Gretchen Peterson is a retired Instructional Technology Specialist who spent twenty-nine years as an educator for grades 4-8 in private Episcopal schools in Dallas, TX. She specialized in teaching students technology, research, and entrepreneurial skills as well as providing technology support and education to faculty and staff. She holds an MEd from the University of Read more…
Dr. Amanda M. Simanek received her MPH in International Health Epidemiology and PhD in Epidemiologic Science from University of Michigan School of Public Health. A social epidemiologist by training, she studies the pathways by which social inequities in health develop across the lifecourse and are perpetuated across generations. She is an Associate Professor in the Read more…
Dr. Sandra Albrecht is formally trained as a social epidemiologist, with additional training in the social sciences, nutrition, and in both chronic and infectious diseases. Her research is focused on the social and neighborhood-level factors that contribute to the high burden of nutrition-related diseases in immigrants and among Hispanics/Latinos. She is on the faculty at Read more…
Dr. Aparna Kumar is a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner (PMHNP-BC) who works to ensure that mental health care is accessible, evidence based, and integrated across health care settings. Her research aims to improve outcomes for women, children and families by showing how and why mental health influences many aspects of our lives. She is Read more…
Ashley Z. Ritter, APRN, PhD is a geriatric nurse practitioner and the Chief Executive Officer of Dear Pandemic. She is also an Embedded Nurse Scientist and the Director of Clinical Care Research at NewCourtland, a provider of housing, health, and care management services in Philadelphia, PA. She recently completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the National Read more…
Dr. Jennifer Beam Dowd is Professor of Demography and Population Health at the University of Oxford and studies mortality trends and how social factors “get under the skin” to impact health, including via infections and immune function. She is also Deputy Director of the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science at Oxford and received her PhD Read more…
Dr. Alison Buttenheim is a social scientist who studies the behavioral aspects of infectious disease prevention. She is an Associate Professor of Nursing and Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania, where she is also an Associate Director of Penn’s Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics. She is also a co-founder of Dear Pandemic Read more…
Dr. Malia Jones is an interdisciplinary researcher working at the intersection of infectious disease, social epidemiology, demography, and geography. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Community & Environmental Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research focuses on how the places we spend time affect our health, especially when it comes to Read more…
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A: Any multi-layered cloth mask (at least 2 layers is recommended and 3 is even better) made of a tightly woven fabric is a good option. If you do use a two-layer mask with a built-in pocket for a filter as a third layer, here are some things to keep in mind. The type of Read more…
A: Yes! To help, we have two excellent posts written by our colleague, Your Local Epidemiologist (YLE). Post 1: PCR vs. Rapid antigen test: PCR (rapid or not) outperforms the antigen test. Still, there is promise in the new tests being developed and YLE goes through the numbers here. Post 2: The CDC’s new testing Read more…
A. In earlier posts, we discussed a testing strategy called group testing. The primary benefit of group testing is that it requires fewer testing resources (currently, the US is conducting upwards of 600,000 tests per day, often with lags in results, delaying timely responses to a positive test). An alternative group testing approach involves analyzing Read more…
A: Thank you for this GREAT question from an awesome 6-year old follower. A vaccine takes a dead or very weak virus and introduces it to the body to trick your immune system into building an immune response that protects you. Viruses have antigens that work sort of like a name tag. When your body Read more…
We want to visit with a few friends that are outside our bubble and are trying to #StaySMART by socializing outdoors in our yard, while social distancing and wearing masks…but what if someone needs to use my bathroom, is it okay to let them? A: Yes, you can let someone from outside your household use Read more…
A: While we can’t predict the future… it would take a scientific miracle for everything to be hunky-dory by Thanksgiving here in the States & make “Thanksgiving as usual” a reality. You might as well plan on a pandemic Thanksgiving now–because it will take some planning to safely get together with members of your family Read more…
Friendly Pop Quiz! Which of these two statements sounds more impressive? (1) “Terrific Treatment reduced COVID mortality risk 50%!” (2) “Terrific Treatment reduced COVID mortality risk from 2 per 100 to 1 per 100!” The first of these two equivalent statements is, of course, the “right” answer. Which is why we scientists – in the Read more…
A: You sure can! In the United States, the COVID-19 Prevention Network (CoVPN) Volunteer Screening Registry is open and accepting volunteers for Phase 3 clinical trials (link below). You’ll answer about 25 questions (it took this Nerdy Girl fewer than 10 minutes to complete the screening survey) and then your information will be available to Read more…
A: Not very. In the words of immunologist Dr. Akiko Iwasaki, “This is no cause for alarm – this is a textbook example of how immunity should work.” What do we know? In a press release yesterday, researchers described the first confirmed case of re-infection in a 33-year old Hong Kong man returning from Spain. Read more…
A: We recommend checking this awesome data exploration tool from Harvard University’s Global Health Institute. We’ve talked a lot here at Dear Pandemic about how important community spread of COVID is, and how it’s necessary for anything like safe reopening in any setting–from first grades to zoos. The map at the top of the Path Read more…
