Follow the Science

Spreading rumors and misinformation about enemies for political gain has deep roots in humanity’s affinity for tribal behavior, says political scientist and evolutionary psychologist Michael Bang Petersen of Aarhus University in Denmark. His latest work shows that the biggest super-spreaders of misinformation and hatred on social media are actually the most politically savvy and well-connected. 

In this interview we talk about his latest work and about how both the US and Denmark recently ended many pandemic restrictions. But in his country it went smoothly and here people are either outraged that restrictions are ending or outraged they were ever imposed. We talk about Dr. Bang Petersen’s New York Times piece, “The End of the Pandemic May Tear Us Apart.” Why isn’t it tearing Denmark apart? They have trust and shared, realistic goals. 

“Follow the Science" is produced, written, and hosted by Faye Flam. Today’s episode was edited by Seth Gliksman with music by Kyle Imperatore. If you’d like to hear more "Follow the Science," please like, follow, and subscribe!

Social media companies may claim censorship is for our own good – to shield us from misinformation – but the process has no transparency. And Facebook and Twitter algorithms are set up to amplify sensational claims, to push people into polarized camps, and delude users about the popularity and value of what are often fringe ideas. 

Social scientists David Rand and Gordon Pennycook have studied social media behavior and found that people care about sharing accurate news, but often give in to temptation to share with what’s likely to be popular, rather than accurate. But there are solutions. The researchers found a way to leverage crowdsourcing to improve the quality of shared information. And algorithms could, in principle, be reset to amplify high quality information.

“Follow the Science" is produced, written, and hosted by Faye Flam. Today’s episode was edited by Seth Gliksman with music by Kyle Imperatore. If you’d like to hear more "Follow the Science," please like, follow, and subscribe!

Suddenly the word endemic is all over the media – perhaps it’s replacing “herd immunity” and “new normal” to put words to people’s hopes that the pandemic will end soon.  

But what does endemic mean and when will Covid-19 get there? I pose these questions to Aris Katzourakis, an expert in viral genomics and evolution at Oxford University, and author of a recent opinion piece in the journal Nature titled "Endemic Doesn’t Mean Harmless".  We also talk about how new variants come along, and what can be predicted about the evolution of the virus in the future. 

That said, there are signs everywhere that people in many parts of the world will soon stop reacting to Covid-19 as an emergency and settle into more normal activities as we recognize that we’re in this for the long haul.

“Follow the Science" is produced, written, and hosted by Faye Flam. Today’s episode was edited by Seth Gliksman with music by Kyle Imperatore. If you’d like to hear more "Follow the Science," please like, follow, and subscribe!

Almost everyone has a story of someone who was healthy and received all the shots and still got wiped out by Covid-19 this winter. While there’s  no doubt getting vaccinated and boosted vastly lowers your odds being hospitalized, there’s a random element in this omicron phase of the pandemic that comes down to our genes.

Immunologist Gaurav Das Gaiha explains how he and his colleagues discovered that about 20% of people don’t get nearly as much protection against omicron from their vaccines. Instead of everyone getting 75% protection, we’re seeing a lot of variability. In this discussion, we consider why the human immune system is so diverse and what it means for our species.

Here is the study we discuss showing some people’s vaccines don’t give them strong protection against omicron: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.04.21268586v1

And here’s the study connecting pheromones, attraction and the genes regulating our immune systems: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17888797/

“Follow the Science" is produced, written, and hosted by Faye Flam. Today’s episode was edited by Seth Gliksman with music by Kyle Imperatore. If you’d like to hear more "Follow the Science," please like, follow, and subscribe!

It’s a confusing time right now - in January of 2022, since so many vaccinated people are coming down with omicron. The virus has changed a lot since the vaccines were formulated, but the data show they are still offering partial protection. To understand what’s going on, I asked immunologist(and poet) Shiv Pillai to explain how our bodies “remember” those vaccines. I wanted to know how vaccines work in the first place, and how they can protect us after the virus mutates into a new variant. What I learned was that the vaccines kick off a process of Darwinian evolution in your antibody-producing cells.

“Follow the Science" is produced, written, and hosted by Faye Flam, with funding by the Society for Professional Journalists. Today’s episode was edited by Seth Gliksman with music by Kyle Imperatore. If you’d like to hear more "Follow the Science," please like, follow, and subscribe!

