TWiV 864: A game of thrones

February 10, 2022

Monica, John, David, and Marc join TWiV to discuss their work on identifying cryptic SARS-CoV-2 lineages in New York City wastewater, and understanding whether they were shed from humans or other animals.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, and Brianne Barker

Guests: John Dennehy, Marc Johnson, Davida Smyth, and Monica Trujillo

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Download TWiV 864 (128 MB .mp3, 107 min)
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Weekly Picks 1:32:50

Brianne When scientific conferences went online, diversity and inclusion soared
RichTraffic flow measured on 30 different 4-way junctions
Vincent A Slot Machine, a Broken Test Tube by S.E. Luria

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to twiv@microbe.tv

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6 comments on “TWiV 864: A game of thrones

  1. The sewer system upstream of the sewage plants is a network of pipes that for the most part connect at manholes. At each network connecting manhole you get at least a binary search division point. Some manholes would provide even better network division. Get some sewer system network plans and start making intelligent decisions regarding where to sample upstream. Doing that will discover where some sources are. At the same time sample far upstream at logical point source locations. For example the outfall from a hospital would be a point source. It is interesting there is mention of needing to identify sources but no mention of how the sewer network easily provides tracing routes.

  2. Dear Vincent, When Brianne described her pick of the week about the increase of diversity in teleconferences, my first thought as to the reason why all those minority groups are underrepresented is due to income disparity. Fire example, the income disparity between men and women is certainly enough to prevent extra spending on a conference.

    Love your show, it’s been my lifeline we’re trying to pandemic!
    Thank you so much.

  3. Wastewater treatment has always been a big problem, especially for developing countries. The construction and maintenance of a sewage system consumes a lot of money for each individual family, and especially for the whole country. However, this is a big problem that needs more attention from many aspects

  4. Allen Finley Feb 11, 2022

    I have. a few questions for Dr Racaniello:
    (1) will you review omicron BA.2 that is gaining traction?
    (2) Since deer, civets , pangolins and possibly cats and dogs can harbor SARS CoV2 is it really true that if “everyone gets vaccinated” variants will cease to appear?
    (3) If one immunodeficient person can harbor SARSCoV2 perhaps indefinitely, aren’t human variants going to appear regardless of worldwide vaccination status?
    (4) So little new in recent months has been said about the origins of SARSCoV2. Is this now a moot subject?
    (5) Without knowing the origin and cause of Covid19, why won’t we see a SARS CoV3 and 4 ?

  5. R. Michael Dingacci, MD Feb 11, 2022

    Would looking for bat caves near the runoff sources be useful in localizing the origin of the cryptic “background noise” sequences found in the wastewater samples?

    Keep up the good work!!

    -RMD