For the first TWiV of 2020 we reveal that microbiome depletion with antibiotics alters the immune response to influenza vaccine, and how successive blood meals facilitate virus dissemination in mosquitoes and transmission potential.

The TWiV hosts review an analysis of gender parity trends at virology conferences, and the origin and unusual pathogenesis of the 1918 pandemic H1N1 influenza virus.

The Masters of the ScienTWIVic Universe discuss a novel poxvirus isolate from an immunosuppressed patient, H1N1 and the gain-of-function debate, and attenuation of dengue virus by recoding the genome.

Vincent, Alan, Rich and Kathy review how human placental trophoblasts confer viral resistance via exosome-mediated delivery of microRNAs, and isolation of the first human influenza virus in 1933.

Vincent, Rich, Alan and Kathy review aerosol transmission studies of influenza H1N1 x H5N1 reassortants, H7N9 infections in China, and the MERS coronavirus.