Siddhartha Mukherjee reviews Life’s Edge in the New York Times Book Review

Posted on by Carl Zimmer

It’s very gratifying to read a review from someone who not only enjoyed the book but gets the ideas that propelled me through the writing of it. Here’s Siddhartha Mukherjee, author of Emperor of All Maladies and The Gene, writing about Life’s Edge for the New York Times Book Review:

“Zimmer is an astute, engaging writer — inserting the atmospheric anecdote where applicable, drawing out a scientific story and bringing laboratory experiments to life. This book is not just about life, but about discovery itself. It is about error and hubris, but also about wonder and the reach of science. And it is bookended with the ultimate question: How do we define the thing that defines us?”

You can read the whole review here. If it inspires you to get the book, here are a host of options.

What Do Vaccine Efficacy Numbers Actually Mean?

Posted on by Carl Zimmer

The New York Times, March 3, 2021 (with Keith Collins)

This week, Johnson & Johnson began delivering millions of doses of its coronavirus vaccine across the United States after receiving an emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration. Central to getting the green light was a trial that Johnson & Johnson ran to measure the vaccine’s efficacy.

Efficacy is a crucial concept in vaccine trials, but it’s also a tricky one. If a vaccine has an efficacy of, say, 95 percent, that doesn’t mean that 5 percent of people who receive that vaccine will get Covid-19. And just because one vaccine ends up with a higher efficacy estimate than another in trials doesn’t necessarily mean it’s superior. Here’s why.

Read the full article here.

Virus Variant in Brazil Infected Many Who Had Already Recovered From Covid-19

Posted on by Carl Zimmer

The New York Times, March 1, 2021

Link

In just a matter of weeks, two variants of the coronavirus have become so familiar that you can hear their inscrutable alphanumeric names regularly uttered on television news.

B.1.1.7, first identified in Britain, has demonstrated the power to spread far and fast. In South Africa, a mutant called B.1.351 can dodge human antibodies, blunting the effectiveness of some vaccines.

Scientists have also had their eye on a third concerning variant that arose in Brazil, called P.1. Research had been slower on P.1 since its discovery in late December, leaving scientists unsure of just how much to worry about it.

“I’ve been holding my breath,” said Bronwyn MacInnis, an epidemiologist at the Broad Institute.

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