Announcer sunday night at 8 00 p. M. Host a discussion on the history of Infectious Disease research. Our professor joins us from hamilton, montana. He serves as the director at the lab. Can you give the viewers an overview of what your scientists do their at hamilton and what the labs role is . The division of Intramural Research of the National Institute of allergy and Infectious Diseases. Which means tony fauci is our boss. He comes out and visits us whenever he can. Usually about once every two years. The lab has been involved in what is called emerging Infectious Disease research for well over 100 years, tracing back to the early 20th century with the identification of Rocky Mountain spotted fever, an important techborn Infectious Disease tickborn Infectious Disease. The lab has focused on Infectious Diseases. In addition to working on the ones which we know about, folks have been looking to see what is the next big Infectious Disease coming down the pipe we can look at. I think that sort of preparedness has really served the scientific stature of rocky mount lab very well. We were able to jump on the coronavirus quickly. I should say that working on pandemics is not new for the scientific staff at rocky mount labs or the National Institute of allergy and Infectious Diseases in bethesda. Our lab was in the forefront on working online disease back in the night on lyme disease in the 1980s. A lot of work on prion diseases like chronic wasting disease and mad cow disease starting back in the 1950s. In about 2009, we opened up a facility here which contains one of the few biosafety level 4 laboratories in the united states. That is the kind of lab you would use when you have to work on Something Like ebola virus. Coronavirus isrs not rated quite as high as ebola virus, the scientists are very used working on what we would call high consequence viral pathogens. That onemake is point i like to make is the ability of our scientist to do that work on an extended basis with insured funding which has poised us so well to be able to make so many of the significant advances in the coronavirus pandemic so far. Host an article from the New York Times profiling the lab. Is the cure for covid in the Rocky Mountains . A rural lab with a 120year of fighting Infectious Diseases. When did it first come on your radar and what does that Research Look like today . How many people are there working on it today . Guest that is a terrific question. Many of the sciences here have International Colleagues because of working on other serious Infectious Diseases like the first stars that popped up in that popped sars up in about 2003. The middle east respiratory syndrome that showed up in 2013. Unsterwitt and dr. M were looking for new coronaviruses. I dont think it came as a surprise to anyone here or in h that another pandemic was on the horizon. I think some people might have put their money on a new influenza instead of a coronavirus. That re we heard about initially with reports around the very end of december 2019. Ter anditt and dr. Muns their colleagues could see it was a big deal. They presented an outline for Research Studies in the early part of january to dr. Steve holland, our immediate supervisor back in bethesda. As soon as they were able to get a sample of the virus from the centers for Disease Control and characterize that virus, confirming it was a coronavirus, they were all ready to start giving experiments. Several studies have come out of that which have had amazingly high prominence considering hamilton is a town of 5000 people. On threerch is focused or four different areas. One is the development of a reliable animal model for this infection. That is the cornerstone for the gateway for all the other subsequent work in therapeutics, diagnostics, and vaccine development, as well as understanding Infectious Diseases. The sciences here at rocky mount lab in a short time, largely informs because of the work they had done on the middle east respiratory syndrome coronavirus asablished nonhuman primates a reasonable model for the sars covid19 coronavirus, sars coronavirus type 2. It in some ways is it representing ways it represents what you see in people. Not every animal they get infected dies. They have a relatively moderate course of the disease. If you do the studies to look at the levels of virus in blood and other parts of the animal, as well as the response the immune response against the virus, it looks like it is a pretty good model. Defining atep was reliable animal model. Then using that, they were able to show remdesivir was the drug you are viewers have probably read about or heard about so much over the last couple of weeks or so. Did showed treating these nonhuman primates with that antiviral medication was able to immediately erase the course of the infection. That has been mirrored in Clinical Trials in people in several different locations around the world. That is very, very encouraging. Our investigators are also in collaborating with a number of groups around the to figure outg what is going to be the best and most useful vaccine platform to use against this virus. Vaccine, nzee oxford intox, that has gone Clinical Trials in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. That was developed by our scientist in collaboration with colleagues at the Jenner Institute at oxford university. That is the animal model right there. Another important part, which dr. Munster and his group focused on, was how long the virus lasts under various on various kind of services. The results in the laboratory are probably not exactly applicable to a realworld situation, but it seems that the virus is able to survive on certain kinds of inanimate objects, including crew ships, for a while cruise ships, for a while. This is something people need to be aware of. One of the most important contributions of the group has really been looking at the reusability of n95 respirators. These are devices which looked kind of like a surgical mask, but they are really not. They have a specific purpose and to function properly they have to be fit tested to the face of the person using them. You can go buy them in various stores. What they showed was there were a number of ways you could effectively decontaminate or disinfect these n95 respirators and reuse them. Usingst one seemed