Martin writes:

Dear Twivers,

Happy birthday to Rich Condit today! Looking forward to hearing him again soon on TWiV.

All the best to y’arl,

Martin

Isleworth, UK

Hunter writes:

TWiV team:

Keep up the great work that we have all grown to value so much.  The coverage of Bovine Influenza H5N1 has been great.  More cows is always a good thing.

Another example of politics influencing science perceptions:

https://www.morningagclips.com/public-fails-to-appreciate-risk-of-consuming-raw-milk-survey-finds/

As a bovine veterinarian for 41 years it astounds me that people do not appreciate the value of pasteurization.  We strongly urged all of our dairy clients to feed on farm pasteurized milk to their calves.

One suggestion for Dr Spindler and ASV, make a visit to a dairy farm near the next meeting site.  Seeing how the modern dairy cow is cared for and handled might change some hearts and minds about agriculture today.  

Hunter Lang, DVM (retired bovine practitioner)

Prairie du Sac,  WI

Charmaine writes:

Tell Rich I think his photo on the TWiV website is GREAT!  Also, you still need to get a pic of Brianne up there.

    Thank you so much for that list of the episodes on the origin of SARS-CoV-2.  I’ve been wondering for awhile how to do a search for that subject (or any subject) and now have something to forward to folks who give me pushback on that issue.  Also, I would’ve added Laurie Garrett’s episode.  Granted, she’s not a scientist.  But her not-too-in-the-weeds approach and her “tell-it-like-it-is” personality would appeal to many non-scientists and be more accessible to some.  As I recall, she talked about finding the RNA in the drains, practices and lay-out at the market, and the wildlife trade with Southeast Asia, which helped fill in the picture.  Which episode was that?

                                                                                                Thanks for all you do,

                                                                                                Charmaine

                                                                                                Walnut Creek, CA

Robert writes:

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-02170-6?utm_source=Live+Audience&utm_campaign=e6a8eb39a4-nature-briefing-daily-20240710&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b27a691814-e6a8eb39a4-49185439

This concept was taught to P&S students in late 1960s.  It is still a valid theory?   Might annual flu shots achieve the same or do they provide little long term memories for the immune system?

Thanks,

Robert Carlson MD P&S 1972

Charmaine writes:

 If you do have an episode on science and politics, I recommend Richard Pan.  He is a pediatrician who was in the CA State Senate and authored bills, among others, to remove the religious and philosophical exemptions from required school vaccinations and also to make it illegal for anyone to harass someone on their way to receiving a vaccine.  Here is his Wikipedia page:  Richard Pan – Wikipedia

Greg writes:

Dear Twiv team, 

My suggestion for a guest to discuss politics and science is Naomi Oreskes, historian of science at Harvard. Her web site describes her area of research as Agnotology; the Political Economy of Scientific Knowledge Naomi Oreskes | Department of the History of Science, Harvard University

She has focused on earth and environmental sciences.  If virology and public health science is too far from her expertise, I suspect she could recommend someone with relevant expertise.  I don’t know but I suspect that she and other historians will say that “golden ages” of science where politics did not impact science have been rare if they have existed at all.  Scientists are human, are influenced by the ideas and prejudices circulating in their communities, and depend on funding and to some extent live in a world governed by the “golden rule”:  the man with the gold makes the rules.  One role of scientific societies, such as AAAS, is to advocate on behalf of science, and that is a political act.  

In a somewhat related vein, I’d be interested in TWIV’s take on a recent article by and podcasts with Dr. Vinay Prasad, MD U of San Francisco, who claims that scientists involved in the approval of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine delayed the reporting results so that the EUA could not be approved until after the 2020 election so that it would not benefit Trump.   He also critically discusses vaccine mandates and mask mandates, vaccine harms and what he considers misleading communication from Anthony Fauci and others.  (I think Prasad was misleading about Fauci’s comments and I tried to make that case in the comment section of the Econtalk podcast. )

If he is invited on TWIV I suspect the discussion would be contentious, and it might be interesting and informative.  Obviously the TWIV team would need to review his writing and comments prior to inviting him.  I’m interested in what the TWIV team thinks about Prasad’s comments in the work linked below.  

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, Stanford U, seems to share some perspectives with Prasad, so I’ve added a link to an interview with Bhattacharya below. One of the challenges of discussing science vs. politics is that science rarely speaks with one voice.  There is politics inside science, but the aim should be to sort out differences empirically. There are often different ways of collecting, analyzing and interpreting data, and coming to agreement sometimes takes decades.   

Thanks for your good work and best regards,  

Greg

Amy writes:

Regards from an appreciative Twiv listener. 

I am sending a 3-minute animation of the work of my friend Merav Opher, Professor of Astrophysics at Boston University. The animation is based on a paper she recently published in Nature Astronomy.

In it, she discusses how a collision between our solar system and an interstellar cloud of cold gas may have cooled the Earth’s climate, potentially impacting the history of life on Earth (and viruses). 

Thank you for being a beacon of reason and light during the Covid pandemic.

Best regards,

Amy