I haven’t had a podcast update for a couple weeks, but here’s one that I highly recommend.

TWiV 1026: Debunking RFK Jr.’s vaccine funk with Dan Wilson

The This Week in Virology gang do a marathon job of debunking RFK Jr’s anti-vaccine nonsense. The episode is so filled with factual information that I can practically promise that you’ll learn something about vaccines, whatever your level of knowledge was beforehand. Well, unless you’re already a virologist, of course.

For example, RFK Jr disparages the hepatitis B vaccine and claims he doesn’t know why it has to be given to babies at birth, implying that it’s dangerous to infants. As the TWiV gang points out, that the vaccine is nothing more than a protein, a harmless protein, and it’s one of the safest vaccines out there. The reason it’s given at birth is that one of the real dangers of hepatitis B is that it can be acquired in the process of birth from a mother who is infected and who may be asymptomatic.

The episode, like all TWiV episodes is available in video or audio format. Follow the link for the audio, or here’s the video: