Part three of our COVID vaccine series covers how the vaccines got made in less than a year. Are we all going to be serving as guinea pigs? What role did the new technology play? How do we know they are safe in the short time frame? What does drug development have to do with betting on the Bucs to win next year’s Super Bowl? And how did an out-of-control virus help?

For part two of our COVID vaccine series, we cover how vaccines work and the history of how they were developed so we can put the new COVID vaccines into context. This helps us to understand why some safety concerns aren’t an issue with vaccines, and why some historical safety issues with vaccines don’t apply to the COVID vaccines. Bonus discussion: Who was the GOAT biologist? Robin makes the case for Louis Pasteur over Charles Darwin.

COVID vaccines offer a hope for the end of the pandemic, but a lot of people are concerned about their safety. There’s so much scary information out there, and not just from anti-vaxxers. How can anyone sort through this to make a decision on these vaccines? Robin (a scientist) shares his story about how he formed his opinion on the approved vaccines (excited to take them as soon as possible).

7 months after the viral documentary Plandemic, what lasting effects did it have? Although most of its assertions were false, there were some kernels of truth that made the explanations “feel true”. What were they and how can we put them in better context? We cover whether hospitals are exaggerating COVID-19 deaths, Hydroxychloroquine, whether the virus was created in a lab, whether wearing a mask does harm by blocking healing microbes, and more!

How did our understanding of science change this year? How did we each learn about COVID, masks, and social distancing, and how did that change over time? How was that different for scientists versus the rest of us? Is simple and clear messaging best or should we explain the nuances?