1. Welcome to The Vax Files - Series Introduction

The Vax Files

In this introductory episode, Surani speaks to Kent Collier, the independent sponsor of the podcast, about what this series hopes to achieve. This episode sets us up with some foundations on vaccine development, and where we are right now with the current vaccine approaches for Covid-19. We'll also get an understanding from experts on where Covid-19 sits in comparison to SARS in 2003 and the seasonal flu. Experts finally discuss their initial outlook for the future.

Expert Guests:

-- Dr Michael Kurilla is the Director of the Division of Clinical Innovation at the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, US National Institute of Health. He has been a member of the advisory committee for vaccines and related biologics since 2018.

-- Dr Nikolai Petrovsky is a Professor of Medicine, Flinders University in Australia and vice-president and secretary general of the International Immunomics Society. He is the founder of vaccine biotech Vaccine, which has a protein based candidate in early development for Covid-19.

-- Dr Gregory Gray is a Professor at Duke University and infectious disease epidemiologist with three affiliations: Duke Global Health Institute, Division of Infectious Diseases, and Duke Nicholas School of Environment. He was on the FDA advisory committee for vaccines and related biologics between 2010-2013.