Scott writes:
Hello,
I am writing to share a frustrating experience that recently occurred. I have a friend whose mother was just recently diagnosed with cancer at a relatively early age. In the course of discussion, the Sars Covid vaccine was mentioned but I made some logical points that moved the discussion to a more rational footing. However, my friend’s mom on her visit to her pathologist was told the vaccine she received was no good (I heard this second hand because I would have questioned this) but of course my friend says “even a doctor” basically thinks vaccines are bad. This is extremely frustrating and I almost want to send a letter to the pathologist asking for the peer reviews she is reading, to change my mind. With that said, the pathologist did dismiss other things such as eating sugar will cause cancer and such; What do you think? Obviously, the pathologist knows more than an amateur like myself. Btw I love the show and it is raining in Western Mass again but I tend to like the rain.
Scott
Blue Pilgrim writes:
https://tass.com/society/1970491
8 Jun, 16:51
COVID situation in Russia remains stable, is under control — sanitary watchdog
According to Rospotrebnadzor, research results do not indicate any immediate threat for humankind but confirm the risks of the proliferation of new viruses
MOSCOW, June 8. /TASS/. The COVID situation in Russia is stable and under control, with media reports about a new strain being untrue, Russia’s sanitary watchdog Rospotrebnadzor said.
“A number of media outlets reported that a new COVID strain capable of provoking a pandemic has emerged. They cite an article published in the Nature Communications scientific journal on May 28, 2025. <…> This article however is not about a new virus. It highlights research of structural parts of the known viruses. <…> The epidemiological situation concerning coronavirus in Russia remains stable and is under control,” it said.
According to the watchdog, research results do not indicate any immediate threat for humankind but confirm the risks of the proliferation of new viruses.
Kevin writes:
Hello Virusattva*!
(*sattva in Sanskrit is “being” as in sentient being or Bodhisattva (“wisdom being”))
The discussion about viral nomenclature in TWiV 1225 finally gives me an excuse to write in about some Buddhist philosophy – after hearing Rich talk about the 3 poisons (greed, hatred, and ignorance), I thought you all might be interested.
A central concept in Buddhism is “Śūnyatā” (shoon-ya-TAH), sometimes translated as “emptiness”, which refers to the fact that concepts lack inherent meaning. In other words, the moment you try to name a thing, you are necessarily abstracting and simplifying it. This always reminds me of the phrase, “all models are wrong, but some are useful”. Species naming fights (not that y’all were fighting, but there’s a lot of whingeing online), particularly about viruses and bacteria, always strikes me as silly – every bacterial cell or virus particle is a unique snowflake and also linked to every other in a long chain of evolution. If you’re going to draw boundaries and call one group a strain or another group a species, the boundary and the name is going to be, by necessity, arbitrary. And the only thing that makes one choice or the other “correct” is what we agree on to communicate.
To be clear, this is not an argument in for nihilism – clearly some models are more wrong and some are less useful, and I do appreciate your continued commitment to promoting the less wrong and more useful. One of the “Bodhisattva vows” that I think you all seem to embody, though you may not realize it, is “Delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them.”
Keep up the good work!
Kevin
PS – after a long hiatus where we all had kids, our podcast Audiommunity is back! (yes yes, I know you probably still hate the name) https://audiommunity.org and on YouTube https://YouTube.com/@audiommunity
—
Kevin
Charles writes:
Hello TWiVers:
The weather in Spotswood is damp. The temperature is very pleasant at 72F, 22C.
This is a couple of weeks old, but I just found it. I think it is a good explanation of why the Trump administration is wrong about the origin of SARS-CoV-2. It is from The Annenberg Public Policy Center.
