of COVID-19 and incidence of post-COVID-19 condition over 10 months, metformin reduces SARS-CoV-2 in a Phase 3 randomized placebo controlled clinical trial, persistent serum protein signatures define an inflammatory subcategory of long COVID, and the relevance of pacing strategies in managing symptoms of post-COVID-19 syndrome.

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  • Surveillance to track progress toward poliomyelitis eradication (CDC) 2:04
  • Genetic stabilization of attenuated oral vaccines against poliovirus types 1 and 3 (Nature) 3:42
  • Evaluation of Oseltamivir to prevent hospitalization in outpatients with Influenza (JAMA) 8:21
  • Viral emissions into air and environment after SARS-CoV-2 human challenge (The Lancet) 12:35
  • Has COVID-19 threatened routine childhood vaccination (Health Affairs) 22:13
  • Successful treatment of COVID-19 with extended duration Nirmatrelvir/Ritonavir (OFID) 27:32
  • Anemia as a risk factor for disease progression in patients admitted for COVID-19 (Nature) 29:13
  • Impact of fatigue as the determinant of functional limitations among patients with post-COVID-19 syndrome (BMJ) 31:00
  • Post-COVID condition in patients with inflammatory rheumatic diseases (The Lancet) 32:35
  • Outpatient treatment of COVID-19 and incidence of post-COVID-19 condition (The Lancet) 35:56
  • Metformin reduces SARS-CoV-2 in a Phase 3 placebo controlled clinical trial (MedRxiv) 39:00
  • Persistent serum protein define an inflammatory subcategory of long COVID (Nature) 40:40
  • Relevance of pacing strategies in managing symptoms of post-COVID-19 syndrome (JTM) 42:35
  • Contribute to our FIMRC fundraiser at PWB 43:33
  • Letters read on TWiV 1016 44:10
  • Dr. Griffin’s COVID treatment summary (pdf)
  • Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your questions for Dr. Griffin to [email protected]

Vincent and Rich travel to Ft. Detrick to visit USAMRIID and speak with Todd, Crystal, John and Jay about their careers, their research, and the mission of the US Army Medical Institute of Infectious Diseases.

Host: Vincent Racaniello and Rich Condit

Guests: Todd Bell, Crystal Burke, John Dye, and Jay Hooper

Opinions, interpretations, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the panelists and no official endorsement by the U.S. Army should be inferred.

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Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

In his weekly clinical update, Dr. Griffin discusses estimates of SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence and incidence of primary SARS-CoV-2 infections among blood donors, by COVID-19 vaccination status, smart thermometer–based participatory surveillance to discern the role of children in household viral transmission during the COVID-19 pandemic, COVID-19 vaccine mandates, changing severity and epidemiology of adults hospitalized with COVID-19 in the United States after introduction of COVID-19 vaccines, effectiveness of COVID-19 treatment with Nirmatrelvir–Ritonavir or Molnupiravir among U.S. veterans, national trends in anticoagulation therapy for COVID-19 hospitalized adults in the United States, development of a definition of postacute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection, neuroinflammation after COVID-19 with persistent depressive and cognitive symptoms, long COVID clinical phenotypes up to six months after infection identified by latent class analysis of self-reported symptoms, and coronary microvascular health in symptomatic patients with prior COVID-19 infection.

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  • Estimates of SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence and incidence of infections among blood donors, by vaccination status (CDC) 1:39
  • Smart thermometer–based surveillance to discern the role of children in household viral transmission during the COVID-19 pandemic (JAMA) 3:50
  • COVID-19 vaccine mandates (GOV) 10:06
  • Changing epidemiology of adults hospitalized with COVID-19 after introduction of vaccines (CID) 11:47
  • Effectiveness of COVID-19 treatment with Nirmatrelvir–Ritonavir or Molnupiravir among U.S. Veterans (ACP Journals) 15:00
  • National trends in Anticoagulation therapy for COVID-19 (IDSA) 18:41
  • Development of a definition of postacute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (JAMA) 21:04
  • Neuroinflammation after COVID-19 with depressive and cognitive symptoms (JAMA) 25:35
  • Long COVID clinical phenotypes up to six months after infection identified by latent class analysis of self-reported symptoms (OFID) 27:24
  • Coronary microvascular health in patients with prior COVID-19 infection (EACVI) 29:57
  • Contribute to our FIMRC fundraiser at PWB 31:30
  • Letters read on TWiV 1014 32:00
  • Dr. Griffin’s COVID treatment summary (pdf)
  • Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your questions for Dr. Griffin to [email protected]