Peter Doherty is an immunologist and winner of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Medicine.

Show notes
Selected links

•Follow Peter: Website | Twitter
•'I'm 79, I won the Nobel Prize and I don't give a s---', AFR profile of Peter Doherty
•Pandemics: What Everyone Needs To Know, by Peter Doherty
•The (in)famous Imperial College paper

Topics discussed

•Has Peter always not given a shit? 7:32
•Peter's odd high school experience. 9:00
•How the media report on science. 12:30
•What is the difference between a virus and a bacterium? 15:08
•How does a new coronavirus come into existence? 17:47
•What is Peter's area of expertise and what does he know about pandemics? 22:57
•What has the coronavirus pandemic taught us about the usefulness of epidemiological models? 25:20
•The politicization of lockdowns. 35:57
•The origins of America and Australia's cultural differences. 47:33
•Social media and political polarisation. 57:05
•In weathering the pandemic relatively well, was Australia lucky or were the epidemiological models too pessimistic? 59:56
•Can we just lockdown the vulnerable segment of the population, rather than the whole population? 1:03:52
•Is Peter optimistic about keeping a lid on the virus until a vaccine arrives? 1:08:25
•What do governments need to learn from the pandemic to be better prepared for the next one? 1:16:00

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