Jacob Trefethen

This decade brought two inventions that will prevent a million deaths in America. One came from a German company who partnered with Pfizer to make Comirnaty available nine months into the COVID pandemic, becoming the most used vaccine in the U.S. at its peak (vs Moderna’s and J&

The most striking fact about philanthropy to me is how little money rich people give away. It is well known that we all die, and that leaving overwhelming wealth to your children can make their lives worse not better, so the alternatives don't seem that hard for philanthropy

CDC 6. Start convening ACIP Work Groups on diseases/infections that have no vaccines, many years ahead of there being particular candidates to assess. Publish the rough parameters under which ACIP would expect to recommend a vaccine rollout. [This whole post is personal, not written as part of my job.

Tom Kalil responded to my first blog post on 10 technologies that won’t exist in 5 years, asking: OK, how do we make them happen? Ashish Jha responded saying we as a society can decide to make new lifesaving technologies, and it’s a policy choice: True We CAN

I last got strep throat the first month out of lockdown. I had been indoors, in public, and was being punished. It was cruel and unusual to check me just when we were allowed to enter the world again. I went to my doctor with three negative COVID tests to

Scientific conferences are great even if you’re an outsider to the field. That's common advice for students, and there are useful guides written on how to get the most out of conferences you're new to. But I suspect people at all career stages could benefit

I hang out in one particular corner of the world that talks about how to fund science, manage research, and build new research institutions. There are different intellectual tendrils that draw people into this happy muddle, but the shared interest once you get here is in scientific and technological progress

Last week, a biotech company announced they were getting paid $103 million for inventing a vaccine. Chikungunya is spread by mosquitoes. Some people say it makes your joints feel like they’re on fire, but other people report it’s only like being stabbed repeatedly with needles. For now the

The 10 technologies are a TB vaccine, strep A vaccine, malaria mAb, bug to stop malaria, hep C vaccine, stroke drug, hep B cure, multipurpose diagnostic test, platform for programmable pandemic drugs, and a syphilis vaccine. The fine print: 1. 5 years from now means February 2nd, 2029. 2. “Available”