Top all-time · #1590
Vincent Racaniello
Personal blog · virology.wssciencehealth
Vincent Racaniello writes Virology Blog, a personal blog at virology.ws about science and health. Since 2009, 48 different Hacker News readers have linked it 59 times, most often “There is one, and only one strain of SARS-CoV-2”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-30, and you can follow it by feed.
Virology All Virology Posts Why We Can’t Eradicate Polio By Gertrud U. Rey | 07-06-2023 | Basic virology, Gertrud Rey by Gertrud U. Rey In 1988 ...
Most-linked posts?
- /2020/01/23/a-lesson-from-sars-cov-for-2019-ncov/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2020-01-25
- /2015/06/12/resistance-to-prion-disease-in-humans/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2018-12-11
- There is one, and only one strain of SARS-CoV-22 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2020-05-08
- /2018/11/08/herpes-simplex-virus-and-alzheimers-disease/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2018-12-20
- SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-01-30
What Hacker News says?
In the US it's been the case since the 70s, with the last wild type polio case in 1984 and vaccine derived polio cases up until 1999. [0] [1]. Then in 2000, OPV was banned in the US. [2] But the statement, while true, is misleading because of its intention to discredit the use of vaccines at all. Just check the graphs linked before the introduction of the vaccine. Night and day, as horrible as the vaccine caused cas…
Comment linking /2015/09/10/why-do-we-still-use-sabin-poliovirus-vaccine/
on “Africa declared free of wild polio”Submitted There is one, and only one strain of SARS-CoV-2 as a story · 368 points
HN discussionTo add to this, how many virions are needed for a successful replication to start depends on the virus. https://www.virology.ws/2011/01/21/are-all-virus-particles-i...
Comment linking /2011/01/21/are-all-virus-particles-infectious/
on “Moderna’s HIV vaccine has officially begun human trials”Submitted The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic could have been prevented as a story · 62 points
HN discussion1200 mutations away from RATG-13 is how significant exactly? I will propose that it is not particularly significant. One virus I work with, I have 14 variants ranging from 300 to 500 base-pair differences. That is from passing in a laboratory only. I have one variant that has a 14000 BP deletion! ( https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7217056/#mmi144 ... TABLE S2) However, it is noteworthy for that reason. T…
Comment linking /2016/10/27/genome-recombination-across-viral-families/
on “Scientists who say the lab-leak hypothesis for SARS-CoV-2 shouldn't be ruled out”Submitted Evidence Suggests Those With Severe Covid-19 Have Same Pre-existing Ponditions as a story · 16 points
HN discussionHi, never said they had to be within the sub-genera. Recombination can absolutely happen inter-genera and even inter-family. There's some evidence that Ebola got its VP40 from bats, or vice versa. Meaning that an RNA virus somehow got its nuclear regulatory factor from a bat. We have no idea in science how that happened. But we know there is homology! I can't find the link at the moment, but when I do I'll add it he…
Comment linking /2016/10/27/genome-recombination-across-viral-families/
on “Scientists who say the lab-leak hypothesis for SARS-CoV-2 shouldn't be ruled out”Submitted The Deadliest Virus as a story · 5 points
HN discussionI think this article is sad because it gives readers such as yourself such a misleading understanding of the issue. The article implies it is 'scientists' vs 'activists'. Yet many more scientists have spoken out against the PACE trial than it its favour, eg: http://www.virology.ws/2018/08/13/trial-by-error-open-letter... It implies that the 'activists' reject results for ideological reasons, rather than because the…
Comment linking /2018/08/13/trial-by-error-open-letter-to-the-lancet-version-3-0/
on “Online activists are silencing us, scientists say”Submitted Many adults cannot name a scientist as a story · 3 points
HN discussionThis article seriously misrepresents matters. Not that there's no mention of the substance of the science. David Tuller has written on this topic in publications like the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/18/opinion/sunday/getting-it... There are some summary pieces from science blogs: https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/treating-chronic-fatigue-sy... https://senseaboutscienceusa.org/pace-research-sparked…
Comment linking /wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Cochrane-Report-on-Courtney-Complaint-1.pdf
on “Online activists are silencing us, scientists say”Submitted Test Prudently as a story · 2 points
HN discussionI have chronic fatigue syndrome since a bad viral infection in 2001. I find this article quite unfortunate. There is plenty of good research being done into CFS that does not generate the outrage that the PACE trial has. There are many reasons that particular study has been the focus of campaigners while other researchers are encouraged or left in peace, but I would encourage those who are coming to this issue here…
Comment linking /
on “Online activists are silencing us, scientists say”Submitted T cells will save us from Covid-19 as a story · 2 points
HN discussion> viruses have the most stripped down genomes of all Giant viruses can have over 1M basepairs, substantially larger than a bacteria such as Mycoplasma genitalium, with substantial functionality (pretty much everything except the ribosome in at least some of them: https://www.virology.ws/2018/03/08/only-the-ribosome-is-lack... )
Comment linking /2018/03/08/only-the-ribosome-is-lacking/
on “New CRISPR-based map ties every human gene to its function”Submitted SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThis is exactly the wrong interpretation. We know that cannibalism causes prion disease, and we have known that for as long as we have known about prion disease. the question is not whether cannibalism causes prion disease, which it definitely does, but whether past cannibalism was common enough to have selected for some innate resistance to it. http://www.virology.ws/2015/06/12/resistance-to-prion-diseas...
