TWiV discusses the recent decision by an FDA advisory committee to update COVID vaccines for the fall, the monkeypox virus outbreak, and the finding that enteric viruses infect the salivary glands and are transmitted through saliva.

Team TWiV cover the discovery of another giant virus from 30,000 year old Siberian permafrost, and how viral aggregation accelerates the production of new infectious viruses and increases fitness, demonstrating an Allee effect.

If you have always wanted to know what coral reefs and the human oral cavity have in common, listen as guests David Pride and Forest Rohwer talk about their work on the microbiomes and viromes of these two environments, and you’ll also understand why mucus is cool.

Esper and the Merry TWiXters analyze the latest data on Zika virus and microcephaly in Brazil, and discuss publications on a mouse model for disease, infection of a fetus, mosquito vector competence, and the cryo-EM structure of the virus particle.