If now is not a good time for you to be pregnant, it’s important to 1️⃣ know your options and 2️⃣ make a plan (and a backup plan). You can think of your options in three basic categories, which we’ll call Plans A, B, and C. Plan A: Use Birth Control or Practice Abstinence. Abstaining Read more…
Short answer: Probably to some degree, but just how much is up in the air. Because the virus that causes monkeypox is similar to the smallpox virus, smallpox vaccines are effective at preventing people from getting monkeypox. Prior studies using the Dryvax vaccine (the first-generation smallpox vaccine that was used during smallpox eradication), showed that Read more…
In a nutshell, yes. Researchers recently found that people over 50 who had COVID were more likely to get shingles than people who did not have COVID. This risk persists for at least 6 months following COVID-19 infection. A separate study looked at people who got either mRNA vaccine for COVID-19 and found NO elevated Read more…
Answer: Ventilation (add outdoor air to dilute virus in inside air) Filtration (capture and remove virus from inside air) Thanks to Whitney Robinson, PhD and Kathleen Harper, MSPH for making this convenient one-pager with tips on improving indoor air quality to minimize spread of COVID-19 (and other viruses) in public and shared spaces. Full document Read more…
Sara Gorman, PhD, MPH is a public health expert and author based in New York. She has written extensively about psychology, misinformation, science denial, and behavioral science, among other topics. Her work has appeared or been reviewed in TIME, The New Yorker, Science, Scientific American, Psychology Today, The Atlantic, New York Magazine, Daily Kos, and Read more…
Nicole is the co-host of the Woman Centered Health Podcast and recently completed a Quality Improvement fellowship at the Iowa City VA Medical Center. She has her PhD in nursing from the University of Iowa and her research interests include understanding how women’s contexts impact their perspectives of sexual health and their sexual behavior. In Read more…
TL; DR: Self-care is a set of things people do to support their overall health and wellness (mental and physical). Self-care can support emotional, physical, and/or spiritual well-being among other areas of life. It is not something that you do only if you have time. It is important for your health. We talk a lot Read more…
Those Nerdy Girls answer your questions about Monkeypox, masking at school, bivalent boosters, COVID-19 rebound, and more. Hosted by: – Malia Jones, PhD, MPH: Dear Pandemic Co-Founder & former EIC – Chana Davis, PhD: Dear Pandemic Contributing Writer & Founder, Fueled by Science ➡️ Welcome and Intros (0:00-0:46) ➡️ Monkeypox – How worried should I Read more…
La variante BA.5 puede evadir la inmunidad existente mejor que las variantes originales de Omicron. Ahora más que nunca se están escuchando sobre más infecciones de COVID-19, especialmente entre las personas que viajan. Viajar y ver a familiares y amigos es algo para apreciar. Sin embargo, viajar durante la pandemia de coronavirus es complicado y Read more…
Those Nerdy Girls remain committed to providing you with practical, factual, no-nonsense answers to all your everyday health questions, and today, we’re excited to introduce the Reproductive Health Squad. This team of women scientists and health care providers has the expertise to answer your real, embarrassing or even scary questions about all aspects of sexual Read more…
A: Confirmation bias happens when we accept information that confirms our pre-existing ideas or beliefs, but ignore or question information that does not. Motivated reasoning happens when we only seek out information that confirms what we already think is true. Both ways of distorted thinking can lead us to share information without critically assessing it Read more…
A: Sort of…. Remember that even if cases come down as quickly as they rise, there will be as many cases *after* the peak as before (think area under the curve!). In the U.S. there is some indication that hospitalizations during this BA.5 wave have peaked. Since hospitalizations are a lagging indicator of infections, this Read more…
TL; DR: There are a few published case reports and LOTS of stories from long COVID support groups about how antihistamines [(“histamine receptor antagonists” (HRAs)] can decrease long COVID symptoms. While they may help, we need more information to know who they help, when they should be taken, and how they should be taken. ❓What Read more…
An interview with Nerdy Guest Dr. Terra Ziporyn Snider Q: Tell us a little about yourself and how you became interested in school start times. A: As both a mother of 3 and a medical historian and writer (former associate editor at JAMA and co-author of The New Harvard Guide to Women’s Health), I’ve been Read more…
Vaccines are one of the greatest public health achievements of all time and August is the month to celebrate! Vaccines do more than just protecting us from diseases (although that is pretty freaking great!). They also support a functional economy, keep kids in school and adults at work, reduce poverty, prevent disease outbreaks, improve health Read more…
Thanks to guest author Dr. Katie Schenk (who recently picked up her kids at camp) for offering to write this post. It’s a great American summer tradition: sleepaway camp! Campfires, singing, sports, smores, and now… COVID-19? Despite best intentions and precautions, the BA.5 surge has already contributed to many COVID-19 outbreaks at summer camp. Camps Read more…
BA.1, BA.2, BA.3, BA.4, BA.5… while we’re all getting lost in an alphanumeric soup, it’s important to understand why we continue to see new variants. Some have speculated vaccines are to blame, arguing that vaccination itself drives the development of variants. Is this true? Vaccinations do not produce new variants. Thankfully, no. Variants are not Read more…
TL; DR: Brain fog is a general term used to describe many issues including poor attention, memory, and planning abilities. This can happen after an infection or injury. We are learning more about what causes it, but there do seem to be changes in the immune system and the way the cells work as a Read more…
A large study conducted in Denmark found that kids who recently had COVID-19 experienced symptoms of long COVID more often than similar kids who didn’t have a COVID-19 diagnosis. But, long COVID among children seems less common than it is among adults. Researchers asked thousands of parents about their kids’ symptoms that lasted more than Read more…
There’s a new infection in the news – parechovirus. While it’s not a new virus, recent reports of severe cases have garnered public attention. In this post, Those Nerdy Girls are here to help you get the facts straight and learn how to protect yourself. 🦠 What is parechovirus? Parechovirus is a virus that is Read more…
