We noted you are experiencing viewing problems
-
Check with your IT department that JWPlatform, JWPlayer and Amazon AWS & CloudFront are not being blocked by your network. The relevant domains are *.jwplatform.com, *.jwpsrv.com, *.jwpcdn.com, jwpltx.com, jwpsrv.a.ssl.fastly.net, *.amazonaws.com and *.cloudfront.net. The relevant ports are 80 and 443.
-
Check the following talk links to see which ones work correctly:
Auto Mode
HTTP Progressive Download Send us your results from the above test links at access@hstalks.com and we will contact you with further advice on troubleshooting your viewing problems. -
No luck yet? More tips for troubleshooting viewing issues
-
Contact HST Support access@hstalks.com
-
Please review our troubleshooting guide for tips and advice on resolving your viewing problems.
-
For additional help, please don't hesitate to contact HST support access@hstalks.com
We hope you have enjoyed this free, full length talk
Topics Covered
- Status and efficiency of SARS-CoV-2 genetic surveillance in the USA
- The identification of a ‘Californian’ variant, Epsilon, following a surge in Covid-19 cases in California in early 2021
- The genetic characteristics of the Epsilon variant and the phenotypic advantages they provide
- The more recent identification of a separate variant from India, the Delta variant: key characteristics and their implications
Biography
Professor Eric Vail received his MD from St. George’s University SOM after which he completed AP/CP Residency at New York Medical College and an MGP Fellowship at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. He is currently the Director of Molecular Pathology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. His laboratory offers a wide array of molecular tests, focusing primarily on clinical tumor sequencing and COVID testing. Current research interests focus on the application of genomic findings in clinical oncology. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, his team has also utilized viral whole-genome sequencing to investigate SARS-CoV-2 genomics, transmission patterns and variants.
Links
Series:
Categories:
Therapeutic Areas:
Talk Citation
Vail, E. (2021, June 18). SARS-CoV-2 evolution: emergence of the ‘Californian’ and ‘Indian’ variants [Audio file]. In The Biomedical & Life Sciences Collection, Henry Stewart Talks. Retrieved December 11, 2023, from https://hstalks.com/bs/4683/.Export Citation (RIS)
Publication History
Financial Disclosures
- Prof. Eric Vail has not informed HSTalks of any commercial/financial relationship that it is appropriate to disclose.
Audio Interview
SARS-CoV-2 evolution: emergence of the ‘Californian’ and ‘Indian’ variants
Published on June 18, 2021
14 min
Other Talks in the Playlist: Interviews on Covid-19
Transcript
Please wait while the transcript is being prepared...
0:00
Interviewer: Professor Eric Vail, thank you very much for
taking the time to do this interview with us today, to discuss
the emergence of new viral phenotypes, of
the new Californian and Indian SARS-CoV-2 variants in particular.
First of all, what is the status of SARS-CoV-2 genetic surveillance in the USA today,
as well as more specifically in California?
Prof. Vail: Significantly better than it used to be.
You can look back towards the beginning of this year or even before that,
and we're talking about a couple of thousand sequences a week.
Now, especially during the end of May, you're having 10 to 15 times that number,
30/40/50 thousand sequences a week.
I think that there has been a significant ramp up, and
a significant effort to try to really track as much of this virus as possible.
New variant detection needs about five percent of all cases being sequenced.
We were under one percent for a long time, and we're really starting to get to that critical threshold,
especially to where the UK was for quite a long time,
considering that they were over five percent even back in October,
they really had a robust sequencing effort.
Interviewer: What initially prompted you to conduct such extensive screening, of
SARS-CoV-2 viral genomes found in California specifically?
Prof. Vail: We have two different studies that we did, one in the very early days of the pandemic, about March/April of 2020.
Hide