Big pharma is out for big pharma, but that doesn’t mean we don’t benefit from drugs, vaccines and treatments – AIDS was a death sentence until pharma came up with drugs called protease inhibitors that allowed people with HIV to live out their lives. 

Now there’s Paxlovid - a protease inhibitor to fight Covid-19. The biggest downside of this drug is there isn’t enough of it to go around. 

I’ll be talking about that drug and more with medicinal chemist Derek Lowe, who is the author of Science Magazine’s In the Pipeline blog. It’s a wonderful, critical, objective look at the science of pharmaceuticals. The bottom line is you don’t ever have to blindly trust anyone to tell you a drug works. What matters is that they can show how drugs work – and provide reproducible data. 

“Follow the Science" is produced, written, and hosted by Faye Flam, with funding by the Society for Professional Journalists. Today’s episode was edited by Seth Gliksman with music by Kyle Imperatore. If you’d like to hear more "Follow the Science," please like, follow, and subscribe!

Few subjects are more contaminated with misinformation than treatments for Covid-19, with many patients still demanding Ivermectin in hospitals despite the drug’s failure in clinical trials. But now, finally, we’re hearing claims that new drugs really do save lives. Pfizer just got approval for a pill called Paxlovid, and now there’s evidence a cheap anti-depressant called Fluvoxamine can save lives as well. But how do we sort out the science from the big pharma hype?

I’ll be talking to Roger Seheult (MedCram), a pulmonologist and critical care doctor, who goes deeper than the clinical data. Our discussion delves into the inner workings of your cells to show what these drugs do, why they’re likely to help some people, and how they might cause some side effects.  

Dr. Seheult is also a sleep researcher, and had some fascinating ideas on how to stay healthy this winter – because it’s much better not to need drugs in the first place. 

“Follow the Science" is produced, written, and hosted by Faye Flam, with funding by the Society for Professional Journalists. Today’s episode was edited by Seth Gliksman with music by Kyle Imperatore. If you’d like to hear more "Follow the Science," please like, follow, and subscribe!

Omicron is less deadly but spreading at blinding speed. Is it the end of the world or no big deal? The UK is several weeks ahead of us in their omicron wave and can give us a sense of what might happen here. 

Physician Müge Çevik will join us from the Scotland, where she’s an infectious disease specialist and a lecturer at the University of St. Andrews. She’s become famous as a source of practical advice throughout the pandemic. We talk about what’s happening in the hospitals there, who’s at risk for hospitalization, what prevention measures are likely to help, and what society’s goals should be in dealing with the virus. 

“Follow the Science" is produced, written, and hosted by Faye Flam, with funding by the Society for Professional Journalists. Today’s episode was edited by Seth Gliksman with music by Kyle Imperatore. If you’d like to hear more "Follow the Science," please like, follow, and subscribe!

With omicron exploding, we’re seeing vaccine mandates expand and booster mandates on the table. What’s the scientific rationale? Mandates are predicated on the idea that vaccines stop or at least reduce transmission, and booster mandates on the notion that unboosted people pose a danger to society. Do they? I’ll be talking about vaccines and transmission with Stephen Kissler. He’s a research fellow in immunology and infectious diseases at the Harvard School of Public health. He’s the lead author on a recent study that tracked cases in the NBA to understand viral loads, variants and the effects of vaccines. 

“Follow the Science" is produced, written, and hosted by Faye Flam, with funding by the Society for Professional Journalists. Today’s episode was edited by Seth Gliksman with music by Kyle Imperatore. If you’d like to hear more "Follow the Science," please like, follow, and subscribe!

Some experts tell us to be very afraid, others are not so sure. But what matters about the omicron problem is how we solve it – and that means understanding what it is, how well vaccines protect against it, and whether to focus efforts on boosters, getting doses to other countries, or creating a new vaccine tailored for this emerging variant. 

My guest, Emma Hodcroft, is a molecular epidemiologist at the University of Bern, and has been closely tracking all the scientific work that’s been done to quickly assess omicron. We talk about best and worst case scenarios, laboratory experiments that attempt to measure how well vaccines work against omicron, and how the new data should translate into action. 

“Follow the Science" is produced, written, and hosted by Faye Flam, with funding by the Society for Professional Journalists. Today’s episode was edited by Seth Gliksman with music by Kyle Imperatore. If you’d like to hear more "Follow the Science," please like, follow, and subscribe!