Those Nerdy Girls will answer questions about long COVID, outdoor transmission, rapid antigen testing, and more. Featuring: Amanda Simanek, PhD, MPH, DP Founding Member Chana Davis, PhD – DP Contributing Writer ➡️ Welcome, Intros, and chit chat (0:00-0:53) ➡️ Should I vaccinate my child against COVID-19? (0:54-3:39) Check out this link to the live Q&A Read more…
🇺🇸 Gathering for the 4th of July? ☀️ Outdoors is much lower risk, but not “no” risk for COVID-19 transmission, especially during a surge with extra contagious variants. 🌬️ Even outside, “if you’re close enough, say, to smell on their breath what they chose for dinner, you’re close enough to inhale the viral particles on Read more…
A: Remember “flatten the curve”? We still need to “flatten the waves.” Much has changed since this rallying cry of Spring 2020, but keeping the infamous reproductive rate (or “R-value”) down is still a worthy goal. While we *totally* feel everyone’s pandemic fatigue and frustration with fellow humans, it’s not all or nothing with prevention Read more…
“How risky is being indoors with our 10-year-old granddaughter without masks? We have plans to have birthday tea together. Are we safe?” That question, from a woman named Debby in California, is just one of hundreds I’ve received from concerned people who are worried about COVID-19. I’m an epidemiologist and one of the women behind Read more…
A: TL;DR. Unlikely. It’s been a while since we’ve had novel fart and poop content on Dear Pandemic, so let’s address this classic question about the risk of catching COVID-19 from a fart. In April 2020, when the pandemic was fresh and many of us were hoarding toilet paper, there were several articles flying around Read more…
A: Yes. For sure. You can get COVID-19 by sharing a drinking glass–even if the glass contains an adult beverage. The virus that causes COVID-19 is present in saliva, and although it isn’t the most common transmission route, it can be transmitted orally. The concentration of alcohol in a drink is not high enough to Read more…
I haven’t gone out in 2 years, 🆘 help 🆘! Will I ever be able to feel safe leaving the house again? Help! ✅ While we can’t tell you that leaving your house will be 100% safe at any given time (COVID-19 times or not), there are things you can do to increase your tolerance Read more…
A: While no activity is risk free, you can certainly sing safer! TL; DR: COVID-19 is spread by tiny droplets floating around in the air. Talking makes more of these and singing makes even more. Because of this, singing is a higher risk activity for spreading COVID-19. With COVID-19 transmission decreasing in many places in Read more…
A: Yes! The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just released a handy on-line calculator! Enter answers to a few short questions into the calculator here and get an estimate of the date you can stop isolating if you have COVID-19 or quarantining if you were exposed to someone who does! The calculator takes Read more…
➡️ Put simply, if you are immunocompromised it means that your immune system does not work like the system of a non-immunocompromised person. It can’t tell when a cell is harmful or not so it does not mount an immune response (i.e. it can’t fight an infection as well). So to be immunocompromised, someone’s immune Read more…
A: It depends on how sick the child was and what symptoms they had. All children and adolescents should have a visit with their primary care clinician (PCP) after COVID-19 infection to see if they are ready to get back to sports, and some kids will need additional tests of their heart to make sure Read more…
QUARANTINE is not the same as isolation. Quarantine is what we do after we find out that someone we shared air with ended up being positive for COVID-19. You’re feeling fine and haven’t tested positive, but you’re in a waiting period–waiting to see if you’ll get sick. CDC’s guidance for quarantining after you have been Read more…
