All the evidence I've seen so far points to a poor uptake of the influenza 2009 H1N1 vaccine in the United States. This is not good news - inadequate immunization means more infections and more deaths. A few weeks ago I asked a class of about 50 students in a ...

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dick Despommier, and Alan Dove In episode #53 of the podcast "This Week in Virology", Vincent, Dick, and Alan talk about Nobel prizes for telomere research, bacteriophages that protect aphids from wasps, salicylates and pandemic influenza mortality, and hand washing. [powerpress url="http://traffic.libsyn.com/twiv/TWiV053.mp3"] Click the arrow above to ...

The new director of the National Institutes of Health, Francis Collins, has been scrutinized for his Evangelical Christian beliefs, which some think might influence his science policy. But there may be an even more serious problem with his leadership of the biggest supporter of scientific research in the United States. ...

Shortly after I developed sore throat, cough, and congestion last week, a package of 'Cold - Eeze' materialized on my kitchen counter. The writing on the package of zinc-laden lozenges promised to 'shorten your cold', and noted that they were 'clinically proven to reduce the duration of the common cold'. ...

Antibodies produced by infection with a virus, or after immunization with viral vaccines, are effective at preventing viral disease. However humans and higher primates contain "natural antibodies" which are present in serum before viral infection. Natural antibodies can activate the classical complement pathway leading to lysis of enveloped virus particles ...