Thanks,
Charles
Greg writes:
TWIV team:
Brian’s proposal about raising state income taxes in the “Magnificent seven” states to offset Republican cuts to NIH is interesting but it will not work in one of the seven: Illinois where I live. The Illinois’ Constitution mandated a flat income tax at 4.95%. Pennsylvania also has a flat income tax (3.07%) but I am not sure if it is mandated by their constitution. New York, New Jersey Massachusetts and California have graduated income taxes, but the top rates are already fairly high (between 9 and 13%) and further increases are likely to be resisted.
Also, even if the states can transfer their funds to the NIH (which I doubt), the Republican House can say, “thank you so much” and then cut an equal amount from the federal contribution to NIH. Money is fungible.
It is not clear from Brian’s letter whether the state funds would go to NIH or to similar research to be conducted within state research labs. The latter would probably be more appealing in each state, but it takes time and planning to set up lab facilities as well as long term commitment to maintain useful research projects. An alternative approach might be to encourage states to form consortia that might engage in long term planning and investment to fill in gaps created by the NIH cuts.
Best regards,
Greg
Champaign, IL USA
Blue Pilgrim writes:
Yes, Stengle was right, but I’m going to take a stab with some predictions anyway.
I’ve been buying art materials and small flashlights recently, and have found that much “cheap Chinese shit” is not shit at all, but despite being much cheaper than US or European brands it works quite well. Perhaps not always up to the best domestic stuff, but so much cheaper it doesn’t matter in terms of cost effectiveness, and often up to or surpassing the expensive US and EU brands.
So the US is closing down research and scientific education. Where will new research, drugs, and the next generation of scientists come from — the BRICS nations, and especially China (and Russia too — the major countries). Tell students to study chemistry, but also Chinese. Many of the top scientists from China are already being sent out of the US, and back to China — and what will they be doing there but research and teaching.
We should fall into complete despair at the death of science in the US because it’s not really going to die, but find an afterlife elsewhere in the world. We will see new vaccines and drugs, and research, but should learn Chinese and Russian to read it. The US/EU empires are dying, as all empires eventually do, but the work will go on. And, the US/EU empires will not be replace by empires of China and Russia because they don’t want empires — been there, done that, and got the Tee shirts, and found out that doesn’t work well; they want a multi-polar world, good business relations with other countries, and sovereignty and peace (and honesty) for everyone, because they think that’s the best thing for the world. That’s where it’s all moving in the long run.
Am I right or wrong? Well, I don’t know, of course, but that’s current thinking and feeling about it, and at 78 I’ve been wrong so often maybe I got a sense of what it feels like and can avoid the dumb mistakes I’ve made in the past to some degree. Sadly, I’m now too old and senile to learn Chinese, or Russian, fluently, or the other languages I suspect will become prevalent in the decades to come. I expect that much of the research, news, and drug instructions will be translated anyway. Do you people at TWIV think this sounds right?
John writes:
Drs. TWiV:
I’m almost positive that you’ve mentioned the adjuvant in the NovaVax vaccine, and that it’s in Shingrix and the malaria vaccine as well, and that it comes from the Chilean soapbark tree. I was surprised to learn that this was developed by a team of Swedes, too, who formed a company around that, which NovaVax promptly bought. The extract has other commercial uses as well (see Wikipedia), but IIRC at one point NovaVax managed to acquire a year’s production of the material. That’s enough to make any soapbark tree worry!
But there’s a development that may relieve the pressure. The required machinery for producing just the compound of interest has been cloned into tobacco! (First, the level of isoleucine had to be increased, reminding us that one of Murphy’s Laws clearly states that no matter what you want to do, you have to do something else first.) I’m not sure if this is being used yet as an alternate source, but the whole thing is a great example of science providing a solution to a problem that it may have created. More of us might learn about things like this, too, if certain people with big egos (note plural) weren’t intent on sucking all the oxygen out of the atmosphere.
Also great is that both this Science summary of all of this and the key Nature paper are open access:
https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/good-news-chilean-soapbark-tree-and-us
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41589-023-01538-5
If this is new to TWiV, does it constitute a Pick?
