A weekly update on new research and developments concerning COVID-19 (and occasionally other infectious diseases that hit the news).
We take questions via call-in during the live broadcast, Mondays at 7:33am Pacific, streaming via kpfa.org. Podcasts with show notes go up later the same day. Between live shows, we take questions via email at upfront@kpfa.org .
Our guest most weeks is Dr. John Swartzberg, clinical professor emeritus of infectious diseases at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health. Our question-wrangler most weeks is Brian Edwards-Tiekert, host of KPFA’s morning public affairs program, UpFront.
Music: Now Son by Podington Bear, licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License.
Brian was off camping this week. Philip Maldari sat in as host. Discussed in this episode: A key FDA committee has advanced plans for a fall booster drive using a monovalent vaccine targeting the Omicron XBB.1.5 subvariant. Why the US COVID death rate looks so much higher than the rest of the world’s (some of the … Continued
Discussed in this episode: A randomized controlled trial shows the cheap, widely-available diabetes drug Metformin significantly reduces (by 41%) the likelihood of long covid in unvaccinated people who get infected: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(23)00299-2/fulltext (Vaccinated and boosted people still did considerably better than unvaccinated people who received Metformin. Vaccinated people didn’t receive enough added benefit from Metformin to … Continued
Discussed in this episode: What it means when “cryptic lineages” turn up in wastewater samples, like here The CDC’s latest survey of blood donor samples shows 96.4% have antibodies from COVID, vaccination, or both. Podcast music credit: Now Son by Podington Bear, licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License.
Discussed in this episode: New York Times reporting on a COVID wave(let) in China New work trying to refine symptom clusters that can be used to define Long Covid for the purpose of studying it, and to discern sub-types: Thaweethai T, Jolley SE, Karlson EW, et al. Development of a Definition of Postacute Sequelae of … Continued
The CDC is warning that a new cluster of cases of Mpox (formerly known as Monkeypox) in Chicago may foretell a wider outbreak; some local public health authorities are starting a new vaccination push ahead of Pride Month activities. Podcast music credit: Now Son by Podington Bear, licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License.
Three and a half years into the pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control has issued updated guidelines on air exchange and filtration for indoor spaces: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/ventilation.html The CDC has also issued updated masking guidelines: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/about-face-coverings.html NB: these recommendations are now tied to COVID-19 hospitalization levels, rather than levels of community spread (which the CDC is … Continued
The WHO has declared an end to the Sars-COV2 Global Public Health Emergency. That doesn’t end the pandemic, but it does end much international coordination of the response to it. Podcast music credit: Now Son by Podington Bear, licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License.
Discussed in this episode: The CDC dashboard charting COVID hospitalizations and deaths, as well as the California dashboard showing COVID levels in sewage suggest we’re in a relatively good place right now If you’re in California, and eligible for the latest round of boosters, you can look up where they’re available via https://myturn.ca.gov/ Podcast music … Continued
Discussed in this episode: The CDC has started reporting US prevalence of XBB.1.16, colloquially known as “Arcturus.” It’s a more-transmissible subvariant of Omicron the CDC currently estimates to comprise roughly 10% of COVID cases in the US Podcast music credit: Now Son by Podington Bear, licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License.
Discussed in this episode: White House to invest $5 billion in next-generation COVID vaccines. Here’s why we need new ones: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2023/04/10/project-next-generation-coronavirus-vaccines-biden-administration/11636925002/ COVID caused brain damage in 2 infants infected during pregnancy: https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/covid-caused-brain-damage-2-infants-infected-during-pregnancy-us-study-2023-04-06/ Podcast music credit: Now Son by Podington Bear, licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License.
