Gretchen Peterson

Meet Those Nerdy Girls – Dr. Aparna Kumar

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This week we are delighted to be introducing our readers to nerdy girl extraordinaire, Dr. Aparna Kumar, PhD, MPH, CRNP. Dr. Kumar is a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner (PMHNP-BC) and researcher specializing in child, adolescent, and women’s mental health. Her career has focused on decreasing stigma in mental health through research and education. As Read more…

Melatonin and COVID-19

Treatments

Q: I’m seeing chatter around a study re: melatonin and COVID-19 prevention and recovery. Should we be taking melatonin every night? What’s an appropriate amount to avoid disrupting our sleep hormones TOO much and having a dose that might actually help?” A: TL;DR: Sufficient restorative sleep is essential for a healthy immune system. Melatonin, which Read more…

¿Debería preocuparme por los posibles efectos secundarios a largo plazo de las vacunas COVID-19?

Posts en Español Uncertainty and Misinformation Vaccines

R: Siendo realistas, no. Biológicamente, las posibilidades de efectos a largo plazo son extremadamente pequeños. BREVE RESUMEN: Los efectos secundarios graves de la vacuna son extremadamente raros y ocurren horas o días después de la vacunación, no meses o años.* El riesgo de infección y los efectos a largo plazo en la salud a causa Read more…

Is there any truth that ivermectin prevents or lessens the severity of COVID-19?

Treatments Uncertainty and Misinformation

A. So far, we still have no evidence from well-designed randomized clinical trials (RCTs) that ivermectin is safe and effective for the prevention or treatment of COVID-19. However, several RCTs are currently underway which will hopefully provide us with an answer to this important question. ➡️What is ivermectin? Ivermectin (Iv) is a drug FDA-approved for Read more…

Why is vaccine rollout so slow!?!

Vaccines

Q: Why can’t we get available vaccine doses administered more quickly? A: Many factors: The holidays, lack of funding, staffing and logistical challenges, getting large-scale vaccine operations up and running, sticking to prioritization schemes, and lower take-up among high-priority groups. Things should be speeding up in the next few weeks. It’s frustrating to see statistics Read more…

¿Cuándo podrán los abuelos conocer al nuevo bebé?

Families/Kids Posts en Español Staying Safe

R: Decidir cuándo introducir miembros de la familia a su bebé recién nacido es una decisión personal y no existe una respuesta correcta o incorrecta. Hablaremos de algunos puntos que debe considerar antes de tomar esta decisión. Cada familia es diferente, y puede haber razones buenas de por qué quiere presentar a su nuevo bebé Read more…

What does it mean when hospitals are talking about starting “Crisis Standards of Care?”

Treatments

A: As many places see a significant surge in COVID19 cases, hospitals and resources become strained. Crisis standards of care represent a big change from usual healthcare made necessary by a major disaster. ➡️So, what does that actually mean? Crisis standards help guide decisions that must be made in extreme scarcity of resources (including staff, Read more…

I’m reading that the new strain of COVID-19 is 70% more transmissible. What does this mean? How transmissible was the first strain?

Infection and Spread

A: “Transmissibility” in infectious disease means how readily it is passed from one person to another, given the peculiarities of a specific time and place (in this case, in the UK this Fall). Transmissibility is measured in numbers with something called R-value. The R-value for the old SARS-CoV-2 variant was hovering right around 1 (in Read more…

Meet Those Nerdy Girls – Dr. Jennifer Beam Dowd

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This week we are featuring Dr. Jennifer Beam Dowd, our incoming Nerdy Girl-In-Chief & scientist extraordinaire. Dr. Dowd is a health and social scientist who identifies most as a “demographer.” What’s a demographer? We’re glad you asked. Dr. Dowd uses statistics to study patterns in human populations–especially how long people live and why. Her impressive Read more…