August 6, 2025 • 8 mins
Our Australian correspondent talks about a breakthrough mRNA vaccine for FMD, Trump’s tariffs, a call for the appointment of a “Chief Farmer” and why he reckons the Wallabies will win the Bledisloe Cup.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
He's a guy across the Tasman. Chris russ All, AUSSI
correspondent based out of Sydney. We're going to talk about
Trump's tariffs and a tech All the t's in a
row there, Chris. But an Australian breakthrough around a vaccine
for foot and mouth disease. Tell me about that.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Yeah, this is an amazing technology change. Of course, everyone's
heard of mRNA vaccines now. The difference between an mRNA
vaccine an ordinary vaccine. Of course, the way viruses operate
is they don't just divide their cells like a bacterial
infection does, where just splits a cell in half and
(00:36):
makes two cells and that makes four and so on.
A virus injects with little skewers, injects it's DNA into
a host cell and makes that host cell produce more
virus cells. So it's like a parasite really, And one
of the ways it does that is using this messenger RNA.
Now everyone's heard of DNA. All. mRNAs is like a template,
(01:00):
a bit like a shape if you like, you might
use in woodwork or something, so you could copy up
shape to another shape. Well, mRNA is exactly the same.
It transfers the template or the design of the DNA
of that particular virus in this case, or any cell,
so that another cell could copy. So that's how you
do it, and it makes the cell the same so
(01:21):
by disrupting that mRNA, and you only do it for
one little part of the virus. In the case of COVID,
it was the horns that stick out of the side,
which are their sort of hypodermic needles where they inject
the DNA into the other cell. Well, they found that
those horns were made of a particular protein, so they
are able to change the mRNA which caused the host
(01:42):
cells to make that protein so that it made faulty
protein so that the little horns didn't work, or it
was like an impotent virus. Really it could try sticking
his little horn into the whole cell, but didn't work.
And that's the way they are able to interrupt the
infection process. And that same technology is now how available
for use with all sorts of other viruses. And the
(02:03):
most significant for us in terms of bio security is
foot in mouth disease. Now that we don't allow in
vaccination against foot in mouth disease here because of the fact,
once you've vaccinated an animal with an attenuated live vaccine
or live virus of foot and mouth disease, you can't
if you test that animal, you don't know whether it's
(02:24):
actually got the disease or it's just been immunized against
the disease. And so when you actually vaccinate an animal
with this new mRNA virus, you actually can tell later
on when you test it that the animal hasn't got
foot in mouth, it's only been vaccinated. And that makes
that particular type of immunization a will be done in
(02:46):
Australia and that is a world break through. Now. It
was developed here in Australia the Elizabeth mccarthury Institute here
in Sydney. They weren't allowed to test it here because
we don't allow the import of FMD viruses under any circumstances.
So it's hat to send it to Germany. And I
was talking to one of the scientists who was involved
in arranging all that they've done the tests in Germany.
It's amazingly successful and that is definitely going to be
(03:09):
a breakthrough for us in assuring that we don't lose
eighty billion dollars worth of business if we ever get
FMD into Australia.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Jamie, Yeah, Waller would give us some peace of mind
as well. Mind you, the Americans Trump and his anti
vax us health boss RFK Junior aren't having a bar
of this. They've announced a crackdown on mRNA vaccine technology.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Yeah, well, I'm afraid I think that Kennedy Jr. Is
a nutjob. You know, when you look at what the
mRNA vaccines saved in terms of human life during COVID,
the cure was definitely nowhere near as risky as the disease.
But of course one of the concerns of these people
(03:53):
is how quickly they introduced these vaccines. But you know,
having spoken to one of the involved people involved in
developing that vaccine in England was doctor Alexander Spencer, and
I went to a talk by her the other day.
She was saying that they were actually working on the
concept trials, the actual trials, and the big trials at
(04:14):
the same time, in addition to the fact they were
already building the factory before the trials have finished. That's
how urgent the world was to get this vaccine out.
Now that's disturb people saying, oh, we didn't do enough research.
We didn't do enough trial work. I think it's probably
the most studied technology now in the world. When you
look at the millions and millions of people that have
been vaccinated, I don't think there's very few any of
(04:37):
anything medicines or vaccines that have seen as much use
and therefore have data on them as mRNA vaccine. So
I think people do understand the risk with them. I
think that the risk is, as I say, is far
less than the diseases they save. And to be honest, Jamie,
I'm afraid I just think this guy's a nutjob and
(04:57):
a dangerous nut job because he has the the ear
of the US government.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Yeah, okay, well, let's go from RFK Junior to the Boss,
the Trumpster. You guys dodged a bit of a bullet.
You stayed at ten percent. We obviously went to fifteen.
