What a fascinating interview! What you, Dr. Topol, Carl Zimmer, and the people you talk about here have in common is insatiable intellectual curiosity. It is incredibly inspiring. A word about Linsey Marr: I will never forget reading about the day she learned that finally, the CDC accepted what she and others had fought for so hard and so long. As I recall it, she was in her car. She pulled over and cried with relief that finally she and her stalwart compatriots had been heard. I will never stop being grateful to her for her persistence. On another, lighter note, I did enjoy your use, Dr. Topol, of a very specific technical term in the course of this interview: “Captain Obvious.” And indeed it was, if one could only open one’s mind to it. Thank you so much for all.
Fantastic. I was following some of the folks you mentioned on Twitter early on Covid days and bought a CO2 meter to take to chorus when we started indoors again after getting vaxed. We still open windows in our rehearsal space as a result.
Looking forward to reading this book. Curious what he has to say about fire events such as the lithium battery fires in Moss Landing, Monterey California and pvc fire plume in East Palestine Ohio. His focus here is on microbes rather than manufacturing waste particulates.
Thank you for the fascinating interview and for bringing this book to my attention. It is amazing that we keep rediscovering airborne transmission of pathogens and have to "reinvent the wheel" each time we are faced with a novel pathogen. A recent post by "A Higher Plane of Anesthesia," which was co-authored by Lisa Brosseau, an expert on respiratory protection and affiliated with CIDRAP, provides an example of two experiments, one published in 1959 and another one just published on April 1st, that provide further evidence for the airborne spread of pathogens (https://substack.com/home/post/p-160785508?source=queue). The 2025 paper by Roy et al can be found at https://academic.oup.com/ofid/advance-article/doi/10.1093/ofid/ofaf196/8102227?login=false. I look forward to reading the book.
Great interview, will be getting myself a copy of the book. I’m an infection control nurse in Australia where there are still Australian infection control guidelines that are yet to “get with the program” in terms of accepting airborne transmission of COVID and the use of airborne infection control precautions at all times. This is particularly notable in hospitals where transmission is still occurring in inpatient settings and in the aged care sector where outbreaks (including deaths) are ongoing during peaks of COVID in the community.
Thank you! Do you know how many of the researchers mentioned, that have this knowledge on airborne transmission, asymptomatic transmission, etc. - those who know that still about 100k people die yearly of airborne pathogens in the US alone - how many of these knowledgeable people wear a mask indoors and e.g. in crowds outdoors? It's great to hear and read about these things like the history of airborne transmission, but I always wonder about the much bigger impact it would have if the researchers would back up their knowledge with the appropriate accompanying action - a visible confirmation, applying what they know. Maybe this is actually very common, then it would be great to see these masked researchers more often. Maybe this is one reason why you have the podcast conversation online?
What a fascinating interview! What you, Dr. Topol, Carl Zimmer, and the people you talk about here have in common is insatiable intellectual curiosity. It is incredibly inspiring. A word about Linsey Marr: I will never forget reading about the day she learned that finally, the CDC accepted what she and others had fought for so hard and so long. As I recall it, she was in her car. She pulled over and cried with relief that finally she and her stalwart compatriots had been heard. I will never stop being grateful to her for her persistence. On another, lighter note, I did enjoy your use, Dr. Topol, of a very specific technical term in the course of this interview: “Captain Obvious.” And indeed it was, if one could only open one’s mind to it. Thank you so much for all.
Thanks Susan! Linsey Marr amazes me, too. Perfect that Nature asked her to do the review of the book. I learned so much from it about "aerobiology."
Fantastic. I was following some of the folks you mentioned on Twitter early on Covid days and bought a CO2 meter to take to chorus when we started indoors again after getting vaxed. We still open windows in our rehearsal space as a result.
But what is the volume of a gallon of air?
Oh, and taking the CO2 meter on flights was eye opening, as you say.
Looking forward to reading this book. Curious what he has to say about fire events such as the lithium battery fires in Moss Landing, Monterey California and pvc fire plume in East Palestine Ohio. His focus here is on microbes rather than manufacturing waste particulates.
Thank you for the fascinating interview and for bringing this book to my attention. It is amazing that we keep rediscovering airborne transmission of pathogens and have to "reinvent the wheel" each time we are faced with a novel pathogen. A recent post by "A Higher Plane of Anesthesia," which was co-authored by Lisa Brosseau, an expert on respiratory protection and affiliated with CIDRAP, provides an example of two experiments, one published in 1959 and another one just published on April 1st, that provide further evidence for the airborne spread of pathogens (https://substack.com/home/post/p-160785508?source=queue). The 2025 paper by Roy et al can be found at https://academic.oup.com/ofid/advance-article/doi/10.1093/ofid/ofaf196/8102227?login=false. I look forward to reading the book.
Great interview, will be getting myself a copy of the book. I’m an infection control nurse in Australia where there are still Australian infection control guidelines that are yet to “get with the program” in terms of accepting airborne transmission of COVID and the use of airborne infection control precautions at all times. This is particularly notable in hospitals where transmission is still occurring in inpatient settings and in the aged care sector where outbreaks (including deaths) are ongoing during peaks of COVID in the community.
Thank you! Do you know how many of the researchers mentioned, that have this knowledge on airborne transmission, asymptomatic transmission, etc. - those who know that still about 100k people die yearly of airborne pathogens in the US alone - how many of these knowledgeable people wear a mask indoors and e.g. in crowds outdoors? It's great to hear and read about these things like the history of airborne transmission, but I always wonder about the much bigger impact it would have if the researchers would back up their knowledge with the appropriate accompanying action - a visible confirmation, applying what they know. Maybe this is actually very common, then it would be great to see these masked researchers more often. Maybe this is one reason why you have the podcast conversation online?