Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dick Despommier, Alan Dove, and Cliff Mintz On episode #56 of the podcast 'This Week in Virology", Vincent, Dick, Alan, and Cliff answer questions from listeners on swine influenza origins, transmission, virulence, and vaccines, HIV and AIDS, and more. [powerpress url="http://traffic.libsyn.com/twiv/TWiV056.mp3"] Click the arrow above to play, ...

"Do Women Need Such Big Flu Shots?" suggests that we would have more doses of influenza 2009 H1N1 vaccine if we accounted for the biological differences between men and women. The idea is that women generate a stronger antibody response than men, and therefore require less vaccine. Does this idea ...

My interminable 2.5 hour commute this morning was made tolerable by listening to the Quackcast #35 from Mark Crislip, "Flu vaccine efficacy and 18 taradiddles". In this excellent and highly recommended episode, Dr. Crislip addresses the contention that the influenza virus vaccine is worthless. To make it even easier for ...

Earlier this year an influenza virus animation spread on YouTube just after the emergence of swine-origin influenza H1N1. I invited readers to criticise the animation which contained several errors. A much better depiction of influenza virus animation has been created by XVIVO. It's not only more beautifully rendered, but is ...

A reader of the post "Severe cases of pandemic influenza" asked whether I could comment on an article in The Atlantic which questions the efficacy of the influenza vaccine in the elderly population. I passed the request on to Revere at Effect Measure who wrote an excellent and thoughtful response, ...