Dr. Aartik Sarma (UCSF) on Stripe’s $500M bet to cure the common cold

Aartik Sarma, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine at UCSF, joins Christina Farr for a short special edition on Intercept, a new $500 million initiative from a coalition of tech companies including Stripe, OpenAI, and Anthropic aimed at finally cracking the common cold and flu. They dig into why a "cold" is actually a huge, constantly mutating spectrum of viruses rather than one thing, why existing treatments like Tamiflu barely move the needle, and where Sarma thinks the money should go, from indoor air filtration to nasal sprays to longer-term vaccine research targeting the parts of viruses that don't mutate as often.—SPONSOR: Baker Health🩺 This episode is brought to you by Baker Health. Evidence-based medicine and real holistic care, under one roof, with labs, results, and 24/7 live doctor chat all in one app.Download the Baker Health App: https://linktr.ee/baker_health Learn More: https://www.bakerhealth.com/  The only practice in NY & NJ where you can text your doctor directly and get same-day reservations.Make a Reservation: https://reservations.bakerhealth.com/medical?utm_source=lifers —LINKS: Intercept: https://www.interceptfund.com/  Chrissy Farr on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LiferswithChristinaFarr Subscribe to the Second Opinion Newsletter: https://secondopinion.media/ Chrissy’s Book: The Storyteller's Advantage: https://www.chrissyfarr.com/books —FOLLOW:Aartik:https://www.linkedin.com/in/aartiksarma https://x.com/AartikSarma  Chrissy:https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinafarr/ https://x.com/chrissyfarr https://www.instagram.com/cfarr/  Second Opinion Media:https://www.instagram.com/second.opinion.media/ https://x.com/second_op_media —TIMESTAMPS:(00:00) Intro(00:46) Why companies care(02:20) Post-COVID work culture(04:39) Why colds persist(06:56) Who gets hit hard(08:42) Intercepting transmission(12:16) Sponsor: Baker Health(13:32) Better diagnostics(16:30) Vaccines tradeoffs(18:44) Is it worth 500M(21:03) Wrap