This Week in Virology

TWiV 707: COVID-19 clinical update #45 with Dr. Daniel Griffin

January 16, 2021

In COVID-19 clinical update #45, Daniel Griffin discusses J&J Ad26 vaccine results, reactogenicity after the second dose of mRNA vaccines, expansion of vaccine eligibility, and the finding that encephalitis after SARS-CoV-2 infection is a cytokine release syndrome.

Hosts: Daniel Griffin and Vincent Racaniello

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J&J Ad26 vaccine phase 1/2 results (NEJM) 7:08
SARS-CoV-2 encephalitis is a cytokine release syndrome (CID) 25:49
Letters read on TWiV 707 30:26
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

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

TWiV 706: Do as Dr. Fauci says

January 14, 2021

TWiV answers listener questions about pandemic response, excess deaths in 25-44 year olds, vaccines, vaccines, and vaccines.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, Kathy Spindler, and Brianne Barker

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Download TWiV 706 (58 MB .mp3, 96 min)
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Poems are at Twiverse 3:57
2020 US traffic deaths (Car & Driver) 27:54
National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (HRSA) 51:30
Jet injector (Wikipedia) 1:04:01
Letters read on TWiV 706 12:58
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Weekly Picks 1:20:24

Brianne – We Know Almost Nothing About Giant Viruses
Rich – The Coccolithophores Project
Kathy – v-safe and Vaccine Handbook
Vincent – Gorillas at San Diego Zoo infected with SARS-CoV-2 (pdf)

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 705: Rocky Mountain COVID with Emily Travanty

January 10, 2021

Emily Travanty from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment joins TWiV to discuss how her laboratory was the first in the US to detect the SARS-CoV-2 variant VOC 202012/01.

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

Guest: Emily Travanty

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VOC detected in Colorado (WaPo) 19:07
US has sequenced only 50,000 SARS-CoV-2 genomes (CDC) 40:46
Human CoV evolves to escape immunity (bioRxiv) 1:08:47
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Weekly Picks 1:38:52

Dickson – Randal Despommier on saxophone
Brianne – Giant Microbes SARS-CoV2
Alan – West of Loathing
Rich – Draft landscape of COVID-19 candidate vaccines
Vincent – SARS-CoV-2 spillover events

Listener Pick

Daniel – His Vaccine Story Inspired His Father To Write A Disney Classic

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 704: COVID-19 clinical update #44 with Dr. Daniel Griffin

January 9, 2021

In this COVID-19 clinical update, Daniel Griffin summarizes current status of vaccination in the US, discusses a study on convalescent sera from Argentina, use of remdesivir in patients with kidney disease, and provides further considerations on the use of Ct values in patient management.

Hosts: Daniel Griffin and Vincent Racaniello

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Links for this episode

Argentine study on plasma therapy (NEJM) 9:52
Ct values and clinical outcome (Open Forum Inf Dis) 17:27
Bamlanivimab fact sheet (FDA pdf) 12:08
Cognitive defects in recovered COVID-19 patients (medRxiv) 22:16
Letters read on TWiV 704 24:03
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

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

TWiV 703: Does dose matter?

January 7, 2021

On this episode, a discussion of why modifying the dose schedule of the mRNA vaccines in the US is not a good idea, evidence that lower Ct values on hospital admission is associated with higher mortality, and dose-dependent response to SARS-CoV-2 infection of ferrets.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, Kathy Spindler, and Brianne Barker

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Weekly Picks 1:54:00

Brianne – Linsey Marr on masks
Kathy – Striped Martian Sand Dunes and
Rich – How Microwaving Grapes Makes Plasma
Vincent – Musings of an anonymous, pissed off virologist

Listener Pick

Laura – Auld Lang Syne follow-up

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 702: Year of the Pandemic

January 3, 2021

For this first episode of 2021, the complete TWiV team reviews compelling virology stories of 2020, and thanks the multitude of guests who have helped us to navigate the pandemic, and our many listeners who turn to us for scientific facts.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, Alan Dove, Rich Condit, Kathy Spindler, and Brianne Barker

