Virology
A Satellite Takes a Bite of Phage
By Gertrud U. Rey | | Basic virology, Gertrud Rey
by Gertrud U. Rey Satellite viruses lack one or more of the elements needed to replicate, and thus they depend on co-infection with a helper virus that can provide the missing components. In a well-known example of a satellite-helper system, Hepatitis D virus requires the presence of its helper Hepatitis B virus to make copies …
A Nobel Discovery
By Gertrud U. Rey | | Basic virology, Gertrud Rey
by Gertrud U. Rey On October 2nd, 2023, the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet announced the award of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman. The decision was based on a series of fundamental discoveries that led to the development of the COVID-19 messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines. Katalin …
Viruses and Bats
By Gertrud U. Rey | | Basic virology, Gertrud Rey
by Gertrud U. Rey Remember the series of flashbacks in the ending of the movie “Contagion,” which reveal where the virus originated and how the pandemic started? As a tree is cut down, a colony of bats flies out of the tree to seek new shelter. While in flight over a nearby farm, one of …
How the Viruses Within Us Protect Us From Other Viruses
By Gertrud U. Rey | | Basic virology, Gertrud Rey
by Gertrud U. Rey Did you know that eight percent of the human genome consists of DNA sequences that are derived from retroviruses? These “endogenous retroviruses” (ERVs) represent concrete evidence for retroviral infections that occurred in our ancestors. Although ERVs have no viral activity, an accumulating body of evidence suggests that they are not entirely …
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Why Do Some Viruses Have a Seasonal Cycle?
By Gertrud U. Rey | | Basic virology, Gertrud Rey
by Gertrud U. Rey Have you ever wondered why some viruses circulate primarily in the winter and others are more prevalent in the summer? Although we don’t have a clear answer to this question, a combination of factors is likely responsible. Work done in the field of respiratory viruses suggests that these viruses can …
Why We Can’t Eradicate Polio
By Gertrud U. Rey | | Basic virology, Gertrud Rey
by Gertrud U. Rey In 1988 the World Health Organization, Rotary International, UNICEF, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention passed the initiative to eradicate polio globally by the year 2000. We are now 23 years past this deadline, and it is increasingly clear that this goal will likely never be achieved. Smallpox …
David Tuller
Trial By Error: Video of October Talk in Ireland on How “Biopsychosocial” Research on ME, Long Covid, and Related Illnesses Harms Patients
By David Tuller, DrPH In October, I spent 10 days traveling around Ireland and giving a talk called “Bad Science, Bad Medicine: How Flawed Biopsychosocial Studies on ME, Long Covid, etc Harm Patients.” (I wrote about the trip here.) I came as a guest of the Irish ME/CFS Association, which had previously arranged similar tours …
Trial By Error: Some Things I’ve Read Recently–Long Covid and Fertility Issues, Psychotherapy Ethics, How to Fake Your Results
By David Tuller, DrPH It’s been a slow period. Here are a few things I’ve read recently… “The pandemic’s untold fertility story” While Long Covid disproportionately affects women, its impact on their reproductive lives has not received the attention the issue deserves. Recently, Australia’s ABC News addressed the issue with a moving piece called “The …
Trial By Error: Cochrane Continues Telling ME/CFS Patients to Go F–k Themselves
By David Tuller, DrPH Update/Correction: Below, I initially wrote that Cochrane was lying in describing the update plan as a “pilot project.” However, it turns out that the organization did describe its plan to engage community partners as a “pilot project.” Here’s the statement from March, 2020: “Cochrane is conducting a pilot project for engaging …
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Trial By Error: Cochrane Tells ME/CFS Patients to Go F–k Themselves
By David Tuller, DrPH Cochrane has just given the finger to the international ME/CFS community. After jerking everyone around and promising for five years to conduct a new review of exercise interventions for the illness, the organization abruptly abandoned that commitment this week. On Monday, Cochrane posted the following message on its website: “In 2019, …
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Trial By Error: Agencies Respond to Coroner’s Report in Boothby O’Neill Inquest
Update: Maeve’s mum, Sarah Boothby, has commented on this blog. I am posting her comment here: Sorry if this seems picky but Maeve did not die in hospital [DT: Fixed! Not sure how I made this error] and the RDUH Trust document is what we call a treatment pathway. It is the first of its …
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Trial By Error: Letter to BMJ Editor Seeking Correction in New Review of Interventions for Long Covid
By David Tuller, DrPH The BMJ recently published a review of interventions for Long Covid that–surprise!–recommended CBT and a rehabilitation program as treatments. The review is full of holes. I have focused on one in particular. The review relies for its rehabilitation recommendation on an earlier BMJ study–even though that study has itself already been …