to be vaporized Hydrogen Peroxide. Using that method of disinfection of the masks they can be effectively reused through at least three cycles of disinfectant disinfection and maintain the purifying function of the filter and still maintain this is a very important feature still maintain the fit of the mask on a persons face. If the mask when we wear those masks to study infectious agents we have to be fit tested annually to make sure the mask seals to our face and it functions properly. Its important for people to understand these respirators are not just fancy bandanas. They are a specific device which was designed for a Single Person to use one time. Because of the unanticipated supply demands, it became important to come up with strategies to disinfect them and try to use them. The vaporized Hydrogen Peroxide system has been deployed by a company. Somethingcome up with about the size of a fedex truck. You can use that to disinfect in the neighborhood of about 80,000 of these respirators a day. That has been very helpful since those respirators and the other forms of personal protective equipment are absolutely key to protecting the Health Care Workers. In the coronavirus pandemic, just like in the abode of virus pandemic in west africa ebola virus pandemic in west africa, Health Care Workers get disproportionally impacted by these pandemic infections. Those are two of the main areas we focused on. There are others. You may want to move onto a different topic. Host we want to invite the callers to join us in this segment as we look inside one of the nih labs on the front lines of this pandemic fight. We are joined by dr. Marshall bloom of the Rocky Mountain laboratory. Joining us from hamilton, montana. If youre in the eastern or central time zones, it is 202 7488000. If you want to call in the mountain or pacific time zones, 202 7488001. , why hamilton, montana . Why not close to the nih headquarters in washington . Guest you know, that is historical. The first Infectious Disease that the ancestors of rocky mount labs worked on was rocky mount spotted fever. The first cases of that were identified in a location about three miles from where rocky mount labs sits today. After characterizing Rocky Mountain spotted fever and showing it was an Infectious Disease and it could be by dr. Tted by ticks howard ricketts, it would unfortunately died in 2010, but the entire class of bacteria is named for him. Orn Infectious Diseases continued here. In world war ii, all the yellow fever vaccine given to allied American Armed forces was produced here at rocky mount labs. After that our scientist worked on a variety of bacterial, viral and transmissible spongiform elf luckily diseases encephalopathy diseases. I cant take credit for any of this work but i take great pride in talking about it. We have one of the highest concentrations of investigators working on emerging Infectious Diseases anywhere in united states. People working on tularemia, bubonic plague, coronavirus. Another thing that is absolutely important for the viewers of the shows like yours to understand is these Infectious Diseases, they have not gone away. They are not on the front page but they have not gone away. A lot of our scientists are itching to get back to work, to get started on things like lyme disease. Another impact of this pandemic has been the vaccination rates in the country and around the world have dropped dramatically. We might be looking at a very big resurgence of Infectious Diseases like measles and whooping cough pertussis next year if kids are not getting the vaccine they are supposed to get. Rocky mount labs we had people working on pertussis here for a number of years. I think it is fair to say rocky mount labs has cemented itself as a focal point for research on emerging Infectious Diseases, whether it is viruses, bacteria or other more offbeat agents. Host about 10 minutes left in the segment and plenty of calls for you. We started your part of the country in eagle, idaho. Joel. Caller good morning. There is a book called spillover. He chronicles a Horst Koehler of disease in easton horse cholera disease back in 1994. What is the status of that virus . Could you tell me the mutation rate on these rna viruses . Guest the first part of your question is easy. I cant tell you anything about that virus, the horse virus. I know nothing about it. The second part of your question is really a very important one. The results of which the answer which is easy to misinterpret. Acid, dna of ne nucleic and rna, and there are viruses that are both dna viruses and rna viruses. The sequence of dna is very, very stable because of mechanisms that in science enzymes have to correct errors. Rna is more susceptible to mutation rate. Every are in a virus undergoes a mutation at a virusn every rna undergoes a mutation at a certain schedule. Sometimes those mutations can lead to a major change in the way a virus behaves. Other times they lead to changes, which although they might look important, really arent. In the case of the sars coronavirus sochanges, which aly might look far, the mutations that have been observed, and there have been mutations that have been observed, so far those mutations have not been demonstrated to have had any significant effect on how bad this virus infection is if people get it. That is an important one. I am not saying we might not find that to be true at some point in the future, but the Critical Research demonstrating that has not yet been accomplished. That is one point. The other interesting thing about the mutation, and this may be a longer answer than you are looking for, the other interesting thing about the mutation rate is because those mutations occur at a relatively predictable frequency of time, it is able to look at a collection of viruses like Trevor Bedford in seattle, and by going back say these viruses separated or diverged at this particular point in time. That is way more Technical Information then i can easily explain. I hope that answers your question. Host as michael points out in a tweet to us, 30 minutes is not enough time to scratch the surface on this topic. We will do our best. Andrea is up out of connecticut. Good morning. Caller hello, good morning. I have two very important questions. The first being, if you were to get the virus in february, would