This Week in Virology

TWiV 872: COVID-19 clinical update #104 with Dr. Daniel Griffin

March 5, 2022

In COVID-19 clinical update #104, Daniel Griffin reviews effectiveness of mRNA vaccines among children, number of children affected by disease, accuracy of rapid antigen tests, CDC guidance for prevention strategies, monoclonal antibody effectiveness, predicting progression to severe respiratory failure from pneumonia, risk of long COVID after two vaccine doses, and peripheral neuropathy in long COVID.

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Vaccine effectiveness 5-11 year olds (medRxiv) 11:29
Vaccine effectiveness vs ED and UCE 5-12 year olds (MMWR) 13:52
Children affected by COVID (Lancet) 19:57
Accuracy of rapid antigen tests (medRxiv) 20:57
COVID community levels (CDC) 23:21
Therapeutics guidelines (WHO) 33:33
Mortality among SOT (Clin Inf Dis) 40:23
Long COVID after two vaccine doses (medRxiv) 41:09
Peripheral neuropathy in COVID patients (Neurology) 45:05
Letters read on TWiV 872 48:17
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

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

TWiV 871: If the ACE2 fits, ferret

February 27, 2022

TWiV discusses whether or not Omicron should be designated a new serotype of SARS-CoV-2, and the finding that amino acid changes that adapt SARS-CoV-2 to mink or ferret do not increase fitness in the human airway.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Rich Condit

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Links for this episode

ABRCMS ePoster Spring Symposium for Emerging Scientists 3:20
ASV Annual Meeting Registration (ASV) 4:08
Microbiology & Immunology at LSU Health 4:47
Is Omicron a new serotype? (Nat Rev Micr) 9:40
Adaptation of SARS-CoV-2 to mink/ferret (Cell Rep) 29:10
Letters read on TWiV 871 1:11:43
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Weekly Picks 1:27:34

Alan – Which Immune Cell Are You? and Michaeleen Doucleff’s article
Rich – Vaccinated: One Man’s Quest to Defeat the World’s Deadliest Diseases by Paul A. Offit
Vincent – Ebola on Canvas

Listener Picks

Les – Ologies podcast

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 870: COVID-19 clinical update #103 with Dr. Daniel Griffin

February 26, 2022

In COVID-19 clinical update #103, Daniel Griffin covers immunocompromised people, hospitalization of children, vaccine usage update, Omicron and cross-reactive neutralizing antibodies, reinfection prevents disease in hamsters, repeated infections with endemic coronaviruses, global burden of antimicrobial resistance, ivermectin not protective in hamsters, and Omicron evades therapeutic monoclonals.

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What does society owe immunocompromised people (Atlantic) 7:37
Prevalence of immunosuppression in US (JAME) 6:25
Hospitalizations of children (MMWR) 10:54
Clinical considerations for vaccines (CDC) 13:33
Sanofi seeks vaccine approval (Sanofi) 15:21
Omicron triggers cross-reactive neutralization (medRxiv) 18:19
Reinfection prevents disease in hamsters (Cell) 20:16
Repeated infections with endemic CoV (J Inf Dis) 23:56
Global burden of antimicrobial resistance (Lancet) 27:02
Ivermectin not protective in hamsters (bioRxiv) 29:03
Omicron evades therapeutic monoclonals (bioRxiv) 32:17
Letters read on TWiV 870 37:03
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

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

TWiV 869: Epstein-Barr virus and MS, a perfect storm

February 20, 2022

TWiV reviews epidemiological and experimental evidence that infection with Epstein-Barr virus leads to the production of antibodies against a viral protein that cross-react with a human protein, leading to multiple sclerosis.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, Rich Condit, and Brianne Barker

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Weekly Picks 1:34:06

Dickson – Rapid intensification of the emerging southwestern North American megadrought in 2020–2021
Brianne – Which Immune Cell Are You?
Rich – Nikola Tesla – 3D Anamorphosis
Vincent – Paul’s Uncle Doesn’t Want to Get Vaccinated

Listener Picks

Bob – The 1969 Apollo Guidance Computer
Anne – Decoding the Gurus with Dan Wilson
Beth – FrenchGuyCooking

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 868: COVID-19 clinical update #102 with Dr. Daniel Griffin

February 19, 2022

In COVID-19 clinical update #102, Daniel Griffin reviews children and COVID, effectiveness of maternal vaccination, vaccines for immunocompromised, primary care physicians and vaccination rates, booster safety among adults, placentitis, azithromycin, oral Nirmatrelvir, Omicron antibody evasion, EUA for bebtelovimab, IL-1 blocking agents, thromboprophylaxis, effectiveness of vaccines against long COVID, and risks of mental health outcomes.

