This Week in Virology

@thisweekinvirology · Podcast

Latest segments

• Nigeria's first Ebola case, 2026-10-31
  Updates the airlift and Entebbe travel link
  Updates the Nigerian index case: the patient was airlifted to Switzerland with her spouse in stable condition, and the Africa CDC now says she passed through Entebbe on October 3, possibly where transmission happened. Also notes Kenya's second death and the outbreak passing 5,000 confirmed deaths.
• Pennsylvania measles outbreak, 2026-10-24
  Reports the 8 percent weekly climb to 4,410
  Reports the national count climbing 8 percent in a week to 4,410, per CIDRAP, then reads a New York Times piece on Amish families in upstate New York who fought the state's vaccine law before measles reached them, and asks who supplied their misinformation.
• DRC Ebola outbreak, 2026-10-24
  Updates the DRC count and Kenya cases
  Clinical update on the DRC outbreak: the count has climbed to 9,666 confirmed cases and 4,649 deaths, spread has reached new districts, Kenya now has nine cases, and Bundibugyo-specific vaccines are expected in November.
• Rabies outbreaks and CDC cuts, 2026-10-24
  Adds the CDC team's 30 percent staff loss
  Picks up the New York Times report on unusual animal rabies outbreaks and the shrinking CDC rabies team, noting the advisory on human exposures and that no human cases have been confirmed this year. The hosts add their own exposure anecdotes and worry about undiagnosed cases.
• Hepatitis B birth dose studies, 2026-10-24
  Retells the birth-dose model and the criticism
  Walks through the Annals model's numbers - the 19 percent and 83 percent increases in chronic HBV infections in the 2026 birth cohort and the susceptible count at age 20 - then turns to criticism of Kennedy for changing the schedule without scientific justification. A detailed retelling of the study already on the record.
• Pennsylvania measles outbreak, 2026-10-17
  Reports Pennsylvania's sixth measles death
  Reports a sixth measles-associated death in Pennsylvania: a 39-year-old unvaccinated woman in Franklin County who likely died of an acute cardiac event as a complication. Also updates the counts to 4,267 nationally and 1,136 in Pennsylvania, then moves to Griffin's argument that the response is failing.
• DRC Ebola outbreak, 2026-10-17
  Adds Kenya's first case and untracked spread
  Updates the DRC Ebola count to 9,166 confirmed cases and 4,413 deaths, and adds two developments: most new cases now fall outside tracked transmission chains, and Kenya reported its first case after a man traveling from Congo via Uganda died.
• Siberia plague outbreak, 2026-10-10
  Adds the WHO channel to the plague record
  Adds the WHO channel to the record: Russian authorities told the WHO no plague cases were recorded in the city and that contact testing for dangerous pathogens came back negative, then walks through bubonic versus pneumonic plague.
• Pennsylvania measles outbreak, 2026-10-03
  Cross-checks Pennsylvania deaths against CDC count
  Clinical update on the Pennsylvania outbreak: the state health department has confirmed a fifth measles-associated death, while the CDC has acknowledged only two. Adds current case counts, hospitalizations and the westward spread into low-vaccination states.
• NIH peer review score proposal, 2026-09-27
  Ties the NIH score plan to the OMB order
  Walks through the NIH proposal to collapse peer review scores into three categories and stop releasing them to applicants, institutions and program staff, and ties it to an OMB executive order draft giving the president final say on funding.