Vincent Racaniello: Viruses and Vaccines | Lex Fridman Podcast #216

The following is a conversation with Vincent Racaniello, professor of microbiology and immunology at Columbia. Vincent is one of the best educators in biology and in general that I've ever had the pleasure of speaking with. I highly recommend you check out his This Week In Virology podcast and watch his introductory lectures on YouTube. In particular, the playlist I recommend is called Virology Lectures 2021. To support this podcast, please check out the sponsors in the description. As a side note, please allow me to say a few words about the COVID vaccines. Some people are scared of a virus hurting or killing somebody they love. Some are scared of their government betraying them, their leaders blinded by power and greed. I have both of these fears, and too, I'm afraid, as FDR said, of fear itself. Fear manifests as anger, and anger leads to division in the hands of charismatic leaders who then manufacture "truth," in quotes, that maximize controversy and a sense of imminent crisis that only they can save us from. And though I'm sometimes mocked for this, I still believe that love, compassion, empathy is the way out from this vicious downward spiral of division. I personally took the vaccine based on my understanding of the data, deciding that, for me, the risk of negative effects from COVID, short-term and long-term, are far worse than the negative effects from the mRNA vaccine. I read, I thought, I decided for me. But I never have and never will talk down to people who don't take the vaccine. I'm humble enough to know just how little I know, how wrong I have been and will be on many of my beliefs and ideas. I think dogmatic certainty and division is more destructive in the long term than any virus. The solution for me, personally, like I said, is to choose empathy and compassion towards all fellow human beings, no matter who they voted for. I hope you do the same. Read, think, and try to imagine that what you currently think is the truth may be totally wrong. This mindset is one that opens you to discovery, innovation, and wisdom. I hope my conversation with Vincent Racaniello is a useful resource for just this kind of exploration. He doesn't talk down to people, and he's the most knowledgeable virologist I've ever spoken to. He has no political agenda, no desire to mock those who disagree with him. He just loves biology and explaining the fundamental mechanisms of how biological systems work. That's a great person to listen to and learn from with an open mind. I hope you join me in doing so, and no matter what, try to put more love out there in the world. This is the Lex Fridman Podcast, and here is my conversation with Vincent Racaniello. You mentioned in one of your lectures in virology that there are more viruses in a liter of coastal seawater than people on Earth. In the Nature article titled Microbiology By Numbers, it says there are 10 to the 31 viruses on Earth. Also it says-