Around 24C (aka mid-70s) yesterday afternoon here in Greater Braddock (when I tried to send this) with a localized thunderstorm that delivered over 2″ over an hour or two.
Best regards,
John
Bernt writes:
Dear TWiV’ers,
Thank you for your podcast. I have been an avid listener since 2020 when a former postdoc of mine drew my attention to TWiV.
In recent issues of your podcast you have talked about others wanting to let infectious diseases run through flocks of farm animals to achieve herd immunity.
This is – of course – nonsense. However, the reasons for this being nonsense differ depending on the production system. There are two situations:
- Species where flocks are continuously replaced.
- Species where flocks have continuity.
The first situation applies in poultry and in pigs. Breeding occurs in a number of closed purebred lines maintained in biosecure facilities. Breeding is typically highly concentrated, managed by a small number of companies (in poultry, very few indeed globally). Breeding is very intense.
Production animals (say, broilers or egg layers) are then generated through a number of generations where these purelines are crossed and numbers are multiplied to produce the huge numbers of animals needed for production.
Hence, production animals are continuously replaced to benefit from the genetic gains made through breeding and to benefit from hybrid vigor from the crossing of divergent lines. Farmers cannot breed their own animals to produce the next generation of birds or pigs. Doing so, they would lose half the hybrid vigor and they would not be able to benefit from the genetic gains.
The upshot in this situation is that there cannot be any herd immunity as the flocks are replaced by naive animals over and over. Herd immunity is totally irrelevant in this situation.
The second situation applies in species where continuous flocks are kept, say, in cattle, horses, sheep etc. Here the reason why herd immunity (through uncontrolled infection) is irrelevant is different.
Say a herd achieves herd immunity. To do so, all or most of the animals must survive whatever infection we are talking about. If we are lucky, the herd will exhibit herd immunity for a while. However, over time new susceptible animals will be added to the herd as animals are replaced. After a while, the herd will no longer have herd immunity and a new outbreak can occur and susceptible animals will be exposed and get ill.
The net result is that all animals – at some point in their life.- will be exposed and, probably, get ill. The only animals that can escape are the ones culled before the next outbreak.
I.e., herd immunity is irrelevant for the total disease load; all animals will still get ill at some point.
Best wishes,
Bernt
Sean writes:
Hi Everyone,
Greetings from Birmingham, England-ger-laaand where it’s currently a very pleasant 23C in my back garden. My G&T is rather colder.
Your truly excellent discussion on the TCA cycle and associated pathways took me back over 40 years to my undergraduate biochem subsid (I’m a microbiologist) and prompted what I think is a very important question.
Can I Keep Selling Sex For Money, Officer?
Citrate
Isocitratre
Succinyl CoA
Succinate
Fumarate
Malate
Oxaloacetate
…and the succinate is late – comes after the CoA.
Amazing what one retains after such a long time but that one served me very well!
Also sincere thanks for everything you continue to do – and for making this particular topic more accessible and engaging than my lecturers ever did back in the day.
Kindest regards,
Sean
Joel writes:
Dear TWIV Workers,
This over-the-top action flick, Cells at Work, about the human immune system and disease is surprisingly accurate and worth watching if for no other reason than to see the NK Cell do her thing.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27192829
Joel Rovnak, Ph.D.
Secretary/Treasurer, Rocky Mountain Virology Association
Emeritus Professor, Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology
College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
Colorado State University
Mary writes:
Hi Vincent, dedicated listener, love dipping into real science in the midst of all that’s going on these days.
My pick is something that showed up randomly on my YouTube feed, which thinks it knows me better than I know myself, and perhaps it does. I was caught up by the title of the song and the performer: John Prine singing “Lonesome Friends Of Science” which I thought particularly apt given you know what.
Be strong hearted, have courage. We will get through this, and a dose of John Prine’s humor and humanity turned my day around today.
Mary
Corvallis, Oregon