Posts from Those Nerdy Girls

All the posts from our Those Nerdy Girls Facebook page dating back to May 1st, 2020, are currently archived here and can be searched for by category, key words, etc. Be sure to check back often as additional posts are being added each day.

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Do flu shots work?

Infectious Diseases Vaccines

Yes. Annual flu vaccines prevent hundreds of thousands of cases of flu and save thousands of lives every year. The answer to the question “how well do they work” isn’t black and white because it changes from year to year, and even sometimes within a season. But even in a year when the flu vaccine Read more…

Those Nerdy Girls’ CEO Ashley Ritter Elected to the College of Physicians of Philadelphia

Women in STEM

🏅Those Nerdy Girls are BURSTING with pride at the election of our amazing CEO Ashley Ritter to the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. This induction honors Ashley for her COVID-19 outreach work with Those Nerdy Girls as well as her “day job” leading the embedded research department and Housing with Supportive Services program at the Read more…

Does the bivalent COVID-19 booster vaccine help protect against getting sick from COVID-19?

Vaccines

Short answer: yes! The bivalent booster vaccine does give additional protection against symptomatic COVID-19 infections for people who had previously received the OG COVID-19 mRNA vaccines. In September 2022, the US Advisory Committee on immunization Practices (ACIP) recommended that all persons aged 12 and up who had already gotten their primary series of COVID-19 vaccines Read more…

My uncle is knee-deep in COVID conspiracy theories. Any tips for respectfully engaging him?

Uncertainty and Misinformation

A: Experts recommend the SART strategy: Show empathy; Affirm critical thinking; avoid Ridicule; and invoke conspiracy theory “exiters” as Trusted messengers. And it never hurts to remember that as humans we need to feel heard before we can truly listen. Ah, conspiracy theories. We’ve all been exposed to them – wildly inaccurate hot-takes about COVID, Read more…