Virology
Five year persistence of Ebolavirus in humans
By Vincent Racaniello
The current outbreak of Ebolavirus disease in Guinea, which began in February 2021, may have originated from a survivor of the 2013-16 outbreak in the same country. Phylogenetic analysis of genome sequences revealed that viruses from the current outbreak group with the Makona variant, which caused the 2013-16 epidemic. The ...
How vaccines work
By Vincent Racaniello
Vaccines work by educating the host's immune system to recall the identity of a virus years after the initial encounter, a phenomenon called immune memory. Viral vaccines establish immunity and memory without the pathogenic consequences typical of a natural infection. The success of immunization in stimulating long-lived immune memory is ...
One and Done
By Gertrud U. Rey
by Gertrud U. Rey On February 27, 2021, the FDA issued an emergency use authorization for a third SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. The vaccine was developed by Janssen Pharmaceutica, a Belgium-based division of Johnson & Johnson, in collaboration with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. Perhaps the most exciting feature of ...
Understanding virus isolates, variants, and strains
By Vincent Racaniello
Many virology terms are being used these days by people who do not understand their meaning. Included are journalists, medical doctors, scientists, lawyers, and people from all walks of life. In normal times this word mis-usage would be so rare that it would not matter. However, because we are in ...
SARS-like bat coronaviruses are not only in China
By Vincent Racaniello
It is well past the time to stop blaming a laboratory in China for the release of SARS-CoV-2. Such fallacies reflect an ignorance of scientific facts, including the recent finding of closely related coronaviruses in bats in Thailand. The bat CoV RatG13, sampled in 2013 in Yunnan province, shares 96% ...
