Emily Travanty from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment joins TWiV to discuss how her laboratory was the first in the US to detect the SARS-CoV-2 variant VOC 202012/01.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, Alan Dove, Rich Condit, and Brianne Barker
Guest: Emily Travanty
Click arrow to play
Download TWiV 705 (67 MB .mp3, 116 min)
Subscribe (free): iTunes, Google Podcasts, RSS, email
Become a patron of TWiV!
Links for this episode
- VOC detected in Colorado (WaPo) 19:07
- US has sequenced only 50,000 SARS-CoV-2 genomes (CDC) 40:46
- Human CoV evolves to escape immunity (bioRxiv) 1:08:47
- Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!
Weekly Picks 1:38:52
Dickson – Randal Despommier on saxophone
Brianne – Giant Microbes SARS-CoV2
Alan – West of Loathing
Rich – Draft landscape of COVID-19 candidate vaccines
Vincent – SARS-CoV-2 spillover events
Listener Pick
Daniel – His Vaccine Story Inspired His Father To Write A Disney Classic
Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees
Send your virology questions and comments to twiv@microbe.tv
About 4 weeks ago, the (exponential) deaths rate for covid19 in the US as a whole, as well as for a few other states being tracked (AZ, TX, and WA) essentially doubled.
https://pattimichelle.com/Prediction_01-02-2021d.png
(The multiplicative constant in the argument of the exp() function approximately doubled.) What can cause this? Two ideas spring to mind: (1.) the more-transmissible strain of covid has been in the US longer than previously thought, or (2.) the nation’s hospitals filled up starting about a month ago (resulting in more rapid deaths rate). What are the experts’ saying about the data?
So far the data are tracking a single-valued exponential function very closely over the last 3-5 months.
Dear Twivvers,
Thank you so much for your wonderful show, to which I am now addicted!
Here is my question:
If someone has SARS-CoV-2 (but they don’t know it), are there risks to them being vaccinated?
I am in line for my first vaccination and while I do not think I have the virus, my friend and I were talking about what kinds of risks might be present if I unknowingly do have it and get vaccinated. Might it confuse or overload one’s immune system?
Thanks for your thoughts and I so appreciate your educational and humane show.
Best wishes,
Isabel