Infectious Dose

Infectious dose is the shot of science you need to protect yourself from misinformation. Heather McSharry, PhD, an expert in viral pathogenesis, brings her blog to the airwaves to help bridge the dangerous gap between the science of infectious diseases and public misperception. On the podcast website, infectiousdose.com, all episodes have corresponding blog posts with the information contained in the episode along with links or PDFs for all sources used. To prevent unwelcome surprises, episodes with limited, mild profanity are marked as explicit. *Podcast intro and outro music are adapted from Heather Nova’s song, I Miss My Sky. Used with permission.

Last refreshed: May 22nd, 2026 at 5:47 PM ⓘ

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Episodes

Episode 4: Andrew Wakefield and the System That Failed

This episode was updated in March 2026 to include analysis of the institutional failures that allowed one fraudulent paper to reshape global vaccine trust — because individual villainy alone doesn't explain how this much damage was done, or how to prevent it from happening again. In this vaccine safety episode, Heather describes how Andrew Wakefield's fraudulent science cost the world the elimination of measles and hurt children. With evidence to back it up, she goes into detail on what he did a...

Apr 09, 2025•31 min•Season 1Ep. 4

Episode 3: Vaccine Safety 3- Vaccines do NOT Cause Autism

This episode was updated in March 2026 to include analysis of why the vaccine-autism myth felt believable to so many parents, how failures in science communication allowed it to persist long after the evidence was clear, and what it would actually take for the conspiracy to be real. Do vaccines cause autism? In this episode, Heather examines one of the most persistent and emotionally charged claims about vaccines. She walks through where the idea came from, how it spread, and what decades of res...

Apr 09, 2025•25 min•Season 1Ep. 3

Episode 5: The Monster That is Measles

Heather delivers the scoop on the disease caused by measles, including symptoms, transmission, prevention, treatment, what's in the very safe vaccines, and dangerous complications and long-term health problems of natural infection. Marked explicit for possible limited, mild profanity.

Apr 09, 2025•36 min•Season 1Ep. 5

Episode 2: Vaccine Safety 2: Other COVID-19 Vaccine Platforms

This is the original Pathogen Perspectives episode rebranded for Infectious Dose, originally published in 2020. Heather provides an in-depth discussion on the COVID-19 vaccine platforms other than mRNA, that were in clinical trials around the world. These include self-replicating mRNA, DNA, Protein-based, Attenuated virus, Inactivated virus, Repurposed vaccines, and virus vector vaccines. Heather discusses what each platform is and their pros and cons.

Apr 07, 2025•38 min•Season 1Ep. 2

Episode 1: Vaccine Safety 1: mRNA COVID Vaccines Explained

This episode was originally published in 2021 and was updated in March 2026 in two ways: safety (overall plus in pregnancy and kids) and immunity duration sections reflect five years of real-world data, and systems-level analytical segments have been added on why the most common mRNA conspiracy theories are biologically impossible, how the system failed us, and how to do better going forward. Updated text is in green in the corresponding blog post. This is the original episode published in 2021,...

Apr 07, 2025•34 min•Season 1Ep. 1

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