TWiV 854: Omicron is evasive

<p>TWiV reviews findings that increased fitness of the Omicron variant is due to immune evasion, not an increase in intrinsic transmissibility, and determination of infectious viral load in patients infected with wild type, Delta and Omicron viruses reveals lack of correlation with RNA loads determined by RT-PCR, similar levels of shedding among Delta and Omicron, and greatly reduced shedding in vaccinated people.</p> <p>Hosts: <a href= "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Racaniello">Vincent Racaniello</a>, <a href="http://trichinella.org/">Dickson Despommier</a>, <a href= "http://mgm.ufl.edu/profile/condit-rich/">Rich Condit</a>, <a href= "https://sites.google.com/a/umich.edu/spindler-lab/">Kathy Spindler</a>, and <a href= "http://twitter.com/bioprofbarker">Brianne Barker</a></p> <p>Subscribe (free): <a href= "http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=300973784">iTunes</a>, <a href="https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cDovL3R3aXYubWljcm9iZXdvcmxkLmxpYnN5bnByby5jb20vdHdpdg%3D%3D">Google Podcasts</a>, <a href= "http://twiv.microbeworld.libsynpro.com/twiv">RSS</a>, <a href="http://eepurl.com/Gcw59">email</a></p> <p>Become a <a href= "https://www.microbe.tv/contribute">patron</a> of TWiV!</p> <h3><strong>Links for this episode</strong></h3> <ul> <li>Travel Award Applications (<a href= "https://asv.org/asv2022/asv-travel-awards/">ASV</a>) 2:11</li> <li><a href= "https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.27.21268278v1">Omicron transmission</a> in Danish households (medRxiv)</li> <li><a href= "https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.10.22269010v1">Infectious viral load</a> in vaccinated and unvaccinated patients (medRxiv)</li> <li>Fred Murphy on <a href= "https://www.microbe.tv/twiv/twiv-625/">TWiV 625</a></li> <li>Timestamps by <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/jrrmicro">Jolene</a>. Thanks!</li> </ul> <h3>Weekly Picks</h3> <p><strong>Dickson</strong> – <a href= "https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/these-are-our-favorite-science-photos-of-2021"> Favorite Science