And I think this is all off the back of
the fact that you guys run a trade deficit with
the US, so you're seen as a better customer than US.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Well, I think there's a few things. I think there's
also we have in the middle of Australia a place
called Pine Gap, which provides most of the satellite communication
with their World Defense Forces. We have Northwest Cape which
is involved with communicating with most of their submarines. Yes,
we actually buy more stuff from America than we sell
(05:41):
to them, and that's one of the few countries that
does that, and we also have orchards, so I think
there's a lot of pressures in there. But having said that,
you know, Trump is a populace without any doubt, so
he's been talking big. And when he said they weren't
allowed to bring their beef into Australia, that hasn't That
wasn't even true. But in fact we've relaxed that because
(06:02):
we're not so worried about mad cow disease anymore. So
that's been relaxed for him.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Now there is a call for the appointment of a
chief farmer to advise government alongside the Chief scientist. Not
a bad idea.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
A chief scientist. For a long time in Australia about
nineteen eighty nine that concept was introduced and he sits
there or she in the case of Professor Megan Clark,
was one that I was particularly familiar with, and they
sit there as an advisor of the government on scientific matters.
A great idea well, now they're thinking that the break
(06:37):
between the actual farmer in the field and the government
is too big because we're such an urbanized country, and
so there's been a call from the farmers to create
a position of Chief Farmer who can actually bring the
urban based governments when particularly the labor government, which don't
have a component from like the Coalition does with the
(06:59):
National Country part closer to the needs and wishes and
desires of the farmer. Now, in many ways it's a
token thing, because of course they've got lots of advisors,
but I think the concept of making the farmers feel
like they're or listen to is probably one that they
might be useful. I don't think it's probably going to
(07:20):
happen in the near future, but nonetheless I thought the
concept was good and certainly the farmers are agitating for it.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Okay, let's just finish on the footy. Since we last chan,
did you had the final lines test? I've got to
say it's gome on for the Bledisloe Cup. If the
Aussies bring that sort of heat to the Bleederslow.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Well, it's been a great training run for the Bleederslow
Jovi for sure, and Joe Schmidt. Everyone's patting him on
the back. He's done a fantastic job. I mean, in
our kind of egotistical way, we're really saying we really
won that series. I think the lines deserve to win
the series. They're a fantastic side. Having said that, we
were definitely robbed of that second test, and if the
(07:57):
rules had been followed and that try hadn't been award,
we would have won that and then won this one
and we would have won the series. So it was
a fantastic result for Australia. That last game was a
terrific game. We played really well. There's some really good players,
as you know. One of my players I've been following
very closely is Tom Liiner. I think he's had a
fantastic series. And so you know, it is game on
(08:20):
for let us they cup and I think my bottle
of wine is definitely going to be sitting upside alongside
yours up there waiting to see who's going to take
that prize.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
All the best for a bonus point, Chris Russell, thanks
for your time, No worries,
He's a guy across the Tasman. Chris russ All, AUSSI
correspondent based out of Sydney. We're going to talk about
Trump's tariffs and a tech All the t's in a
row there, Chris. But an Australian breakthrough around a vaccine
for foot and mouth disease. Tell me about that.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Yeah, this is an amazing technology change. Of course, everyone's
heard of mRNA vaccines now. The difference between an mRNA
vaccine an ordinary vaccine. Of course, the way viruses operate
is they don't just divide their cells like a bacterial
infection does, where just splits a cell in half and
(00:36):
makes two cells and that makes four and so on.
A virus injects with little skewers, injects it's DNA into
a host cell and makes that host cell produce more
virus cells. So it's like a parasite really, And one
of the ways it does that is using this messenger RNA.
Now everyone's heard of DNA. All. mRNAs is like a template,
(01:00):
a bit like a shape if you like, you might
use in woodwork or something, so you could copy up
shape to another shape. Well, mRNA is exactly the same.
It transfers the template or the design of the DNA
of that particular virus in this case, or any cell,
so that another cell could copy. So that's how you
do it, and it makes the cell the same so
(01:21):
by disrupting that mRNA, and you only do it for
one little part of the virus. In the case of COVID,
it was the horns that stick out of the side,
which are their sort of hypodermic needles where they inject
the DNA into the other cell. Well, they found that
those horns were made of a particular protein, so they
are able to change the mRNA which caused the host
(01:42):
cells to make that protein so that it made faulty
protein so that the little horns didn't work, or it
was like an impotent virus. Really it could try sticking
his little horn into the whole cell, but didn't work.
And that's the way they are able to interrupt the
infection process. And that same technology is now how available
for use with all sorts of other viruses. And the
(02:03):
most significant for us in terms of bio security is
foot in mouth disease. Now that we don't allow in
vaccination against foot in mouth disease here because of the fact,
once you've vaccinated an animal with an attenuated live vaccine
or live virus of foot and mouth disease, you can't
if you test that animal, you don't know whether it's
(02:24):
actually got the disease or it's just been immunized against
the disease. And so when you actually vaccinate an animal
with this new mRNA virus, you actually can tell later
on when you test it that the animal hasn't got
foot in mouth, it's only been vaccinated. And that makes
that particular type of immunization a will be done in
(02:46):
Australia and that is a world break through. Now. It
was developed here in Australia the Elizabeth mccarthury Institute here
in Sydney. They weren't allowed to test it here because
we don't allow the import of FMD viruses under any circumstances.
