mRNA Biochemist | Science Communicator
PODCASTS
Whiskey & Cream - Ari Shapiro
Episode XXIII
09 August 2021
To the average human being living under the relentless scourge of a variant-multiplying pandemic, understanding and absorbing what mRNA, spike proteins and lipid nanoparticles are can be a rather daunting and bewildering experience. From the outset, this modern day global health emergency that’s affected every country on the planet has been handled dubiously by politicians acting as soothsayers, poseurs and hypocrites who want to assure us that they know what’s best for us, even while abandoning the most fundamental principles and medical facts provided by established science and health authorities.
Naturally, this has created a harrowing disconnect and some would say an existential schism that’s significantly undermined humanity’s collective efforts to move into a bold and brave new future.
Rob Swanda (@ScientistSwanda) is an mRNA Biochemist and doctoral candidate who's completing his PhD at Cornell University. Back in December of 2020, he decided to post a YouTube video that provided a brief but succinct overview of how vaccines work and why taking them is a personal choice based on a decision that - ideally under normal circumstances - should be rooted in a profound understanding of science. In doing so, he's unlocked a powerful covenant with those of us interested in knowing truth before ideology, facts ahead fiction, and real coronavirus science in place of anti-vaccination superstition.
Going Viral - Mark Honigsbaum
Vaxx and the Facts: Premonitions of the Pandemic
12 February 2021
It’s the science story of the century - how successful vaccines against Covid-19 have been created in under a year. Mark explores the back-story on how they did it so quickly with Dr Anthony Fauci, Director of the NIAID and Sarah Gilbert from the Jenner Institute, Oxford. He gets the low down on the vaccine science from scientist Rob Swanda and he talks vaccines vs. variants with Wendy Barclay from Imperial College London.