Ellen writes:
As always, I’m a few weeks behind in listening to episodes. When I saw the title of Vincent’s pick for TWIV 1049, “Why the US can’t have nice things,” I was expecting a reference to Heather McGhee’s book, The Sum of Us. She writes that it is all about racism, from the very beginning. The example she starts out with is the closing of municipal swimming pools when desegregation was mandated in the 1960’s. Towns nationwide chose to stop having swimming pools rather than to have Black kids swimming with White kids. And from there she goes into every area of life, from economics to housing to medical care. And her solution is that we all must come together to create change, the sum of us.
Thank you for all your work making Covid understandable to non-professionals like me.
Ellen in Santa Fe NM
Florian writes:
Dear Vincent,
so cool my email was considered for your show, thanks so much!
Attached a foto of the PhD hat showing a twiv session.
All the best,
Florian
John writes:
Vincent and TWIV Team,
I have written several times to all of you, but no matter, I cannot possibly send enough praise for the work you do and the great shows that are produced across the Microbe TV network.
I am writing today about highly pathogenic H5N1 and its geographic distribution across the US in wild birds. Several months ago, the USDA Animal and Plant Inspection Unit released a large database containing the species and location information of known infected birds.
Recently my lab has made an interactive map of this extensive database that allows you to see the locations of the infected birds, the species infected and how they were sampled.
In the show that you did on H5N1 there was much discussion about the biogeography of all this and I thought you might be interested in seeing the map of the data:
Keep up the great work—most of my colleagues at JHU love TWIV and the show has spawned many discussions of the presented papers, which otherwise would have gone unnoticed!
Thank you again.
John
John Hessler, FRGS
Lecturer in Computational Biogeography & Bioarchaeology
Odyssey Program / Osher Institute
Johns Hopkins University
Director of the biomap-lab
Phyllis writes:
Vincent and the crew,
I found your show during covid and have become a faithful listener. I am a vision scientist at UMBC. I wanted to let you know about some interesting virology that has grown out of a course called “phage hunters”.
I have attached the paper and here is a link to a Washington Post article
https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2023/11/13/mindflayer-virus-discovered-maryland/
Paper: Simultaneous entry as an adaptation to virulence in a novel
satellite-helper system infecting Streptomyces species https://www.nature.com/articles/s41396-023-01548-0
My Best
Phyllis
—
Phyllis R. Robinson
Professor of Biological Sciences
Program Director for the UMBC U-RISE Program (formerly the MARC program)
UMBC Presidential Research Professor (2020-2023)
University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC)
Sean writes:
Avid listener to TWIV since before Covid
I was wondering….
If you could eliminate all viruses with the wave of a magic pipet would you do it?
You couldn’t pick and choose which viruses it would have to be all or nothing.
Obviously your excellent podcast would be a lot shorter and you would be looking to diversify into a new profession.
However what I am wondering is are there any benefits to viruses.
Are there ‘good viruses’ on which we or other organisms depend on either directly or indirectly.
Are there organisms that are a threat to us that are kept in check by viruses.
If we could eliminate them all, how long would it be before viruses became a ‘thing’ again? Years <-> millions of years.
What I am getting at is did viruses evolve alongside life or are they the result of protein manufacture going wrong inside cells.
regards,
Sean.
Alf writes:
Hi Twiv Team
Please do some more research about what was actually done in Sweden before you talk more about the pandemic response. I am astonished about the amount of misinformation about Sweden that was spread. Not only by public media.
Yes, we did not have any lock down, instead we had recommendations. We stayed at home when sick. Everybody that could work from home did so, to give more space to travel to the ones that did not have that option. We kept distance in the shops and stores. We avoided big parties. Restaurants were open but with increased distance between tables and max number of persons was defined based on the size of the available space. No mask requirements in public. Masks were used in elderly homes and hospitals. There were no vaccine mandates but strong recommendations. Schools and child care were never closed, but had to stay home when sick recommendations. Upper secondary school and university had education on distance. This distance education was terminated in April 2021. SARS-Cov-2 was declared as no longer dangerous for the society the 1 of April 2022 and all official limitations were removed. This was also done in other Scandinavian countries close in time.
