How the new COVID-19 vaccines work, and restoring vision with brain implants

Science Magazine Podcast

Science Podcast

News, News Commentary, Science

4.3 • 842 Ratings

🗓️ 3 December 2020

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Staff Writer Meredith Wadman and host Sarah Crespi discuss what to expect from the two messenger RNA–based vaccines against COVID-19 that have recently released encouraging results from their phase III trials and the short-term side effects some recipients might see on the day of injection. Sarah also talks with researcher Xing Chen, a project co-leader and postdoctoral scientist at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, about using brain stimulation to restore vision. Researchers have known for about 70 years that electrical stimulation at certain points in the brain can lead to the appearance of a phosphene—a spot of light that appears not because there’s light there, but because of some other stimulation, like pressing on the eyeball. If electrical stimulation can make a little light appear, how about many lights? Can we think about phosphenes as pixels and draw a picture for the brain? How about a moving picture? This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy. Listen to previous podcasts. About the Science Podcast Download a transcript (PDF). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:00.0	This podcast is supported by the Icon School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, one of America's leading research medical schools.
0:07.8	Icon Mount Sinai is the academic arm of the eight hospital Mount Sinai health system in New York City.
0:13.9	It's consistently among the top recipients of NIH funding.
0:18.0	Researchers at Icon Mount Sinai have made breakthrough discoveries in many fields vital
0:22.8	to advancing the health of patients, including cancer, COVID and long COVID, cardiology,
0:29.3	neuroscience, and artificial intelligence. The Icon School of Medicine at Mount Sinai,
0:34.5	we find a way.
0:48.8	Welcome to the science podcast for December 4th, 2020. I'm Sarah Crespi. Each week, we feature the most interesting news and research published in science and the sister journals. First up this
0:53.6	week, I talk with staff writer Meredith Wadman about how the new coronavirus vaccines work.
0:59.3	They use MRNA and some potential side effects that might happen day of injection or the day after.
1:06.3	Also this week, I talked with researcher Singh Chen about using a precise electrical stimulation of the brain to restore vision.
1:18.8	Now we have staff writer Meredith Wadman. She wrote about what to expect from the two
1:24.2	mRNA-based vaccines against COVID-19 that have very recently released encouraging results
1:30.2	from their phase three trials. Hi, Meredith. Hello, Sarah. So as we speak, a vaccine and
1:36.0	an mRNA-based vaccine from Pfizer is winding its way through the emergency use authorization process,
1:41.8	and the Moderna version may not be far behind. What do we know so far about
1:47.1	how effective and safe these vaccines could be? Well, it's fantastic news out of these huge trials of
1:55.2	tens of thousands of people showing that both vaccines are 95% efficacious in large numbers of people.
2:06.3	Efficacious means they worked 95% in the clinical trial setting where everything was
2:14.5	overseen and vaccinations were given in a standardized way. And it was just
2:19.0	very carefully and professionally done, which isn't to say that wouldn't happen out in the community.
2:24.3	But the reality is when you move a vaccine into actual use in everyday settings, be it at
	...

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