39. Are Vaccines Helping or Hurting? w/ Derek Lowe

Follow the Science

The prevalence of Covid-19 even in highly vaccinated countries such as Israel has led to a scary rumor that vaccines are actually making the disease worse. That has happened before with other vaccines - sometimes antibodies can actually turn traitor and help the virus through something called antibody dependent enhancement.

Medicinal chemist Derek Lowe has been getting lots of questions about this from concerned readers of his Science Magazine pharmaceutical blog In The Pipeline. In this episode he explains how antibody dependent enhancement works, where it’s happened before, and why it’s almost certainly not happening with our Covid-19 vaccines.

“Follow the Science" is produced, written, and hosted by Faye Flam, with funding by the Society for Professional Journalists. Today’s episode was edited by Seth Gliksman with music by Kyle Imperatore. If you’d like to hear more "Follow the Science," please like, follow, and subscribe!