Episode Synopsis
She was one of the first Biologists IN THE WORLD to get the call when Covid-19 was discovered. In this podcast we discuss with Leading Computational Genetesist Dr Pardis Sabeti, how the Science world reacted to the virus, how politicians have fared, and what we all need to know if we’re to deal with outbreaks in the future.
A Teaser of What We Discovered in this Video..
“If I was a bio-terrorist, if I wanted to cause a lot of devastation, I’d now know how vulnerable all these countries are… I do believe somebody is designing something better (than Covid-19) and we need to be ready for that. “
– Dr Pardis Sabeti
Watch the Main Interview Video
About Dr Pardis Sabeti:
Dr. Pardis Sabeti is a ‘rock star’ Biologist of Harvard University, a TIME Person of the Year, and has been dubbed the ‘Ebola Detective’ following her work at the centre of the outbreak in Sierra Leone. She’s a computational genetesist and describes her work as ‘in the most basic terms, natural selection’ mapping the genome sequences of viruses to determine how they behave, and how to fight them. Dr Sabeti is on the board of the BROAD Institute of Harvard and MIT.
Connect with Dr Sabeti:
Show Notes:
3:30 – Dr Sabeti’s research into the genome evolution of human DNA, and it’s importance to science and pandemic response
5:00 – Information in the fight against deadly viruses, and our evolutionary ability to defend against them
6:55 – What Pardis and her team did when Covid-19 struck
15:45 – How epidemics in Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Senegal shaped the worlds ability to respond to Covid-19
20:35 – Using social media to control outbreaks
30:14 – The Power of Gamification
41:37 – What got Dr Sabeti in Time Magazine
48:15 – When Pardis first heard about COVID-19
52:00 – The origins of the virus
63:00 – Pandemics kill more than war, yet we spend more money on defence
69:00 – Things could get worse than COVID-19
76:44 – Vaccines
Further Resources:
- Dr Pardis Sabeti – TIME 100 Most Influencial People
- Harvard University Profile
- Outbreak Culture: The Ebola Crisis and the Next Epidemic – Dr Pardis Sabeti and Lara Salahi
- How we’ll fight the next deadly virus (TEDx)
- How eating Avocado can help your immune system fight viruses
- A virus detection network to stop the next pandemic with Christian Happi (TED Talk)
- Math Beat Disease? – Nat Geo Live
- Why Infectious Diseases Like COVID-19 Make Science Move So Fast
- Glossary of terms in Virology