TWiV 1299: Moth balls and blood clots

This Week in Virology

Vincent Racaniello

Virology, Science & Medicine, Pathogen, Infection, Virus, Racaniello, Twiv, Vincent, Microbe, Medicine, Infectious, Microbiology

4.8 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 22 February 2026

⏱️ 106 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

TWiV explains how vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia develops from antibodies to adenovirus and somatic hypermutation, and castration by a viral protein tyrosine phosphatase that targets a host cell cycle checkpoint protein. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, Rich Condit, and Brianne Barker Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, RSS, email Become a patron of TWiV! Links for this episode Support science education at MicrobeTV Positions in Rosenfeld Lab (email) US repeals environmental endangerment finding (Nature) Environmental groups sue EPA (Guardian) NIAID to drop pandemic preparedness and biodefense (Nature) FDA backpedals on Moderna mRNA rejection (npr) Mechanism of VITT (NEJM) Parasitc castration by a wasp virus protein (PNAS) Polydnaviruses (PloS Path) Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks! Weekly Picks Brianne – The effect of seeing scientists as intellectually humble on trust in scientists and their research Rich – The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge by David McCullough Alan – Recipes from the American South, by Michael Twitty Vincent – Why Returning From Mars ls Impossible – Richard Feynman’s Warning Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees Send your virology questions and comments to twiv@microbe.tv Content in this podcast should not be construed as medical advice.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This Week in Virology, the podcast about viruses, the kind that make you sick.
0:10.5	From MicrowTV, this is Twiv, this week in Virology, episode 1299 recorded on February 20th, 2026.
0:24.5	I'm Vincent Rackenielo, and you're listening to the podcast, All About Viruses.
0:29.7	I don't know, for some reason, 1299 feels ominous, right?
0:32.8	I don't know why.
0:33.4	It's not a big deal.
0:34.4	It's nothing, really.
0:36.2	Joining me today from Austin, Texas, Rich Condit.
0:39.8	Hi there, Vincent.
0:41.1	We have 65 degrees Fahrenheit with cloudy skies.
0:49.8	Dixon is absent.
0:52.2	And some cooler weather in the forecast.
0:55.9	So we're entering something a little more like Texas winter for what it's worth.
1:04.5	But I think that we aren't going to freeze anymore.
1:07.8	We're okay.
1:08.8	Yeah, this week it was above freezing.
1:10.7	He was currently 5C and it's been
1:12.5	raining for the last 24 hours. I see Sunday we're supposed to get snow. Yeah, you guys are in for
1:18.6	another dump, right? I don't know about a dump, but it says 80% chance Sunday and Monday,
1:23.7	but it's not going to be freezing. So the snow is slowly leaving. You know, in New York, when there's a lot of snow, they have nowhere to put it. They just pile it up and it makes walking very difficult.
1:36.0	In Buffalo, they occasionally would, when it got really bad, they trek it out to Lake Erie and dump it in Lake Erie.
1:41.2	Yeah, well, we are surrounded by water, so they could do that, but there are fences.
	...

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