From the Centers for Excellence in Influenza Research and Response meeting in Baltimore, Vincent speaks with Ron Fouchier, Rafael Medina, and Louse Moncla about recent changes in the epidemiology of avian H5N1 influenza virus and the threat to humans and other animals.

TWiV reviews remarkable changes in the epidemiology of avian H5N1 influenza virus leading to previously uninfected areas, involvement of previously unaffected wild birds, and devastating outbreaks in farmed poultry, and isolation of a monoclonal antibody…

Vincent travels to Montreux, Switzerland and the 16th International Nidovirus Symposium, where he speaks with Maria von Kerkhove, the face of COVID-19 for the World Health Organization, and Kanta Subbarao, Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre on Influenza in Melbourne.

TWiV returns to the 2012 brouhaha over transmission experiments with avian H5N1 influenza virus, re-examines the claim of SARS-CoV-2 RNA integration into human DNA, and reviews the engineering and testing of a genetically stable version of the attenuated type 2 Sabin poliovirus vaccine.

TWiV revisits Brazil’s rejection of Sputnik vaccine, examines influenza transmission via the air from the nasal epithelium of ferrets, and a history of accidental releases of polioviruses and their relevance for eradication of poliomyelitis.

The TWiVsters explore mutations in the interferon pathway associated with severe influenza in a child, outbreaks of avian influenza in North American poultry farms, Ebolavirus infection of the eye weeks after recovery, and Ebolavirus stability on surfaces and in fluids.