Episode 375: Dr. John S. Tregoning
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Outsmarting Pathogens: How We Fight Infectious Diseases Today
What is the aftermath of a global pandemic and its impact on public consciousness? Will the surge in awareness about infectious diseases lead to sustained interest and funding, or is it merely a transient response to recent events?
Dr. John S. Tregoning is a Professor in Vaccine Immunology at the Imperial College of London and the author of the recent book, Infectious: Pathogens and How We Fight Them.
John and Greg discuss the evolution of the war against pathogens, the complexity and significance of vaccines and the impact of pandemics on public health awareness. John lays out the role of scientific advances in diseases prevention, the potential of RNA vaccines, and future strategies to ward off pandemics.
*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*
Episode Quotes:
On clinical trials
48:49: The clinical trials and the burden of proof for the vaccines was the same as it was outside the pandemic. There was nothing different. It wasn't done quicker; the gaps between the trials was shorter. So normally, you do the first part, you pause, you publish, you get more money, you do the second part, and it was the pause and publish that disappeared. So, all the trials were done as stringently as they would normally do. The big challenge was that suddenly, you had this drug that was being given to a billion people. And if you gave apples to a billion people, some people would get sick. If you give aspirin to a billion people, a lot of people would get sick. If you gave paracetamol, anything to that many people that quickly, some people are going to get sick. And I think that communication of like, yeah, it's hard, right? Say for most of you, this is fine, but for some of you, and we don't know who, some of you are going to get very sick, and that's quite a tricky sell.
Science is an imperfect answer
08:28: That's all science ever is. It's an imperfect answer. There's always doubt, there's always questions, and we're just using the tools we have at the time to interpret the world around us.
How do we know in the world of public health, where we should be investing our resources?
18:49: The basic measure is that more public health, the bigger; every pound spent on public health saves two pounds later down the line. So, if I had the big pot of money, I would be investing in people's basic underpinning health, so make sure trying to reduce obesity, try to reduce smoking, try to reduce drinking—all of the things that make it worse when the pathogen gets to you—all of that investment is going to pay double because it pays you in. Not getting infected pays you in overall general health as well. The earlier you can nip it in the bud, the better. And so that goes for prevention. It probably goes for thinking about surveillance, investing money in making sure that we're catching the pathogens early, and then having high containment units.
What happens when a new virus emerges?
38:37: When a new virus emerged, it gave us insight into what would happen when a new virus emerged and the people most at risk. It doesn't have to be particularly pathogenic. There are people who have frail, damaged lungs, and if you put a virus into that, it's going to cause disease and death.