Paul Offit joins TWiV to discuss his latest book, “Tell Me When It’s Over”, an insider’s guide to deciphering COVID myths and navigating our post-pandemic world.
TWiV discusses monkeypox virus, poliovirus in NY, Marburg virus in Ghana, ancient herpes simplex virus type 1 genomes, and immunogenicity of different combinations of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines.
Rich reviews the history of smallpox and the discovery of variola viral genomes in ancient DNA from human remains throughout Northern Europe, which pushes back the earliest date of smallpox virus infection to ~600–1050 CE, overlapping the Viking Age.
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.