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Poems are at Twiverse 1:17:48
This little virus went to market (TWiV 581) 5:39, 14:46
Host genetics initiative TWiV 628 27:29
Inborn errors of immunity & serious COVID TWiV 671 28:04
Lisa Gralinski TWiV 674 29:20
Tragic gene flow from Neanderthals TWiV 676 30:05
Ivermectin and COVID-19 (TWiV 599) 32:40
DC and Galveston road trips: TWiV 625, 643, 646, 589, 580, 583, 587) 5:48, 36:28
Fauci and Hotez interviews (TWiV 641, 687) 43:09
Long-haul COVID, pro-thrombotic autoantibodies (TWiV 680, 683) 49:09
Minority health and disparities (TWiV 655) 58:49
Diversity in science (TWiV 672, 670) 59:29
SeXX matters (TWiV 624) 1:00:00
Kate Rubins (TWiV 682) 1:08:11
Laura Splan (TWiV 691) 1:11:58
Protective immune responses (TWiV 693, 685, 683) 1:13:50
Immune memory/cross-reactivity (TWiV 684, 681, 650, 631) 1:14:23
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Weekly Picks 1:20:04

Dickson – Best of 2020 by NASA and The Plague Year
Brianne – Where Year Two of the Pandemic Will Take Us
Alan – Japan’s distinct form of vaccine hesitancy
Kathy – Paul Offit updates on the vaccine rollout and Choral Scholars of University College Dublin (John Greene’s videoessay on the song)
Rich – Do You Love Me?
Vincent – Story on Katalin Kariko’s career

Listener Pick

Louise – Virus socks

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 701: COVID-19 clinical update #43 with Dr. Daniel Griffin

January 1, 2021

In Daniel Griffin’s final clinical report for 2020, he summarizes what we have learned about the clinical management of COVID-19 patients in the past year.

Hosts: Daniel Griffin and Vincent Racaniello

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Download TWiV 701 (24 MB .mp3, 40 min)
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Links for this episode

Attributes and predictors of long COVID-19 (medRxiv) 28:18
Letters read on TWiV 701 30:16
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 700: ‘Twas COVID and the aerosols

December 31, 2020

TWiV reviews additional data on the UK variant of SARS-CoV-2, the distinct variant spreading in South Africa, association of afucosylated antiviral IgG with severe COVID-19, approval of AstraZeneca vaccine in the UK, and winners of the pandemic poem contest.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, Kathy Spindler, and Brianne Barker

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Download TWiV 700 (82 MB .mp3, 136 min)
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Weekly Picks 1:57:24

Brianne – Ready Player Two
Kathy – Bert Hubert’s Reverse Engineering of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine
Rich – Boston Dynamics running robots
Vincent – Fever by John Fuller

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 699: Arboviruses at ASTMH

December 27, 2020

From the 2020 online meeting of the American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, Vincent speaks with Jonathan Auguste, Carol Blair, Desiree LaBeaud, Louis Lambrechts, and Mauricio Nogueira about their careers and their research on arthropod-borne viruses.

Host: Vincent Racaniello

Guests: Jonathan Auguste, Carol Blair, Desiree LaBeaud, Louis Lambrechts, and Mauricio Nogueira

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Links for this episode

RNAi in arbovirus-vector interactions (Viruses) 41:07
Arbovirus emergence via bridge vectors (Sci Rep) 1:00:35
Rift Valley fever (Trop Med Inf Dis) 49:56
Flavivirus infection and cerebrovascular events (Viruses) 1:12:43
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 698: COVID-19 clinical update #42 with Dr. Daniel Griffin

December 26, 2020

Daniel Griffin provides his weekly clinical report on COVID-19, including his own experience with vaccination, guidelines for vaccine distribution, reasons for under-utilization of monoclonal antibody therapy, and much more.