you show antibodies today . The second question is, if they do come up with a vaccine, im assuming its going to be bio instead of synthetic. What other diseases in those vaccines that you could possibly get like the heps, the hiv unfortunately . Should somebody be concerned about that . Guest let me answer your second question first. Mechanisme production as your readers may be aware, there is like a whole telephone book worth of potential vaccine candidates being examined. Applied by the food and Drug Administration, of which i am not a part, as well as the scientists and the Vaccine Companies can pretty much guarantee by using sophisticated molecular techniques of nucleic acid sequencing that any vaccine which makes it to the point where you or i might get it can be absolutely certain that there is no other Infectious Disease lurking in that vaccine preparation. Thatda requirements for are amazingly stringent. If the vaccine comes from what i think you described as biological sources, i would say the opportunity for there to be infection is other about as close to zero as you can imagine. The other point you raised in your second question was, is it going to be a synthetic vaccine derived from by biologically . Both vaccinepes, types are being tested. ,here is one called moderna which is actually not a virus at all. It is a piece of nucleic acid of which expresses just that single spike protein from the sars coronavirus type 2. The rna molecule is injected into the muscle. It tricks that muscle cell into synthesizing the viruss spike protein, thus creating a very effective immune response. That, the initial work on is very promising. The people that have received that type of vaccine have developed a very substantial antibody response. Although you have to remember although the Vaccine Production Program is being called warp speed, we still have to be extremely careful. Horace, one of his most famous quotes means to make haste slowly. That means you want to move with all deliberate speed but you need to be very careful as you do it so you dont create some unexpected side effect which was not anticipated. That is why and our country when the food and Drug Administration goes through approval of a vaccine there are three different phases. For the first part of your question briefly, i am almost 75 result. If i had gotten the coronavirus, im not sure i would be giving this interview. I think the evidence is mounting that people who do get infected with this virus mount and antibody response which can be detected by a variety of different methods. The methods available from looking for antibody responses, some of them are not yet very good. That is an area which is an active area of investigation. The feeling is yes, people who become infected with the virus develop antibodies. A really alarming aspect is that those serology tests that means looking for antibodies against different viruses a lot of those tests are identifying the fact that people antibodies to the virus who have never been sick with it. Those are called a symptomatic infections. That will be a big issue in the next few months, defining those a thematic infections. Thematicat a matictions asympto infections. A briefingll have before the spacex launch tomorrow which we are covering on cspan this weekend as part of our coverage of the launch. Until then, more questions with dr. Bloom. Dee in silver spring, maryland. Caller good morning. If you do get the covid, can you catch it again . You if you have antibodies have created against it . Is there certain levels of or doty that protects you you need a lot of antibodies or you can just get it again . I think you get my gist. Guest that is the 64 million question. Hink the answers to that there are a lot of people looking at that exact scientific question. Answer is in the on that yet. It will be extremely important, especially when we Start Talking about vaccine development. Major n one of the silver spring, maryland is about two miles from the National Institute of allergy and Infectious Diseases and the rest of the National Institutes of health is located. The scientist they are looking at that exact same question. Our animal models that have been developed will be used to examine that question. They will be used to examine the older,n of, if you are are you definitely going to get worse . If not, why . The animal models will look at what are called obesity and diabetes. There are going to be in the next probably three or four months effective small animal models like hamsters and certain kinds of fancy experimental mice that will allow scientists here and around the world to look at those questions. That is a terrific question. Maybe if john invites me back in six months we can talk about that. Host we would love to have you back sooner than that. In the couple of minutes we have left, how do you answer the question when people ask you when will there be a vaccine . If i knew thew, answer to that, you and i could probably go to a lottery somewhere and make a lot of money. Projectthe vaccine which has been mounted is called operation warp speed by the president. Our institute director, dr. Fauci, endorses that program. As areirly conservative, a number of the other vaccine experts around the world. Vaccineif we have a which has gone through the phase i, phase ii and phase three trials effectively, if we have that by the end of this year, i think that would be a wonderful know, we have to make haste slowly, and be careful. There have been several vaccines in the past, 50 or 60 years, which did not work as well as people had anticipated. So, we have to temper and there have been a number of articles in the public press as well as scientific literature talking about how we have to temper our expectations being as effective as we all hope it will be. The worst thing that could happen would be a vaccine that did not perform as well as we had hoped. Back i do mean it, come and chat with our viewers again. Associate director for Scientific Management at the Rocky Mountain laboratories. We appreciate your time this watch live on cspan, online at cspan. Org or listen on the free cspan radio app. Administrator James Bridenstine held a briefing before the second lot attempt of spacexs crew dragon. Changes ofbout the the loss taken place due to weather. Good