Author Archives: jbakerjrblog

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?”

The Internet has been ablaze with stories about a potential COVID-19 surge that is anticipated this winter. While most of the articles strongly argue for the likelihood of a surge, there is no hard data indicating that the United States is indeed going to experience new infection outbreaks. In fact, most areas in the countryContinue reading “Will there be a new COVID surge this winter?”

These are the most common questions I received this these days, and the answers are finally becoming clear. Many individuals have been infected with Omicron in the last nine months and therefore have an immunity boost from their infection. In fact, data now indicates that hybrid immunity generated this way is stronger than vaccines alone in preventingContinue reading “How long should you wait for a booster COVID-19 vaccine? Is it wise to get the flu vaccine and COVID booster at the same time?”