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Download TWiV 868 (58 MB .mp3, 48 min)
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Links for this episode

Children and COVID state data (AAP) 2:18
Effectiveness of maternal vaccination (MMWR) 4:20
Vaccines for immunocompromised (CDC) 12:03
PCP and vaccination rates (JAMA) 13:55
Booster safety among adults (MMWR) 15:22
Placental tissue destruction and placentitis (Arch Path Lab Med) 17:17
Azithromycin meta-analysis (J Antimicrob Chemo) 19:57
Oral Nirmatrelvir for high-risk, nonhospitalized adults (NEJM) 23:50
Omicron antibody evasion (bioRxiv) 28:41
EUA for bebtelovimab (FDA) 31:01
IL-1 blocking agents (Cochrane) 33:21
Thromboprophylaxis (Chest) 34:00
Effectiveness of vaccines against long COVID (UK Health) 35:15
COVID complications in Australia (Lancet) 37:01
Risks of mental health outcomes (BMJ) 38:31
Letters read on TWiV 868 40:19
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

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

TWiV 867: I love the smell of vaccines in the morning

February 17, 2022

TWiV reviews an experimental, intranasally administered SARS-CoV-2 vaccine that utilizes adenovirus vectors to deliver three viral proteins and induces immunity to ancestral and variant isolates.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, Rich Condit, and Kathy Spindler

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Download TWiV 867 (128 MB .mp3, 107 min)
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Links for this episode

Dorothy Horstmann (Wikipedia) 9:23
Intranasal SARS-CoV-2 experimental vaccine (Cell) 14:18
t-SNE (Wikipedia) 43:52
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Weekly Picks 1:29:40

Kathy – 477-mile-long megaflash lightning in Seattle Times (originally Washington Post) and extra info from Rich World Meteorological Org
Rich – NIAID Global Research (Mali)
Alan – New method for recycling electric car batteries
Vincent – Q&A with A&V

Listener Picks

Addie – Vaccine Podcast
Jennie – Dr. Katelyn Jetelina, aka Your Local Epidemiologist

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 866: EV antibodies rEVolutionize our thinking

February 13, 2022

Amy returns to TWiV to discuss her work on the identification of cross-reactive antibody responses among diverse enteroviruses, and the implications for our understanding of viral pathogenesis and seroprevalence studies.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, Rich Condit Brianne Barker, and Amy Rosenfeld

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Download TWiV 866 (128 MB .mp3, 107 min)
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Links for this episode

ABRCMS ePoster Spring Symposium for Emerging Scientists 2:43
Cross-reactive enterovirus antibodies (mBio) 4:53
Poliovirus receptor transgenic mice (virology blog) 1:03:20
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Weekly Picks 1:26:27

Dickson – European scientists set new record in production of nuclear fusion energy
Amy – Alfredo’s Magic Wand
Brianne – What Happened After the Chicken-Pox Vaccine?
Rich – Year Three of COVID-19: Harsh Truths, Realities, and Glimmers of Hope
Vincent – Economists Are Fueling the War Against Public Health

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 865: COVID-19 clinical update #101 with Dr. Daniel Griffin

February 12, 2022

In COVID-19 clinical update #101, Daniel Griffin discusses children and COVID, human challenge study results, effectiveness of mask use, Omicron boost in macaques, mucosal vaccine candidate, long-term cardiovascular outcomes, and global vaccine perceptions.

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Download TWiV 865 (58 MB .mp3, 48 min)
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Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

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

TWiV 864: A game of thrones

February 10, 2022

Monica, John, David, and Marc join TWiV to discuss their work on identifying cryptic SARS-CoV-2 lineages in New York City wastewater, and understanding whether they were shed from humans or other animals.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, and Brianne Barker

Guests: John Dennehy, Marc Johnson, Davida Smyth, and Monica Trujillo

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Download TWiV 864 (128 MB .mp3, 107 min)
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Links for this episode

SARS-CoV-2 in NYC wastewater (TWiV 737) 3:18
Cryptic SARS-CoV-2 in NYC wastewater (Nat Comm) 4:34, 19:10, 26:40
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Weekly Picks 1:32:50

Brianne – When scientific conferences went online, diversity and inclusion soared
Rich – Traffic flow measured on 30 different 4-way junctions
Vincent – A Slot Machine, a Broken Test Tube by S.E. Luria

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 863: Does this challenge study pass the smell test?

February 6, 2022

TWiV reviews the results of a study in which 36 volunteers were infected with SARS-CoV-2, and what was learned about the kinetics of virus reproduction in the nose and throat, development of symptoms, and reliability of lateral flow antigen assays.