The benefit of the measles vaccine is clear—widespread vaccination is credited with saving an estimated 21.1 million lives between 2000 and 2017, and an 80% reduction in measles cases worldwide. The vaccine may help protect against more than just the measles, however. Two studies published this week in the journals Science and Science Immunology found that people infected with the measles can develop an immune system ‘amnesia,’ losing antibodies to other pathogens. In one study, researchers found that as much as 73% of the immune antibody repertoire was wiped out in people who had been infected with the measles, even two months after the people stopped showing measles symptoms.
Science writer Eleanor Cummins joins Ira to talk about that research, and other stories from the week in science, including an experimental vaccine for tuberculosis, the limits of genetic investigations into human origins, and the strange science behind exhumation.