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Questions and Concerns About COVID-19

The lab leak finally gets attention

In a post I made first on April 30, 2020, then again on May 27th 2021, I suggested we should focus on the possibility of a laboratory leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology as a source of he COVID-19 pandemic. There finally appears to be bipartisan interest in this, supported by intelligence assessments that…

by jbakerjrblog

The pandemic has ended. What should we do now?

The announcement a few weeks ago that President Biden is suspending the COVID-19 emergency declaration on May 11th puts a formal end to this pandemic. As is often the case, this declaration comes long after our society has informally ended its own pandemic precautions. There are a few important implications for the president’s declaration, predominantly…

by jbakerjrblog

What is really happening with these new Omicron COVID virus variants?

Every week or so there seems to be an impassioned announcement of a new Omicron variant of the COVID virus (SARS-CoV-2) that “threatens our population.” The latest, called XBB.1.5, has arrived with great fanfare. It even has been nicknamed “Kraken” because it is supposedly monstrous! XBB.1.5 was first identified in the Eastern United States where…

by jbakerjrblog

Are vaccines driving the development of COVID variants? A response to the Wall Street Journal editorial.

I’ve been asked by several readers to evaluate an editorial in the Wall Street Journal with the provocative title “Are vaccines fueling new COVID variants?” This editorial by Allysia Findlay, a non-medical member of the Journal’s editorial board, proposes that vaccinating individuals against COVID-19 is now responsible for driving the creation of new COVID virus…

by jbakerjrblog

Good COVID news for the over 50 crowd this Christmas.

While there has been considerable debate about the use and value of COVID-19 interventions in young people, there is no doubt that they are really necessary in older individuals. Essentially 90% of deaths from COVID right now occur in those over 65 years old, and the bulk of the hospitalizations come from people in this…

by jbakerjrblog

Dr. Fauci’s Retirement

I have made no secret about my respect for Tony, who I was fortunate to train with for a brief time 40 years ago. Despite this, I think the current controversy surrounding him was the unfortunate result of several errors he made. One of the biggest was probably taking advice from people like Drs. Bob…

by jbakerjrblog

Let’s all be thankful that it isn’t 1918.

As we try to understand the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, it might be useful to analyze the course of the 1918 influenza pandemic, the closest similar event for which we have accurate public health records. There are interesting parallels and some important differences between what happened in 1918 and the COVID-19 pandemic of the…

by jbakerjrblog

Dr. Walensky, why at this point doesn’t the U.S. have a plan for handling COVID-19 and other pandemics?

Everyone seems to still have questions about COVID-19. Parents want to know the rationale behind immunizing their children, businesses want to know the likelihood of future economic disruptions and people generally want an assurance that they can normalize their lives. I can see the confusion on the faces of people parsing whether to wear a…

by jbakerjrblog

The CDC director just got sick with COVID 19 a month after she had received her booster vaccination. How can this happen and what does it mean?

Early this week the CDC announced that its director, Rochelle Wollensky, was infected with COVID-19. While she is reportedly doing well and isolating at home, this raised eyebrows because she had received the new bivalent SARS-CoV-2 vaccine booster just a month before. Her immunity to COVID infection from this booster should have been at its…

by jbakerjrblog

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