Author Archives: jbakerjrblog

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, predominantlyContinue reading “The pandemic has ended. What should we do now?”

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 whereContinue reading “What is really happening with these new Omicron COVID virus variants?”

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

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 thisContinue reading “Good COVID news for the over 50 crowd this Christmas.”

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 theContinue reading “Let’s all be thankful that it isn’t 1918.”

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

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 itsContinue reading “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?”