TWiV 494: Ebola Makona is the opposite of hakuna matata

May 20, 2018

Ebola 2018Vincent, Kathy, and Alan review the ongoing outbreak of Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the finding that mutations identified in the 2015 West African epidemic do not alter pathogenesis in animals.

Hosts: Vincent RacanielloAlan Dove, and Kathy Spindler

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One comment on “TWiV 494: Ebola Makona is the opposite of hakuna matata

  1. George Young May 21, 2018

    http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/canadian-ebola-vaccine-development-taken-over-by-merck-1.2847128

    https://www.forskningsradet.no/en/Newsarticle/Promising_Ebola_vaccine/1254011344433?lang=en

    Dear Professor Racaniello

    Well, god damn!! The so-called “Merck” vaccine was completely developed by The Public Health Agency of Canada and emergency field tested under Norwegian guidance.

    I am no nationalist, but it would be sensible to state something about the researchers who developed this vaccine, and tested it, because the Canadian and Norwegian governments, and their public employees, did superb work on Ebola.

    Merck did no original research and only paid $50 million to Canada for the rights to produce the vaccine: Whoopie! And so far, apparently, they have produced only 300,000 doses, when millions of people are under threat in Africa. How about some information about that?

    How about a show with the anonymous Canadians and Norwegians who did the real viral work! (If you already did this, I bite my tongue, but I can’t listen to 494 episodes!!).

    And I have to tell you, giggling about the pronunciation of places in the DRC made you two gentleman in particular sound like hicks. I mean you live so close to places called Poughkeepsie or The Bronx, which must sound equally strange to other-language speakers. Academics often prance about holier-than-thou, which is a venial, if unfortunate, consequence of their status, but near-mocking place names in another country, well, that borders on racism, right?

    I sincerely love the work you do, Professor Racaniello, but a little criticism makes us all a little sharper! I love the American attitude to learning and sharing that knowledge with the world. You, personally, exemplify to me, the very best of American intellectual generosity and creativity!

    With a smile,

    Sincerely,

    George Young
    Montreal