Episode 79: The War on Viruses
The Macrovirus in Star Trek: Voyager. Screencap via TrekCore.com
We've been waging a desperate battle against deadly viruses, in both reality and fiction. In this episode, we talk to Sarah Zhang, a staff writer with the Atlantic, about what we've learned from the fight against COVID-19. And we talk about the scariest and weirdest viruses in science fiction.
Notes, citations, & etc.!
Sarah Zhang is a staff writer at The Atlantic.
Follow her on Twitter at @SarahZhang.
Covid-19 is very similar to SARS, which is why scientists call it SARS-CoV-2.
For a long time, one virologist told Zhang, coronaviruses were "actually a backwater." They were mostly seen in animals—like Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP).
Four coronaviruses also cause the common cold, and they may have been much more deadly in the past.
After SARS hit, we got MERS, which came from Saudi Arabia, and camels were a "reservoir host," who lived with the virus.
With ebola, even if we stop an outbreak, the virus could still be spread via animals.
It's better for the coronavirus if it doesn't kill us.
As Zhang explains here, the new mRNA vaccines don't print out a "wanted poster" to help your cells attack the virus—instead, they give the cells instructions to print the posters themselves. And mRNA vaccines cannot cause infection because they don't contain the whole virus.
Scientists have been amazed at how quickly covid-19 has evolved.
There's some debate as to whether viruses are alive, since they can't replicate on their own.
It's hard to cure the common cold, because it's actually many different pathogens.
We are using virus shells to deliver medicine, and also to deliver vaccines.
The very first pandemic story is The Last Man by Mary Shelley.
The television show The Last Ship was based on a novel about nuclear holocaust—but the TV show changed the cause of the apocalypse from nukes to a deadly virus.
In Octavia Butler's novel Clay's Ark, a virus from space changes humans biologically.
In 28 Days Later, the "rage virus" turns us into ferocious animals.
In I Am Legend, people become vampires/zombies, but the "twist" is that they're still people. The only movie adaptation to capture this idea is Omega Man.
In Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake, a virus wipes out most humans, but a new, more peaceful, species of humans arises.
In Star Trek: Voyager, the "macrovirus" goes around stabbing people with its giant spike
In the Doctor Who story "The Invisible Enemy," a virus infects the Doctor's brain, leading to a philosophical debate between a microscopic clone of the Doctor and the virus itself.
In The Crazies, a virus makes people act savage and terrifying.