24 min listen
Will we ever know Covid-19's origin story?
FromThe Big Story
ratings:
Length:
20 minutes
Released:
Mar 20, 2023
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
Even three years after it emerged, there's still no consensus on the origin of the virus that shut down the world. Last week, the US Department of Energy said that its conclusion (albeit with "low confidence") was that the virus escaped from a lab. Three days later new genetic research pointed to the presence of the virus in racoon dogs found in Wuhan at the time the virus began to spread.So chalk up another data point for each side, and still we're searching for answers. What does the new evidence tell us about each theory? How has this debate become politicized? Will we ever know where the virus truly came from? And if we did, what would it change ... if anything?GUEST: Umair Irfan, correspondent at Vox writing about climate change, Covid-19, and energy policy. (Read Umair's latest piece on Covid's origins here.)
Released:
Mar 20, 2023
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (100)
Why the future of covid vaccines might not require a needle: By now many people assume we'll be getting annual covid boosters for the rest of our lives. That's possible, but there are other possibilities, too. In the past two years we've learned so much about how to rapidly create and deliver vaccines that there are projects in front of us that could offer much more optimistic futures. At McMaster University, one of them involves no needles at all... and might eliminate the need for yearly updates. GUEST: Dr. Matthew Miller, Associate Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences at McMaster University by The Big Story