A: Thank you for this GREAT question from an awesome 6-year old follower. A vaccine takes a dead or very weak virus and introduces it to the body to trick your immune system into building an immune response that protects you. Viruses have antigens that work sort of like a name tag. When your body …
A: Not very. In the words of immunologist Dr. Akiko Iwasaki, “This is no cause for alarm – this is a textbook example of how immunity should work.” What do we know? In a press release yesterday, researchers described the first confirmed case of re-infection in a 33-year old Hong Kong man returning from Spain. …
A: Thank you for this great question from a follower. The immune system gets stronger by learning to differentiate between friendly microbes and unfriendly microbes. Friendly microbes are present in our daily environment in the dirt and in our homes. Bad microbes include viruses such as the common cold that can make us very sick. …
In the run up to flu season, a great summary of differences between flu and COVID-19. Don’t forget to get your flu shot!! Your local epidemiologist is sharing a COVID-19 Update. August 19 at 8:12 PM · Flu season is around the corner. This, combined with COVID19, will have an impact on the health our …
A: NOPE In a news story picked up by many media outlets yesterday, headlines regarding the duration of immunity were inferred from recent CDC guidance on quarantine. The relevant sentence from the CDC was: “People who have tested positive for COVID-19 do not need to quarantine or get tested again for up to 3 months …
A: While we can’t say it is *impossible,* current scientific consensus is that re-infection is *unlikely.* There are various stories from doctors and patients alike making the rounds about individuals testing positive for COVID-19, perhaps having a mild case and recovering, and then a couple of months later falling ill and testing positive for COVID-19 …
Hi Awesome Nerds! As a “booster” to our recent post on vaccine developments, we want to share with you all an amazing 8-minute video on “Immunology 101” made by Prof. Akiko Iwasaki, Professor of Immunobiology at Yale School of Medicine. Watch with your kids, it’s very accessible and the visualizations are great!! Link to original …
A: It’s complicated…. but YES! As a demographer and epidemiologist, mortality rates are in my wheelhouse so to speak, but getting a handle on COVID-19 has challenged us all. First some definitions: Case Fatality Rate (CFR): % of confirmed cases who die. In the U.S., the estimated CFR is currently 4.33% In the U.K., the …
A: YES, and NOT NECESSARILY. There is evidence of a genetic change in the virus’ spike protein, with the new variant (G614) becoming dominant in Europe and the U.S. These types of small genetic changes are not unusual, and there are a couple of main reasons why a new variant could become dominant: 1) Natural …
A: NO and NO! It’s been a while since we touched on herd immunity, so first some quick review. If we think of SARS-CoV-2 infections as sparks, uninfected people are the fuel. The very basic idea of herd immunity is that individuals who are already immune–either through previous infection or a vaccine–act as a “firewall” …
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