Comment linking /2015/06/12/resistance-to-prion-disease-in-humans/
on “Prions, Nearly Indestructible and Universally Lethal, Seed the Eyes of Victims”Submitted The future of SARS-CoV-2 as a story · 2 points
HN discussionI'm sorry to hear about your wife, that sounds awful. I also had post COVID issues, I couldn't get out of bed for a month and was very low energy for three. The doctors did nothing for me but luckily I have now recovered on my own. I tried eating lots of vegetables and lean meat (as per official nutritional recommendations) and it made me worse. I remember building up the strength every day just to chop the vegetabl…
Comment linking /2020/07/15/trial-by-error-nice-on-exercise-and-post-covid-syndrome/
on “Coronavirus: Oxford vaccine triggers immune response”Submitted How to End This Pandemic as a story · 2 points
HN discussionNot a book, but prof. Vincent Racaniello offers free courses[1] and has great youtube videos. [1] https://www.virology.ws/course/
Comment linking /course/
on “How the placenta evolved from an ancient virus”Submitted TWiVincent – Microneedle patch for SARS-CoV-2 as a story · 2 points
HN discussion1. Viruses that don't have an envelope have evolved to survive without the envelope. Viruses that do have an envelope haven't. Are you confused that removing a crab's exoskeleton kills it, given that there are lots of animals that don't have exoskeletons? 2. This is probably just sloppy usage of "some" and "most". That said, i think enveloped viruses are overrepresented amongst viruses that cause serious disease in…
Comment linking /2010/09/23/a-new-type-of-enveloped-virus/
on “Why soap works so well on most viruses”Submitted Infection Fatality Rate – A Critical Missing Piece for Managing Covid-19 as a story · 2 points
HN discussionI didn't downvote you (can't even if I wanted to since you replied to me!), but the difference in outcomes is unlikely to be explained solely by differing strains, and there's no evidence at this time that the mutations have any biologically meaningful difference: https://www.virology.ws/2020/05/07/there-is-one-and-only-one...
Comment linking /2020/05/07/there-is-one-and-only-one-strain-of-sars-cov-2/
on “There is one, and only one strain of SARS-CoV-2”Submitted Psychotherapy isn't a real cure for unexplained medical symptoms as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThe author is Vincent Racaniello Ph.D., Professor of Microbiology & Immunology in the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University( https://www.virology.ws/about/ ) I absolutely recommend his virology lectures https://youtu.be/lj3NhPgOoX4
Comment linking /about/
on “There is one, and only one strain of SARS-CoV-2”Submitted SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern as a story · 1 points
HN discussionI think you may be approaching the discussion more from the standpoint of where to assign blame specifically regarding COVID-19, and I'm more interested in the benefits from infectious clone technology and infection experiments in general, which covers the last 50 years [0], not just the work in 2R01AI110964 that is currently under criticism. So I yield on all Wuhan-related points. One thing that really confuses me…
Comment linking /2009/02/12/infectious-dna-clones/
on “Publish and Perish”Submitted Coronavirus reinfection: What does it mean? as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
