TWiV 765: Potpourri of COVID-19

TWiV reviews the new nomenclature for SARS-CoV-2 variants, effectiveness of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine against variants, modified Moderna vaccine against variants, impact of COVID-19 interventions on influenza in China and the US, and binding of RaTG13 spike protein to ACE2 of multiple species. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, Alan Dove, Rich Condit, and Brianne Barker Subscribe (free): iTunes, Google Podcasts, RSS, email Become a patron of TWiV! Links for this episode Updated nomenclature of SARS-CoV-2 variants (WHO) Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine effective against alpha variants (Lancet) Novavax vaccine effective against beta variants (NEJM) Moderna updated vaccine against beta and gamma variants (medRxiv) Impact of COVID-19 interventions against influenza (Nat Comm) RaTG13 spike binding to various ACE2 proteins (Cell) Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks! Weekly Picks Dickson – NASA's Juno to Get a Close Look at Jupiter's Moon Ganymede Brianne – Send in the Bugs. The Michelangelos Need Cleaning. Rich – All landers and rovers on Mars  animated in video with human scale Alan – Weird case cluster reported in MMWR 40 years ago; update on disease Vincent – Virus isolates, strains, variants – what are they? Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]