I think it is important to be very careful about how data is interpreted while it differs from how countries have reported it and the agenda the presenter of the data has. If you today compare the number of covid deaths with excess mortality you will find that this ratio differs enormously between countries. It indicates that covid deaths most likely were reported differently.
Take a look at excess mortality for Sweden during the pandemic and you will be surprised. As our public health authorities said from the very beginning, a pandemic is not a sprint. It’s a marathon.
Regards
Alf Håkansson
PS
A listener since you were guests in OmegaTau.
Angelika writes:
Hello!
Was it Alan Dove who, in episode 1061, said that Sweden did not have any Covid measures?
That is not true. Sweden did not have lock-downs and mask mandates, but secondary schools and universities had on- line teaching. A majority of workplaces that could have their workers working from home, did so. Children who had any symptoms stayed home from daycare and schools, because parents were able to stay home thanks to the public ”Parent insurance”.
It is true, though, that early on in the pandemic mostly elderly in care homes in Sweden died.
Looking back at the pandemic, excess mortality was rather low. Please see, e.g.:
and
https://www.cato.org/policy-analysis/sweden-during-pandemic
I know that in the US ”Sweden and Covid” is political, but please, stick to facts.
Thank you for an (otherwise) very interesting podcast!
Greetings,
Angelika Skarin, MD, PhD
Lund, Sweden
Andreas writes:
Dear TWIV
Warning, long email, but today I will discuss “my pick” (see link) and you last episode (1061): https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/cumulative-excess-deaths-per-million-covid
I’d like to start off by thanking you for your great contributions to science communication and your honest and very important work against misinformation around vaccines.
I’m a long-time listener from Sweden, eagerly consuming the clinical update and the weekly paper reviews first thing every Saturday and Sunday morning. In the last episode 1061 Sweden was mentioned as having “essentially no measure, resulting in higher death toll” and “not necessarily good public policy” regarding COVID. I’d like to share my perspective on the matter and the slightly judgmental tone on that comment. 😊
Just because Sweden did not have hard lockdowns, this did not mean measures weren’t taken. The public at large have been very compliant in social distancing, working and studying from home to a very high degree (where possible) as well as self quarantine. This was mostly driven by recommendations and relying on individual judgement, rather than legally binding policies for people and businesses. Several measures were indeed enforced, for example around public events and how many people were allowed per square meter in different types of locations etc.
For sure Sweden could have done many things a lot better. Especially in our preparedness and early policy adherence at our elderly care centres which were hit severely in the first wave to name just two things. We were also a one or two months later on vaccination roll out than one could have wished for, but the vaccination rate today is at 86,3% (2 doses, 18 years or older).
With this short background, from an excess death rate measure, Sweden’s early adopted strategy of trying to keep the society “as open as possible” to manage the “long game” has panned out to be relatively effective from my uneducated perspective. My layman understanding of epidemiology is that cultural and societal dynamics play a very important role when drafting your strategy, and you need to mind not only the direct effects of the virus but also the long-term impact on for example mental health and the economy. If you agree that excess death over the last 3 years is one of the better measures to “grade” a country’s “policy success”, then I would say Sweden is ranking very high globally over the entire pandemic (see link above).
But then, I’m a business analyst not a virologist or epidemiologist. If you don’t agree this an apt measure I’d love to have your comments on why. I’d also love to hear more about what data we really have on what policies have worked or not, including what degree of impact each policy can be contributed (if that is even possible?). Maybe you can find some interesting papers and/or guests that have the relevant data and expertise to summarize the “lessons learned” from an epidemiology standpoint. I’d be extra glued to my headphones in that case. 😊 Keep up all the good work you are doing!
With love, from Sweden!
/Andreas
Meika writes:
Hi again,
Last week I sent the Iceland earthquake data site, and this week I want to pick ANOTHER wonderful science educator. Shawn Willsey, geology professor at College of Southern Idaho.
Enjoy!