So it's hat to send it to Germany. And I
was talking to one of the scientists who was involved
in arranging all that they've done the tests in Germany.
It's amazingly successful and that is definitely going to be
(03:09):
a breakthrough for us in assuring that we don't lose
eighty billion dollars worth of business if we ever get
FMD into Australia.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Jamie, Yeah, Waller would give us some peace of mind
as well. Mind you, the Americans Trump and his anti
vax us health boss RFK Junior aren't having a bar
of this. They've announced a crackdown on mRNA vaccine technology.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Yeah, well, I'm afraid I think that Kennedy Jr. Is
a nutjob. You know, when you look at what the
mRNA vaccines saved in terms of human life during COVID,
the cure was definitely nowhere near as risky as the disease.
But of course one of the concerns of these people
(03:53):
is how quickly they introduced these vaccines. But you know,
having spoken to one of the involved people involved in
developing that vaccine in England was doctor Alexander Spencer, and
I went to a talk by her the other day.
She was saying that they were actually working on the
concept trials, the actual trials, and the big trials at
(04:14):
the same time, in addition to the fact they were
already building the factory before the trials have finished. That's
how urgent the world was to get this vaccine out.
Now that's disturb people saying, oh, we didn't do enough research.
We didn't do enough trial work. I think it's probably
the most studied technology now in the world. When you
look at the millions and millions of people that have
been vaccinated, I don't think there's very few any of
(04:37):
anything medicines or vaccines that have seen as much use
and therefore have data on them as mRNA vaccine. So
I think people do understand the risk with them. I
think that the risk is, as I say, is far
less than the diseases they save. And to be honest, Jamie,
I'm afraid I just think this guy's a nutjob and
(04:57):
a dangerous nut job because he has the the ear
of the US government.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Yeah, okay, well, let's go from RFK Junior to the Boss,
the Trumpster. You guys dodged a bit of a bullet.
You stayed at ten percent. We obviously went to fifteen.
And I think this is all off the back of
the fact that you guys run a trade deficit with
the US, so you're seen as a better customer than US.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Well, I think there's a few things. I think there's
also we have in the middle of Australia a place
called Pine Gap, which provides most of the satellite communication
with their World Defense Forces. We have Northwest Cape which
is involved with communicating with most of their submarines. Yes,
we actually buy more stuff from America than we sell
(05:41):
to them, and that's one of the few countries that
does that, and we also have orchards, so I think
there's a lot of pressures in there. But having said that,
you know, Trump is a populace without any doubt, so
he's been talking big. And when he said they weren't
allowed to bring their beef into Australia, that hasn't That
wasn't even true. But in fact we've relaxed that because
(06:02):
we're not so worried about mad cow disease anymore. So
that's been relaxed for him.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Now there is a call for the appointment of a
chief farmer to advise government alongside the Chief scientist. Not
a bad idea.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
A chief scientist. For a long time in Australia about
nineteen eighty nine that concept was introduced and he sits
there or she in the case of Professor Megan Clark,
was one that I was particularly familiar with, and they
sit there as an advisor of the government on scientific matters.
A great idea well, now they're thinking that the break
(06:37):
between the actual farmer in the field and the government
is too big because we're such an urbanized country, and
so there's been a call from the farmers to create
a position of Chief Farmer who can actually bring the
urban based governments when particularly the labor government, which don't
have a component from like the Coalition does with the
(06:59):
National Country part closer to the needs and wishes and
desires of the farmer. Now, in many ways it's a
token thing, because of course they've got lots of advisors,
but I think the concept of making the farmers feel
like they're or listen to is probably one that they
might be useful. I don't think it's probably going to
(07:20):
happen in the near future, but nonetheless I thought the
concept was good and certainly the farmers are agitating for it.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Okay, let's just finish on the footy. Since we last chan,
did you had the final lines test? I've got to
say it's gome on for the Bledisloe Cup. If the
Aussies bring that sort of heat to the Bleederslow.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Well, it's been a great training run for the Bleederslow
Jovi for sure, and Joe Schmidt. Everyone's patting him on
the back. He's done a fantastic job. I mean, in
our kind of egotistical way, we're really saying we really
won that series. I think the lines deserve to win
the series. They're a fantastic side. Having said that, we
were definitely robbed of that second test, and if the
(07:57):
rules had been followed and that try hadn't been award,
we would have won that and then won this one
and we would have won the series. So it was
a fantastic result for Australia. That last game was a
terrific game. We played really well. There's some really good players,
as you know. One of my players I've been following
very closely is Tom Liiner. I think he's had a
fantastic series. And so you know, it is game on
(08:20):
for let us they cup and I think my bottle
of wine is definitely going to be sitting upside alongside
yours up there waiting to see who's going to take
that prize.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
All the best for a bonus point, Chris Russell, thanks
for your time, No worries,
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.