Clinical Update with Dr. Daniel Griffin

Vincent Racaniello (0:00)

This Week in Virology, the podcast about viruses, the kind that make you sick.

From Microbe TV, this is TWiV This Week in Virology, episode 1374, recorded on November 12th, 2026 I'm Vincent Racaniello, and you're listening to the podcast All About Viruses. Joining me today from New York, Daniel Griffin.

Daniel Griffin (0:32)

Hello, everyone.

Vincent Racaniello (0:34)

What's on your tide today, Daniel?

Daniel Griffin (0:36)

It is Staph aureus, these little yellow cocci.

Look at that. You probably can't see it. For you, it's like...

Vincent Racaniello (0:49)

I just see some yellow. I can't really see what it is.

Daniel Griffin (0:53)

Well, it is an artist's rendition because they're not really yellow cocci.

But all right, let's jump in. So it was this last week we lost Patrick Stewart. I don't know if you... Were you a Star Trek fan, Vincent?

Vincent Racaniello (1:10)

The early, the first phase, not the Patrick Stewart phase. But I was in a hotel in Berlin once and he was right there in the lobby. Oh, wow.

I saw him in person.

Daniel Griffin (1:23)

So I probably told you this before, William Shatner's daughter and I went to college together.

Vincent Racaniello (1:28)

No, I didn't know that.

Daniel Griffin (1:29)

He comes out to visit Boulder, Colorado and goes into like this... It was Alfalfa. Yeah, it was Alfalfa. It was like one of these health food, granola type places.

They ask him for ID for his check. He's like, don't you recognize me? The lady says, should I?

Vincent Racaniello (1:49)

That doesn't work always. People don't watch. Not everybody watches everything.

Daniel Griffin (1:54)

Yeah.

I was watching a Nathan Fielder show and he was doing this thing where a guy is like, oh, I'm trivia. I'm really great at trivia. He's like, oh, he's probably seen some of my shows. He's like, no, no. You've seen some shows?

Vincent Racaniello (2:09)

All right.

Daniel Griffin (2:10)

Let's jump in with a quotation from Patrick Stewart, Jean-Luc Picard.

And this is kind of a call to action. It is what you do from now on that will either move our civilization forward a few tiny steps or else begin to march us steadily backward.

Vincent Racaniello (2:28)

Do you think there are people who want to march us backward, Daniel?

Daniel Griffin (2:32)

So there are people that do, right? And some of them for personal gain, as long as all of society is going in one direction, they don't care. They care about their own personal gain. I mean, some people actually have some really odd ideas, right? You know, the tin hat folks that seem to be in interesting positions of power. And then there actually, you know, there always are people that have some idea that it was so much better hundreds of years ago, you know.

Vincent Racaniello (3:01)

As if they lived and really know what was going on, right?

Daniel Griffin (3:04)

Oh, hundreds of years ago, right? I mean, you know, life was bitter and short, right?

Vincent Racaniello (3:10)

Yes, it was, it was one of our philosophers. We are living in a good time here in general compared to previous times, except maybe more recent times, it was a little friendlier than it is now in the US. But yeah, yeah, no, in terms of public health and medicine, it's a great time, right?

Daniel Griffin (3:28)

Yeah, we have no, no, no need, no interest in moving back to the time when life was brutal and short. All right, but let's talk about a few things that are going on. So some some things that are in the news.

Little C, Big V, D, P, V1, what is that? What are all those circulating vaccine-derived polio virus? One, it's Syria. So Syrian Arab Republic launches Coordinated Public Health Response Following Polio Virus Detection in Deir Ezzor. So we get this report out of Damascus. The Ministry of Health there is strengthening Vaccination Surveillance Activities to Protect Children Following the Detection of the Vaccine-Derived Polio Virus. One, in two children aged between 16 and 13 months who developed paralysis. So this is paralytic polio from circulating vaccine-derived polio virus. So the ministry is supported by the WHO, UNICEF, and other partners, Vaccination Activities in Affected Areas, Preparing Further Campaigns. When the families are being encouraged, Check your child's vaccination records. Make sure that you're up-to-date.

So...

Vincent Racaniello (4:50)

You know, this is what happens. The attenuated Sabin strains are being used. They revert, they circulate. And if you let vaccination coverage drop, you have cases of polio. Now, you know, so, what are we going to do? Because not every country does 100% immunization. Well, we have to get away from this attenuated vaccine and to something that's not infectious, of course.