That's a good AMA
I'm Dr. Vincent Racaniello, a virology Professor at Columbia University and host of the science podcast TWiV - Ask Me Anything
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Dr. Vincent Racaniello
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I’ve been studying viruses in the laboratory since 1975 when I obtained my PhD with Peter Palese, studying influenza viruses. I then went on to do postdoctoral research with Nobel laureate David Baltimore at MIT. There I produced the first infectious DNA copy of an animal virus, poliovirus. In 1982 I started my laboratory at Columbia which has been active to this day. Some of our accomplishments include identification of the cell receptor for poliovirus, and establishment of the first transgenic mouse model for a viral disease, poliomyelitis.
I not only do research on viruses but have written a virology textbook, I teach virology to undergraduates at Columbia, do a weekly podcast about viruses (microbe.tv/twiv), and much more (YouTube.com/profvrr). All of this makes me uniquely qualified to talk about a viral pandemic.
In this AMA I’ll be pleased to answer questions on SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing the COVID-19 pandemic, including origins of the virus, virus variants and their properties, the disease, vaccination, antivirals, and what the future holds for us.
I will be here between 11am-1pm eastern time US to answer your questions.
/Vincent.
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profvrr1
Dr. Vincent Racaniello
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I share your frustrations. Part of the problem is that science takes a long time to reach conclusions yet we are seeing conclusions made based on one data point. Case in point: the Provincetown study reported in MMWR which concluded that vaccinated people have the same high viral RNA loads as unvaccinated people. This is meaningless without measuring viral infectivity. It turns out that a subsequent study in Singapore revealed that while viral RNA loads in vaccinated people are initially high, they decline more rapidly than in nonimmune people. To me this means that vaccinated people are not likely to be shedding much infectious virus and are probably not transmitting. Yet the press concludes that vaccines don't work. The other issue I have is that the press is widely claiming that vaccine effectiveness is declining. Whenever you talk about vaccine effectiveness, you have to specify what you are talking about. All COVID? Asymptomatic? Mild? Moderate? Severe? Death? It is true that the ability of vaccines to block infection has waned, but that happens will all vaccines as you move 8 months past the shot. What the vaccines still do is prevent severe disease and death. The press ignores this and paints a picture of doom. They ignore the science and part of the problem is that they listen to people who should know better. For example, the Guardian ran a story yesterday quoting the head of Oxford vaccines saying herd immunity doesn't exist because vaccinated people will transmit delta variant. There is zero evidence for that statement and I think he is basing it on the high viral RNA loads observed in vaccinated patients which do not indicate that they are shedding infectious virus and transmitting it. I wish this pandemic were over, not only to save lives, but to get away from all the terrible science communication taking place.
